Travel
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Tokyo is awesome, you will have a great time. Both times I stayed it was in Shinjuku. It is regarded as a bit old school, but it also has the iconic Bladerunner style sea of neon that you associate with Tokyo.
- Piss alley/ Memory lane. This is super old school, alleys filled with little yakitori bars, a must visit and eat IMHO
- Golden Gai. Basically just like Piss Alley except it's filled with a multitude of tiny bars
- Harijuku. Tokyo's cosplay epicentre. On the weekends the locals roam around in full costume. Quite a sight
- Ginza. Stylish, upmarket, worth a look https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3005.html
- If you are a big Nintendo fan, do a real life Mario Kart rally through the streets of Tokyo, complete with outfits
Street Go Kart Tour / Tokyo Go-Karting
Street Kart have no association with the game “Mario Kart” and Nintendo.Enjoy the rush as you open-air kart through Tokyo! Supervised rides, memorable pictures taken, and an thrilling journey through Odaiba, the famous Rainbow Bridge, and the city’s famous tower. Tokyo from a fresh perspective!
- Shibuya is home to the crazy pedestrian crossing
The food scene in Tokyo is amazing. Spend as much as you want (most Michelin star restaurants of any city IIRC) or as little. Enjoy food from ramen shops, soba and udon bars, fancy Omakase, sushi bars and trains, frid pork cutlet shops, Japanese BBQ. You name it, you can get it. Only thing I didn't really like was their coffee, which I thought was pretty average.
Feed your requirements into chat gpt, it will do a nice job of picking out the highlights.
Bullet train to Kyoto and Osaka over flying for sure. It's a cool experience in itself
- Piss alley/ Memory lane. This is super old school, alleys filled with little yakitori bars, a must visit and eat IMHO
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Personally I'd fly into Osaka, do day trips to see Himeji, Nara, etc. and move north, finishing in Tokyo. That way you don't waste a day travelling. Take the train - easily the best way to get around. A Suica card will pay for itself.
I'm given to understand Kyoto is overwhelmed with tourists from countries without a shred of civilised manners (think mainland Chinese tour groups and Indians), so that could be taxing. Possibly worth doubling the time you're there so you can patiently see what you want. Easily a few days worth of shit to see (two minimum). From a cultural perspective it will be the highlight.
I wouldn't go to Harijuku. It was a thing a long time ago and Japanese people don't - it's just full of tourists and Nigerians selling shirts. The only reason is to go to the sneaker store and Meiji Jingu (the big park).
I've been going semiregularly since ~2006. I've done a fair bit of Japan in that time from skiing in Hokkaido down to swimming in Ishigaki. As a tourist it's changed a fair bit in that time. Money from ATMs is much easier to get. Food is awesome. Cheap beer from vending machines. Clean. Safe. Between the signposting in English, so many of the (esp young) speaking English well enough to help and google translate, the language barrier is small.
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I like Antipodean’s plan and I’d strongly consider adding Hiroshima.
Flying into one and out of the other will give you both cities with a Shinkansen trip and (hopefully) a view of Fuji from the train. Consider that when booking seats btw.
People want to murder assholes doing the Mario Kart thing, so consider that (literally, a guy tried to burn down one of those businesses recently).
Kyoto is apparently completely fucked, so be prepared to be up early for some of the sights.
In terms of absolute must dos, Meiji Shrine in Tokyo followed by a walk down through Shibuya gives you two sides of Japan in 2 hours.
Eat excellent sushi - you’ll need to book it nowadays and I can help with that and some introductions to a few other other places (@voodoo can tell whether they are worth it or not, honestly I’m not sure as I recommend places liked by expats here).
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My only advice is to do everything @gt12 says, and avoid Takeshita St like the plague.
Everything else is as good as it says on the tin - I don't have any non-Tokyo advice as we only did the snow in Nazawa Onsen outside of the big smoke. But once you're in Tokyo, it felt like you can hardly go wrong. Shibuya, Shinjuku, just so much fun to wander around. Easy, safe, never a bad meal. If you play guitar, the 8 floor guitar shop was next-level awesome. The back streets of Harijuku were better than the main street, some great shopping. The old fish markets were good also (GT12 got the skinny here also).
Walk or catch the metro, do lots of karaoke, drink buckets of beer, find the hidden door at the GT12 recommendation. Suica good, Wise also excellent there.
Amazing country, would go again in a heartbeat.
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agree with flying into Osaka and out of Tokyo - that's what I did last year (although it was a whistle stop tour so really only scratched the surface of Kyoto and Tokyo). bullet train is easiest way to get around and its cool.
A few obvservations:
- I liked Kyoto but it does feel a little bit like a theme park given the number of tourists.
- Tokyo is bloody huge, pick some areas you want to see and use Google Maps to navigate, metro system is excellent and lots of stuff in English now makes it easier, avoid rush hour.
- I got a local SIM when I landed at the airport, no idea how much it was but it worked a treat!
- carry cash, Apple Pay isn't taken in that many places that aren't for tourists. ATMs are more common than they used to be but don't change money in a currency exchange as they tend to rip tourists off.
Kyoto:
- everyone eats early, its weird for a European, as an Aussie you'll fit right in, try and book places as it can be a pain wandering around (Unless you're on Pontocho street which is fun in the evening). Gyoza Chao Chao is worth a visit for Gyoza, Torisei did the best yakitori I had in Japan but its in the middle of the old town and is quiet around there at night.
- The bamboo forest is cool but again, thousands of tourists, may be quieter in november. We got a cab out there.
- temples and shrines are cool for about an hour, then it all looks the same, oh and there are loads of them.
Tokyo
A friend of mine has lived in Tokyo for the last few years and his wife is Japanese, he sent me a list of things to see and do (some may be a bit 'kid specific').
Food - Onvs Japan is famous for its food, local phrase in Tokyo is 'if you didn't like your meal its because you didn't like the dish rather than the quality'. Restaurants tend to be dish or cuisine specific i.e. if its a soba restaurant then it will only serve soba, ditto yakitori etc. Lunch rush is 11/11.30 and dinner rush is 5.30 / 6
Go to Omoide Yokocho in Shinjuku for tiny side streets full of miniature bars to bar hop / food hop - food is usually v good. As the evening goes on it fills with salary men getting battered so is quite funny too.
Things to do (or not too):
Shibuya - biggest pedestrian crossing in the world, got a video of my 8 year old sprinting out as soon as the lights changed and doing a round off back hand spring in the middle. Otherwise I don't get it, reason its the biggest crossing in the world is because there's about 5,000 tourists waiting to cross every time the lights change whilst filming the other 4,999 people all saying how busy it is.
Shinjuku - big nightlife area, including izakaya / karaoke and dodgy stuff (see above for a good place to start)
Akihabara - known as electric city and good if you're into video games, manga, anime or tech. I'm not. I hated it. anime is creepy as fuck
Go to the old fish market (Tsukiji) , and wander around tasting things, Ichiban is one of the famous sushi places (not expensive) and worth a stop - although its not quite the same as the tuna action etc doesn't take place there anymore - that's now at 5.30am at Toyosu.
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Cheers gents. Will compile that into what the other family members have identified.
My plan was to fly into Osaka and out of Tokyo but Mrs TA didn't like they idea of the connecting flight situation
I agree it's a waste of time and money to go back to Tokyo, particularly as connecting flights are cheaper -
The train system is far too good to waste time flying short distances internally.
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Connecting flight Sydney to Osaka I meant. The cheaper fares look to be short layovers in Singapore or HK.
The only direct flights to Osaka are JetStar I think and fuck. that.
It just seems like a bit of a waste to ride another shikansen for the sake of having a direct flight, and probably another night in an hotel in Tokyo.
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Connecting flight Sydney to Osaka I meant. The cheaper fares look to be short layovers in Singapore or HK.
The only direct flights to Osaka are JetStar I think and fuck. that.
It just seems like a bit of a waste to ride another shikansen for the sake of having a direct flight, and probably another night in an hotel in Tokyo.
I'd never pass up an excuse for another night in Tokyo, but then... I'm a lonely lonely man with no reason to not just go find some random corridor-width dodgy-as-fuck bar.
Also - yes... an extra day of travel on train seems dumb, but on balance...
pros/cons. Shikansen isn't so bad, especially if one's got a kilo of super-fresh tuna, some wasabi, and a decent knife. -
Connecting flight Sydney to Osaka I meant. The cheaper fares look to be short layovers in Singapore or HK.
The only direct flights to Osaka are JetStar I think and fuck. that.
It just seems like a bit of a waste to ride another shikansen for the sake of having a direct flight, and probably another night in an hotel in Tokyo.
I flew from Cairns to Osaka on Jet Star last year as it was the only choice, flight was almost totally empty, dream stuff
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