^ 12. 1-2km?! Go check a map. 15. Unless they recently changed it, a normal Suica alone is NOT engough. But that's not really a problem. Large stations have Engrish speaking staff. Also, your cost estimate is probably missing a zero. Shinkansen to Nagoya takes around 2 hours and a return ticket from somewhere in Tokyo will be closer to 20000+ yen. Nagoya to Sakae is 200 yen. You have to send mails for SKE48 as well.
My experience arriving to Tokyo fir first: I took Keisei line up to Ueno station, then combined to Metro or JR (both were ok for me) and voila. I didn't get lost. I visited many places and I didn't have a plan, I just woke up every morning, put my finger randomly on the map and that's it (my last visit everyday was Akiba, though). Best trip ever.
Ok, as a girl, and a person that also has 0 sense of direction and couldnt speak japanese well at the time, let me tell you how it went down for me. Before I left, I used that Hyper-something site, to check the routes of any places i might possibly ever want to go. So before I even got there, I knew which stations to go to, which lines etc, because I didn't know how much would be english translated. Turns out they have maps in romanji, and ticket machines in english. I think the first time I went to Akiba, I just said "Akihabara?" to some official looking guy and he pointed me to the right platform. As for luggage, I just got mine delivered to my hostel from the airport. I can't remember how much it cost, but it wasnt that expensive. So depending on what time you get there, if you wanna go and look around before checking into your hotel, that's always an option. That way you don't really have to worry about trains etc. What I DID forget to check however, was how to walk from the station to the theatre. Dumbass. So i took a walk around Akiba for like 2 hours before i accidentally stumbled upon it (only an hour before the show xD) Luckily for me, there was Youkokurama waiting for me when i got there, so he helped me out with everything theatre related. Later on I met Tatami Mats, Lamenth and Caine, and we went out nearby to eat. Also lucky for me, since everyone was going the same way back to the station i didn't get lost xD However. After I got to the vicinity my hotel was located in (around 10pm) I couldnt make sense of the map I had to get me to the hotel. Nearby, there was a little shop, so i went in and half asked the girl how to get there. I think I said something along the lines of "Doko desu ka?" and poked my map. Luckily she seemed to know what i was going on about and showed me back to a road I could walk to it from. She said i had to go near 7/11 and turn left, which i did and made it (thank god) The hostel itself was small, but there were some amazing people in there. I had a room to myself with a futon and bedding. There was a tv and a heater too. You had a key so you could lock yourself in or lock it on your way out There was a shared restroom (like 3 or 4 toilet stalls) on each floor. There were also 2 shower rooms, that you could use privately. And I think a room with a bath. There was a little kitchen, you could use to heat up some food, or cook something. With a 7/11 there though, I used to go and buy ready meals, or things I could easily throw together to eat. There was a shared area, with a table, sofas, tv, and 2 computers you had to pay to use, but they did have wi-fi that you could use for free. Personally for me, I'm not bothered about how luxurious a place is, as long as I have somewhere to go at night. Obviously, I wouldnt go anywhere that had really bad standards, but i dont need fancy, if you get me. There was an amazing array of people I met there. From older people (I'm talking 70 upwards) to younger people (i was only 18). One afternoon, I met another British girl who was staying there. She overheard me talking to my mom on the phone, and started talking to me xD. Anyways that led to Beer and Ueno park (sakura festivals were on) and dancing business men yelling "LAMPARD" at us. Nuff said. She was even kind enough to lend me her phone to use as an alarm the night beore I left, because i accidentally dropped my suitcase on mine when i was packing to leave, and broke it. As for night time. Well a couple times, I was out quite late. One night I went out with that girl, and when i went out with Cdevil and Tatami Mats. Even though we were all heading to the same station, i had to branch of from them sooner or later. From the ending station to my hostel, was about a 20 minute walk. I wasn't in the prettiest part of Tokyo, it was dark, and more residential but honestly, i've never felt more safe. Never once did I have an incident when I thought "Oh god, I'm in serious trouble". In short, learn a few routes to places you might wanna go, and once you've been there a few days, you'll know the main JR lines like the back of your hand. The likelihood of anything serious happening to you because of malicious intent is looooooooooooooooooooow. p.s - damn you for temppting me into going in december *Tanamin Birthday Drool* If I had the money I would go in december.
12. well, I'm not really sure. but when I walk from the station to Donq, it's about 5 minutes and if you run to it, maybe 3 minutes. 15. for Nagoya, I'm not really sure. can anyone share the information? If the ticket to Nagoya was around 20000+Y wow
^ 15. If I remember correctly, the ticket from Tokyo to Nagoya is about 10000Y (regular seat) so a round trip would cost you 20000+.
^ ^ Yeah, I was surprised you wrote it doesn't take long but at the same time you write 1-2km. It's just a bit over 300m if you take the most direct route to the back entrance. I used the Yahoo! Transit website for the prices. Only way to save is by not using the Shinkansen (but that would mean many hours on local and limited express trains. It's not that difficult actually because the Tokaido line goes all the way to the Kansai area but because it's a long trip you still need to change trains a few times). Going by night bus could be an alternative, though. As far as tickets for SKE are concerned, it's on their website and somewhere in their thread.
Not to sound ignorant, but uh...how do I use it? Do I just type in the station name, the city name, or like...city with prefecture? I tried typing in Akihabara as starting, which was fine, but when it came to destination, typing in Sakae gives me several results. I know it's Sakae, Nagoya, but I can't type that in =( And then it comes to a screen with departure/arrival/average. Along with "passed point" with 2 boxes, answer #? What's all that? ^^;; and route to use...I get that I should uncheck shinkansen, but what's airline, "NOZOMI" and Limited Express? Oh, and...one minor thing - trains/subways allow large luggage too, right? Cuz after reading all the info again, I realized I have to take them to my hostel either way, besides the N'EX or Keisei line. Shibuya 109 is a fashion shop, right? Like a super large department store for people? And my major is Biological Sciences, which will allow me to enter Microbiology in junior year. Tokyo study abroads are mainly for music/film (anime says hello), but I think for UCI it eliminates some of my GE requirements as well. See here http://summer.uci.edu/pdfs/brochures/japan.pdf I don't plan on studying abroad until summer after sophomore/junior year, so that thing'll be outdated by then, but I think it'll be similar. Actually one of the reasons I chose to go to UCI was the opportunity to study abroad. Which hostel did you stay at? Having one room to yourself sounds good. Privacy, with the social aspect of as hostel. What do these look like? Or will I just know from police standing around? Once again, a LARGE thank you for all that responded. With this info, I feel a lot more secure and am that much closer to making a good proposal to my parents to let me go XD
You put the station name, which is usually the area name. If you don't know the area name, best thing to do is wikipedia it, or google it and figure it out from there. Learning to troubleshoot these sorts of things is essential to solo adventures in Japan. Regarding this specific problem, Nagoya is in Aichi prefecture, so you'd pick Sakae(aichi). For some reason a lot of things in Nagoya are named Aicihi instead (eg places concerts are held at are often named things like "aichi convention centre") Passed point is exactly that. You say if you want to go via a specific route, which you don't, so ignore it. Nozomi is the fastest shinkansen (cuts about half an hour out of the Tokyo->Osaka trip compared to Hikari), which you CANNOT use a JR pass on. Which is why you can untick it specifically. Airline and limited express are obviously if you don't want those included in the route. Limited express are like regular trains but faster, you can sometimes reserve seats on, and more expensive. Of course. They're just trains like everywhere else. Just try to avoid doing it during peak hour (like 6-8pm) because the bigger lines like the JR ones will be totally packed. It's a building filled with womens fashion stores. 109-2 is across the road and has stuff for men (and a hellopro store at the bottom). Yeah. And they have like a police symbol and lots of wanted posters etc. In the middle of a residential area they're often just a little building with a couple of rooms.
ah...don't tempt me to go back to Japan, for VISIT #6!! LOL i think i would something about how to get around in Japan, but with all the good info from all the good ppl on here, i leave it to them to help you out ithebigC, and pick up some nice BLT's from TRIO2. Lucky get to go to Japan. I'd also head to the HelloProject store to get some more Momusu photos too. Not to mention everything else in Japan, and go get a JR rail pass and tour around Japan. I went as far as Fukuoka, far west Japan.
The convincing is going along ok...but there's one chokepoint. My dad is worried about safety -__- Yes, I told him all what you guys said, low crime rate, really safe, you know. But he's all like "What if there's an earthquake?!?!" or "What if you get run over by a car?!?!" His point of contention is that I don't have anyone going with me, cuz if I had a friend, at least they could do something if I were to get into some trouble. I've tried telling him that if I were to be run over by a car, someone around me would see it and would call the ambulance anyway, but he's not having it. So, my question is, does Japan sell those things that when you stick in your cell phone, you can use that phone in Japan? It's like a temporary SIM card. Take the one you have out, and you can call using the one you put in, for like some amount of time. 2) Also, they do sell international phone cards at 7-11, right? 3) Any other safety things that I could say to ease my dad's worries? @_@ I'm thinking if I could find those temporary SIM things/international phone cards, it'd ease it somewhat, but any other tidbits that I can use in my argument can help - some hidden points that make Japan even safer than originally thought.
^ they don't have prepaid SIM cards afaik, at least not ones they let foreigners use. (the operators that is.) We are all criminals and terrorists in Jap governments eyes.. =) There are however companies that have phones and sim-cards you can rent. SIM cards can be rented seperately if you have a phone thats compatible with the Japanese standards. https://www.rentafonejapan.com/index.html http://www.cellhire.com/products/intern ... card/japan No experience with these, just 2 options i found. About convincing your father.. Crime rates are very low in japan, and i doubt you will be left on the streets if you get hit by a car or something like that. Your probably safer in Japan then you will ever be in CA, depending where in CA you live of course.=) Edit: guess my research is a bit outdated and/or bad sources. Pandadash seem to have more updated and credible info for you.
^ ^ Softbank offers sim rental (http://www.softbank-rental.jp/en/index.php) other service provider like docomo (http://roaming.nttdocomo.co.jp/en/index.html) offers phone rental. But depends on your phone service in US and the phone you have, you might not need any of these. You might able to use your phone (with your own sim) directly in Japan. You do want to double check the roaming charge before doing so though, it can get pretty expensive.
^ you can rent your phone or sim card. and yes, you can buy telephone card for international call at 7/11 or other conbini and also you can buy it at the airport. When I was in Japan last March, I bought it at 7/11 for 1000 Y and it can be used at local payphone on the street.
Now that my trip has been confirmed, I've been researching more and more stuff for a while now, and came up with two more questions, for now Has anyone been to Nagoya before, and know how to get there from Tokyo? I was thinking of going anyway if the fare wasn't too expensive, and started looking at the JR Rail Passes that people had mentioned that are mostly used for shinkansen. According to this map http://www.japanrailpass.net/images/map_en.pdf and this coloring scheme http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en001.html Nagoya is part of the JR Shikoku line. Unfortunately, this map (the one at the bottom) http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/eastpass/index.html shows that there is no JR Shikoku Pass, and the JR East pass, which covers Tokyo, does not cover Nagoya ._. So...in order to get to Nagoya, do I have to just buy the tickets for the shinkansen there? The full Japan rail pass is not an option, cuz it's 45100 yen for 14 days -__- 2) Where are the best maps for Japan, according to you guys' opinions, like street maps that I can carry around to make sure I don't get lost? Google Earth? Yahoo? Or should I buy a travel guide, like Lonely Planet? I read reviews on those on Amazon and they weren't too favorable.
1. You are correct that JR East pass would not cover Nagoya. Depending how many trip you are making outside of the Tokyo area, JR pass might still be an option. You can always opt for a 7 days pass as long as you know you will be traveling outside tokyo in that week. Not sure what's your plan, if you will have two trip down to Nagoya (or anywhere farther) it is worth getting a 1 week JR pass. Otherwise your choice would be getting regular ticket for shinkansen. 2. I personally use a regular tokyo street map that I bought from a book store. It works well for me, although sometime I wish it is smaller (it is a size of a paper back). but if you have a limited amount of places that you want to go, printing map off yahoo would be a cheaper option.
Yep. Go to like Tokyo station and follow the signs to the shinkansen ticket desk and buy from there. I don't recommend using the ticket machines for it, as you actually need to buy two tickets (one for the train, one to cross prefecture borders, or something), and the machine does a terrible job of explaining it... I ended up just buying one and had to buy the second one once I was on the train and the conductor was like "wtf where's the other ticket?". Oh, and when you put the shink ticket into the ticket gate, insert BOTH tickets at the same time. It doesn't tell you to do that, but if you just put in one, it'll eat it and screw you over later... stupid system is stupid. Honestly, I just printed off google maps while at work I've seen a few books with maps of each area in them, never used them though. Don't suppose you have an iPhone/iTouch, I know there are offline map programs for that...
Well, I'm actually in Japan right now. Those that want to hear about my not so fun first day can go to my blog, ithebigc.blogspot.com. From now on, I'll be copy/pasting my blog entries onto this thread to, like the thread says, "share my experiences in Japan". But the first day wasn't stellar, so I figured I'd start with the 2nd post. Also....how exactly do I get to the Don Quijote building? Like...which exit from Akihabara Station? From Google Maps (see below) it looks like there are train tracks directly in my way. The Don Quijote building is supposed to be point A, btw, according to Google. Now that I'm in Japan, you'd figure the questions would stop ^^;;
The train tracks that cut down through the middle are the Yamanote line, it passes overhead. Using that map as a reference, the large white structure along the bottom is Akihabara station. The Electric Town exit is at the left end of it. Since you're not familair with Akiba yet I suggest you just continue walking to the main road (after the Electric Town exit, go to the left and continue past the large anime store Gamers which will be on the right, or take the right hand exit and cross the large empty space in front of the Anime Centre or whatever it's called), which is highlighted in yellow there. Turn right and walk up along it (north) and the Don Quijote building will be about two blocks up. The way into the building is between a crepe store and a dodgy looking video store, you need to keep your eyes peeled. I'm at work at the moment so I can't give you a detailed streetview map or anything, sorry. You'll just have to find your way around with experience. If in doubt, stick to that large main road, you'll never get lost- Akiba ends at the bridge to the south, and at a McDonalds about 4-5 blocks to the north (not the one on the map, there's another further up).
When I went to the theater it was my first time (in Japan) and was all alone so, my advice would be: 1. Take the JR line, don't take the Metro. The Metro station is further the theater and it will be difficult to find Don Quijote if you do. Take the Metro when you already know Akiba by heart. 2. The Akihabara station (either JR or Metro) has several exists, take the one that takes you to the "Electric Town (or street, don't remember)" in JR. Walk straight from that exit to a street (not alley!), then turn to left to the main street (less than a block, and yes, the street where the incident happened last year). When you get to the main street, turn to right and walk... look at your right and you'll find Don Quijote just in the corner of the first following street. You know the rest After you go several times, you'll find a shorter way to get there.
