So I'm going to Japan....

nitzmoff

I'm leaving for Japan for a couple of weeks at the end of this week. I plan on seeing all I can, mostly the stuff pointed out in my LP travel guide, but is there anything else I may miss? Any secret awesomeness any of you might recommend I make time to see?

adam

Go see Hawken King, he's pretty awesome. And secretive!

Maddness

sweet! i've wanted to go there for years now. one day i'm going to go on vacation as well. i hope you enjoy the hell out of it!

bring back good stuff!

gauss

The inside of Hawken's apartment, not to be missed.

Seriously though... if you got the time, spending a night in a capsule hotel is a great experience and is cheap.
Go to a sento/onsen regularly (your travel guide will let you know about the very simple basics that are entailed).
Eat all the Japanese food you can, because the basic truth is that you won't be able to enjoy it once you come back to America. Well, that's not quite true, since you live in the Bay area you'll still be able to scare up some half decent sushi... but even that won't taste as good. You'll dream of the steaming fresh bowls of ramen you eat in Japan after your trip.
Akihabara and the other classic sights in Tokyo are a must, at least for most geeks, but that shouldn't be the focus of your trip. Really, so long as you take the time to enjoy the culture and the people, it'll be a very memorable trip.

Maddness

and when he says people, he means the japanese whores that will barely even touch you, because you're a foreigner and they think you have AIDS.

JKMakowka

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and when he says people, he means the japanese whores that will barely even touch you, because you're a foreigner and they think you have AIDS.

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lol... that is almost the opposite of how it is in many places in Africa, where you are born rich and with immunity to AIDS if you are white... or something like that.
Ahh well... actually it is not funny at all

Maddness

AIDS isn't funny, it's the situation that's funny.

vahl

if you like temples, Kyoto is quite awesome, I loved Nara too, in tokyo I was around ginza, which was quite cool at night, wanted to go to shibuya but my dad was tired so we didn't go there also wanted to tell MrKing I was coming but had no time for that (that was 2 months ago)

I have the list of all the temples I visited in kyoto/nara, I'll write it down if I can manage to find it (and if you're interested) I also went to an awesome restaurant in kyoto but forgot the name .

I never had any concern about the food that was always very good to awesome and quite cheap most the time, we were just wandering around and trying random restaurants every night, never had any bad surprise.

Striff

Ive never been but a couple of my friends have gone about 3 times in the past couple years.

What they like best is going on hikes on Mt. Fuji and other parks, especially the ones in northern Japan. Judging from the pics...it looks bad ass. Something I defiantly plan to do in the next couple years.

pliang

My mom had her vacation planned for Japan a while back but had to cancel it for business reasons...anyways definitely do the above especially the food, nothing tastes better home based.

I only heard about it and never went there before so I cant add on much.

hawken

alas I am now employed full time, so no more lounging with the Gauss in izakayas or watching him get progressively more wasted at 4am in random bars.

Although if you do come to Tokyo, I can advise you to get a mobile phone at narita airport and call me. A phone that works...

There are no public phones in this blasted country.

fuji is worth the climb, but you're out of season.

nitzmoff

Cool, thanks guys.

I'll be staying in Kyoto for about 4 days and then heading to Tokyo for about a week and a half or so.


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Although if you do come to Tokyo, I can advise you to get a mobile phone at narita airport and call me. A phone that works...



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I definitely plan on getting a phone of some kind from the airport (the one in Osaka when I get there). If you you'd like, send me your number to nitzmoff at gmail dot com and we'll try to meet up. I'll have nothing but time to kill.

Maddness

man i want to go so bad. Hopefully once I finally get the job I've been working for, and have time to relax, the wife and I can go there for a honeymoon or something.

Sushi is by far our favorite food to eat. So going there would be a real treat.

ebagg

So whats the budget for your trip? Sometime I'd like to go and was wondering how expensive the trip is.

almighty_gir

things to stay away from in Tokyo:

Hawken
cheap takenyaki bars
anywhere that looks like it's from a bad japanese live action movie
godzilla.

i loved Japan last year (went for my birthday). i had real trouble with large parts of the language, but i had a good translator who helped me expand my knowledge greatly. if i could, i'd move there tomorrow.

praetus

If you're into the sento bathhouse thing there is a place in Osaka called Spa World. I highly reccomend it to relax but if you go expect to be there for some time. Also, you'd better be comfortable being naked and/or around other naked people.

hawken

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If you you'd like, send me your number to nitzmoff at gmail dot com and we'll try to meet up.

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numbers on my website dude

Although they are right you know... me and Gauss spent most of the time with naked men