Looking for Travel Advice (Japan)

[sketchyt]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Eat. Eat your face off. While you can.

Sushi is gonna taste like ash when you get back. North American sushi is garbage.

This may sound pretentious/snobby, but is actually 100% true.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by chemgear

? Department stores have them. Usually basement floor. Small section but I picked up a 25 year last time.

I think I said that last year before I did my Japan trip in September. I'm very aware of the availability in the department stores, but the premium is a bit obscene at times. I was more aiming for something at a reasonable price last year. There's a significant mark up for some of these bottles. Something I'm not willing to pay. The reason I know the mark up is because I compared the price on Amazon.jp and the price difference was staggering at times. I didn't feel comfortable at the time to try and ship the bottle to myself in Japan, so I didn't use the Amazon.jp method to acquire the spirits.

For instance, Hibiki Harmony cal be acquired between $85-100 CAD in Calgary. I saw some prices between 90-125 CAD after conversion in Japan. That's silly, especially for something I can acquire here. I was targeting reasonable prices for things I cannot buy in Canada (ie: $150 CAD and less). I wasn't even targeting high end versions. Entry was ok as well, but I didn't see any. I saw Hibiki 18 go as much as $550 CAD in some places last year vs approx $250-280 CAD on Amazon.jp. For $550 ish, spend it on a Hibiki 21 with hand painted bottle in the Narita airport, not a Hibiki 18 that people are trying to pretend is a collectors item.

I nabbed small bottles of entry level Yamazaki, Hibiki and Hakushu in convenience stores in Japan. They ranged $20-25 CAD each for a tiny bottle. A nice treat I discovered was in BIC Camera for about $25 CAD called Sapporo whiskey which tastes like slightly diluted Hibiki Harmony. It probably is as good in Hibiki Harmony for 9/10 facets so it's a relatively nice and inexpensive sipping whiskey for those who enjoy Hibiki.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

EDIT: I've determine looking for Hakushu, Hibiki or Yamazaki on a quick trip in Japan to be equivalent to chasing a unicorn. I'll consider it a game in my life to see if I can acquire a bottle for a good price. Most of what I've researched mentions I need to go to areas more rarely traveled by travelers.

I heard Costco in Japan has good price on this stuff.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Yeah totally agree. But Japanese cuisine is so much more than just sushi. Try out their wagyu beef, try out Japanese curry, ramen, soba noodles, udon, Japanese bbq skewers... Bottom line, lots to eat in Japan!

Absolutely. Even the McDonalds and KFC is better there.

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by sketchyt

It's a slow Friday so here's my pointless story of Tokyo:

I don't get embarassed easily, but this can be classified as one of the most embarassing stories of my life. A real "boy is my face red" moment.

My wife and I are in Tokyo for our honeymoon about nine years ago. I'm not a great traveller because my bowels fluctuate wildly between 'broken cement mixer' and 'Super Soaker 90,000' when abroad. This usually means I always scout locations for bathrooms like I'm Jason Bourne looking for exits.

We get to the Shinegawa train station to go to Osaka (or maybe it was Kyoto) after a week in Tokyo where I crammed nearly anything into my mouth with little disregard to meal times. Ramen, meat on sticks, green tea ice cream, normal ice cream, meat not on sticks, sushi, more sushi, sides of sushi... anything you can name.

To no one's surprise, when we get the train station my stomach begins to rumble. Hard. Like, an upside down Mount Vesuvius.

Japan's a beautiful place. It's people, landscapes, cityscapes. All of it. This also extends to public bathrooms. They're spotless... even in train stations and it's amazing. The level of respect its citizens have for public spaces is astounding.

I find a single bathroom (i.e. one room with one toilet and sink), lock the door, drop my pants and just proceed to destroy this poor toilet. I resembled something like this:



When I'm done, sweaty, and normal I look around. How do I flush? This doesn't look like my hotel toilet. I press numerous times what should be the flush button and nothing happens. So I look around and I see a handle with a piece of string attached up towards the ceiling and think, "hey this could be how you flush. My grandma's old place in Hong Kong had this."

So I pull it. It doesn't flush and nothing happens. So I shrug and like a total dbag, wash my hands and decide to just leave.

Within not even 2 minutes of pulling that handle I get a polite knock on the door:

"<Japanese>"
Me: "Hello. Yes?"
"<Japanese>"

I open the door and there are two uniformed station employees. I slowly make the connection between the string I pulled and these two poor employees at the door. I want to stress the mess I made in the bowl makes my Top 3. Possibly the GOAT.

Me: "Oh god. Please don't come in."
"<Japanese>" They start peering in
Me: "I think your toilet is broken, please tell me where the flush button is so I can make sure."
"<Japanese> It's ok, we look."
Me: "Please don't. You guys aren't paid enough to deal with this today."
"<Japanese>" They politely open the door and look around.

The look of horror on these poor men's faces is something I'll never forget. It was 95% horror and 5% impressed. I'm basically panicking at this point and don't know what to do. Your fight or flight response kicks in and all I manage to muster is:

"I'm... so... sorry. Also, I'm American."

And then I ran. I even remember the sound of the door click close behind them. Grabbed my wife, suitcases, took off to the train, and have lived with the shame and embarassment ever since.

I'm sorry I failed you Japan. I'm sorry kind train station employees.

This made me laugh so ####ing hard.

Awesome story.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

I heard Costco in Japan has good price on this stuff.

I've never even considered that. Thanks for the idea Sureloss. My brother and his fiancee did this in Sapporo, but for products, not alcohol. Though, where I was staying last year, I think a trek to Costco would have taken quite a bit of time the wife would not have been happy spending. Maybe next time though. Maybe I'll even convince my wife to do some brewery/distillery tours

Originally Posted by chemgear

Absolutely. Even the McDonalds and KFC is better there.

Agreed. The way I'll summarize it is like this, food in Japan is about the same as in Calgary. But, the quality difference is so vast, the ashen taste reference mentioned earlier is very true, and not just for sushi. The white rice alone is so delicious when eaten plain, but not possible to truly replicate outside of Japan. The rice alone is huge in making sushi and rice or even curry and rice ridiculously delicious.

Fruits are a must try. I never even thought of it until I brought my dad (we were on independent trips and spent a few days together) decided to drop $25 on 5 peaches. The damn things were bigger than softballs and you could smell them from across the hotel room. The $20 range of fruits was amazing. I have no idea what the more expensive versions would be like and I'd say it's something I'm hesitant to try. I had a variety of grapes, peaches and pears. The next time I go, I'll definitely bring or buy a cheap knife at a 100 yen store to try many other types of fruits like melons. It's hugely underrated how ridiculously amazing their raw ingredients are. The lower end stuff (on par or 2x price here per unit) will be really good, like Kelowna fresh good. The 4-5x per unit fruits are amazing and you can go up to 100x per unit if you want.

Foods in convenience stores (Japanese convenience stores are a favourite of mine) destroy many of the options we have here in terms of price and taste. Later at night, they're half off and that's a fantastic time to sweep them if you see those prices. The fact you can also buy awesome drinks and alcohol at the convenience store to pair with your food... awesome. That's entry level and less than the cost of what we pay here. At the same price point as Calgary (ie: Mid teens $20 ish bucks), we're talking food quality you'll probably have a hell of a time finding outside of Japan at prices anything lower than 2-3x that price. Higher end cuisine? I'm almost certain that's Japan only or ridiculous price points.

Pastries are really good too. Coffee shops from what I hear (Western style) are decent. Themed cafes aren't bad, but not the same level as a proper food place as the focus is more on the atmosphere vs food (ie: Maid cafe, animal cafes etc.). Street food? Awesome. Probably even higher standards of hygiene than some of our restaurants here, but on the street.

Japan is the only place my wife and I agree, we could go a dozen times and not get bored. Most other places get stale by the 3rd or 4th time. Not Japan IMO. Each region is it's own unique place to the rest of Japan and Japan is already unique to the rest of the world and I haven't started on the different categories yet, just food. It's... nothing short of amazing. It's literally worlds within a world in itself.

For instance Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima is something I don't think I'd find in the rest of Japan. It's sold in Tokyo, Osaka etc. and it'll be pretty good, but it won't be next level like the ones in Hiroshima I ate with my wife. It's like having a favourite ramen place in North America somewhere that no matter how good, just doesn't stack up to the local stuff, but within Japan for regional foods.

[Engine09]

Old thread, lots of great info!

Have a specific question. Has anyone been to Jigokudani in the spring? April specifically, wondering if there will still be snow, road conditions, etc. 850m elevation doesn't sound bad, but of course I'm not familiar with the mountains there.

Also planning on Nammoku, Shirakawa-go and Takayama which are all in higher elevations. Kinda tough to find good info with internet searches.

[MoneyGuy]

Thread is topical. We’ll be circumnavigating Japan in April 2025 with three days in Tokyo. I’ll monitor this thread.

[devo22]

thought of creating a topic when I stumbled upon this one, so ... humble bump.

Finally going to Japan for two weeks in late April. Focus will be on Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima, though nothing is set in stone yet ... mindful of not cramming in way too much. Already going through this thread and reading a ton of info elsewhere, but if you guys have any specific advice, must-sees that might be off the beaten path and so on, I'd be very grateful

[WideReceiver]

There are several very good Facebook groups on Tokyo and Japan. That and our DK Eyewitness guide are invaluable. Any question and there’s an expert in those groups who knows. We go in a few weeks.

[bossy22]

We just booked end of March beginning of April to Japan. Now we are trying to figure out what to do while we are there.

[Muta]

Been there lots of times and there's lots of good advice in this thread; just want to add, make sure you go see the the two TeamLab experiences in Tokyo if you can (in Odaiba), they are absolutely amazing.

https://www.teamlab.art/e/planets/
https://www.teamlab.art/e/tokyo/

[kn]

We went for three weeks in September for a "once in a lifetime" trip

Hiroshima was a day-trip for us; outside of the memorial park and museum, there wasn't much else we wanted to see.

Osaka was another day trip for us but I wish we would have spent longer. Don-tombori is a must see, especially at night. We also squeezed in Osaka castle and the aquarium. In retrospect, the aquarium we could have skipped. It's considered the largest in the world but that's because the volume of the main tank in the middle spans all of the floors. I've enjoyed other aquariums more.

Kyoto was our "base of operations" and we took trains everywhere. Kyoto was preferable to Tokyo for us. I thought Toronto, Paris, London, LA were huge... it's nothing like Tokyo. We saw the usual touristy things in Tokyo and mainly went for Disneyland/Disneysea for our daughter. The Imperial Palace grounds are not opened for regular folk so there's not much to see there other than the immaculate condition of the parks and walkways.

Don't miss Asakusa district in Tokyo... another thing we rushed through and would have liked to spend more time exploring. We even thought having our hotel there would have been better (we were near Tokyo Bay). We went for a "sumo" dinner which was a great event: https://asakusa-sumo.com/menu/

Take your time, enjoy everything, and be prepared to make mistakes taking the trains.

[WideReceiver]

Originally Posted by kn

Don't miss Asakusa district in Tokyo... another thing we rushed through and would have liked to spend more time exploring. We even thought having our hotel there would have been better (we were near Tokyo Bay). We went for a "sumo" dinner which was a great event: https://asakusa-sumo.com/menu/

Take your time, enjoy everything, and be prepared to make mistakes taking the trains.

We’re staying in Asakusa. Our friends have booked the ASA Asakusa Kaminarimon Minami and we want to be near them or in the same hotel?

Do you know the hotel? Are you aware of a better hotel (larger rooms) very close? What would you recommend for an itinerary for one full day?

[Table 5]

We stayed at the Koko Hotel in Asakusa. It was a great base to explore from, as it was right next to the Tawaramachi station on the Ginza Line, and within walking distance (but not in the middle of) the action at Asakusa. The hotel itself was solid and functional...the best part was that it had a washer/dryer built in, which meant we could bring less clothes and just clean as we went. Came in really handy with kids.

Asakusa is a bit of a tourist trap, but still a decent place to visit, and the kids loved it. I recommend going to see the temple in the morning when it's nice and quiet. Once the shops open, the whole area kind of turns into tourist hell. Don Quihote though a destination in itself, and is a great stop for gathering up souvenirs and crap to take home. Not far off, there's also a district that sells speciality cookware etc, which was neat.

One little hidden gem we found a couple of blocks from our hotel was Maple Pizza. If/when you get tired of Japanese food, this place has one of the best NY slices I've had in a while. We loved Japanese food, but after a week, this really hit the spot.

Definitely go to Team Labs...especially if you have kids, but even if not, it's still cool.

[kn]

Table5 beat me to it but I was also going to mention Don Qihote. Our group stocked up on sake and other souvenirs there. The temple is also worth a visit. The sumo dinner/show we went to is on the main strip. There was a strip club next to it but it was hardly noticeable.


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