We are here!!! Japan-Land :D

[Gerrard]

Right, I know people have said they're jealous and want to go etc., so I'll break down the approximate costs.

Flights: -

We booked with Japan Airlines (JAL) about 5 months before and it cost £525 return. However, we have found out today in the news that a bank isn't backing them at the moment, so we might not be coming back on time (what a shame ).

Accomodation: -

We are staying at Ryokan Kangetsu. To get a room like sleep has costs Y6,800 a night, which at Y140/£1 is about £48.50 a night. No meals are included though. It also costs about Y400 to get to Tokyo one way and about 30 minutes. However, Japanese railways are quite pleasant to travel on and you get to look at the scenario.

Food: -

At the current exchange rate, food seems pretty reasonable and the range is great. I would say allow Y2,000/day, but you can probably get away with Y1,000/day going to the local supermarket and stuff.

Everything else: -

So, for a 2 week holiday so far, it's going to cost around Y120,000 (say £1000, but depends on exchange rate) and another £525 for flights. So it's £1500 to get there, stay, eat and get back. So you can then budget for anything else. If you're interested in either electronics, cars or Manga, then you are going to want to set another £1000 to buy stuff; because you are going to be tempted by stuff!

So, start saving now @ £200/month and you can go next year! Today the weather was amazing! It must have been at least 25 degrees, and brilliant. I can definately recommend October. I believe there is an Autobacs car things we are going to on Tuesday (Japan's equivalent to Halfords, but actually decent!), but a bit of planning and you could go to the Japaneses Grand Prix or other actvities during the month. A bit earlier and you will miss any surcharges airlines put on for half term.

So, Hexus.holiday starting to sound good? Hopefully a lot of people will be tempted by the end of this thread in a week and a half! We are only 3 days in, and we're running out of time! I've already started to say that somethings we haven't been able to do yet, that I'll do next time/year!

Right I've also tried some stronger drink tonight of the version I had last night. It says Alc. 8%, which we thought might be 0.8%, but can now definately confirm it meant 8%, so my posts might not be that legible. I've just uploaded a load of photos, so the next post will be a blog of the day. Hopefully!

[Gerrard]

Day 3:

After breakfast we traveled to Harajuku. We first walked down a rather busy street: -



To get to a company showroom called KDDI. They sponsor the Toyota F1 team. We all got our photos taken in the car (I'll scan mine when I get back). Must admit that F1 cars are a lot smaller in person than I thought. That was the first floor (ground floor).

On the second floor was some concept and current mobile phones. It is sickening how crap and backwards the UK is. You can stream TV to your mobile in Japan (albeit only in cities). We're lucky to stream YouTube. Terry and sleepy are trying to see what work arounds they is to use import these phones! However there were some more... amusing concepts around, including these cable things: -





Here's an overview of the 2nd floor of the place: -



On the thrid floor there were more demonstrations; including Sony's Rolly. I did a 1 minute film, but there are no doubt better videos around. It's pretty cool to watch! There was also a wierd thing where you can design 3 images. You print 2 of them onto acetate, and when put over each other, shows the thrid image. You can get similar effect in IE when highlighting an image and it puts a check pattern mask over it. They also decided that touch screen TV's made remotes obsolete: -



The 4th floor was a souvenir type shop and a bloody expensive cafe on the 5th floor.

[sleepyhead]

Gerrard is quite drunk and has done a lot of stealth ninja edits. It's VERY amusing to watch.

Day 3: Harajuku stuff!!

Erm...click links to see pictures. Too drunk and tired to think of what to type for each picture. (Win)

PHONES!!! (KDDI)

Rolly!!! (KDDI)


Singers of the day on Ground (UK) / First (US) Floor

Meiji Shrine







Toyota Chaser!!!!

[Ulti]

Doesn't seem too overpriced actually. Was gonna go this year but as I'm a student it's too expensive at the moment haha. Think I'll just save up solely for a holiday to Japan in Summer 2011 or something.

[Gerrard]

After KDDI, we headed towards to Yoyogi Park via the bridge across the railway, where some entertainers can be found: -



This was to lead into Yoyogi Park: -



Which lead onto the Meiji Shrine. However, on the way we passed a couple of walls: -

A wall of sake: -



A wall of beer: -





Shrine stuff: -

[kalniel]

On the second floor was some concept and current mobile phones. It is sickening how crap and backwards the UK is. You can stream TV to your mobile in Japan (albeit only in cities). We're lucky to stream YouTube. Terry and sleepy are trying to see what work arounds they is to use import these phones! However there were some more... amusing concepts around, including these cable things: -

It's not really that we're backwards, rather that Japan is the global testing grounds for new concepts - sometimes they have the good ones, but often they just have the completely bizarre!

[TooNice]

Terry and sleepy are trying to see what work arounds they is to use import these phones!

Any point in doing that? Different system. Last time I went there, I did find some dual system phones (one that can be used in Japan and elsewhere), but they were nowhere as advanced as Japan-only phones (not worth the price tag IMO). Plus, the reason you can stream better in Tokyo is because of the network. Even if you were make those phones work in the UK, the performance would not be that great.

They also decided that touch screen TV's made remotes obsolete: -

I wonder if that's the final design, and if it would sell. For a TV, you would sit that close to it. They'd be better off with something similar to a Wiimote or lightgun.[/QUOTE]

I hope you stopped for a crepe while in Harajuku. They are glorious! It's worth pointing out that I probably spent more money on food than shopping last time I went to Japan.

Actually, I didn't see that much electronic stuff that I *must* have that is both cheaper there/or can be found here. The fact that they are on a 110V made me think twice about buying main powered toys. And some things were just plain too expensive (I liked the now discontinued AIBO).

But yeah, I've been told that October is a good time to visit. Weather is mild, and it's the season of the 'red leaves' (autumn) which is supposed to be quite a view. I'd also like to visit during cherry blossom viewing season, but that's a bit harder because it's not fixed every year.

Does any of you speak Japanese? I take it that some of you must be, if you are buying mangas/(text rich) DS games.

[Gerrard]

This is a tree where you can write wishes. As we're coming back Sunday, I think I'll write mine next week. You can also make wishes in the centre, but got told off for taking pictures in there, so I deleted them out of respect, but you make a wish by throwing coins in to a tray like thing.



There was also a wedding: -



I thought this was a unique thing; until another passed an hour later.

We then headed into the park itself. It's unbeliveable, I don't spend much time in London (well none really), but here everyone gathers for a relaxing Sunday afternoon on the glorious weather. There are loads of groups, not so much as for entertainment, but for the sake of gathering for their hobbies. To list a few (which I don't have pictures of, but I think someone else does): -

Kendo practice
Extreme frisbee
Didgeridoo group
Ukelele group (were very good)
Hacky-Sac
2-balls-on-a-string-being-falied-around
Juggling
Basket ball bouncing to rythem (meh, had to be there really)
Some sort of Reggae carnival thing (20 people plus with drums)
Percussion stuff

Anyway, think of what your Eutopia park would contain, and that was this park. People having picnics, feeding the ducks, and generally relaxing without annoying anyone else. They weren't expecting any money, it was purely to relax and enjoy themselves. This also gave me a chance to play around with time exposure shots: -









We passed over a bridge as we headed back, and the sun was setting. I've always wanted to take photos like this, and this was a pretty good setting for them: -





Anyway, the combination and some wierd alcoholic drinks, the fresh (-ish Tokyo) air and being on my feet for hours is making me quite knackered, so I think I'll call it a day there. There are more photos, but they probably need to be edited on my computer at home (with a 24" screen rather than the 10.1" on my netbook). It's Ginza tomorrow, so hopefully more fun and frolics (and photos)!

EDIT: I can hardly speak a word (hello, bye, thank you and sorry is my limit), but then I'm not buying the above stuff. I think game wise, they're slowly picking up phrases; some are probably more useful than others! It seems you can get by without speaking a word. The rail system is all duplicated in English as well, which is handy.

[sleepyhead]

Because I was editing the links to pictures...I exceeded the 20 images per post. So here is a stupid random bump for more images.

Blah

Yoyogi Park

[sleepyhead]

Any point in doing that? Different system. Last time I went there, I did find some dual system phones (one that can be used in Japan and elsewhere), but they were nowhere as advanced as Japan-only phones (not worth the price tag IMO). Plus, the reason you can stream better in Tokyo is because of the network. Even if you were make those phones work in the UK, the performance would not be that great.


I wonder if that's the final design, and if it would sell. For a TV, you would sit that close to it. They'd be better off with something similar to a Wiimote or lightgun.

I hope you stopped for a crepe while in Harajuku. They are glorious! It's worth pointing out that I probably spent more money on food than shopping last time I went to Japan.

Actually, I didn't see that much electronic stuff that I *must* have that is both cheaper there/or can be found here. The fact that they are on a 110V made me think twice about buying main powered toys. And some things were just plain too expensive (I liked the now discontinued AIBO).

But yeah, I've been told that October is a good time to visit. Weather is mild, and it's the season of the 'red leaves' (autumn) which is supposed to be quite a view. I'd also like to visit during cherry blossom viewing season, but that's a bit harder because it's not fixed every year.

Does any of you speak Japanese? I take it that some of you must be, if you are buying mangas/(text rich) DS games.

The main point of having a Keitei is the individuality of having such a novel phone in the europe. You basically lose all functionality of the phone when you take it outside of Japan (ie 1-Seg).

The TV touch screen hand thing was in jest and was for kids to play with.

We don't speak Japanese to be honest. We can get by fine; train system is soooo easy and navigating around the town (back to another station) is really simple too (until you hit a back street and get lost).

[sleepyhead]

Doesn't seem too overpriced actually. Was gonna go this year but as I'm a student it's too expensive at the moment haha. Think I'll just save up solely for a holiday to Japan in Summer 2011 or something.

...I hope you like hot and humid weather if you want to go in Summer. Good luck.

[TooNice]

Ah, man, all those places (Yoyogi park, Meiji Shrine, Harajuku) are some of my favourite places in Tokyo, and it really brings me back. Plus some of the pictures are so similar to the ones I took. I am surprised that no one took a picture of the sake containers outside the Meiji Shrine though

[Gerrard]

A wall of sake: -

You mean these Sake containers?

[tigerboyce]

Keep on posting guy's, I'm really enjoying reading everything and looking at the pictures

[Kumagoro]

If you need to send things back by post then SAL (sea air land) is reasonable.
Its not as quick as just by air but no where near as slow as just sea, probably
about two weeks I reckon. If i remember rightly its called sarubin as in SAL bin.

Don't forget to go to kabuki-cho its quite amusing at night. Also if you go to shibuya
at night, even though they have signs saying not to, just go in the hotel near by and
go up to the top in the glass lift you can get some nice shots from there.

[MJBrooky]

Wow excellent post - thanks for all the info and pics. One day I will go to Japan. Keep up the good work.