Trip to Japan Help?

[Kangaroo Rat]

Alright, so a friend of mine and I are planning a trip for next summer. We managed to get free air-fare anywhere in the world, and have at this point narrowed down our options to Italy and Japan.

As we plan this out, I've been trying to get a feel for ways to weigh the pro's and con's. We've found some websites, guide books, but the information isn't good enough to be conclusive.

Basically what I'm hoping you guys can help me with is for a trip to Japan
1. How Expensive is food/lodging.
2. What kinds of lodging are worth trying (hotels?ryokans?temples?hotspringresorts ?)
3. How difficult/expensive is travel within the country? Trains? Planes?
4. What are the things that we would NEED to see
5. I've read that drinking/smoking age is 20. We're both 18. I've read that it's loosely enforced, but how true is it?

Thanks for your help.

[spookyruthy]

Trains are a good way of getting around because they're fast and efficient....if you don't mind it crowded. A pass for the day is relatively inexpensive too and it can get you to most places in Japan.

It may be an idea to invest in a week train card if you do decide to use the train.

You should really revise the Japanese town names in the kanji too. Just in case yu miss the stop and don't know where to get off.

[cris]

1. How Expensive is food/lodging.
A large meal at McDonalds (which is approximately a little bigger than a small size in america, but only by like 5% or so...) cost about 980yen. A normal and decent, non fast food is about 2000yen...but if you eat in american-size proportions, be prepared to pay more. Asian countries don't give as much amount of food compared to USA. Also, you probably will have a hard time customizing food, like Lets say you want a Double Whopper with extra onions, they will most likely either say they can't or let me ask my manager. Japanese places usually only go by their employee book and if you try to customize stuff, they don't know what to do and sometimes gives an excuse like, "It's not in the register". even until recently, it was hard to get stuff at starbucks like Carmel Machiato, 140, easy caramel, up side down, no foam. The way they think is just too narrow "if it's not in the book/told by my manager, i can't do it". Lodging is about....I think 6000yen a day for a average place, more towards 12000 to 17000ish for a Motel 6 quality.

2. What kinds of lodging are worth trying (hotels?ryokans?temples?hotspringresorts ?)
If you have the money, you should try hotsprings surrounded nothing but nature at least a day. Usually costs around 20000yen for an average place, which usually included free dinner. Make sure and check if there's "female entry times' only...cause you don't wan tto be called a pervert by accident. If you're in a city and it's just a place to sleep, just get random ones no where near love hotels. If you want to go really cheap, go to a capsule hotel..but you probably won't get a well rest. Last time I went, I think a Hilton room costed about 19000yen, but at a motel 6 quality...

3. How difficult/expensive is travel within the country? Trains? Planes?
It looks difficult at first, but you should be able to find an English guide around the station or airport. Buy it cause you will most likely need it to recognize for the map. After a day approx, you will probably understand how the map works (the maps are always above the ticket purchasing machine, at least in the cities)

4. What are the things that we would NEED to see
Depends where in Japan you're gong. Where are you going and what do you like, interests and hobbies?

5. I've read that drinking/smoking age is 20. We're both 18. I've read that it's loosely enforced, but how true is it?
It just really depends, if they can, they can really get on your *** about it and end up sitting in the kouban for hours. It just really depends on a day to day basis. In most cases, they probably would care less on drinking (long as it's not right in the public) or smoking...unless if you look really young...but if you're gaijin to the japanese, it probably wouldn't be an issue at all

[Yoshio]

lodging: it can be cheap or expensive in japan just like it can be anywhere else, it all just depends on how you plan it, when i travelled through japan last summer, i made good use of some of the youth hostels, often inexpensive (like around $25 - $45 per night, depending on where you stay) and usually full of friendly people from all around the world (i met people from sweden, czech republic, korea, and france, to name a few)

food also depends on how you plan to eat, for most of my meals i just stopped by the 7eleven equivalent that was near wherever i was staying and picked up random food there, and that way i only spent around $15 on food everyday

transportation: trains are a godsend, and i made sure to buy a railpass before going so that all i had to do was flash the pass and they would basically let me on to whichever train i wanted

drinking: all i know is that when i was going through a festival in sapporo, people were offering me beer, and i was only 16 at the time, not to mention there being beer in a number of the vending machines open to anyone with enough money to buy it

must see places: visit kyoto and see all of the history there, it was by far my favorite place in the country, also try to see hiroshima (it's definitely more moving than pearl harbor), otherwise it's up to you and whatever you want to see

[cris]

how in the hell you survive with food 2000yen a day....that's eating very little and probably not even real food....I can't do that =-( I probably spend at least 5000yen on food a day if I'm out. If I'm eating at a hotel and has a kithen, can get a week's worth grocery about little over 10,000yen =-D

Question: where is this place that's only like 3000 to 6000yen a night...cause that's like dirt cheap, cheaper than dirty love hotels...

[Yoshio]

how in the hell you survive with food 2000yen a day....that's eating very little and probably not even real food....I can't do that =-( I probably spend at least 5000yen on food a day if I'm out. If I'm eating at a hotel and has a kithen, can get a week's worth grocery about little over 10,000yen =-D

Question: where is this place that's only like 3000 to 6000yen a night...cause that's like dirt cheap, cheaper than dirty love hotels...
i basically went with a very small breakfast (2 nigiri and a lipton milk tea) and no lunch (i usually forgot to eat lunch because i was busy doing the whol siteseeing thing, although i did drink a lot of coke from vending machines), and then like i said, i would just buy food at the 7eleven equivalent for dinner

and about the cheap accomodations, here's where i stayed in kyoto for 9 days http://kshouse.jp/kyoto-e/index.html
it was cheap but also a very nice place to stay, if i go to japan again, i'd probably stay at that hostel again

also, about hostels in general, using a simple site like hostelworld.com is a great way to find good places

[cris]

Hmm, not sure what a hostel is..but juding by a quick second look at the page...it's one of those places that you stay with other people and is usually a business made from a house, or a house like building (usually where the maid massage places are at...)

And as for your food eating, I don't think I can do that O.o. I still checked out Kyoto out of Japan (and Okinawa, but I don't really care for this place...I hear many stories from the native =-P)

Also, if you DO DRINK (legally), even if you're not homosexual (no offence intended), I recomend Okama-bars (which means the Mama-san's are usually a man dressed in female clothing, etc) because they usually have a really nice enviornment, if you're not into the wild bars like here in America =-P

[VacantEyes]

I own maybe a half-dozen guide books for Japan. All of them answer every single one of your questions. How did you manage to find a book that didn't?

[cris]

Vacant,

I think he just word it in a bad way. Basically, he wants an opnion from an actual person tha twent to japan, because after all, books are just books...

[Yoshio]

Vacant,

I think he just word it in a bad way. Basically, he wants an opnion from an actual person tha twent to japan, because after all, books are just books...
yeah, i agree with this, before going to japan i got a bunch of books on travel and japanese culture/language, but once i was in japan, i never really used them, so books aren't going to tell you about the country in the way many people want to know about it

[Kangaroo Rat]

Thanks a bunch everyone. Especially Yoshio and Cris.

I would like to mention that I will be taking Japanese I this coming school year (4.5 credit class... ugh). So while I won't be fluent by any means, I should be ok to at least read the signs.

And keep the advice coming, you have no idea how helpful it is to have real advice.

[Alice20th]

I'm a little too old for hostles, so what I usually look for are inexpensive ryokan or businessman's hotels. The businessman's hotels are usually very small with a single bed and minimal amenities, but they're clean, you usually don't share a bathroom and they're generally inexpensive (4000-9000 yen a night depending on the town). They can be found here:
http://www.mytrip.net/en/en_kensaku.html

As for food, you can get by for cheap by eating at ramen restaurants, curry restaurants, donburi restaurants and other similar working-class food. Six or seven hundred yen buys you a large bowl of ramen.

As others have said, be sure to get the Japan rail pass for your stay. It's expensive, but it will not be nearly as expensive or confusing as paying for the trains yourself. It won't get you everywhere since it is only for Japan Rail (JR) trains (Roppongi, for example, is only serviced by private subways), but it'll get you most places, and it can be used for all JR local trains, most express trains, and even certain bullet trains. You can even get reservations on bullet trains and the express trains that need it for free. (One such is the train from Narita airport into Tokyo.) The Rail Pass isn't as advantageous in Kyoto and Nagoya, but it will get you most anyplace you want to go in Tokyo, Osaka, and most of rural Japan.

I'd suggest you buy and use Kodansha's bilingual maps of Tokyo, the Osaka/Kyoto region, and for all of Japan. They not only have street maps with both English and Japanese letters, they also have transportation maps for subways, above-ground commuter trains, and themed tourist maps.

[Kstyle]

How much € is one yen? ¨^^

[cris]

If you type it in google.com, they usually give it to their on their own calculator. Just use keywords like: euro to yen, dollars to yen, pound to dollars and so on.

fyi: today is 1 € = 147.604628 Japanese yen

[sasami-riyo]

and 1$= 114.68 yen