The Japan Trip Resource Thread!

[tokyochojin]

Get yourself over to Club Asia in Shibuya mate, or if you like your Trance? Velfarre in Roppongi is a dream. Its a massive underground nightclub and is f*cking amazing. You enter the place via a huge glass paneled lift and as you go down you can see everyone going crazy on the dance floor.

If your into Hip Hop just try most clubs in Tokyo (and if you wanna pull with no effort, check out Gaspanic. The roppongi versions are the best)

Also mate, get yourself down to Harajuku for some eye candy and of course thats a stones throw from the Meiji jin gue (meiji shrine/woods) which is quite a cool and spiritual place.
The bright lights of Odaiba are pretty cool and a nice place to take the ladies. Kamakura? Get yourself there to see the Buddha, and of course if you like your togger get yourself to a J-League game. Although this depends on when you are going.

Of course it all depends on how long you are going for? If you are going for a month, you can easily build a social rapport in that time. Just having a few mates and experiencing how the Japanese hang about is cool, and getting a bird is a must

Enjoy dude, and if your over there after September you can give me a call if you need any help?

[dave heats]

Ok, well I'm gonna do my best to get to the Studio Ghibli museum, if I can find the time. Looks cool.

Thanks for the suggestions tokyochojin too, I'm gonna hope to go out a few times during my stay, and whilst I positively hate the place during the daytime, Roppongi seems to be the place for nightime activities.

I've decided to go to Kyoto or Osaka for a few days at some point, not sure when, not sure where Im going to stay either, but I'm looking forward to seeing true 'Old Japan', and also a ride on the bullet train.

Also, many thanks for the offer of helping me out in September buddy. Not sure if I'll be over there then, but if I am, you'll probably hear from me!

[tokyochojin]

well i am gonna be there for at least a year so give us a pm' if your in the neighbourhood.

[Jushin-Thunder-Liger]

Love Hotel eh?
Well i only went to the one, in Ikebukero.
I actually mistook it for a capsule hotel at first, anyway we went in, and it was all disapointingly normal, paid the woman behind the counter and went to what looked like a cheap Vegas motel room. There was no fetish stuff in the room, sadly. We just had a drink, and selected a porno movie, which turned out, as most of them are, to be a rape vid. With a girl being abducted from a train by a group of men.
Id been in Japan for a week by that point, so i was well used to rape porno's by then.
So we just gone on with the abhorrent business of sexual relations, and left.
Its perfectly acceptable to take hookers in there, but i only ever found russian she-males. ssadly

[Jushin-Thunder-Liger]

By the way, which appartments did you stay in? Mr Heats?

[MD]

So we just gone on with the abhorrent business of sexual relations, and left.

You make it sound like a business transaction and sounding llike 'I wish I was in akihabara or somewhere'... ^_^;

[MD]

Decent Gachapon place.

[Ginza]

If all goes to plan me and my mate are going to Japan for 18 days in mid August. Iv been using this place to look at hotels and flights and places to go etc. Ill know for certain if we can go probably by next week.

[Jushin-Thunder-Liger]

You know what i miss about Japan the most?
Dirty, dirty sex with loose minded J-Girls
That, and the food

[DjSatansfury]

Or Both, at the same time?

[MD]

Anyone been to an Onsen before? Or a Ryokan?

[MD]

Yo Dave, what Tokyo like now then? We want a report now.

Are you sweating buckets or is the weather okay?

Find any loose Japanese women yet?

I did see that Rez set when I was in Aki last, but ignored it as it was over 15,000 Yen. ^_^;

[dave heats]

Yo
Its been a enjoyable trip so far. Im renting an apartment from Gaijin House and tbh the place isnt anything special. Its got everything I need such as kitchen, bathroom, tv and internet etc. But its all so small. When I first walked into the place I didnt actually see the kitchen its so nondescript. Its just a ****ing space in the wall with a sink and stove, a fridge and a storage area. Ive got microwave, toaster etc here, but it doesnt feel like the sort of place you can prepare food, theres no worktop space for a start.Needless to say Ive been eating out whenever possible, apart from breakfast when I partake in my daily coco pop ritual. Speaking of which they taste different over here.. ^_^
To be honest on the food front what Ive tried of Japanese food this time around hasnt impressed me. Its expensive and most of it has tasted like ****. Personally Im not a food coniseur anyway, I eat to survive, not to sample delicate tastes and similarly melodramatic food related bollocks. In fact, I hate eating generally. If I didnt have to, i frankly wouldnt. Theres a few dishes that are OK, and yoshinoya's cool now and again, but generally I couldnt give a ****. I'm not here for the food.

And the bathroom in this place is a joke quite frankly. Put it this way, the door opens outwards. It HAS TO open outwards, its that ****ing small. Its cramped, stale, no storage space whatsoever and its the sort of bathroom you feel dirtier after having been in. Its a typical solid unit japanese bathroom that you find in hotels, with a waterproof lining covering the walls and a waterproof flooring. Ive been in them too many times in the past and I ****ing hate them.

Anyway, thats enough venting about the apartment. Its a good place overall, real close to a yamanote line station and has good air con. And god knows ive needed the air con the past few days. Still, this place is about a trillion times nicer than any of the holes sakura house have to offer for more expensive monthly rents. I recomend everyone to avoid them. Dont give the ****ers any business. Christ knows they dont deserve any, ****wits.

The weather is unbearably humid lately, and has been 30+ anyway. So at the moment the heat feels heavy and unescapeable. Unfortuently to do everything Ive wanted to do, its involved walking great distances around Tokyo in the mid day sun, when temperatures are at their highest and the humidity triples the unpleasantness. Like yesterday for example, walking all over shinjuku back and forth between the government buildings and the park, was exhausting. It seems to be affecting everyone, but I dont know how the sarari men do it tbh with you. Wearing suits in this weather is a punishment worse than death.

So far Ive pretty much revisited all my favourite places from last trip, now armed with my trusty digital camera. Last count I think I took 400+ photos. Unfortuently Im about a half hour yamanote line ride from shibuya and harajuku, so its become a bit of a mission to get there. I love that area so much though, and the backstreets leading from Omote Sando to Shibuya are fantastic. Its just a shame the humidity and the heat makes walking great distances so draining, both physically and mentally.

Revisiting Meiji Jingu was a good experience too. Bought some souvenirs, saw a wedding and hung my wish on a tree. I hope it comes true ^_^

Thankfully I'm about 4 minutes from Akihabara, so I'm finding myself going there quite alot. Its brilliant, as going each evening is a different experience each time. Checking out the different stock they have in trader and sofmap on the backstreets is a joy to behold, and you never know what youre going to find each day. Like yesterday in one of the trader stores they had a samba de amigo box, with ver2000 thrown in for ?65. The sheer size of the box made it impossible to bring back with me though. IM already going to be struggling bringing my haul back. Its been fun actually having time to explore AKiba this trip though, as last time it was all a bit of a blur, and I had to rush due to me being accompanied by a non game playing buddy. Ive bought so much stuff though, and most of it for stupidly cheap prices. Like the gundam cube you all know about, eternal arcadia boxset for less than ?10 and my now beloved rez set for ?60.

I'll be going to the Tokyo Bay area next week, but will avoid the place like the plague this weekend. Last year I went to a comic convention in the Big View, and the cramped train ride along the bay was not much fun. I dont think theres any conventions on next week, but Im going for the architecture mainly, being on a architectural Uni course and all. The fuji tv building and big view and mental designs. Ive pretty much been to all the gardens Ive wanted to visit, and will revisit the government building in the evening to get some decent nightime views of tokyo from the north tower. Already been to the tokyo national museum which isnt that great, and need to revisit Ginza to get some digital photos.

Unfortuently its looking like I will be coming home a week earlier than planned due to circumstances at home beyond my control. Still, 3.5 weeks in Tokyo on my own has/will have been a good experience. Now if I can just fit it all in my suitcase....

Oh, and Ive attached a few photos. Ive had to shrink them down something rotten (97k maximum file size limit = daylight robbery). So if they look like ****, dont blame me guvnor.

[MD]

It's funny as I've now booked my apartment and it's a stones throw from Akihabra (Akihabara at night is very very quiet... I've walked through it at night... It's great too as I don't have to go far to get my daily games fix. ) and for 24 days it is 142,000 Yen which sounds expensive but it's all in (don't even need to pay a deposit...) and it's cheaper then Sakura house. It has a balcony, seperate bathroom and toilet and the place is reasonably large at around 22 sqaure meters. Seen pictures of the kitchen and I could cook it in too (even has a rice cooker, tea maker, microwave, 2 hotplates, fridge freezer, washing machine...), no internet but that's not too much of a hardship. It has a TV so I'm bringing my PS2.

The funny thing is that places that cater to gaijin exploit the fact that it's harder to rent places in Tokyo and charge slightly more for worse places... this place I have got as my girlfriend has booked and paid for it (I will pay her back when I get to Tokyo...) but I couldn't book the place because I'm not a Japanese resident...

Sakura house sent me an email 5 weeks later saying they have a place but it was more expensive at 175,000 Yen (with deposit and was tiny...) and most of the other places that rent places I have to contact in late July / early August to see what they have... and again decent places seem to start at around 150,000 Yen... ^_^;

[dave heats]

Well thats the thing. Only 2 rooms out of about 15 in this apartment block are rented for gaijin, the rest are japanese folk it seems. Either their rooms are way different to mine, or they just deal with it. Its not bad, but I certainly couldnt live in this place.

Taking a ps2? Dude, you should just buy one over here or something. Get a ltd edition version, play it while youre here, and sell it on your return. Or keep it of course!

Oh, and I wasnt joking about the heat over here at the moment. I heard on the news earlier that 4 people have died due to the heat, and quite a few others are in serious conditions. Its HARDCORE. I just saw a motorcyclist get hit by a car in Akiba too. The carnage is unavoidable!