jlaughs:

It depends on how many planes arrive at the time yours does. Last time we were there it only took 10 minutes as ours was the only arrival at that time. The time before it took us nearly two hours. Good luck!

Aloha!

imo, you are giving more evidence. It has been determined that you will stay in Asakusa the first night. Ok, fine. Now your plan is to just &quot;take the subway to Asakusa and <b>try to find a hotel</b>&quot;? There are going to be a million people there, many of whom rented rooms in advance for this event, and you are going to just show up?

You mentioned that the festival starts at around 7PM. If you take the 5:20 bus and it takes 90 minutes, then you won't be free of your bags until 7PM at the Conrad. I don't know where that hotel is or how to get to Asakusa from there but I would wager that you wouldn't get to where you wanted to be in Asakusa before 8PM. If you miss that bus the next one departs at 10 minutes to 7PM.

I advise getting confirmed reservations in Asakusa for the first night before you leave for Japan (i.e. do it now).

Shipping bags to the Conrad and taking the train from Narita Airport to Asakusa would be the best option, imo. Another option would be to just take your bags with you to Asakusa and leave your bags at your hotel.

mrw, I also advised her above to get reservations pronto in Asakusa (BTW, that is pronounced REALLY fast as in asakasa (as fast as you can possibly say it, in one syllable), NOT Ass-a-koo-sa like some Texan would say it, and I can laugh at this because that is how I pronounced it the first time). So she is doubly warned.

No, no, no. Sorry if I wasn't clear. The &quot;finding a hotel&quot; was now, BEFORE we go to Japan. I know some people feel comfortable traveling this way, but I'm not one of them. I've done 2 trips without prior reservations, but they were both road trips in the US (from S CA to N CA and once up to Oregon).

Sorry for not being clear.

Ok, good, now let us know what you decide and where you end up! Good luck.

btw, I read that it's less than 15 mins from Shimbashi station to Asakusa. The fireworks last for over an hour, so we're not too concerned whether we're there from the beginning or not. Plus the fact that the fireworks are not the main attraction for us.

My Japanese pronounciation is not too bad (I'm third generation Japanese-American), but I don't really speak Japanese very well because I don't have the vocabulary. I can usually get an idea of what people are saying by picking out key words. I can read Hiragana and Katakana, but no Kanji. Unlike most tourists, I've been told that, as a Japanese-American, I shouldn't make any attempt to speak Japanese because my feeble attempts would not be viewed as favorably. I think I might still give it a try as I was really looking forward to trying out (and improving) my Japanese.

I rushed off my last post, but I just want to repeat that we would NOT go to Japan without having reservations for that first night (or any night for that matter), whether in Asakusa or elsewhere. mrwunrfl, can I still be considered in the sane category now? Or it my sanity still in question?

Consider too that most of the festival stuff happens before the fireworks...starting in the afternoon and continuing until the fireworks. Then when the fireworks are over there is a mass exodus of people returning home, or at least moving their group to somewhere else (like a beer garden, bar or restaurant) to continue their festivities.

Everywhere I've been in Japan the Japanese people always love it when I tried to speak a little Japanese. They are usually quite suprised and so polite.

KimJapan, do you know if the food stalls remain open during the fireworks? Or does everything typically start shutting down when the fireworks begin?

hawaiiantraveler, do you mind if I ask if you are of Japanese heritage? What I've been told is that the Japanese (in Japan) appreciate when foreigners attempt to speak their language, but that this doesn't necessarily hold true when the foreigner is a Japanese-American. I was told this by my father who was told by his childhood friend who lives in Kyoto. My father is a kibei (born in the US, went back to Japan after WWII and educated in Japan). He speaks Japanese fluently and speaks the &quot;proper&quot; language, but was still told not to speak Japanese while in Japan. Maybe this was true for his generation because of war sentiments? At any rate, I'm still going to give it a try. If nothing else, I'll say (in Japanese) that I'm an American and apologize that I don't speak Japanese very much.

Boy, I really wish that we had an earlier flight. I'm not sure how this is all going to work out, but I would have LOVED to have been able to be in Asakusa from the afternoon.

There may be a lot of you able to say &quot;I told you so&quot; after our trip, but I'm still hoping for a good experience.

Got my fingers crossed.

Hey, even it's a bad experience, it's still an experience, right?

regarding Japanese Americans speaking Japanese--I'm also a third-generation Japanese American and I don't speak a lot Japanese, but I've never had any problems trying to when I went to Japan. I also lived there for 2-1/2 years. (As to why I still don't speak a lot of Japanese, that's another story).

As a whole, I think times are changing, and there are a lot of different kinds of people visiting Japan. Because I look like everyone else, some people assume I'm from there. But once I explain that I'm not native, they understand and are very kind about it.

I've never heard any unpleasant stories directly. I think that if there are bad incidences, perhaps it's not a cultural thing so much as maybe that individual is having a bad day? (or general life attitude).

In my experiences, if communication occurs, the method (broken English, broken Japanese, gestures, drawings, etc) doesn't really matter. I taught high schoolers and talking to them was always fun. And no one I communicated with ever criticized my less-than sparkling Japanese!

Anyway, ganbatte kudasai!! And have fun!

Food stalls closing time...when they run out of food/beer/whatever they are selling. I've never been to the ones in Tokyo, so I'm basing my ideas on my experiences in Kanazawa. In Kanazawa, the big fireworks night coincides with our local neighborhood summer festival. The festival starts at around 4 and winds down as the fireworks begin. The fireworks are the end of the fun pretty much.

For all I know, in Tokyo they might keep the festival thing going all night long along the riverside...but my feeling is that it's not that different from Kanazawa in terms of how people &quot;do&quot; fireworks night.

As far as speaking Japanese goes, try your best if you can and want to. After your first sentence anyone will know you are not a native-speaker of Japanese and you will be given plenty of compliments for trying.

About speaking Japanese, I pretty much agree with Angel Kiss. Go for it!

What is kibei ? Sounds like a Japanese word but I'm not sure what. Maybe an American-Japanese word?

jlaughs:
I am half Japanese. Second generation. Don't worry about it. You will be fine.
Aloha!

Regarding cash: The limo bus took my visa with no problems. I brought in 70000 Yen; and later got cash in Takayama and Kyoto.

1000 yen bills (you can change them everywhere) and a pocket full on 100 yen coins make life much easier.

jrlaughs I suggest you have the hotel's name &amp; address printed in Japanese to give to the baggage delivery company. It will speed things right up!

kappa, a kibei is &quot;a person born in the United States of Japanese immigrant parents and educated chiefly in Japan&quot;. (http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/k/k0053300.html)

Thanks for all the reassurance about trying to speak Japanese. I've come to the conclusion that this may have been a generational thing for my father or possibly had to do with class. I think my father and his friend were originally at a country club when my father's friend said this, so maybe he was just telling my father not to speak there specifically and my father generalized it to everywhere. Guess I'd better start brushing up on my Japanese again! Yeah!!

moxie, thanks for the information.

japanfreak, thanks for the great suggestion. I'll be sure to have my father write it for me before we go. I'm not confident that my writing would be legible. Since we will probably be looking for the hotel on our own the first night, your suggestion could be extremely helpful if we get lost.

jlaughs, I was looking for the kanjis for the word &quot;kibei&quot; but could not imagine what. Now with your explanation, I think it should be &quot;Ki = return&quot; and &quot;Bei=America&quot;. Born in USA, educated in Japan and return to America&quot;. Never heard of this word in Japan. Suppose it's made up and used only in USA (probably principally only among American-Japanese population)?

kappa, interesting. I never considered this possibility before. I just have always thought that it was a Japanese word because it &quot;sounds&quot; Japanese. Not like the time when I asked my grandmother the Japanese word for &quot;spoon&quot; and she answered &quot;supun&quot;. I told her that she was just saying the English word using Japanese pronunciation and she was confused until I realized that there might not be a Japanese word for &quot;spoon&quot;.

I'm hoping that I don't turn into a blubbering mess while in Japan. I have a feeling that being there may bring back many feelings about my grandmother and being pre-menopausal won't help. I'm sitting here getting teary-eyed just typing this.

jlaughs, nice story about spoon and your grand mother. I can picture how the conversation went between her and and her grand daughter. That makes me smile.

There actually is the word that means a spoon, that's &quot;saji&quot; but today most of the times, the japanese use the word &quot;supuun&quot; so your grand mother was absolutely right.