The Japan Trip Resource Thread!

[teddymeow]

Thanks Saif. I'll give that a look tonight.

[saif]

I have (and *I* thought it was cool) the station jingle for the station I lived near on my UK phone. Nobody knows what it is, unique and so I know its mine AND it is a good memory. Nice!

[teddymeow]

I have (and *I* thought it was cool) the station jingle for the station I lived near on my UK phone. Nobody knows what it is, unique and so I know its mine AND it is a good memory. Nice!

That's the thing. I've had an absolutely shocking week and hearing the cute voice announcing the list of stops on the Ginza line gives me a flashback to a period when I was totally relaxed and had nothing to worry about. It does an amazing job of calming me down.

[MonkeyWrench]

I thought those little tunes at the stations were cool. Spent a lot of time on the Yamanote line and the jingle at Tokyo station reminded me of a victory tune from a 16-bit beat 'em up...say the words "You Win!" at the end and you'll see what I mean

Funniest jingles I heard were from the crossings in Nagano...those Japanese are mental.

[JU!]

Speaking of jingleｓ. The Traffic lights are the best、 Takadanobaba`s traffic lights near the train station have an awesome song. Beats the boring beep beep.

[NaveT]

NaveT,

I have a question for you. Why is Japan so popular for skiing with Australians? Many of the resorts are dominated by Aussies I have heard.

Anyway, enjoy your trip.

No Idea. Im Scottish, and living in Oz at the moment. The skiing in NZ and Oz is a bit limited so was wanting to try somewhere new.

[Darwock]

The Kyoto train jingle sounds exactly like the incidental music from that old PC game Shogun: Total War. I appreciated that when I first heard it. I regularly take the Osaka Kita-kyuukou and that line plays "Home Sweet Home" music-box style when the train gets to the last stop...

[teddymeow]

Has anybody ever heard of, or used, this:

http://www.thebestshopsofakihabara.com/

Sounds pretty cool and at the moment works out to cost £6.50! Wondering if it's worth a punt?

[kryss]

I hope he updates it regularly, otherwise parts would be useless after a few months.
$10 for an ebook? Isn't that a bit steep?

[DCharlie]

lol - i tried to do a website doing this back in 2000. Between having the job from hell and a whole load of threats from people saying i was wrong to 'give away -our- secrets' i decided not to bother. Lol, infact none of my websites ever take off ; work kills everything.

[DeathAdder]

a whole load of threats from people saying i was wrong to 'give away -our- secrets'

Seriously?

[Richard.John]

He blows his own trumpet to such a degree that it must be ****e. He can't guarantee anything to anyone.

[DCharlie]

Seriously?

yup - a few friends had mentioned it off the cuff, i assumed jokingly.
Then a few random loons who i didn't know started sending messages about how i was giving away thier secrets, opening doors for ebay scalpers, ruining their export business etc etc. complete with what they thought of me over time.

If anything this made me want to complete it more, but alas, it never happened.

He blows his own trumpet to such a degree that it must be ****e. He can't guarantee anything to anyone.

akihabara is changing so fast that i think you need something dynamic like a website to do this sort of thing. A book will get you there, but there's english language guides for free -at akihabara station-.

A good collabouration site that documented good places to go for certain types of games, places to eat, "this weeks bargain" etc was what i aimed for, and there maybe is a small market for that but... yeah. I'm sure one probably already exists.

[teddymeow]

^I'm sure a Market for a website like that still exists. I know that I would be very interested in frequenting such a website as would a few of my friends.

Akiba has such a density of cool places to shop / eat / game that, if you don't know what you're looking at, you're bound to miss something really special / cool. For example; I stumbled across Super Potato whilst looking for a shop I'd visited the year before which had actually closed down! I know some don't like Super Potato for whatever reason but as an experience it was great!

Due to the way everything is built vertically it's possible to have 3 or 4 cool stores above each other but many people (myself included) won't think to go past the 2nd floor as experience of shopping where we come from generally tells us that the pokey little shops high up are normally rubbish.

It's funny, you'd have thought most people would welcome the increased exposure / footfall such a website would encourage. Weird

Glad I didn't pay for that eBook now

[kryss]

I must admit the surge in popularity of Akiba annoyed me a few years ago - a time I was looking for something and it seemed everything had been bought up by the ebay-sellers.
It's not the place it was for almost-retro (GC stuff, etc) but I'm still really happy with the newer games at less than half standard retail.
Yodobashi Camera killed Akiba.

http://www.m-land.co.jp

My favourite shop, MediaLand. Best place to buy DS/Wii games in Akihabara. Picked up ChoroQ Wii there for 1780 yesterday.