The Japan Trip Resource Thread!

[unknown_citizen]

I might hopefully maybe probably be in Japan around the month of september, and would quite like a day at the tokyo game show. Are there any prerequisites for attending? Is it trade/press only or open to the public? Do you have to preregister or just turn up? Expensive? I'm gonna be on a shoestring budget. Cheers.

[Zanza]

I think the first few days are press only, and then it opens to the general public at a price.

[segages]

Anyone here ever been to watch Sumo? I know it's difficult getting tickets (I'm working on it) but I'm wondering roughly how long each 'day' lasts and how many 'duels' you see?

[mementoman]

Anyone here ever been to watch Sumo? I know it's difficult getting tickets (I'm working on it) but I'm wondering roughly how long each 'day' lasts and how many 'duels' you see?

I went in May 04 for the semi-final day. We turned up a few days before and bought our tickets in advance from the Ticket Office outside the Kokugikan and they had at least one person at a window who could speak enough English for us to book our tickets where we wanted to.

You can find all the info you need on here http://www.sumo.or.jp/eng/

It lasted about 3 or 4 hours in total I think with the various classes of fighters having boughts leading up to the big boys at the end. It's worth getting there a bit earlier to catch some of the wrestlers turning up outside.

[JamesS]

I might hopefully maybe probably be in Japan around the month of september, and would quite like a day at the tokyo game show. Are there any prerequisites for attending? Is it trade/press only or open to the public? Do you have to preregister or just turn up? Expensive? I'm gonna be on a shoestring budget. Cheers.

As I remember, day one is industry only, but the other two days are open to the public. You can just turn up but foreign visitors can pre-book over the net which makes it a bit easier, as you pick up your ticket from a desk that has an English speaking person manning it. It's not free, but I think it was pretty cheap.

[Duk]

Excellent thread loads of great advice here.

Was thinking about going to Tokyo for a couple of weeks at the end of March.

Found these 2 hotels after a quick look, anyone offer any advice on which is in a better location? To me they look fairly close together, but just wondered if one would be better than the other?

http://www.ishinhotels.com/theb-akasaka/en/access.html

http://www.ishinhotels.com/theb-roppongi/en/access.html

Also if anyone's looking for flights, Virgin have got some decent prices in their January sale.

[Richard.John]

Found these 2 hotels after a quick look, anyone offer any advice on which is in a better location? To me they look fairly close together, but just wondered if one would be better than the other?

Well, Roppongi is the one of the nightclub/entertaninment districts so if you plan on spending your nights partying, it could be the best location.

[Stoise]

Im going to Osaka and Kyoto in March, and it'll be my first time - Im looking forward to it (Japanese hopefullly shouldn't be too m,uch of a problem as I've been learning the language for just over 2 years now)
Hopefully I'll get to buy some (this may be an understatement) games.

[mementoman]

Im going to Osaka and Kyoto in March, and it'll be my first time - Im looking forward to it (Japanese hopefullly shouldn't be too m,uch of a problem as I've been learning the language for just over 2 years now)
Hopefully I'll get to buy some (this may be an understatement) games.

You should find almost everything you desire in Nihonbashi, Namba in Osaka. Make sure you check out Yodobashi-Umeda - the biggest single store I have been to in the world. It must have a selection of about 100 different items (clocks, watchstraps) in each section!

[Bleeders]

Me and the missus' are off in October to Tokyo, but we're undecided whether to stay in Osaka or Kyoto.

Where's best? We wanna see both, but we're only down that way for 3 days?

[Darwock]

Osaka is very similar to Tokyo when it boils down to it, so I'd go for Kyoto.

[Bleeders]

Brilliant, ta'

Anywhere you'd recommend staying in Kyoto mate?

[Darwock]

Avoid the grand city centre hotels! They were something like ?100+ per night, full on agatha christie type hotels with bellboys etc. Not having accommodation booked, we hiked around trying all these places and eventually found a Japanese style hotel up a side street near the train station, had a curfew of 11pm but it was cheap and a nice change. There was a Westin to the north of the city near some of the temples that was probably more reasonably priced, much more like a hotel you'd find here.

[Bleeders]

Thanks for the advice mate, all I been finding are the ridiculously expensive ones.

[Jashin]

I'd recommend Kyoto personally. How about staying in a Ryokan? Quite expensive, but they're really interesting places to stay, and are situated in the Geisha district in Kyoto (Gion). That area of Kyoto has Shenmue flavour to the max as well