spunge411

Well we made it back from a magical 10 day trip to Japan!!! Stayed a 2 days in Kobe, 3 days in Kyoto and 5 days in Tokyo.

Kobe was amazing. We stayed with friends there. 2 kms, from the mountains to the sea. So many man made islands!!

The first thing we noticed were the Sakura’s all over the place. The was one street , not far from the zoo, that was like the lombards street of sakura’s.

Lots of vending machines and loads of people. The main shopping area in Kobe is Sannomiya .

If you’ve been to Buenos Aires, it’s the equivalent of Florida St. a giant shopping arcade Kilometers long! But the difference is the people. Tons of people, like an ocean. All impeccably dressed!!

This is also where we first noticed one of Japans best qualities. We let the kids go out …this has to be one of the safest places on Earth. The kids took the train, shopping, looking around, of coarse with a local kid, age 11,… I wasn’t once worried about their safety..
Yes they had a cell phone, and they did check in, but after touring the country, I found that this is a normal practice. I saw parents dropping off there kids at a restaurant( ages 7-11) and letting them order what they want, or we’d see kids on the train, traveling alone, ages 6 and up!!!

Kyoto was more beautiful than I had imagined. We purposely didn’t do a billion shrines. We stuck to 2 or 3 a day, and that was more than enough. We walked a lot. And it was nice. We walked thru Gion and made our way to Pontocho St…This is the most romantic st in Kyoto. We had a REAL geisha sighting. The feeling was like seeing a shooting star!!
We did Kiyomizu-dera, some slope shopping, Maruyama Park, Gion
Golden Palace, Ryoanji(rock garden)temple, Heien Shrine and Fushimi-inari. We walked and bused a lot.
A bus pass in in Kyoto is the way to go.¥500 for adults, and ¥250 for kids. A great value and great connections.
My advice would be to look at a ma, and plan you trip on sights close to each other.

We took the Nozomi from Kyoto to Tokyo. We were able to get 10% off by buying the reservations from a discount ticket house. They’re all over, every city has them…but you have to pay cash, and they do adult tix only. And in Japan, it seems like everything is on the up and up. You won’t be cheated.
You take your reservation ticket to Kyoto Station, and exchange is at the JR window for a train ticket. It will tell you what car #, row# and seat #. All very east… and trains seem to run every ½-1 hour.

Tokyo is Easy to navigate.. it will take a full day to get used to. We purchased ¥1000 passnet tickets(for use on toie and metro. it worked out great. When you’re there you can actually see and feel the difference of each section of the city. At first it all looks the same.. big buildings full of neon….but walk around and get a feel, you wont regret it.

Food is excellent everywhere, and we preferred Shidax over Big Echo, for Karaeoke.

Tokyo is NOT expensive. If you go somewhere fancy… yes it will be, but the regular places are just the same as the states. Or the same a New York City. The McDonalds even has a ¥100 menu!!!

The most we spent on accident was on a breakfast.. nice place, I expected to pay about $25 for 2 coffee’s , 2 hot chocolates and 4 sides of toast… it was ¥5000!! Ouch… but that was only once. We had a better breakfast in the Harajuku area, near the station for ¥1500. so go figure.

We had a great time, and we’ll definitely go again.

The people of Japan are truly amazing. They are from the heart. They’ll bend over backwards to help you. And the service you receive is also from the heart. Coming from the states.. that was a real treat.

rhkkmk

thanks for the report...i must say that at times i had a hard time understanding what you were saying as you used terms that were unfamiliar with no explanation....

hawaiiantraveler

Nice report, I understood every word
I know what you mean about feeling safe in Japan . You are right...Japan is not that expensive when you compare it to the U.S.
The Gion area in Kyoto is a favorite.
Glad you liked it. When are you going back?
Aloha!

lina219

thanks for the report...

we were afraid of expensive food too, but in the end we had extra cash, as we ate mainly at cheap & affordable joints ( few times at McDonald's because I love their teriyaki burger!)I kinda miss the vending machines. It was so easy to buy drinks / anything else for that matter, as back home we have to go to a shop to buy just a can of drinks...

How do you find the discount ticket house? I am planning for a trip, that may include a (or two) shinkansen rides, and a discount is always good...

spunge411

first of all.. sorry for the confusion with my report.. i was just writing as i was thinking.. i know.. it can be a problem..lol

you'll see discount tickets stores all over, with names such as " tickets now", or "dicount tickets"...always something with the word "tickets" in the name.

As to when am i going back... well, not sure but hopefully soon. its a great country, and tokyo is an awesome city, with a terific nite life. i cant wait!!!

moxie

Thank you for the report - it was perfectly understandable =)

emd

Spunge, can you tell me more about Kobe? I am thinking of staying on Awaji island for awhile on next trip and could go to Kobe easily from there. What esle did you do besides shop?

Mara

emd - I was given a flyer (all in Japanese) for a Cat Art Museum on Awaji Island when I bought a cat postcard in the Kamigata Ukiyo-e Museum in Osaka. It is evidently a private museum of the artist - Nakahama Minoru.

mrwunrfl

spunge411, thanks for the report. I understand the reference to Florida St. City street blocked from vehicle traffic and line with shops and restaurants. These are common in cities in Japan and frequently the street is also covered.

rhk, sakura is/are cherry blossoms. Nozomi is a kind of shinkansen - bullet train. Are there other terms you didn't understand?

emd

Mara, that is nice info. Thanks. I didn't think there was much to do on Awaji (which quite frankly is what I want the first few days on the next trip, but a cat art museum is pretty low key and would fit right in).

spunge411

kobe was our first stop... only because we have friends there we wanted to visit. not to much touristy stuff. just hung out with the locals, went to a middle school that was having a "world fair". that was great, cos' you saw parents and kids, doing their activities, living a lifestyle quite different than here in the states... definitely more social than here in the states...we understood why many non-japanese people live in japan. the scenery is awesome..2 kms from the mountains to the sea, and gorgeous bridges everywhere.so much new land is being built. sorry i can't comment on Awaji.

emd

Did you notice how much of the building is "new" in Kobe? I think much of the city was rebuilt after the earthquake. I wonder if there is any memorial for the vistims of that terrible quake? The epicenter was in Takamatsu, but it received no real damage, Kobe across the bay got it.

spunge411

from what i remember.. you are right. much of it is new after the earthquake. i swa some NEW activity near around Rokko

mrwunrfl

Since there are mountains in Kobe there is, of course, a ropeway. It is above Shin Kobe station, or maybe a subway stop away. Some nice views on the ride up, then you can visit gardens as you walk down the hill.

emd

Do you know if there is a memorial to the earthquake victims? I'd be interested in seeing that...I like memorials and that was a devastating earthquake.

emd

And spunge, that Japanese attitude is what makes me want to go back (along w/the natural beauty of the country- that is what I want more of now). Even in the cities we get that feeling as well as in more remote areas, big hotels, little ryokans, bus drivers, they just want to make it right for you. I only had one interesting weird exchange w/one station attendant on this last trip, and it was almost funny because it was so out of Japanese character, and I knew that, my daughter knew it, and I think he knew it. He had a bad day I think, plus more importantly I think I offended him at the outset.

Mara

emd, I agree about the Japanese attitude - they don't have an attitude! I flew from KIX and had to connect at DFW for a flight to LGA. I asked the person at the gate some innocent question about a change in the scheduled flight time and she almost snarled at me. Boy, did I know I was back in the US!

emd

The same sort of thing happened to me in the airport in Minneapolis on my 2005 trip on way back. A man was YELLING across the waiting area to his wife; no one else was there, I couldn't figure out why he would YELL all the way across the place to her instead of just walk over to her and talk to her in a civilized tone. This went on for 20 minutes. I thought I would go out of my mind. Our "reentry" and culture shock was so extreme at that airport that it convinced me to fly ANA this past trip so that I could go nonstop Narita to home without having to stop anywhere else in the US for a connection.

angethereader

I had culture shock while still in
Japan. We arrived at the Radisson in Narita and the lobby was full of flight crew. I couldn't believe how LOUD everyone was. It was so jarring after 14 days in Japan.

moxie

I also loved the hushed voices, no cell phones on public transport, clean clean streets and public buildings and the fact that rules were obeyed. Everyone I encountered was, if not friendly, at least supportive and very happy to scribble with me on my little pad of paper when they could not understand my English. The only rude people we encountered were the Japanese school kids - but I consider this normal adolescent behavior

My reentry into dirty, smelly rule-bashing France is proving quite difficult...