Yet another "I'm going to Japan" Thread - Sorry

Hey there.

Everyone posts this, and it must be really annoying, but if you'll bare with me I would like to ask for some advice about going to Japan. I am finally going next week, after planning to go last year and it falling through.

We're going to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Sapporo, for about a week each. Basically, are there any places I'd "have to visit" that you can recommend? I've already got

"takeshita street", "meiji shrine" and "mt. takao" for Tokyo,
"day trip to Nara" and "kiyomizu-dera" for Kyoto, and
"Rebun island" and "Akan National Park" - specifically Lakes Kussharo and Mashu - for Sapporo.

Those come from travel guides and talking to people who've been there, although I'm still a little hazy on how to visit Akan National Park (that's the one I picked out myself from the guide) so if anyone could fill me in that'd be great.

Also I was told I need to visit an izakaya and an onsen.

So if you know of anywhere else I should go near on in one of the cities I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks very much, and sorry for making a new thread for something that's probably been asked in a slightly different way a hundred times!

Andrew

Izakaya are everywhere and won't require any planning. Onsen will require some research; it depends on what kind you want to go to and where. There's obviously a ton of things that you can and should do during your visit, but it really depends on your priorities...


...That's an invitation to tell us the kind of things you'd like to see and do...

nice gaijin said:

...That's an invitation to tell us the kind of things you'd like to see and do...

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That's a hard question to answer... I want to see everything I can!! I want to see modern Japan, electronics districts, arcades, shops and so on, but also Japan's past, shines and temples. I want to see as much of Hokkaido as possible, since it's somewhere a bit different that most people don't go to, especially all the nature and scenery - but that's difficult because neither of us can drive. I'd also like to see any stunning nature and scenery on Honshu as well of course!!

I've got to go out for a bit... that's the best answer I can give without thinking about it longer! When I come back I'll try and write a better one!

Sounds like what you want is a travel guide

Go here,

I know you don't need a tour guide, but this does offer a few interesting places to go "off the beaten track" kind of thing.

Have a look

www.insidejapantours.com

Ewok85 said:

Sounds like what you want is a travel guide

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Well, sort of... it's just that when I said to my friends that I was going to Japan, they said "oh you've got to go to Nara, you've got to go to Mt. Takao... etc". I mean sure, all these things are in travel guides, but I want to hear from a real person where they think I should go specifically.

"Rebun island" and "Akan National Park" - specifically Lakes Kussharo and Mashu - for Sapporo.

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I think you are terribly confused about the geography here. Sapporo is a city on the island of Hokkaido. It is nowhere near Rebun or Akan. To get to either of those places, yes, you will have to come to Hokkaido, but Rebun is many hours to the north and a 2-hr ferry ride from Wakkanai. Akan is on the other side of Hokkaido, several hours away by train.

Those are very nice places to visit, but were you just thinking Hokkaido and wrote Sapporo by mistake? I hope so.

You could easily burn a week doing just those places, mostly because of the travel time involved on Hokkaido. If your plans fall through, or you have extra time, I'd suggest a couple more spots. You'd likely have time to visit only one of them, so judge according to your own interests.

1) Otaru, about 45 minutes north of Sapporo by train. There is a canal, glass craft shops, woodcraft shops, a glassblowing exhibition shop (where you can pay to take part if you like), and sushi street which is wall to wall sushi restaurants!

2) Lake Toya, where you can walk through a smoldering volcano next to the town itself. The volcano erupted in 2000 and covered the town in ash. Nearby, you can also visit a much older smoldering volcano if you like (and have the means), called Showa Shinzan. In any case, get a room at a hotel and enjoy the onsen inside.

3) Marukoma Onsen (or other onsens) on Lake Shikotsu would also be nice. MO is the most expensive one on the lake. Further around the lake edge is a cheaper one, and it is there that you can see summer fireworks at night.

4) Sapporo Beer Factory has a genghis khan (lamb) luncheon. Sapporo has a city bus tour. The huge Odori Park has events sometimes (flower show and beer garden in summer).

5) Noboribetsu to the south of Sapporo has a huge sulfur pit. Avoid the bear park there.

6) Hakodate is famous for its night view from Mt. Hakodate and for its seafood.

7) Matsumae has the island's only castle (rebuilt), and although this is nice enough, you can see better elsewhere. The best time to visit Matsumae is spring anyway for the plethora of cherry blossoms.

8) Furano has huge fields of lavender which peak in late July.

Also, what time of year were you planning to visit?

From a tourist standpoint, Nara is good for going to Todaiji and Shika Kouen, or Houryuuji, and not too much else. I've been there a few times and Unfortunately I just haven't had any other experiences there. Mt. Takao is a great place for a nature hike, and you can see quite a bit from the summit.

Glenski said:

Those are very nice places to visit, but were you just thinking Hokkaido and wrote Sapporo by mistake? I hope so.

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Unfortunately not, lol. We are staying in Sapporo. Maybe it wasn't the best of ideas... but but since we have never been to Japan before, we thought we'd play it safe and stay in the capital of the island - where they'll speak some English! We planned to branch out from Sapporo and try to visit those places on day trips, is it inconceivable to do? We don't mind long train journeys so long as we can make it there, spend some time, and get back in a day!

As for the time of year, actually we're leaving on Tuesday! (2 days time!) The dates are 19th June ~ 11th July. I know it's not the best possible time to go, however we are both at University and summer is the only holiday long enough to make it worthwhile.

Thanks for all the replies!

Andy

aceizace said:

Unfortunately not, lol. We are staying in Sapporo. Maybe it wasn't the best of ideas... but but since we have never been to Japan before, we thought we'd play it safe and stay in the capital of the island - where they'll speak some English! We planned to branch out from Sapporo and try to visit those places on day trips, is it inconceivable to do? We don't mind long train journeys so long as we can make it there, spend some time, and get back in a day!
As for the time of year, actually we're leaving on Tuesday! (2 days time!)

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OH, great. Zero advance notice. Rhetorical question: how can you have gotten this far in "planning"... ? No, never mind. Don't answer that.
To answer your question, no it is not conceivable to visit Akan or Rebun on a day trip and return to Sapporo. There's no reason to base yourself in Sapporo (except for the Otaru side trip). Go and stay at those other places and experience Japan! Make horrible language mistakes, get lost, order the wrong food, find people who spend 15 minutes telling you the way to McDonalds even when it is just around the corner, etc. Have a blast without the comfort zone of needing English. Many Japanese will be happy to help if you show the least bit of attempt at using Japanese, and certainly if you are courteous. They study it for 6 years in secondary schools, and even though their spoken ability is very poor, they can hear better than they can speak, and they can read and write better than hear/speak. Enjoy such an idiosyncrasy. Pack a phrase book and dictionary and have fun.

Glenski said:

OH, great. Zero advance notice. Rhetorical question: how can you have gotten this far in "planning"... ? No, never mind. Don't answer that.

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Well, I couldn't answer that question even if I wanted to... otherwise it wouldn't be rhetorical... ;-)

But give me some credit, yeah you got zero advance notice, but I'm not asking you to plan my trip, just for some recommendations on where to go, and some info about Hokkaido which is scarce in English on the web. This is my first time travelling without family or school anywhere, let alone a foreign country and let alone one that's pretty damn far away. So we decided to go for the hotel in the city, which is at least a bit of familiar ground.

And don't worry, I'm not planning on just trying to speak English all the time, I've been trying to learn Japanese for a while, and while I'm not amazing I'm hoping the trip will improve that! I'm certain we'll do all those things, getting lost and so on, just perhaps with a slightly higher safety net!

But thanks for answering my question, if it is inconceivable to go to Akan or Rebun from Sapporo, then maybe we'll go there and stay overnight anyway? We'll lose a night or two in the hotel, but who cares, we'd be exploring Japan right? And since I plan on taking a lot of stuff back to England with me, to be honest I'd rather base myself in one city so I don't have to carry my bags across the island!

So new question, is it possible to go up there on the day and find somewhere to stay the night without having to book in advance? Thanks!

Sorry it's short notice, but there is two weeks until we're in Hokkaido, I mean I'll still have access to this forum in Tokyo and Kyoto.

Well, you got tons of recommendations now on Hokkaido. Stop in at the information center at the main train station there for more (in English, too). By the way, there is TONS of English info on Hokkaido. Just look below for starters.

Yes, you can go to those places without reserving a hotel in advance. If possible, try to reserve, but you don't always have to. I traveled around Honshu and Shikoku for 3 weeks and only reserved a place 4 times (festival days). Otherwise, I called the night before or the day I arrived.

Next question is, how do you plan to travel? Train or rental car? I'd suggest train.

How to get to Akan?
Start here.
Hokkaido
Take the link to Akan. It has meager directions (meaning, only from a couple of hours away) but all in English.
This also has similar info.
Akan National Park - Wikitravel

Here is the Hokkaido JR homepage (English).
http://www2.jrhokkaido.co.jp/global/index.html
and the timetable from Sapporo to Kushiro (near Akan by a couple hours).
http://www2.jrhokkaido.co.jp/global/english/ttable/e5.html
and the timetable from Sapporo to Wakkanai.
http://www2.jrhokkaido.co.jp/global/english/ttable/e3.html

Another English web page on travel in Hokkaido.
http://www.visit-hokkaido.jp/en/

Ferry and plane info to Rebun Island or Rishiri Island.
By Ferry: 1hr 40 min by Higashi Nihonkai Ferry from Wakkanai Port to Oshidomari Port (Rishiri) or
1hr 55min by Higashi Nihonkai Ferry from Wakkanai Port to Kabuka Port (Rebun)
By Plane: 20 min by plane from Wakkanai Airport to Rishiri Airport or 25 min by plane from Wakkanai Airport to Rebun Airport
http://www.outdoorjapan.com/areaguides/aghokkaido4.html
More info.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6878.html

If you do choose to rent a car, you'll probably need an international driver's permit. Probably too late at this stage to get one, though.

Thanks for the info. Okay, I was being too extreme when I said there isn't much information on Hokkaido in English, in fact one of the sites you've linked me to (japan-guide.com) I used a lot when looking stuff up for this trip.

I'm glad you suggest train, because that's what we'll be using. Simply because neither of us have passed our British driving test.

Thanks very much for the travel links, I'll be sure to use them. I didn't actually realise you could take a plane to Rebun, the japan-guide page says that you can get a flight from Sapporo to Rishiri, but that looks pretty expensive, something worth investigating anyway.

I know a Japanese man who back in the 70s or early 80s (in his youth) took a couple of trips, each of two or three weeks duration. One was to India, I think, and the other was to Turkey.

He had what I thought a very wise and unique approach to it. Rather than taking the typical broad-and-shallow tourist approach, he took the narrow-and-deep.

By that, I mean rather than trying to visit an extensive number of tourist sites at a somewhat whirlwind pace, coming away with little more than a few photos, vague memories, and the ability to say "I've been to XX", he decided to make the entire stay in some randomly selected neighborhood, based upon whatever was around whatever tiny local hotel he got a room in. He went without reservations and without plans. He spent all his time thoroughly examining whatever was within walking/hiking distance of his small hotel. The locals took him under their wing and he had an absolutely grand time.

Just something to think about.

It would be a nice thing to visit Kobe for a day, see the Earthquake museum, visit a Sake museum (and try some), walk around in the harbor, see the beautiful view from Mt. Rokko, which is one of the best 3 night city view in Japan.

www.kobecityinfo.com or www.feelkobe.com for more information.

I just got back from a trip to Japan and I cannot stress this enough, try and get a pen pal by where you are going. I got a pen pal in Kyoto and Tokyo, and they were amazing to me, showed me around took me to Karaoke with there friends, bought me dinner. On top of that I now have two really good friends in Japan.

So if you have the time, try and get a pen pal, it really payed off for me.

In order to complement your visit to the Meiji Shrine (Meijijingu), I recommend a visit to Sensoji (Asakusa Kannon Temple: Sensoji Temple). The latter is somewhat "touristy", but the temple is still popular with the Japanese and going to both will enable you to experience both of the major religions in Japan.

Something I do not recommend is going up to the observation platforms of high buildings such as Tokyo Tower or the Sunshine 60 Building, unless it is a very clear day. On hazy or cloudy days, the view will be disappointing.

Takao-san will be a good side-trip from Tokyo, but I recommend going with a Japanese person or two to help you "navigate".

If you have any interest in the theatre, I would recommend seeing some kabuki.