Japan.

[2Cold Scorpio]

I've always wanted to see Japan, particularly the countryside; I hear its beautiful.

[Guy]

Don't forget a flag! Can't capture anywhere without sitcking a flag on it.

I've always wanted to visit Japan to experience the cutlure, but I'm not sure what to do if I got there other than eat sushi and drink saki.

Just experience the neo-metropolise that is Tokyo? Stay in one of those cube box hotels, even if its for a night?! Go window shopping for all the technology goodness, go and watch a sumo match?

[2Cold Scorpio]

Just experience the neo-metropolise that is Tokyo? Stay in one of those cube box hotels, even if its for a night?! Go window shopping for all the technology goodness, go and watch a sumo match?

Something tells me drinking saki and watching sumo wrestling would go hand in hand...

And yeah, I'd be buying a lot of tech stuff out there if/when I go...

[clearlyolly]

I came back from japan earlier this year. I'll post in the morning...

[Rave]

I went in 2001. It's a very interesting place to visit and I'd like to go back. All I took was a guidebook, I only knew about 5 words of Japanese and I got by fine. It's easy to buy food in shops and chain restaurants for example, because everything has a picture on it! You just point at what you want. I flew into Kansai International airport and spent three days in Osaka and three days in Kyoto staying in youth hostels (Kyoto is a must on your first visit to Japan IMO). I then took the overnight bus to Tokyo, which is cheaper than the bullet train and saves paying for a night's accomodation. I spent a week in Tokyo staying at the hotel I'd booked, which was a 10 minute walk from Roppongi.

Japan isn't cheap, but whether or not it's expensive depends on what you do and where you stay. The youth hostels cost about £20 a night (in 2001), and the hotel in Tokyo cost me about £350 for the week IIRC. The youth hostel in Osaka was amazing, it was under one bank of the stadium there:

http://www.nagaiyh.com/english/index.html

Seems it's gone up to £24 a night now, still good value IMO (the Yen was about 165 to the pound when I went, it's 213 to the pound right now). I used to try and eat in little chain restaurants serving noodles, stewed beef etc. like Yoshinoya- or better still Matsuya where you place your order at a little machine and then just hand your ticket to an employee to get your grub. The microwave meals from 7-11 (again you pick from a menu, and then they micro them for you) were perfectly edible. I didn't eat anywhere expensive, and so much of the money I blew when I was there went on Saturn and Dreamcast games and hardware, of which I brought- and posted- home a hell of a lot.

Reckon there is a train service from New Street?

If you want to, you can get there by train from New Street. First get down to Londinium, Eurostar to Brussels, then a train to Cologne, then the sleeper to Moscow.

http://www.seat61.com/Russia.htm

Then you get the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostock, and the ferry from Vladivostock to Japan. My wife and I plan on doing this in 2010, we might save up, take three weeks off work, and do it properly so we get plenty of time in Japan. I didn't see much outside of the cities at the bottom of Honshu, I'd like to go to Hokkaido and visit some Onsen etc.

[Lee H]

I've always wanted to see Japan, particularly the countryside; I hear its beautiful.

It is indeed. I know someone on another forum who live's in Japan and some of the photo's he has taken are absolutely stunning.

I know he's got an online image gallery so I'll check with him tonight and if it's okay, get the link for you accordingly

[steve threlfall]

Watch the latest top gear. Clarkson racing across Japan in the new GTR, against Hammond and May on the trains . It seems to be a beautiful country. Very nice scenery when they were on the cable car.

[tigerboyce]

I reeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaly want to go live there for a short amount of time, im planning on doing the 1 year English teaching jobbies after i complete my degree in another 2 years.

[JK Ferret]

Azrael's account of Japan

[TooNice]

My understanding is it's one of the most expencive countries in the world.

I think that it might well be the most expensive country in Asia (certainly is the most expensive one of the ones I've visited), but I find central London more expensive.

You won't find cosplayers everywhere, you can regularly find people dressed up outside anime conventions in Harajuku on a Sunday.

So far I've only visited Tokyo twice and loved it both times. I'd like to visit other cities such as Kyoto (former capital) and Hokkaido (skiing during the winter). I am thinking of taking a course in Japanese in SOAS coming September.

[Dareos]

I happen to have a couple of friends that are half japanese, one girl, one guy, not related at all, in any way.

After talking to them extensively over a few years I have come to the conclusion that

1 : Japanese people are all mad (this is not a bad thing btw)

2 : Tokyo is an amazing place to visit

3 : They don't all look like dark haired versions of Cloud from FF7

ok, so not extensive research, but its got me wanting to go there., preferrably on a 3-4 week visit where i can get to Singapore and Hong Kong (Thailand is a 3-4 week stay for another time)

[Baggio18]

If anyone is planning on going, I would seriously recommend Hokkaido, not only for the snow/skiing, but also for nature in general - its a very nice area. Okinawa is not bad either, although more remote.

All those stereotypes apply to Tokyo and other largish cities really, once you get outside, you meet the real people.

[capt_cornflake]

I went in 2000 for a fortnight and pretty much agree with what Rave said above.
While it was expensive, it was probably comparable with visiting London, and the exchange rate has improved dramatically since then, so it may not be that bad anymore.

While some bits of Tokyo are different, I wouldn't exactly describe it like another planet - just a slightly eccentric version of other places.

Unfortunately I didn't see that much outside the cities - the closest i got was Miyajima (an island which is a ferry ride out from Hiroshima) although that was pretty glorious.

The language wasn't that much of a problem - train stations and the like generally had english traslations of everything, and restaurants either have pictures or wee plastic models to point at.

[dpathic2001]

Definate trip location when my family are old enough.

How much like Blade Runner is it now?
\Does it stop raining?

[kalniel]

I toured there for 3 weeks, including staying with Japanese families for a portion of it for the complete experience.. and yes, it is a different world. But it's a lovely (rovely!) one.

IMHO it's the people that make the place, and the Japanese are absolutely wonderful - and they seem to love British people! We were always being stopped and talked to by lots of different people -often with voice recorders, who wanted to practise their English with someone from the UK rather than an American.

Ordering food is a completely hit and miss experience, which you just have to laugh about (they'll be laughing at you too, but it's good natured). If you get annoyed just teach them the 'red lorry, yellow lorry' tongue-twister.

Customs/ettiquette-wise it's pretty much just the opposite of over here, so sniff/wipe your nose on your sleave rather than blow it etc. If you stay with families it's worth studying some of the pleasentries and customs before hand so you don't offend/embarass - just little things like where you point your chopsticks etc. but there are a lot of things so it can take a while to learn - ditto all the Japanese phrases. However outside of families it doesn't really matter - they basically expect foreigners to be completely ignorant and not mean anything by any social faux-pas.

I think with most places you get what you put into it - so if you visit it as a distant tourist it could potentially be similar to visiting other places, but if you make the effort to engage with the people you'll find it both weird and wonderful.

As for blade runner.. yes tokyo is a bit like that, other places not. Raining.. if you go in typhoon season or in rainy season then yes.