I just came back yesterday from Thailand, and spent possibly the worst 18 hours of my vacation life on the streets of Tokyo. The people are fantastic, so it's not a hit on them, but there were so many things wrong with the place:
1) I arrived Shinjuku Tokyo about 6pm where all the banks and exchange places were closed. I only had USD's and no place accepted them. I tried to withdraw money from about a dozen bank ABM's including the 7-11 ABM's, which none were configured for North American cards. Finally I tried a Chase bank and got some money out.
2) Almost no places accept credit cards despite ads all over for them. These places include McDonalds and KFC. Cash only - Yen only. Took me about 2 hours to find it place and it turned out to be Sbarro's which did accept credit.
3) Wifi access at Starbucks and other establishments is only configured for Japanese phones, so you won't be able to connect. Hotels I'm unsure about.
4) Japanese entertainment consists of Karaoke, old man strictly drinking bars, and eating. Clubs and bars aren't the same as over here (plus, much smaller). I never go to Hooters, but I did end up going there just because it seemed like the liviest place in Tokyo and that was so much fun to people watch. Japanese men were like little school boys and the girls were so nice to them. It was like watching grown up children with crushes.
5) Hotel prices are crazy high. I went to 3 hotels at about 2am to get one for the night and they were all $250+ USD, which these places only accepted Yen for anyway (no credit cards). I pretty much slept on the street a couple nights ago alongside the drunk Japanese business men waiting for the train stations to open up again. Met some really interesting Japanese characters on the street, but man that was a messed up night.
|