Questions about visiting Japan.

[Deep Blue]

So like the titles says, when is the best time of the year to travel there and where ? I really dislike cold weather so preferably not in winter.
I do not care about special events, cultural things or festivals, I repeat I don't give a crap about those things and wont be seeing them, I'm really not interested in visiting japan and visit a zoo for example (that island with rabbits, usagi-shima I think it is??), museums or any of that crap, however I do care and want to see:

Electronics in general.
Anything about food.
Books and anything related to that.
Travel in their trains or public system and get to know as many places/prefectures as possible, for example travel for around 3 hours wont be a problem in fact I like that, for example if I go to tokyo I can travel without problem to saitama, kanagawa, chiba etc (i'm just saying random places that are close to tokyo I don't really know if it's possible to travel there or not or if going to tokyo is the best option.)
Maybe and just maybe visit a shintou...
Any weird thing about japan.

I know what I'm saying is a bit vague but you get the idea, I'm also looking for the cheapest place to stay, for example maybe kyoto is cheaper than tokyo?

 

[wraithseeker]

I'm in Tokyo this week for holidays and regarding some of your questions such as electronics,food and trains;

1. They said that Akihabara had alot of electronics, personally it was meh and just standard stuff you find everywhere. There's alot of nice otaku stuff though.
2. There's a nice VR demo by Bandai in Odaiba, you should give it a go, unfortunately I didn't get to try it out because you had to book reservations in advance! http://project-ican.com/
3. Foodwise try eating barbecue beef (yakiniku) and sushi.
4. Public transport is very accessible but it's pretty complicated so it might take some time to get used to it. 

 

[Deep Blue]

14 minutes ago, wraithseeker said:

I'm in Tokyo this week for holidays and regarding some of your questions such as electronics,food and trains;

1. They said that Akihabara had alot of electronics, personally it was meh and just standard stuff you find everywhere. There's alot of nice otaku stuff though.
2. There's a nice VR demo by Bandai in Odaiba, you should give it a go, unfortunately I didn't get to try it out because you had to book reservations in advance! http://project-ican.com/
3. Foodwise try eating barbecue beef (yakiniku) and sushi.
4. Public transport is very accessible but it's pretty complicated so it might take some time to get used to it. 

 

I forgot to mention that I will be traveling by the end of the year not right now, sorry  (but I still need to buy the flight tickets now), so that gives me time to plan everything even the traveling in the public transport.

[kingdomcome]

4 minutes ago, Deep Blue said:

traveling by the end of the year not right now

Then you should expect the cold! Even snow depending where you go.

34 minutes ago, Deep Blue said:

I do not care about special events, cultural things or festivals

We are quite different in this case. I would say Wraithseeker was correct with mentioning Akihabara.

How long is your stay? If it's only 1 week then stay in Tokyo, if 2, then you can visit another prefecture, etc..

[Deep Blue]

15 minutes ago, kingdomcome said:

Then you should expect the cold! Even snow depending where you go.

We are quite different in this case. I would say Wraithseeker was correct with mentioning Akihabara.

How long is your stay? If it's only 1 week then stay in Tokyo, if 2, then you can visit another prefecture, etc..

I don't necessarily need to travel by the end of the year I can wait 2 months more for example and travel in spring maybe or ends of winter.
1 week maybe 2 depending on my budget at that time  
You mean if I stay 1 week I can't travel to other prefectures? Why? :s

[kingdomcome]

17 minutes ago, Deep Blue said:

You mean if I stay 1 week I can't travel to other prefectures? Why? :s

It's too short of a time to being looking for more things to do. I could spend weeks in Tokyo just visiting the stuff there.

You could waste a day just traveling between prefectures (the shinkansen is very enjoyable but maybe not the best use of time). If you go for 2 weeks I'd recommend taking a shinkansen somewhere (but it'll cost ya).

I also recommend going out of your comfort zone and checking out meetup.com. Find something you enjoy doing and meet up with others that have the same interest, great way to meet locals in a group setting and have fun.

 

Edit: Original Ren did an excellent map on Akihabara if you like VNs:

 

[Deep Blue]

26 minutes ago, kingdomcome said:

It's too short of a time to being looking for more things to do. I could spend weeks in Tokyo just visiting the stuff there.

You could waste a day just traveling between prefectures (the shinkansen is very enjoyable but maybe not the best use of time). If you go for 2 weeks I'd recommend taking a shinkansen somewhere (but it'll cost ya).

I also recommend going out of your comfort zone and checking out meetup.com. Find something you enjoy doing and meet up with others that have the same interest, great way to meet locals in a group setting and have fun.

 

Edit: Original Ren did an excellent map on Akihabara if you like VNs:

 

Well traveling is one of the things I love to do (specially on train and see different cities and places!) and knowing different places is one of the things I want to do on this trip, so if I "waste" a whole day doing that it's not a problem  
We have really really different taste, I would never do something like enter a webpage, arrange to meet people in another country and then hang out together with them, sorry but that's not something I like to do, not in my country and specially not in Japan  
I forgot about that guidebook from Ren, it will come handy I think, I will google more of those kind of stuff from different cities, maybe I can find interesting things. 

[kingdomcome]

13 minutes ago, Deep Blue said:

We have really really different taste, I would never do something like enter a webpage, arrange to meet people in another country and then hang out together with them, sorry but that's not something I like to do, not in my country and specially not in Japan 

lol! That's not something I would usually ever do, especially not in my own country! You might meet some nice Japanese girls They like us gajin (kind of, well they find us interesting..).

 

13 minutes ago, Deep Blue said:

Well traveling is one of the things I love to do (specially on train and see different cities and places!) and knowing different places is one of the things I want to do on this trip, so if I "waste" a whole day doing that it's not a problem

We're similar in this aspect I personally loved Kyoto, and it's quite close to Tokyo - few hours by shinkansen. You might see Mt. Fuji-san! Kyoto is a historical town, abundant in nature, a beautiful city.

[solidbatman]

Hey, he doesn't visit the forums anymore, but if you'd like, I can try to get Ren to PM you some pointers. He was always super enthusiastic to tell us on Teamspeak what it was like, and some of the differences. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to give you some pointers. 

[Zalor]

7 hours ago, wraithseeker said:

I'm in Tokyo this week for holidays and regarding some of your questions such as electronics,food and trains;

1. They said that Akihabara had alot of electronics, personally it was meh and just standard stuff you find everywhere. There's alot of nice otaku stuff though.
2. There's a nice VR demo by Bandai in Odaiba, you should give it a go, unfortunately I didn't get to try it out because you had to book reservations in advance! http://project-ican.com/
3. Foodwise try eating barbecue beef (yakiniku) and sushi.
4. Public transport is very accessible but it's pretty complicated so it might take some time to get used to it. 

 

I'll be In Tokyo from the 28th to 31st, will you still be chilling in Tokyo when I will be there? I'm doing an internship else where in Japan currently (Niigata), so that is the earliest I can come to Tokyo, since my internship ends the 27th of this month. 

 

On topic though. If your not interested in the cultural stuff, I can't help you out much. Since coming to Japan, I've spent basically all my time in a small town in Niigata since that is where my internship is located. Niigata is great for skiing, its rice, and some other traditional stuff and that's around it. So basically its most marketable aspects are its traditional aspects, and its winters; both things you stated you were not interested in. ;p  

Edit: Although Niigata does have this really cool place that this video elaborates on: Japanese Sake Vending Machines

[wraithseeker]

@Zalor I'll be going back home by then.

In terms of trip duration, if you're going to Japan for one week, then I think it's better to just visit Tokyo and also visit the area near Mount Fuji.

[iamnoob]

5 hours ago, Zalor said:

I'll be In Tokyo from the 28th to 31st, will you still be chilling in Tokyo when I will be there? I'm doing an internship else where in Japan currently (Niigata), so that is the earliest I can come to Tokyo, since my internship ends the 27th of this month. 

 

On topic though. If your not interested in the cultural stuff, I can't help you out much. Since coming to Japan, I've spent basically all my time in a small town in Niigata since that is where my internship is located. Niigata is great for skiing, its rice, and some other traditional stuff and that's around it. So basically its most marketable aspects are its traditional aspects, and its winters; both things you stated you were not interested in. ;p  

Edit: Although Niigata does have this really cool place that this video elaborates on: Japanese Sake Vending Machines

It snows in Niigata? I though it only snowed in the northern islands of Japan since Tokyo doesn't snow. 

Tokyo doesn't snow right? Or at least not enough to pile.

[Zalor]

6 hours ago, iamnoob said:

It snows in Niigata? I though it only snowed in the northern islands of Japan since Tokyo doesn't snow. 

Tokyo doesn't snow right? Or at least not enough to pile.

Niigata is deep snow country. In the winters they almost daily (or weekly) have to shovel the snow off their roofs so the weight doesn't make the roof collapse. But pictures speak louder than words:

 

I'm sure it snows less in Niigata city than it does in the country side though.

 

11 hours ago, wraithseeker said:

@Zalor I'll be going back home by then.

Too bad. Btw, I noticed your location is Taiwan. Before going to Japan I spent a month there, absolutely loved it. I want to go back someday. I also want to learn Chinese now because of it. 

[WinterfuryZX]

On 13/7/2016 at 9:04 AM, kingdomcome said:

You could waste a day just traveling between prefectures (the shinkansen is very enjoyable but maybe not the best use of time). If you go for 2 weeks I'd recommend taking a shinkansen somewhere (but it'll cost ya).

Just purchase a japan rail pass.

[kingdomcome]

3 hours ago, WinterfuryZX said:

Just purchase a japan rail pass.

Also expensive, and only worth it if you travel by shinkansen to a few places.

[Forgetful Frank]

Reading this thread makes me a little jealous!

I can't wait to visit Japan, me and my significant other are (slowly) saving up for a holiday there some day. We want so~ much spending money! I might bring an empty suitcase just for goodies.