The Japan Trip Resource Thread!

[kryss]

The Sumida river fireworks in Tokyo are crazy, ~500'000 people go. I just watched it on TV hoping to see the wife on there.

I've had similar (but not as bad) mosquito bites too, the best one was the clubhand:

[briareos_kerensky]

Departure is on next Friday...last minute question: train tickets to Tokyo from Narita are obviously bought at the airport, can Tokyo-Kyoto shinkansen tickets be bought at the airport too or only at Tokyo Station?

[kryss]

You should be able to get them at the JR desk in Narita Airport, although you'd have to get your JR Pass first (assuming you're getting one) and I don't know if you can get that at the airport. I don't think so...

[randombs]

JR Pass has to be arranged and paid for over here (here being wherever you're going from). I think you also choose the start date, but I can't remember. You then get a slip which you take to any JR station along with your passport and they give you the actual pass.

Don't forget that standard JR journeys don't need tickets, you just show the JR pass to the people at the ticket gates, but that you have to get the free shinkansen tickets before boarding.

[saif]

kyoto <-> tokyo can be done on night buses. That was the cheapest way in the old days, I went to osaka for about 40000 yen. Look online or at convenience stores.

[noobish hat]

Oh I forgot something about the Japanese summer: noise. Yes, thanks to the cicadas. It will sound like an acid house rave being held on a construction site. Or, as Dylan Moran would put it, it sounds like a million fire engines chasing ten million ambulances through a war zone and played at a volume that would make the empty chair beside you bleed.

[Darwock]

Technically it's noisy all year round - just the source of the noise changes depending on the season. If it's not the cicadas it's salarymen lined up ritually screaming pleasantries at the top of their voice, pachinko parlours blaring at a million decibels, karaoke snacks with the doors open and the like. At least the cicadas are only in the morning... then again, so is the baseball practice.

[teddymeow]

Random question.

How longs this volcanic ash problem going to stick around? Should I be concerned, at all, if I'm flying in mid-May?

[Darwock]

What volcanic ash problem??

[sj33]

^Erm... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8627545.stm

[SaijoBob]

I'm stuck in Nagoya at the moment after having a return flight cancelled on Saturday. Looks like I won't get back into the office for a few days yet - no bookings are being taken until this Thursday, and the agents don't have any clear information as everything is so unpredictable. May have to go native for a while and start teaching English to survive.

Anyhoo, fingers crossed May will be ok. If you are buying travel insurance now I believe it will not cover any delays caused by the ash, as it is now a pre-existing condition.

[briareos_kerensky]

I hope my return flight on the 24th will be fine, my current hotel in Tokyo is fully booked and I don't really want to go around searching for a place to sleep with all the baggage.

[Anpanman]

Random question.

How longs this volcanic ash problem going to stick around? Should I be concerned, at all, if I'm flying in mid-May?

Heard one quote this morning that the scientists don't know how long the eruption could go on for, maybe months!

Hopefully though the wind will change in a few days which may bring hope to us.

On a lighter note both KLM and Lufthansa have been sending some aircraft up on test flights, Lufty up to 41,000ft. The aircraft all landed OK but we'll have to wait and see what the results are.

[SaijoBob]

I'm hoping Finnair will be able to offer at least a preliminary reschedule date for flying back tomorrow. Their staff at Centrair airport were pretty useless as they didn't have any control over bookings.

[huxley]

Things should settle down from Monday.
Going to be in Shinjuku for the first week of September any one local to the area fancy a pint?