Impromptu Intercontinental Travel

[CM August]

My brother and his wife are taking a skiing trip to Japan, and I'm strongly considering joining them.

Only thing is, the opportunity only became known to me recently, so I would have to scramble for flight bookings and have things fairly planned out before Dec 30 (departure to Tokyo). Besides what they plan on doing, I know nothing of the various places to see or things to do. I also don't know any Japanese or know anyone who lives there, so if anyone here has their own experiences to share it would be most welcome.

[G.Silver]

Honestly, the best thing to do would be to just pick up a guide book of some sort. Japan is crawling with touristy things to check out pretty much no matter where you are. Do you know where in Japan you'll be going?

[Opa-Opa]

You're probably staying with your brother and his wife in a hotel or something, but I encourage everyone to try Couchsurfing. It's the best way to know a city.

Wow, I just bought a new keyboard and this are my first words in it. It feels great.

[CM August]

They haven't totally planned out their trip either beyond the flight bookings, but essentially they're looking at 14 days. Roughly 4 days in Tokyo, 4-5 days at their ski resort, and another 4-5 days checking out places like Hiroshima before flying out on the 14th. How much I deviate from that depends on a few things. For starters, it would be nice to know how fucked I'd be concerning the language barrier.

On the other hand, I hear that transport over there is quite good; we'd be getting those fancy rail passes that let you go pretty much anywhere in the country. Cost is another thing I'd like to keep down for the most part, especially if staying a full 2 weeks.

[Senbei]

English is everywhere, so don't worry about that. Even if you can't find a sign for something, lots of people know enough English to give you basic directions. The trains will definitely be your best friend since you can go practically anywhere and they're very gaijin-friendly.

I hate being a tourist, so last time I went I tried to do my own exploring. People-watching is fun, but if you don't look Asian you'll probably have more people watching you. For me, shopping was the best part -- even though I didn't have money to buy anything, visiting the eclectic variety of shops was fun. I also enjoyed visiting the country and mountains, which are surprisingly peaceful after coming from the big cities. Castle and temple or shrine museums are sometimes fun, but they get old quickly. Be wary of temples and shrines, though, since you'll be visiting during Oshougatsu, New Year, when huge masses of people flock to these places to pray for future luck or some shit.

FYI, I'm basing this advice on my experiences in the Osaka area. I've never been to Tokyo.

[Green Gibbon!]

If you'll be anywhere in the Morioka area, I can show you all the... mostly nothing there is to see in Morioka. There are plenty of ski resorts in the surrounding mountains, though.

But I don't ski.

[CM August]

I don't believe you've ever actually explained how the fuck you got there.

[Green Gibbon!]

On a plane.

[CM August]

Are you even fluent in Jap... nevermind. Anyway I'm trying to figure out if those crazy rail passes we're supposed to get (that apparently let you go pretty much anywhere) include the Shinkansen, and if so how long it takes to get from Tokyo to... other places. Hakuba is apparently where the ski resort is at. Osaka's another possibility. I won't rule out somewhere like Morioka - basically looking for places where I won't be totally alone, if only to placate certain family members.

It's looking increasingly impossible to plan anything out before I make a flight booking. I'll give it one more day before going through with anything.

[Senbei]

The JR Rail Pass allows for some shinkansen use. According to the website, you can take the Hikari or Kodama shinkansen, but not the Nozomi. The only difference is stopping patterns and they should all go to the same places.

And I found this with about a minute of Googling:

Q: How long does it take to get to Kyoto or Osaka from Tokyo by train?
A: It takes approximately 2 1/2 hours to Kyoto and 3 hours to Osaka via the Shinkansen train Hikari. If you need to get there in a hurry, the Shinkansen train Nozomi is 15 minutes faster to Kyoto and 30 minutes faster to Osaka.

So it would probably take about six hours to get from Tokyo to Hiroshima.

[Delphine]

I don't believe you've ever actually explained how the fuck you got there.

I just assume that the maid outfit finally paid off.

[gr4yJ4Y]

I remember hearing something about a discount JR Pass for gaijin/students that lasts about a month. It was a hard-to-find tidbit that someone else pointed out to me when I was planning a trip out there (that had to be canceled because funding never pulled through). I'm not sure how you'd get it or where you can find the information on it.

[Green Gibbon!]

I just assume that the maid outfit finally paid off.

It was the kitty ears that clinched the deal.

[CM August]

So you're cool with showing a clueless visitor around for a while? Not that I know whether a trip up there can fit into the 'schedule' yet, but anyway.

[Green Gibbon!]

Sure, if you'll be around here. But if you're just after touristy stuff, there's nothing but skiing at this time of year, which is outside my realm of experience.

Some really pretty country, though.

[CM August]

Well, I'm off to the airport tomorrow morning. Morioka's looking unlikely, but hey, looks to be a full trip regardless. See you all when I get back, in like 11 days or so. Wish me luck!

[Senbei]

Have fun!

[CM August]

Oh hey, I'm back. And it was bloody fantastic.

[Protodude]

So....care to expand? What did you like best? Any pictures or stories to share? Harrowing tales of adventure and lost love?

As someone who wants to visit Japan but probably never will I'm curious.

[Radrappy]

Forget all that. What's GG look like?

[CM August]

I've yet to recieve a photo CD from my brother (we shared a camera) so image updates are pending. Still, I'll recap a few highlights.

The first 4 days were spent in Tokyo after arriving at Narita airport in the evening of Dec 30th. On New Years Eve we did city sightseeing, namely Tokyo Tower and a temple at the foot of it. On New Years Day we visited Tokyo Disneyland, my first experience at a Disney-related park. Despite everything being in moonspeak, it was still an awesome experience. Jan 2nd we went to the Imperial Palace see the Emperor on his rare public apearance day (along with like a third of the city), but missed him by a few minutes.

The day we traveled by Shinkansen to the mountains would pretty much be my highlight of the whole trip. I'd never seen snow before, so to finally see it on the ground and falling from the sky had a huge impact. And I have to mention it was THICK - Hakuba got absolutely shat on before and during our stay, compared to pitiful snowfalls in the last couple of years. In many places the snow was virtually shoulder height from the ground, with roads looking more like canals. At the resort I took ski lessons, which went quite well all things considered. Getting the opportunity to ski in both fine and near-snowstorm weather was a great experience. The snow was also of exceptional quality - my brother's father-in-law, who's a veteran skiier from Canada, had never seen anything like it. Sadly he shredded his achilles tendon from a bad fall on just the second day of skiing, so he can now look forward to a year of rehab. All went well for me though!

Went on the snow monkey tour while we were there, which was excellent because a) I'd never seen monkeys before, and b) there's no barrier whatsoever between tourists and monkeys, yet they're completely oblivious to human presence. They'll fool around just inches from you, and it's no big deal at all. Plus it's crazy to see him bathing in the hot spring.

Uh, I better wrap this up. We paid a brief visit to Matsumoto Castle on the train out of Hakuba, stayed in Kyoto for two days (soso, but their central train station plaza is absurdly extravagant) and went to Osaka Aquarium on the last day. Which was quite awesome, but incredibly packed with people. I flew out from Osaka Kansai airport while my brother and his wife went on to Hiroshima (they wanted to do it alone, the swine) - I had not been informed that Kansai airport is actually way out on a man-made island, so that was one last shocker of the experience. Predictably, customs and baggage back home took three times as long.

TL;DR: I didn't go to see Gibbon, as Morioka was too goddamn far. And once it turned out I liked skiing, there were no free days to play with. Plus the trip turned out to be much more family-oriented than I expected, so I pretty much stuck with the group. There's always next time, hey?

[Xyton]

Not to steal your thunder, but someone from a blog I read just went himself, and also seemed to enjoy it. Here's a link if you wanna see what was similar or different for him:
http://vjarmy.com/archives/2010/01/toky ... pendix.php

[Dr. BUGMAN]

I'm always surprised how someone could be wowed by snow. Spending my life in the shit, it really feels mundane and frankly a nuisance.

[Delphine]

Ferreal. Everyone here in SoCal wants to know what snow is like. "Cold, wet, and in the way" doesn't seem to satisfy them.

[Senbei]

One day at school in Vermont, my friends and I skipped class so we could go sledding and introduce one friend from California to snow. No mercy -- snowballs, snow stuffed down the back of his jacket -- we baptized the shit out of him. It was a lot of fun, but even he was tired of the stuff by February.