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[violence]

I’m in Tokyo on vacation right now. I caught a horrible flu but it’s ok. The food is amazing. Even the 7-Eleven food is better than most restaurants. It makes me angry that America will cut corners for max profit.

Last night in Akihabara, I was even thinking of going to a maid café and getting a lap dance. Although that may not be what they’re for... I was a little surprised by all the girls handing out flyers. There was a new one every five steps. Cause it was Friday?

Regardless, I think everybody should visit here. It’s not just nerd Mecca.

 

[belmarduk]

Akihabara

Visitor guide for Akihabara, the electric town in Tokyo.

www.japan-guide.com

Akihabra for gaming stuff. Probably not what it use to be in the early 2000s but I bet it is still fun.

For a first time visitor, Akihabara is amazing. Definitely a highlight of Tokyo, probably my favorite part.
Trader Akiba is probably the best store to suit OP followed by Super Potato.

 

[NikuNashi]

I live in Tokyo and can give you advice. Any questions just DM me.

 

[NahaNago]

I wasted my last visit to Japan last year and really didn't do much so my plan this time is to save a lot more money and to actually plan my trip out.

I’m in Tokyo on vacation right now. I caught a horrible flu but it’s ok. The food is amazing. Even the 7-Eleven food is better than most restaurants. It makes me angry that America will cut corners for max profit.

Last night in Akihabara, I was even thinking of going to a maid café and getting a lap dance. Although that may not be what they’re for... I was a little surprised by all the girls handing out flyers. There was a new one every five steps. Cause it was Friday?

Regardless, I think everybody should visit here. It’s not just nerd Mecca.

I went to I believe it was called maiddreamin cafe. It was okay, the girls even danced and sang some songs on stage a couple of times which was honestly the best part. So now I want to see an actual idol jpop performance live.

Have you visited the gundam statue?

 

[dickpretzel]

Osaka “akihabara” or Den Den town is bigger than Tokyo.

Nintendo world at USJ, u need reservation to go in, the watch to play cost 4.500 en.

If u wanna fuck go to tobita (u can choose the girl from the street like netherlands red light district )

Don’t come in may , is golden week , awful idea.

Wakayama have lot of ninja stuff.

Osaka also have gamer hotel “e-zone”


First time I came Japan was 14 years ago. travel all Japan from Hokkaido to Fukuoka , stopping in almost every city day to day, took me 3 months , alone with no “iPhones”, only map and compas . Imo u make a lot more friend traveling alone .

Highly disagree about golden week - if you come immediately after golden week ends, flight prices drop through the floor and no insane traffic either. In my case, normally 1,800 round trip was 600.

Also like someone mentioned, cannot recommend Bookoff enough. Avoid the ones in major areas, they mark everything up. Best ones are in smaller town where everything is cheap, and they usually carry more retro items.

Also, the major stores in Akihabara are mostly ripoffs. If anything, try to find hole in the wall, sketchy places - those are the most interesting. Also recommend going to a maid cafe once for the experience. Girl bars are trash.

 

[John Marston]

Trader Akiba is probably the best store to suit OP followed by Super Potato.

"Super Potato"

Yes I'm tired & going to bed.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Japan is great, although I'm not a big fan of Tokyo after living in Kyushu and coming to appreciate the quieter and more chillaxed side of the country.

There are some seriously stunning rural areas everywhere in Japan with so many beautiful places to hike and forests to appreciate. In Summer these places would be bug infested hellholes, but in late Autumn and Winter they were paradise lol.

 

[TwiztidElf]

I've spent 6 weeks in Japan as a tourist, 3 weeks in 2019, 3 weeks in 2023.
4 weeks in Tokyo, with numerous day trips from there.
1 week in Osaka. 1 week in Kyoto.

Once your flights and accommodation are sorted, next most important logistics to sort are:
Internet (pocket wifi or sim card), IC card (Suica/Passmo/etc - real or on phone), and a JR Rail pass (if you're doing that).
JR Rail pass opens up a lot of options and freedom if you're looking to travel a lot outside of triangle (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka)

Must do's IMO:
In Tokyo, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Asakusa/Senso-Ji, and Aki is a pilgrimage for us gamer/anime types I guess.
I really like Ikebukero also. It has bigger Pokemon and One Piece stores in Sunshine City than the ones in Shibuya. The Ikebukero Round1 arcade is excellent also (Round1 arcades are generally awesome everywhere, and the Mario coin pusher is mad fun).

Day trips from Tokyo. Might be pricey though without a JR rail pass.
Hakone loop. Owakudani is excellent. And if you're the right time of year (or lucky), superb views of Mt Fuji. The alternative to Hakone is going to Kawaguchi-ko and Chureito Pagoda which are also excellent (This is also where Fuji-Q is).
Nikko. The Toshogu shrine is superb and will ruin every other shrine/temple in Japan for you (although the Todai-Ji temple in Nara is still super impressive).
Mt Takao is the best mountain hike close to Tokyo.

In Kyoto, Fushimi Inari Taisha is amazing. As is the Kiyomizu-dera/Sannenzaka/Ninenzeka area. Kyoto is my favorite Japanese city. A really great vibe.
In Osaka, Dotonbori/Shinsaibashi area, Osaka Castle, Shinsekai, DenDen Town, and Universal Studios.

I could go on and on and on. It's an amazing place. Enjoy.
If I go back a third time, I'll be heading north to Sendai and Sapporo.
Make sure you get Ichiran ramen. And Sukiya is my favorite super cheap Beef Bowl place.

 

[pachura]

I really liked teamLab Planets on the Odaiba island in Tokyo: it's an art/visual/psychedelic experience with lights, water, music, flying flowers, virtual fish and more. Heck, even getting there by a fully automatic monorail felt like a futuristic ride straight from Wipeout!

 

[EviLore]

JR Rail pass opens up a lot of options and freedom if you're looking to travel a lot outside of triangle (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka)

They did a massive price increase on the JR Rail pass recently, no longer worth it in most cases.

 

[Tams]

They did a massive price increase on the JR Rail pass recently, no longer worth it in most cases.

It's still good value for money if you're doing some long distance journeys like Tokyo to Hakata. That'd be about 50,000 yen return alone.

The 21 day one is certainly much better value for money. That said, there's always expressway busses or flying...

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Make sure to visit Yasukuni Shrine near the Imperial palace

 

[Dr_Salt]

Go to Hey Arcade and Superpotato in Akihabara.

 

[belmarduk]

"Super Potato"

Yes I'm tired & going to bed.

Oh.
Super Potato is probably the best-known vintage video game store in Akihabara.. and possibly all of Japan. I'm pretty sure it would be of interest to most Gaffers. Just... the ground floor is a ham radio store and the sign isn't in English.. so I was going to the place across the street which sells some old games but more general nerd merchandise thinking it was Super Potato.

 

[Durien]

These days I am going to process through my work the days that I will have on vacation, depending on what they tell me, I will make my trip to Japan, it will probably be approximately 10 to 13 days.... It will be the first time that I will travel, so I am very excited, the bad thing is that I will go alone... So what tips can you give me?

I was thinking of hiring a travel agent to plan the trip and not be alone.... I want to go to Disney Sea or Disney Tokyo, Nintendo World, Ghibli Museum, take photos at the Gundam statue, see the bullet train.

If there are more tourist sites more oriented towards Gamers and it could also be anime... Or museums focused on Samurai or Ninjas, am I available or what advice can you give me?

I pray that my trip can be made in the month of May or June... Otherwise it would be a little later, like August to November.

So August will probably be crazy hot and humid. I went at the end of June to middle of August and it was in the 90s every day. If you want to see something ninja-ish. Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea are super close to each other. You take the train to that stop.

Use this site to figure out how you want to get around. You just need to know your start and end station.

https://roote.ekispert.net/

If you look up places you want to go for touristy places, they usually list the end station to get off at. As far as looking at a bullet train, you can usually see these at major stations. I believe Shinyokohama is the place usually take the bullet train from. But it also depends on where you are staying. I have family near Yokohama.

Look up youtube:
Visitor Suika and passmo cards
How to get around japan
First trip to Japan things to see.

Those can be a really big help because then you can look up online how to get to those places or maybe you find they look cool but are not really what you want to do.

I would recommend going to Kyoto where they have a lot of different things. Stay next to Nishiki Market. From there you can take local train, subway or bus and get around to see the tons of temples and stuff. Spend a couple of days, go see Mizudera, the monkeys, (bamboo forest is over rated). Also if I remember right, Kyoto is pretty close to other places. Osaka is "close" and Himeji castle is a little bit further west.

One of my favorite places to go is Hidatakayama. However this place a lone is maybe a day or 2 alone because it is pretty "out of the way".

I really like sake so my wife and I looked up breweries to see depending on where we went. Now that we have kids we haven't done this over our last trips.

Ghibli museum is a couple of hours kind of thing but I can't remember where it is at.

Google translate works REALLY well if you are off by yourself and don't understand the language. If my wife wasn't with me, I would just tell them, in japanese, excuse me,, my Japanese is not that good, one moment please, type it on the device, then show it to them. It worked awesome.

I'll try to think of other things but use youtube for now

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I think I'm closer to going... I already want to go on the next vacation. Has anyone already been able to go?

 

[Blade2.0]

Don't do it. You'll never want to go home.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I had a dream and also recent days that I was already in Japan... One day soon I will be able to do it. And it will be soon.

 

[NahaNago]

I think I'm closer to going... I already want to go on the next vacation. Has anyone already been able to go?

god bleep it! I just convinced myself recently I wasn't going to go and now this thread has me looking at how much it would cost to go next month and it is the cheapest I've seen ever!!!

 

[clarky]

I think I'm closer to going... I already want to go on the next vacation. Has anyone already been able to go?

Fuck sake thought you'd been and were reporting back. Shit bump.

Fuck off and just go, its awesome.

 

[Vyse]

I had a dream and also recent days that I was already in Japan... One day soon I will be able to do it. And it will be soon.

I went last month and had a blast. We did Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. A trip I will never forget. It was actually much easier to get around than I thought. Great travel tips from my friends at GAF.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Literally flying there on Sunday. lol.

 

[AJUMP23]

Literally flying there on Sunday. lol.

Don't get too tired. And follow social norms.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Has anyone already been able to go?

Nobody ever went to Japan, you will be first. Please report back on the Shogun.

 

[Azelover]

Congrats

If you don't speak japanese and you have enough money, it will save you a lot of headache to get a travel agent. There are places that use a lot of Kanji. And you often find yourself surrounded by people that don't speak English.

Good luck mate! Enjoy

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Fuck sake thought you'd been and were reporting back. Shit bump.

Fuck off and just go, its awesome.

Buy a new car. Which was already necessary in September... I can also go, but I prefer to save more money.

 

[clarky]

Buy a new car. Which was already necessary in September... I can also go, but I prefer to save more money.

Please report back when you do eventually go, my first time in Tokyo blew my mind. You'll love it.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Friends, I took the initiative, I will schedule my vacation today.

What month is a good season to go, if there are special days in japan or where it is a good season. Right now I'm going to Japan. In a few months

 

[V1LÆM]

i've always wanted to go to tokyo but never seriously planned it. i'm slowly ticking places off my list. tokyo is probably a 2026 goal for me. i can't speak a lick of japanese. my only experience are japanese pokemon games/cards and playing jrpgs. so not that great.

Literally flying there on Sunday. lol.

i'm figuratively flying there next tuesday.

 

[clarky]

Friends, I took the initiative, I will schedule my vacation today.

What month is a good season to go, if there are special days in japan or where it is a good season. Right now I'm going to Japan. In a few months

Could always go in cherry blossom season March April ish time if you are going to Tokyo.

Check Sumo dates also if thats your thing.

I have a Cherry Blossom planted in my garden to remind me of good times

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Friends, if there are dates after March 16, I would appreciate it... Since on that day I am going to meet the actress Linda Hamilton.

To autograph the Terminator resistance game

 

[Von Hugh]

OP going to Japan:

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Could always go in cherry blossom season March April ish time if you are going to Tokyo.

Check Sumo dates also if thats your thing.

I have a Cherry Blossom planted in my garden to remind me of good times

Great im gonna take this photos.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Now, my next vacation will be from April 5 to April 20.

I'm going to an agency these days, I don't feel safe going alone. or would it be the best?

 

[Mistake]

Now, my next vacation will be from April 5 to April 20.

I'm going to an agency these days, I don't feel safe going alone. or would it be the best?

More so depends on the country. With Japan you don't need it. Plan a route out yourself with a j-rail pass and you can see most of japan for cheap. Actually most asian countries have trains or subway, so it's not difficult. And once you're in asia, planes from country to country are cheap too.

 

[DeafTourette]

I'm happy for you!

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

In fact, it is already an 80% possibility, it is already concrete. Contact some travel tours, it will be the first time... And in an unknown country. I will be more focused on anime and video games.

 

[DeafTourette]

In fact, it is already an 80% possibility, it is already concrete. Contact some travel tours, it will be the first time... And in an unknown country. I will be more focused on anime and video games.

I've never traveled out of the country before I'd suggest looking up a personal tour guide? If that's a thing.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Akihabara is trash btw. Nakano Broadway is better. If you only enjoy entry level fiction Akihabara is good.

 

[DeafTourette]

Heimdall_Xtreme ... When you get there next year, please share with us some of your pictures of Japan?

 

[DKehoe]

In fact, it is already an 80% possibility, it is already concrete. Contact some travel tours, it will be the first time... And in an unknown country. I will be more focused on anime and video games.

So you are thinking you will use a tour company? They plan out the trip for you to make sure you are visiting a bunch of interesting locations and take care of the logistics of getting between them. So that can be good if it's somewhere you haven't been before and you haven't done a lot of travelling before.

Someone I know used Intrepid for one in India a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. They do locations all over the world including Japan. They have a few different levels of tour depending on how much you are looking to spend.

I think their itineraries tend to be more general. So if you have a more specific interest, like gaming, you could always bookend the tour with some days to yourself to visit places to do with that.

Obviously you don't have to use that company. I'm sure there will be others doing similar things. So you could have a look around and see what suits you. I just thought I'd recommend them since I know a few people who have used them and really enjoyed their trips.

 

[Tams]

So you are thinking you will use a tour company? They plan out the trip for you to make sure you are visiting a bunch of interesting locations and take care of the logistics of getting between them. So that can be good if it's somewhere you haven't been before and you haven't done a lot of travelling before.

Someone I know used Intrepid for one in India a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. They do locations all over the world including Japan. They have a few different levels of tour depending on how much you are looking to spend.

I think their itineraries tend to be more general. So if you have a more specific interest, like gaming, you could always bookend the tour with some days to yourself to visit places to do with that.

Obviously you don't have to use that company. I'm sure there will be others doing similar things. So you could have a look around and see what suits you. I just thought I'd recommend them since I know a few people who have used them and really enjoyed their trips.

You do pay for using an agent.

Generally, the poorer the country, the better value a travel agent will be, and it'll likely be more enjoyable (mostly because when things go bad in poor countries, they can go really bad).

So somewhere like India is a good place to go with a travel agent (not that I'd recommend it at all, tbh). I used an agent for most of my trip to Vietnam and it went great.

For somewhere like Japan though... if you have any organisational skills, do it yourself. Maybe for a few days to more remote areas using an agent then might be easier.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Heimdall_Xtreme ... When you get there next year, please share with us some of your pictures of Japan?

Awww.

Of course.

Im going to Hunt videogames rares and gems... And enjoy Japanese culture.

 

[UnrealEck]

It's one of the places I'm interested in going to but I cringe at the kawaii culture. I mean the women who act very childish. It's a full on culture clash to the face.
I'm not into anime either.

But the general culture, history and how different it is from a lot of other places makes it so interesting.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

0:36 ya vi gouuu

I'm going to ask luck that I can enter this area.

 

[Halo is Back]

Definitely take a visit to the Godzilla Hotel. Well, that's on my bucket list for a trip to Japan anyway

 

[The Pleasure]

Defiantly take a visit to the Godzilla Hotel. Well, that's on my bucket list for a trip to Japan anyway

Fuck. My mother in law is looking for me.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I'm going to make my reservations in these 2 weeks. Question.... I will go to Narita, but the plane flight from Mexico City to Narita.... Now, here the travel agencies in Mexico are special.... My question is, if I buy the flight with a hotel in Tokyo, can I travel to Osaka on the JR Pass? Or would it take a long time?

 

[Tams]

I'm going to make my reservations in these 2 weeks. Question.... I will go to Narita, but the plane flight from Mexico City to Narita.... Now, here the travel agencies in Mexico are special.... My question is, if I buy the flight with a hotel in Tokyo, can I travel to Osaka on the JR Pass? Or would it take a long time?

Yes, of course.

With the JR Pass you'll only be able to use the Kodama and Hikari shinkansen services (not the very limited stop Nozomi - for that you'll have to pay extra), but that'll still only take 3-4 hours.