The Japan Trip Resource Thread!

[Richard.John]

It's because we (I am) are better looking and have bigger, hmm, egos.

[Champloo]

It's because we (I am) are better looking and have bigger, hmm, egos.

Wouldn't let it take your ego too far - we were smelly little 16/17 year old pissheads at the time! Not quite what Japanese birds are after tbf.

[Richard.John]

You were, Champloo

[Champloo]

I mean 'we' as in me and my mate...

I've lost track of this haven't I?

[randombs]

just got back today

akihabara's really funny late at night. it goes all dark and weird and gangsta, and all that psychedelia you see in the daytime and early evening just switches off. i've been visiting HEY (hirose entertainment yard) nightly for the 10yen ssf2t machine.

[IanE]

Unless you're going somewhere rural generally language is not a big problem.

For cheap accomodation you could use hostels.. YHA ones are generally good quality, but not always especially cheap and usually situated outside of the main areas. Others I have stayed in were a bit hit-and-miss (plus most will have curfews/rules which you *must* abide by). There are also lots of decent, cheap ryokans about in many places but unless you have local knowledge/language skills they may be hard to find (although I guess Lonely Planet should suggest some). Where are you heading? I could give more specific recommendations for some places.

I've decided that Tokyo would be more than enough for me! I'm planning on going to Hong Kong for ten days, then Macau for two or three days/nights, then back to Hong Kong for a night then to Japan (Tokyo, specifically). From there, I want to stay about two weeks.. but frig, I have NO idea where to start! I am in awe of all this information..

I'll try out hostels online, see what the prices are like, so from what you're saying, language should be more than fine! Now you know where I'm heading, gimme some help.

How cheap are you talking here?

I tried Sakura Hotel twice this time (first night I had a single room, then on Saturday after Daft Punk I was stranded in Tokyo at midnight and got a dorm bunk there). Single room is about ?30, bunk is ?17 (or ?12 if you make your own bed. i didn't know exactly what that implied so just went for the ?17 one).

I think I might try Sakura Hotel then, it seems tried and tested and fairly central.. Maybe on my last night or two go to a swanky place if I have the money too. ;D

So.. how do I start planning all this stuff to do? Has anyone got their plans from their visits, so I can steal ideas and all that? I want to buy buggerloads of games and gashapon bits and post them back to myself.. Akihabara is the best place for that stuff, yeah? Also, post offices, where do I go and do they have boxes to post stuff back in there? Is it expensive to post.. what kind of time-frame as well?

Thanks in advance guys, planning to do this in January and Feb and I get too excited thinking about going that I need the toilet every ten minutes and my head starts buzzing.

[saif]

You may be better off or gashapon in NAKANO - easy enought to get to.

[randombs]

IanE,

if you can afford ?30 a night i'd recommend the Green Hotel Ochanomizu. You get internet in the room, en suite, etc etc. Only go Sakura if you're gonna get the dorm bed (i couldn't stand it - people coming in and out at all hours, snoring, wobbly, noisy metal bunkbed not made for 6-footers like me!).

Ochanomizu hotel is a 2-minute walk from Akihabara station which is on the JR Yamanote line and is a straight-forward way of getting to most of the main spots in Tokyo. Also, Akihabar is home to the HEY arcade centre with the 5p-a-match SSF2T machines where I spent about 1-2 hours every night for my last week in Tokyo

There's also a large post office right next to the hotel which I used to send some clothes home via EMS to make room in my suitcase.

And down the road is an Office Depot where you can buy the bits and pieces you'd need, such as sellotape and boxes.

if you go for the Green Hotel, try using www.hotelclub.com to book, it saves a few quid per night that way. i have used hotelclub for all my hotel bookings in japan (6 different hotels so far over two trips) and haven't had a problem yet.

[IanE]

Thank you very much for typing all that! I shall check them out.. but in the meantime since NTSC has been down.. well, I've changed my ideas. I want to go to Japan for three months and rent a room or apartment for that time, as it works out to be so much cheaper. Then I can make money to keep myself alive and stuff by posting items back to my friend who will post the items out individually after selling them, so that'll make money back.. I hope! If not, I have the money to sustain myself regardless, it'd just give me something to do.

Also, what do I do about money? Do I just take a buggerload of cash, or is there an easy way to draw out money at a decent exchange rate? Which bank would I go with? Or should I get a post office account?

[randombs]

I had a scare in Osaka when I was down to 1000 yen and couldn't find an international ATM until I'd walked around for almost an hour

Try and look for a Citibank. When I went in the Summer with my mate, we had the best luck drawing out of the ATM at our local post office, but if I remember, it had to be during office hours. This time around I just kept going to the Citibank ATM in Shibuya and withdrawing (and subsequently spending a chunk of that at Club Sega there).

There are probably other ATMs that work, too, but I was sent to one by a random bank I walked into, and it turned out not to be an international one. I stumbled across the Citibank by chance and it turned out to work just fine.

One thing to note - when you use an ATM with your debit card, you'll get three options - credit, checking or savings account. choose 'checking account' if it's just a regular bank account.

About renting an apartment, have you found someone to help you out with that or are you going with Sakura's (or another company's) apartments? I'm intrigued, as my next trip to Japan will hopefully be for a month or thereabouts...

[Bleeders]

Great little map for all the key otaku locations in Akiba.

http://www.akiba-ch.com/?p=374

[IanE]

I shall make a note of Shibuya Citibank and post office ATMs then!

Do you know if the exchange rate is good? Would a Maestro card work or is it best to get a VISA card?

I haven't found anyone to help with the house or apartment, I've looked on Sakura (the only company I can see to find doing this thing) and looked on the classifieds for accommodation on Japan Guide and just found a guy that wants about ?210 a month, so all going accordingly, I may rent his room out! When are you thinking of going?

[r3z]

I always used Post Office ATMs, and for the best rate/no fees I'd get a Nationwide bank card. I believe Seven Bank (7-11) now accept international cards also, but charge about 200 yen fee.

A few of my friends lived in a Sakura House in Gokokuji.. I didn't think much of it as I preferred my own apartment to a shared house, and it wasn't much more expensive (although I had more deposits/etc to pay, and it was a little outside the central areas), but if you can get on with the people there it could be beneficial for a 1~3 month trip - the long term residents would definitely be able to help you out getting to know the place (especially if you don't speak the language) and take you out places. My friends were there for about a year, and there were 5 of them (we were all studying at a Uni nearby) so they kind of took over the place and made it their own, and a lot of the shorter-term residents often came out around town/drinking with us.

[IanE]

Awesome, r3z. I have a Nationwide card, but it doesn't have a symbol on it (like VISA, Maestro etc), do you think that'll matter, or shall I bully them to upgrade my account?

Where would you recommend getting an apartment from that wouldn't require any deposits? An apartment would be pretty cool. The house I'm looking at (well, talking about to some guy called Chris) has five people in it..

Would getting a job when I'm out there be hard? Just a passing thought

Great little map for all the key otaku locations in Akiba.

http://www.akiba-ch.com/?p=374

Cheers dude, just what I need! Thanks

[r3z]

What type of account do you have? According to what's written on my card I have a FlexAccount, and the card has Visa on the front - I would ask Nationwide about it. Actually I set this account up especially for use overseas (which I told them) and it was the basic account they offered me. There was one occasion I had to use my HSBC card in Japan in an emergency and the rate was much worse, and I got a 4 quid charge for it as well.

I think it'd be very hard to find an apartment without deposits - my Japanese Uni found that one for me, and as it was an apartment building which was used to foreigners it was a bit more lenient about deposit, no key money and had a lower admission fee (normal Japanese apartments are generally very strict).. plus like most places it also required a Japanese guarantor, was relatively unfurnished and there was also the hassle of sorting out internet/utilities! So for shorter stay I reckon shared house/somewhere like Sakura would be much easier and cheaper.

btw - 210 a month all in sounds great, where is it? 5 people isn't too bad either (think the Sakura above was 10 in total, although not usually at full occupancy and had 2 bathrooms iirc)