We're off to Beijing, Shanghai, Nagasaki, Osaka, Shimu and Tokyo. We want to see the important places but also love the not so touristy-traps. Any suggestions? This is our first trip to Asia. Thanks so much!

Welcome to the forum, debty. You've posted the same question several times and have not gotten any response. The reason is that it's just too vague and broad. To know about the important sites of each city, you can easily get a guide book, or find a lot of websites with that kind of information.

Come back after you have some general ideas, length of stays at each city, and ask about specific stuff and itinerary questions.

And why Nagasaki/Shima? There are probably more to see for first timers between Osaka and Tokyo in places like Kyoto, Nara, Hakone.

Hi

I can't give you tips on all the places...but my wife and I did go to Beijing in March last year and we had a good time there. I have posted a trip report with pictures on my personal homepage gardkarlsen.com Maybe you can find some useful Beijing tips there. Hope you'll have a great trip. Get in touch if you have any questions or comments.

Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway

RKKWAN:

I'd love to delete my other messages- just tell me how!

As far the the choices of cities, we're on a cruise and that's where we'll stop. Everyone has told us NOT to take the shore excursions that the cruise offers because they're overproced and over the top touristy.

The shore excursions from the cruise will bring you to the most important sites, for sure. They're definitely more expensive than doing it on your own, but you'd need to do a lot of research about what to see and - more importantly - how to get there. Question is, would you care for all that trouble?

For example, Beijing isn't on the coast. I don't know where you ship docks, but even if it's in Tianjin, it's still quite a way from Beijing. You'll need to research about how to get there.