Going to Japan - anyone got any advice, tips, recommendations?

Watch the NKH news channel. I used to when I had a tv.It has alsorts on it like Tokyo Fashion Express, Useful phases programs, and Tokyo Eye, which show's you round Japan

My son has just returned from a fantstic holiday in Japan, visiting Tokyo,Kyoto, Osaka, Mount Fuji and Hiroshima. He said it was the most amazing place he had ever visited , very,very expensive but worth every penny. He stayed in a traditional Japanese inn that was overlooked by Mount Fuji whiich was probably the most perfect place on earth but the thing that impressed him was the manners of everyone they met and the cleanliness of of the entire country. He told me that he felt ashamed to be British when he flew back into Heathrow. He said that he was appalled by the behaviour of the staff at the airport and could only wnder what kind of fisrst impression visitors to this country get. By the way. my son is of mixed race ,Yorkshire and Chinese( the latter having had one or two problems with the Japanese in the past) and he encountered no problems whatsoever and said how moved he and his friends were when they visited Hiroshima that the Museum made no attempt to gloss over the war crimes that had taken place .

I'm visiting Japan next year and I can't wait!

Mrs Grissom: I presumed Japan would be like this!

I'm visiting Japan next year and I can't wait!

 

Mrs Grissom: I presumed Japan would be like this!

Lucky you boutiquechoc!! You should see the photographs . It was everything you have ever imagined Japan would look like. Son and friends had drinks in the bar that was in "Lost in Translation" the round cost £120 for 6 drinks and they said it was so fabulous that they thought it was worth it. They had breakfast at the tuna market at 4am of fresh sushi that he says was the best ever and visited so many strange and wonderful places . He spent a fortune on the weird sweets they have there including strips of octopus in vinegar, angry onion sweets that are like playing Russian roulette(all the sweets are fruity exept for one which looks the same but tastes of onion !) and a Japanese version of Kit Kat which fr some reason was meat flavoured:hihi: It really did seem to be a totally unique country ad our son said he would go back in a heartbeat. Hope you enjoy your trip too

Interesting reading. Have lived in Japan a few years now and have forgotten what its like to be a visitor over here!

To give a balanced picture on the war, (and I do not condone what happened here, I too had family imprisoned over here, just want to give a balanced picture) Japan still has not apologised to its own peoples for what happened. There is no "disability benefit" of the like for the injured civilians in areas such as Hiroshima.

On a lighter note, it is an amazing country to visit. Tattoos are still taboo, keep 'em covered when going through immigration and use discression in public places. Besides the tourist "top 10 places to see" , just walking around the cities is an experience, as the things you think will be different to back home are the same and vice versa.

Am happy to help with any questions about this place, so feel free to holler!

Persimon

got a spare ticket:)

always wanted to go to japan

Erm....daft question Panda79 but why would I have a ticket for somewhere I already am?.....

Oh, and they have there version of' Poundland '. I think the program said that they were called 100 yen shops. Also you can get alsorts from vending machines, umbellas, bread in a can, a hot can of coffee, beer, you name it.

Be careful what you buy from the vending machines.

Be careful what you buy from the vending machines.

used school girls knickers are a favorate

following from nimrods poignant, yet totally irrelevant post, the only time i felt truly out of place in japan was when i visited hiroshima.

 

i spent most of the day in tears and felt a bizarre sense of guilt for an event that i, and none of my family, were anything to do with. the only link is that i had an interest in the city and that my brothers birthday is the same date the bomb was dropped...only 30 odd years later.

 

the museum (built on the site of the epicentre of the blast) is incredibly moving, horrifying and shocking all at the same time.

 

however, i experienced genuine warmth and inclusion everywhere i went- something which i didnt feel i deserved. it was quite an emotionally draining 2 days, but something im very glad a did.

 

curiously, at the time i was there, there was a stereotypical american tourist (middle aged, fat, loud shirt and voice and a huge camera) who was making some particularly innappropriate comments during his tour of the museum....i was so, so, ashamed and it only added to my inexplicable feeling of guilt.

 

 

x

don"t go to cambodia then, you'll be in therapy for life love. maybe to help you to get over the" inexplicable emotional self induced guilt "you felt in hiroshima you could think of the lives it saved by bringing the war to an earlier close ,instead of the horrific fire bombing of cities that claimed alot more lives

If you're starting in Tokyo and can't sleep or wake up early because of jetlag I recommend Tsukiji fish market if you're anywhere near it - it's a hive of activity in the early hours (4am to 6am probably best). Not an obvious tourist option but it's mind boggling to see the amount and variety of fish there, and the huge frozen tunas that gradually defrost as the dawn approaches. Given the Japanese attachment to fish I think it's a must-see.