First Time to Japan w/teen
 

I posted this under a redundant message title and I'm not getting responses so I thought I'd try a different title...We have flights for March/April 2007 to Japan, are first time visitors and will be there nine nights. Traveling w/a 17 year old. Arrive Tokyo Saturday afternoon; planning gentle tour day in Tokyo Sunday (and disappointed fish market isn't open as we will surely be up early w/jet lag!). Monday - full touring day of Tokyo. Tuesday, catch early train to Hiroshima; tour Peace Memorial. Night in Hiroshima. Wednesday - travel to Miyajima w/plans to stay overnight. Thursday - travel to Kyoto. Sunday - return to Tokyo to be near airport. Our teen interested in samurai but "best" samurai sites seem north of Tokyo and can't fit that in; hoping there will be other samurai "stuff" to hold his interest. We are in early, early stages of planning so any guidance to direct our research would be appreciated.



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A regular poster under the screen name "emd" travelled to Japan once with her teenage son and another time with her also teenage daughter. If you do a search (texte search) on this board for her report, I'm sure you will get lots of useful infos from her experience.

I really enjoyed my visit to Toei Eigamura, a working film studio in Kyoto where samurai movies & TV dramas are made. Why not spennd a few hours there with your son?

As kappa said, you can check my trip reports, esp. the first one when I took my young teen son.

I am holding in my hand a GREAT 16 page resource on all things samurai in Japan. I got it off of the JNTO (Japan Natl. Tourist Org.) website before my first trip to Japan w/my son. It lists and describes every place in Japan w/connections to samurais- museums, samurai houses to visit, festivals involving samurai traditions, etc., and gives suggested itineraries for visiting the places. Lots of info in this on Tokyo (and side trips to Nikko, Kamakura, both of which have samurai history to see) and Kyoto and beyond.

Unfortunately for you, JNTO has recently totally revamped thier website, and I can not find this condensed handout of info anywhere on their website (I just spent 20 min looking for it, hoping to give you a link).

A couple of major spots mentioned in the handout that you can research going to are:

Tokyo Natl. Museum (in Ueno area, includes wide range of objects owned and used by samurai and samurai armor)

Sengaku Temple, where Japan's most famous group of samurai, the 47 Ronin are buried. Have your son do some research on the 47 ronin, it is fascinating stuff.

Sword Museum (Token Hakubutsukan) in Tokyo's Yoyogi district, small museum w/outstanding collection of swords.

Nikko Edo Mura: an Edo era theme park in Nikko, recreates life in Edo period, complete w/samurai, ninja, and more; park is set up like an edo village. A "samurai" guards the entrance gate, and to get in you must present a pass similar to one that was requried of travelers arriving at checkpoint gates during the Edo period. Supposed to be a very good and fun historical park. I really wanted to go here on the last trip but rain took this off our schedule.

Kamakura (close day trip from Tokyo) has a festival tournament called Yabusame in early April, held at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. Men dressed in samurai armor come galloping onto ta course shooting at targets in a traditioanl archery competition. One of the posters on this board went to this in last few yrs and said it was great. Hachiman was worshipped as the god of war, so this shrine was an impotant place for warriors to worship.

There are samurai residences in Kanazawa and other places trhoughout Japan; not sure if there are any close to where you are going though.

In Kyoto, the Kyoto Natl. museum has samurai armor and metal work (and labels in that musuem are in English also).

If he likes Ninja also, there is the Nijo Jinga in Kyoto and a great Ninja place in a town called Iga-Ueno (day trip). a castle town that was one of Japan's two main areas for ninjitsu training. Tehre is a cool ninja museum there, where ninja tools of the trade are exhibited ,and a real ninja house w/numerous hidden escape routes.

Call JNTO and see if they have the "On the Trail of the Samurai" in hard copy to send to you. I think I recall seeing this as a handout at the JNTO office when I visited there a few yrs ago, so I bet they can get it to you. If not, maybe we can figure out a way for me to get you a copy of mine.

Also, if it was me, I'd see the Peace Park and then catch the ferry to Miyajima right afterwards and spend that night and next day on Miyajima, then get the ferry back and get on w/rest of trip- I'd stop in Himeji to see the famous castle there (teen son will love that; have him see Last Samurai if he hasn't seen it as part was filmed at that castle) and stay in Kyoto Thurs. night so you'll be there and be ready to go w/plans there on Thurs. a.m.

Also, have your son watch Kurasawa's classic movie, the Seven Samurai, before you go.

oops-- re HIroshima/Miyajima-- I meant that way you can stay in Kyoto Wed. night and be ready to go there on Thurs. a.m., and have time to stop at Himeji for the castle on way to Kyoto/

JNTO:

NYC: Rockefeller Center
(212) 757-5640

LA: Figueroa St.
(213) 623-1952

you could also email them to ask:

NYC office:
[email protected]

LA:
[email protected]

San Fransisco:
[email protected]

Tokyo to Hiroshima by train ... 4hrs 30 min. ride by Nozomi (not valid for JR Pass), 5hrs by Hikari (valid for JR Pass). I prefer to use air from Haneda (regional airport in Tokyo) to Hiroshima, just 80 min.

> I prefer to use air from Haneda (regional airport in Tokyo) to Hiroshima, just 80 min.

Not to start an argument, bacause it may be personal preferences but I'm curious, how much time can you exactly gain by flying from Haneda (BTW, it is an International Airport) to Hiroshima? 80 minutes as you say(is that the exact flight time?) + 2 hours (to get there from Tokyo city center + be there 1 hr before the flight departure) + 1 hour or so to get out of airport to Hiroshima city center. Doesn't that make almost 5 hrs? With shinkansen, you can start right from Tokyo city center to Hiroshima center. That seems so much easier for me, comfortable and no stress, especially if you are a forein tourist. I'm not foreign (living outside Japan since long though) but even I would choose Shinkansen. Again I'm being curious about your preference.

And of course if JR Pass is involved there is no question.

WOW!!! I am overwhelmed! Great help from everyone, will follow up on all suggestions. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I called JNTO first thing this am and they no longer have the samurai brochure so I'm bummed about that! Did book a guide for one day in Tokyo based on advice here and have asked her to make sure we visit the Sword Museum.

peggie, if you want I can email the fodors editors ask them to email you my email address. Then you can email me and I will either mail or fax you a copy of this JNTO samurai report I have. If you want to do that, post back here and I will contact the editors.

We were in Japan with our 20 year old son in March.

Some of his favorites:
Tokyo - Edo-Tokyo Museum
A trip to Akhibara (tech sector)

Kyoto - Kyoto Museum on Traditional Arts

Hiroshima - after peace park and the museum we needed a break. I wanted to go somewhere calm - Shukkei-en Garden was just right. You enter through the Hiroshima Prefecture Art Museum (it's a separate ticket) We fed the turtles in the pond and walked this small but picturesque park.

I have to rant.

I am very disappointed that JNTO told you they no longer have that fantastic samurai material that used to be posted on their website. I have several such pdf "handouts" of info on different subjest regarding travel in japan that I wisely printed out before my first trip, one on textiles, etc. They are wonderfully condensed info and travel guides. Why in the world would JNTO take them down off their website when they revamped it this year, and then not at least keep them in hard copy for people who still might want them?

Also, I really do not like the revamp of their website. In the old format, I could find the regional PDF guides much more easily. Now, I can only find some of them. For instance, I can't find the pdf info for Shikoku and Awaji island. I am not sure that all of the great pdf regional guides exist online anymore. I think soem have been removed.

What a pity. JNTO was the first site I was sent to when I first posted on this forum and was starting to gather info for my trip. Now that JNTO has revamped their site and obviously purged some great info from it, I really think www.japan-guide.com is better organized and better positioned to help a first time traveler to Japan.

This is so disappointing!

Has anyone else noticed this change in the JNTO site?

Anyway, peggi, if you want to get in touch so I can get this samurai guide to you, just post back here and I will have the editors send you my email.

Yes, I didn't appreciate the change to JNTO (but japanrail.com is a worse change).

But I recmembered that the PDFs were called "Practical Travel Guides" so I searched for that and found this link and book marked it:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/rtg/index.html

There is a Shikoku pdf and one for Awaji & Shodo jimas.

I think the jnto website is still pretty useful for people who want to learn some of the basics about visiting Japan.

Thank you for the link mrw. I now have it bookmarked also.
peggie, you might want to look at the Hiroshima/Miyajima pdf and other ones on that link.

It is telling though that someone as familiar with their previous site and information (me) could spend much time on their new site trying to find something like those great pdf guides, and not be able to find them.

I agree that JNTO is still a good place for info. But in this case "new and improved" is not always better. I think www.japan-guide.com is a great resource and the layout is much more straightforward IMO.

I'll have to take a look at the jrail site. I guess I haven't seen it since that revamp.

I'll check out that link but I'd be happy for Fodor's to give you my email address. I did already have the other site (the Japan guide one) and will look at it more thoroughly. As I mentioned, I'm just getting started! I greatly appreciate all the help. I live in the DC area and I'm going to a Japan discussion this afternoon put on by the Japanese embassy. If I find an opportunity, I will mention that folks are finding the new JNTO site to be difficult.

I also live in the D.C. area, in Northern VA, West Springfield.

Have you checked out the Japan-American Society here? It is active w/good cultural events, and they have a language program.

http://www.us-japan.org/dc/

I'll have the editors send you my email address so I can get a copy of this samurai info to you.

and I am going to send my trip report from my trip w/my son to the top of the posts for you in case you are interested in reading it.

Here's the link for JNTO's "on the trail of the samarai." I agree it's an excellent resource. I'm going to japan with my 20-year-old son in May, first time visitors. Emd, I'm going to look for your trip report now.

http://www.japantravelinfo.com/trave...df/samurai.pdf