Going 2 JP in 4weeks - Some questions
 

Hello !

I bought 2 lonely planet books for Tokyo (encounter, and the bigger version) and when searching for additional information on the internet I came across this forum, which is very helpfull (housetek amongst people-great stuff)

I still have predominantly two questions unawnsered, which I couldn`t really find an awnser to browsing trough the Japan Forum so I was hoping some of you could help me out so here goes.

Details

WHEN: 7 ~ 15 November 2008
AGE: 26
HOW: Amsterdam to Tokyo, direct flight trough KLM
INTERESTS: Nightlife, sightseeing, culture(food), geeking out (arcades) taking pictures with my DSLR of interesting/cool stuff/scenery.
GO OUTSIDE TOKYO?: No, I have 1 week I will focus on Tokyo.
BUDGET: 1500 Euro (2,035 USD / 207,640 Yen) with possibly +900 Euro more IF needed.

Questions

1. I am unsure where I should stay for the duration of my vacation in Tokyo I have figured out two options.

- Stay in a hotel in Shibuya, so that I can go out at night in walking distance and do not worry about catching the last train back to another area of Tokyo where my Hotel is located.
Also saves the fuss of finding the right train when slightly drunk :)

- Stay at the Oak hotel in Ueno which has a JR station nearby for easy access to Narita airport.
Website of the hotel with location details: Oak Hotel

So what do you guys reckon ?
I am used to alot of festivals/parties and sleep deprivation partially due to work hehe, but I do not reckon I will be pulling "all-niters" nightlife trips every day since doing so would only cost you "daytime" the next morning.
Waking up very late is just a waste of time.
Would it be worth staying in Shibuya still ?
Or would Ueno be a more central location to go to and from locations in Tokyo ?
Reading about things, Roppongi hills sounds like a great place for me to go out as wel.

Which comes to question number 2.

2. I wanna get a feel of the travel times to and from areas in Tokyo which is partially also dealing with staying or not in Ueno.

How long would it take to go from the below list ?

Ueno to Shibuya
Ueno to Roppongi hills
Ueno to Shinjuku
Ueno to Akihabara
Ueno to Harajuku

Also how long would it take to go from the below list ?

Shibuya to Akihabara
Shibuya to Harajuku
Shibuya to Shinjuku
Shibuya to Roppongi hills

3. I will be only going for 1 week. A JR rail pass costs me 200 Euro which is 27,491 Yen or 270 USD.
Very expensive, will this be usefull to me ?

I will not be going to Kyoto as I dont think it would be worth it to be going to Kyoto for just 1 day (i.e return the same day) and there would be extra hassle with paying for another hotel, doing something about the hotel in Tokyo for not paying double etc. etc.
Personally - I do not reckon that I will spend more then that amount of money for the JR pass on individual train / subway tickets in Tokyo since I also reckon I would mostly be walking and exploring once I hit an area a day.
Tough I do have to keep in mind going to and from Narita is a 2000 yen ticket or something right ? What do you guys reckon ?

Well thanks in advance for reading so far :ywave:
I would appreciate any awnsers given as thats one step closer to completing my planning :-)

1. Both Shibuya and Ueno are great location to stay at, as long as you stay close to the Yamanote line you are fine. Roppongi hill has a lot of nightlife yes, but its also a "foreigner" hang out (from my own experience), its no different from any pubs/bars/clubs district in the west or Europe, so don't expect it to be "way different"

2. Japan Railway's site has a schedule finder that can help you find these info, thought most of these route you outlined will be somewhere around 20-30 minutes.

3. The JR pass is great only if you need to ride the shinkansen, otherwise i would opt out on it, as you will probably discover that a lot of places you may rather walk than taking transit

If you are into the culture and traidition, then you really should pay Kyoto a visit. In which case, I would suggest to stay for 2 nights and 3 days, this still give you plenty of time in Tokyo to do what you wanted to do. If you do choose to do Kyoto, you best purchase a JR pass. A one way ticket (reserved seat) cost around USD$150

Thanks, I will thus base my deceision of which hotel/area to stay at by cross-referencing a hotel in a price range I like, with the distance to the nearest station that serves the yamanote line.

I see, maybe that is why it is largely talked about to go to if your a foreigner.
I will check it out for I guess one part of the evening and move on.
Since I am still interested in seeing the shops and art exhbitions there.

Excellent ! I never figured going directly to the JR site would be so helpfull.
I figured something as native as that would surely have a website purely in unreadable (to me) Kanji :-)

The 20-30 minutes will be do-able since I plan on mostly walking instead of going public-transit crazy for every lil distance.

This is really helpfull, since I if I do stay in Tokyo, the JR pass wouldn`t justify the cost at all.


I have given this some tought, but I`m not sure on this yet.
I`ll do some more planning and research for hotels etc. budgetting to see what I can do.
I would also rather additionally go to Kyoto, after all it`s not like I can just take a train from amsterdam to Japan any day I want right :)

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it :-)

Another thing you can do concerning kyoto is to go with a standard Shinkansen ticket, which is much cheaper, and will reduce the cost, but it could mean standing for 2-3 hours.

Do drop by Yokohama, I personally find it more interesting than Tokyo

I just checked out Wikitravel, Yokohama can easily be reached 20-30 minutes from Tokyo depending on which line you take for a modest fee in Yen so I`ll definitly go stop by there for a day, it looks quite nice, probably quiter compared to Tokyo by the looks of some of the pictures and definitly more interesting than Odaiba does.

Another question just popped in my mind tough hoping you guys who`ve been to Japan don`t mind explaining.

Japan seems to have *alot* of different public transport companies, lines etc.
How easy is it to navigate for a foreigner ?
I can survive Paris`s subway system without problem for example.
But at least, that`s written in .. well Roman letters and you can just see where you need to go (which platform) even if you cannot actually read what it means :)
What about Japan ?
Is everything in a train/metro station noted in Kanji and would I need to be prepared to have a map of the system with me that notes both kanji and english translation next to it ?

Any help would be appreciated with the above topic.
I think that`s the only thing that I am still sort of worried about at this point.

Coming weekend when I have time I will finalise everything for my trip, I have 3 hotels to deceide from which I`m still undeceided upon but i`ll have to settle that this weekend, making notes on what I would like to see each day as a guideline - having already travelled alot elsewhere in the world I know not to cram things too much or really make a tight shedule cause you will most likely squander times on things of interest you might come across etc.

All stops are written in Kanji, hiragana and romaji (ENGLISH). Since the World Cup big city subways have also been given numbers.

It is not difficult to navigate if you know the name of the station you want to go to. Japanese people tend to be pretty helpful if you have an idea where you want to be.

Excellent ! I should be fine then :D

I wasn't aware of the numbers, but then I guess its something that they can reuse if they do win the 2016 summer game bid.

On that note MMM, any "insider" info concerning the 2016 bid? Does it look like Tokyo will get it?

Short answer about your Traveltimes:
If you stay in Ueno you will be only 2 Stations from Akihabara, but further away from the Rest /around 15 to 25 min).
When you stay in Shibuya, you will be far away from Akihabara but closer to Shinjuku, Harajuku and Roppongi.
Though, i liked Ueno better because it had more a Asian feeling than the area of Shibuya. Have you thought about making it half/half. Like spend some cheap days in Ueno and than head for a nice place in Shibuya for 2 days?

From Ueno you can easily walk to Akiba and Asakusa, but you can also take the train. Im not sure about the distances around Shibuya, but walking from Ueno to Shibuya sure would consume alot of time.

Cheers
Firebir

I have no insider info whatsoever.

It all depends on how much they are willing to bribe the IOC. After China, I imagine that it's getting pretty expensive, I wouldn't be surprised to see IOC members buying apartments at the Plaza Hotel in NYC.

OP, don't worry about Kyoto, you could spend a month exploring Tokyo and still not see it all. You have a few of the "must see" places listed. Roppongi Hills and Roppongi are different places. Roppongi Hills is where the wealthier expats live and shop (and work), Roppongi is a seedier (and smellier) place were foreigners go to hang out together over a beer or whatever. I'm sure you aren't visiting Tokyo just so you can drink at an Irish pub or Australian bar.

You should add a Disney park or two to your list, and you should definitely add Odaiba. Yokohama is also a lot of fun, and the shops are less expensive than those in metro Tokyo.

One more question popped my mind after having read a few things here and there about Tokyo transit.
There is apperantly a green coloured chip ? based card that you can put credit on.
This card is valid to use for metro and (JR) train, just pass a gate and it deducts your money.
Something they still havent worked out fully yet in my own country :P

What`s the name of this card and is there a specific booth or machine to get it from ?

Cause i`d rather pocket that than going to probably one of the many different kinds of vending machines that multiple public transport companies may or may not have.
Hmmm ,now that I think of it I think Houseteek may have mentioned this card somewhere in his Tokyo guides, better re-read those as well.


Actually, I have never tought about splitting it up like that.
That`s a great suggestion !
I will be packing light, so moving to another hotel won`t prove that much of a hassle.

With that suggestion in mind I was thinking about sleeping in Shibuya for the weekend I arrive there (I arrive on a Saturday morning) and pull 2 "all niters" or in my case probably till 4 AM ish , not having to worry about catching the last train and just walking back, that way sleeping 6 hours still wakes me up around 10.
That way I`ll have seen the nightlife of Tokyo and (hopefully) get rid of my jetlag :-)

Monday I would then move to Ueno and stay there for the duration of my trip.
I will be skipping Kyoto on this trip, since it`s already more or less planned that i`m going with my best mate to Japan in 2009 for two weeks, which will net me more than just 2 days Kyoto which I think the place deserves.


Haven`t tought of that before.
Just checked a map I have of the different Tokyo areas.
Indeed, Roppongi hills looks like a small hub to the left of the general area around Roppongi station.
This is good to know beforehand :-)


Hehe - no . Plenty of those in Amsterdam where I live plus I haven`t gone to a Irish pub in nearly a year.


Odaiba, Yokohama are both on my list of places to see, tough I think I will skip Disneyland, already having been to the one in Paris two times.
I`ve heard if you`ve seen one of them you`ve seen them all.

Thanks for all the great tips guys, it`s truly been helpfull.
I`ve been quite busy lately but today I am finally going to sit down and put all the things on my list in a concrete plan by day.
So that I have a structured list of what to see, and what things of interest are in that area.
Offcourse I wont pack it tightly since I have a feeling I will be wandering around alot :) But some sort of structure is always good.

I feel most of your questions seems to be answered :) hope you'll have alot of fun.

I think whether you stay in Ueno,Shibuya etc. will not matter all that much, both are very nice places to be. And on the Yamanote line which is really good. Otherwise travelling by train or subway is not hard in Tokyo, just get a train/subway map and you should be able to figure it out, and when you can't, people will help you if you ask.

If you are here on a sunday, I recommend you to go to Harajuku and enjoy the day there. In the area just at the JR Harajuku station (yamanote line) and around the entrance to Yoyogi park (close by) there is just so much fun and life on sundays!

About the "green chip thingy touchi card", it is called Suica Card and you can bassicly buy it everywhere in the Stations. You will pay a deposit (its 500yem if im right (or 1000?)) anyway, you can get that back if you return the card. To charge the card you can just go to a vending machine, put the card in and it will ask you how much you want to charge. After you choose how much, just enter the money. It it really the easiest way to get around, because it works through your wallet and so makes the search for the card unnecessary.
Im not sure about getting the money back wich is left on the card, but ill assume you can get it back when returning the card. You could also keep it till your next trip in Japan (im not sure if Kyoto has Suica or if it is a different card like in Hokkaido).

Happy i could help you by suggesting the split option. I would book at least the Shibuya nights in advance because weekends tend to be more packed. In Uneo theres alot of place to stay, so i guess youll be alright (i would book in advance anyway).

Oh you can also pay in some places with that card, especially around or inside the station (like convinience store) but also in some restaurants and many vending machines around the Station (and buses,....)

Cheers

Roppongi Hills and Roppongi are located right next to each other, but they are different worlds. I like the Outback steakhouse in Roppongi, and Zest Cantina, but those are the only reasons I go there.

Near Roppongi is the Midtown shopping center. It's a wonderful place to buy traditional Japanese gifts (rather than the Chinese made Japanese gifts which you'll find at Asakusa), but it's an expensive place, bring a platinum credit card.

Henbaka mentioned Harajuku. Some think Harajuku is wonderful, while others think it symbolizes all that is wrong with modern Japan. But it's good to see for yourself. There is also a Puma outlet there which can custom make a pair of shoes for you; they make a good souvenir of Japan, and the sneaker freaks will be in awe of you.

I'm sure people can both hate and love it. But it's hard to not feel the positive spirit of Harajuku and Yoyogi park on Sundays.

(That Puma outlet, I dunnow if I've been there... Where is that if you're coming from the Jr Stn. ?)

Cross the street from the station, like you are going to the old Snoopy Town. Go right to the intersection, and turn left, heading toward Omotesando Hills. The Puma outlet is a short distance ahead on the left.

The Kansai version of Suica, is ICOCA. I think Suica cards would work in Kansai , as long as there is still money left in it.