Misao's Trip To Japan (as of Feb, 2002)

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- Overall Trip to Japan

- Tips for Travelling and Shopping in Japan

- Current Anime Screening in Japan

Overall Trip to Japan

Well..... I spent 3 weeks in Japan so there's quite a lot to talk about it but I'll try to condense it as much as possible :)

Firstly, I spent the first week on a tour for about 6 days, so I visited places around Tokyo like Asakusa, Tokyo Tower, Akihabara district and Ginza. I really recommend going to Asakusa to shop for souvenirs and presents for family and friends and stuff because there's one road in Asakusa which is packed full of hundreds of shops and you can shop to your heart's content.

Tokyo, of course, was as busy as most people think it is. Everywhere you walk you see men in suits walking around and the streets are jam packed with people. Over here in Australia, you usually have to press a button to cross the road, however in Tokyo, and most places in Japan, you just hafta wait for the guy to turn green and just walk. The thing is the light lasts for almost as long as the traffic light so any car that wants to turn into the street you're walking across is gonna have a hell of a time trying to get through :P. So I kinda decided that Japanese drivers were really SCARY and dangerous drivers! Hey.... I almost got run over crossing the street, not to mention the streets are really small.... and who ever pays attention to the lines on the street? The Japanese drivers tended to drive in the middle of the street which had two lanes or something silly... but hey, it was funny :)

Next stop was Mt Fuji and Hakone. Mt Fuji as always looked picture perfect and it was freezing. I hadn't seen snow but that day, I saw snow because it was snowing in Hakone on the lake cruise that I took and on the way up in the cable car. Yes... I even took a photo of snow.... I drew a smiley face in it! HAHAHAHA...

Next place I went to was Kyoto. Kyoto's a place full of the "old Japan" so you would see lots of temples, shrines and stuff when you travelled through Kyoto. The gardens in the castles were really beautiful and if you ever get to Kyoto on a holiday, I recommend taking the Sunrise Tours 1-Day Tour which takes you to the main attractions in Kyoto and provides for lunch. That tour ended at the Kyoto Handicraft Centre, which was a place perfect to snap up souvenirs such as kimonos, yukatas, and swords. And yes, I bought a sword. Not a katana, but a shorter sword and it was blunt so I could take it back into the country. That was around $50.

I also went to Nara and saw the huge Buddha there and went to the deer park where I fed the deers with these biscuits and then the deers starting biting me cause they were greedy -_- I had a bruise on me leg from it.... STUPID DEERS.... so... the moral to THAT story is, don't buy the deer biscuits and feed them :P

That was the end of my tour, and the next two weeks I spent with my friends or by myself. A trip to Osaka proved very worthwhile with me buying a digital camera and saving about $900. *whoo hoo* I also met up with a few of my friends in Osaka and we went to Universal Studios! Universal Studios is like the one in America, but I hadn't been to the one in America for like 10 years so it was all new to me again :P The Jurassic Park ride had this 25m drop where the car ur in drops into water.... everyone had to wear a raincoat which meant you had to purchase it for 200 yen or, if you were prepared, like some school kids, bring your own! Rides I recommend are Jurassic Park and Back to the Future. Of course, everything is spoken in Japanese not English so if you don't understand Japanese, it'll be a little bit hard to understand the jokes. Luckily I could so when the girl in charge of the Terminator ride picked on a high school guy right behind me, the entire room started laughing at the comments she was making. Very funny ^^v. Osaka is also the place to go if you want really cheap clothing. There's tons of stores under and around the main train station which sells second hand clothing in good condition... you can pick up a nice thick jacket worth about $120 over here for like $50.

Back to Tokyo again and this time it was Tokyo Disneyland Sea. It's quite similar to the regular Disneyland except that the theme in this park was water, therefore the shows they had had jet ski's, boats, etc... and it was very interesting! There are, of course, lots of shops which are full of people every hour of the day which means if you wanna buy something, be prepared to line up at the cash register for about 20 mins. If you get there early enough, get yourself a fast pass at the rides you want to go to. All you do is go up to the fast pass line, insert your ticket, and grab the fast pass. That means that in the time interval stated on your pass, you can go to the ride without having to line up like the rest of the people. Popular rides such as Indiana Jones and Journey to the Centre of the Earth had such passes but you had to get there early to get them, or else you had to line up like everyone else.

The last week I spent going around Japan by myself. You can get by in English in the places I went to, Nikko, Okayama and Hiroshima. Of course, if you know some Japanese that really helps a lot. I didn't like Nikko much... it was freezing cold (-4 degrees) and I had to walk 1.5km uphill carrying my luggage to the shrine area so yea :P Okayama was an ok place, the main attraction there was the Korakuen Garden which is considered one of the three best gardens in Japan and the Okayama Castle. Oh yea, and when I walked down the main street there, in the space of 1 min, I was handed 3 packets of tissues :P Hiroshima was a really nice and friendly place to be in. People are very helpful and the Peace Park is a must for people who visit Hiroshima.

So.... my overall trip was very fun! If you ever decide to go there or have lotsa money, spend it in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. :)

Prices for entering Universal Studios and Tokyo Disneyland Sea: 5 500 yen (approx. $80). You can't get a student discount here, only at Tokyo Disneyland.

As for the price of my trip, that was about $7000. $4000 was basically my tour for the first week including accomodation, breakfast, return air fare, and some lunches. The rest was buying stuff, food, transportation and accomodation for my last week in Japan.

Tips for Travelling and Shopping in Japan

Number 1:Travel light

Depending on how long you go for, just pack the least amount as possible.. especially if you plan on going around by yourself, you don't want to be carrying your luggage everywhere on trains and stuff.

Number 2: Invest in a Japan Rail Pass

Travelling in Japan is majorly expensive but only invest in a Japan Rail Pass if you plan to travel around Japan by public transport. You can grab an exchange form at your travel agent over here and then exchange it at the airport for your Pass. The Pass lets you travel on the Shinkansen (except the Nozomi super express) and all JR local trains and buses as many times as you like for the space of 7, 14 or 21 days. The price for the 7 day pass was $450 and that was GREAT considering the last week I travelled everywhere and I think I probably saved myself $400 by having that pass. An example of how expensive travelling was would be the cost of my trip to Osaka from Tokyo by the Nozomi. It cost $450 return O_o That's the cost of my JR Pass!

Also... you'll get a brochure from your travel agent over here when you get your exchange form. You'll find that there are some hotels throughout Japan that offer discounts to JR pass holders.

Number 3: Read up a little about Japan before you go

Knowing a little about the place really helps to get you around when you get there. If you plan on travelling on local trains or subways, be sure to know how to use the system :P Even though Japanese people are always friendly and ready to help, you might not always be able to find it. If you have a non-asian appearance, it'll be easy for you but I'm asian and therefore everyone thought I was Japanese ^^;;;; Anyway, go to one of the ticket machines and look up to see how much it is to get to your destination. Insert the money into the machine and press the price of how much it costs. Your ticket will come out then. Also, if you don't know the price, pay the lowest price and then when you get to your station, pay the rest of it in a special machine.

If you know your numbers, that'll be good too because when you shop, you may need it even though most shops display it anyway. Always remember a 5% consumption tax will always be added to the price that the product is... not like the GST over here where it's already included in the price.

Number 4: If you're a student, bring a student card

Some places, like Tokyo Disneyland (not Sea) will give you a student discount if you show your card. Also, I went to Osaka Tower and I was able to get a discount with my Uni card. Although it's good to have the International Student Card (you can get it at ur uni travel agent), you'll find that your normal uni student card would do the trick :P Of course, you can always try to get a knock down in price, but if you try it in Tokyo, there's basically no point apart from in Akihabara. Go to Osaka and a polite request will get you the product with no tax included at most stores :)

Number 5: Know what's expensive and what is cheap

I'll tell you now what are expensive and what is cheap :P Bringing a calculator always helps. I fully had my calculator doing calculations all the time :)

Expensive things are designer clothes (dur... but it's like totally HIGH over there), transport, some CD's, jewellery and accessories and phone calls.

Cheap stuff, which I mean is cheaper than here, are clothes which aren't designer clothes, shoes, anime (of course) and suprisingly, electronic goods. If you go to Akihabara, you can get maybe 20% knocked off the price. I was comparing prices with Australia and as I said before, I bought a digital camera, just new in Australia and supposedly new in Japan as well for $850 and that included a 32mb memory stick which I bought as well. The same camera over here is $1 700. Without the discount, the price comes to about $1 000 including tax. I was lucky since I had my Japanese friends with me and I was in Osaka :P My camera happened to be the last one, which was the display item, so I got 20% knocked off as well as tax.

Anime items will always be cheaper than overseas. Manga's will cost from $6+ instead of the $12+ over here for new ones. There's a chain of stores in Japan called Book Off, they sell 2nd hand manga for as little as a little over $1. These manga are in basically perfect condition anyway! So, I bought Rurouni Kenshin 2nd hand. Unfortunately for me, Inuyasha was too new and I had all the manga they had so I had to buy the new manga from an ordinary book shop. Artbooks, depending on what it is, is also cheap. I bought the Inuyasha Art Works for about $20 compared to the $65 I saw quoted over here. Pencil boards are $6 and posters are about $10. But the posters are absolutely HUGE!!!!!! There are also playstation games, the new Inuyasha playstation 2 game was around $94 but that included a whole heap of stuff as well. When purchasing videos, just remember to check if you have an NTSC player at home :)

Oh, another thing about Book Off, the amount of manga they have is enough to blow your mind so make sure you know what you want, have it written in Japanese, and just ask one of the chirpy assistants and they'll direct you to where you wanna go. Book Off also sell 2nd hand CD's and piano music and maps and other books so it's THE place to go for book buying ^^v

The other thing that can range from being cheap to expensive is food :) If you're on a tight budget but wanna experience some authentic Japanese food, there are restaurants on the top floor of department stores which have food at reasonable prices. You can also look around at ramen and soba/udon shops, they are usually quite cheap. Also just have a look down any street and you'll see lots of smaller restaurants. Food is displayed as plastic models and the prices are displayed as well. Normal prices range from 200 yen (for the normal soba, just plain) to 1500 yen. Of course there are some which are more expensive but expect 650 - 950 yen to be a reasonable price for lunch and dinner. That's about $10-$15. Of course, if you're THAT stingy, you can try and be like a real Japanese and just go to the closest convenience store and buy a lil bento box or tray of Jap food for about 450 yen.

Another tip, don't buy food on the shinkansen unless you're REALLY hungry. Their food is a major rip off... make sure you buy something to eat at the train station or convenience store before you hop onto the train.

Current Anime in Japan

There's a hell of a lot of anime screening in Japan. Anime screens at approx. 7pm for 1 hour 5 days of the week. TV Tokyo is the channel to look at when you wanna watch anime, but there is also BS1 so depending on your type of anime, you're gonna hafta choose which one to watch :P

Inuyasha movie has finished in Japan but the TV series is still going. Apparently there's a rumour Inuyasha will finish at ep 60 but the thing is, the anime follows the manga very accurately and if it keeps doing that, there's a long way to go. The latest volume is 24, and the current TV ep is in volume 19 so...

Yu-Gi-Oh is also screening as well as Hikaru no Go, Doraemon, Pokemon (they have a lil bit at the end where they teach english and use the American diub), Hamatarou (it's SOOO cute), some anime LiLi or something like that which so reminds me of Fushigi Yuugi I was like "!!!!!!!". Anyway, that anime has the main chick having her hair similar to Miaka not to mention wear the same "suzaku" outfit, and the guy who loves her looks like Tamahome, it's a like a mixture of FY and Sailormoon. Nadia is being shown as well as Detective Conan. Shaman King, The Prince of Tennis, some anime about this wrestler who has a big mouth, and lots more are being shown as well.

Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" is a big hit in the cinema's. Some of my friends really want to see it. Sounds very interesting. Hikaru no Go is also becoming quite popular in Japan and the Prince of Tennis as well.

For Love Hina fans, I saw I lot of the manga going around.... but I'm not sure if it's a new manga or not. Saw some mentions of OAV's and stuff but I'm not 100% sure about it. It's still popular in the anime shops with lotsa merchandise for it... not to mention Inital D as well.

And if you're looking for Megami Kohousei (Candidate for Goddess), you're gonna be in for a HELL of a time looking for the manga. -_- I ended up not finding the manga until I got to Hiroshima which was at the end of my stay :P The anime store in Tokyo was completely sold out of it not to mention none of the thousands of book stores I went to had it either!

For regular Japanese dramas, most of them suck :P There are a few which are interesting and funny. Most of the popular dramas star famous Japanese singers. Examples include dramas who have the main lead actor being a member of TOKIO, gropus members of Arashi, or Shingo from SMAP. SMAP also have their own TV show which is hilariously funny and V6 also have a TV show which is guaranteed to make you laugh even if you don't understand the language. THE movie to watch at the moment in Japan would have to be "Seoul" which stars the lead guitarist from TOKIO. It's an action film and looks really interesting... I wanted to see it but had no time... plus movie tickets are about $30 ^^:;

That's it for my blab on Japan. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Ja na!

Misao