Japan Journal 2008

Getting there and around

Story/Tip

Quote:

I travelled to Japan from my current home in Bermuda via New York, the flight from New York is about 14 hours and I paid for it with air miles. I chose to fly to and from Tokyo (Narita airport), however it is also possible to fly to Osaka (Kansai) which is about 350 miles away and convenient for Kyoto, the old capital and in my view a must see destination in any Japan trip. It is also fairly common to fly into one airport and out of another.Narita Airport is about 80km from the centre of Tokyo and taxis are very expensive, it would easily cost £150 in a taxi so the best advice is to take the train or an airport bus into the city. I am not sure how much this cost as uncharacteristically ...Read More

I travelled to Japan from my current home in Bermuda via New York, the flight from New York is about 14 hours and I paid for it with air miles. I chose to fly to and from Tokyo (Narita airport), however it is also possible to fly to Osaka (Kansai) which is about 350 miles away and convenient for Kyoto, the old capital and in my view a must see destination in any Japan trip. It is also fairly common to fly into one airport and out of another.

Narita Airport is about 80km from the centre of Tokyo and taxis are very expensive, it would easily cost £150 in a taxi so the best advice is to take the train or an airport bus into the city. I am not sure how much this cost as uncharacteristically we had not researched properly and ended up jumping into one of only three taxis outside the airport. We jumped out and diverted to a train station somewhere between Narita and Tokyo once we saw the fare increasing at an alarming rate. The train fare from wherever we were was £5 each. On the way back we took an airport bus which picked up at the hotel and this cost £15 each and took just under two hours.

We visited four different parts of Japan on our trip and made most of the journeys by Shinkansen, the bullet train. It makes a lot of sense to buy a Japan Rail pass which allows unlimited travel for one, two or three weeks, see www.japantravel.co.uk for details of where to buy. The costs for the different durations are roughly £140, £225, £275 respectively in ordinary class or £170, £300, £400 in green (first) class. You need to buy an exchange order for the rail pass before you enter Japan and this can be exchanged for the pass at the airport or any station once in Japan.

We did not buy the rail pass as this is not so easy to do from Bermuda. Also we wanted to travel on the Nozomi (super express) bullet trains, which you cannot do with the pass. I had thought the Nozomi would be a very different kind of train to the other Shinkansen but it was not really, it just made less stops along the way. Most of our trips were on the Nozomi.

I definitely recommend the green class, we made one journey in ordinary class and it was noticeably less comfortable and more crowded than green. The trains were in very good condition and we never got tired of watching the trains come and go and have taken many photographs of them. We are by no means train-spotters, but they are a very different shape to the trains we know. Another difference is they run on time, our first journey was almost 1,000km and we arrived the exact minute we were supposed to.

We explored Tokyo using the subway and local train system. It was extremely easy to buy tickets and navigate the system. The only slightly confusing part was leaving the station, much bigger than any station on the London underground, with many exits and it is not always easy to work out which one you need. We avoided using the subway during rush hour as we have heard it can be extremely crowded, it was absolutely fine at the times of day we did use it.

We also attempted to use the subway in Kyoto, however after staring at the map for quite some time we had to give up and get a taxi. It was very confusing and the stations did not appear to even have the same names as the stations in our guide book map of the system, hence we could not work out where we needed to head.

Taxis in all of the places we visited were plentiful, in fact so plentiful I am not sure how a taxi driver could make a living. For short journeys around a city, the prices are reasonable. Japanese taxi drivers take great pride on their vehicles which are spotlessly clean and most are adorned with lace doilies, the taxi drivers all wear white gloves and the doors will open automatically. You do not need to tip the taxi driver, I think it might be slightly insulting. In fact tipping is not expected anywhere, I found that quite refreshing as it is sometimes difficult to know what is the right amount to tip from one country to the next.

Read Less

Cheer!
Flag

Japan

Attraction | "Oversight of Japan - a Thoroughly Modern Country"

Quote:

I had established some years ago that when I went to Japan, the best time would be Spring or Autumn. The summer can get hot, humid and wet and the winter is a bit too cold for my liking on holiday. We had great weather in March, it was warmer that we expected in fact, averaging about 15c and we had rainfall on two out of fourteen days. Those days were a total wash out though, it can rain for a long time and seemed heavier than typical rain in UK. My trip started in Tokyo and I used the famous bullet train to travel around the country, selecting a few stop offs along the way and then returning to Tokyo for the final few nights.Tokyo~~~~We started and ended in Tok...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on June 29, 2009

Cheer!
Flag

Eating and Drinking in Japan

Story/Tip

Dinner in our Kyoto ryokan Photo - Japan, Asia

Quote:

Unlike say London, which has a very international restaurant scene, I found that the cuisine on offer in Japan was predominantly Japanese. We saw a relatively small number of non-Japanese places to eat and those we did see tended to be fast food joints. I would hasten to add that we enjoy and were more than happy to stick with Japanese food, but this was our observation.Our guidebook informed us that there were thousands of places to eat in the main centres of Tokyo and Kyoto and I am sure this is true. Nevertheless we did experiences some difficulties. Firstly, many places are quite small, with some seats along a bar and perhaps a few tables elsewhere, this meant there tended to be qu...Read More

Unlike say London, which has a very international restaurant scene, I found that the cuisine on offer in Japan was predominantly Japanese. We saw a relatively small number of non-Japanese places to eat and those we did see tended to be fast food joints. I would hasten to add that we enjoy and were more than happy to stick with Japanese food, but this was our observation.

Our guidebook informed us that there were thousands of places to eat in the main centres of Tokyo and Kyoto and I am sure this is true. Nevertheless we did experiences some difficulties. Firstly, many places are quite small, with some seats along a bar and perhaps a few tables elsewhere, this meant there tended to be queues which put us off somewhat. I have a rule, I never queue for restaurants.

The next problem was menu. We found only a few places provided English menus and / or had staff who spoke English. Most of the time, we had to choose from a picture menu, but not all have these either. We certainly ended up leaving several establishments as there was no English menu, picture menu and no English spoken.

Once we did get to eat, the standard was very high in the overwhelming majority of places, I definitely thought there was much less hit and miss about the eating experience as there can be in other cities and particularly when walking in off the street. Accordingly my tip for dining; is that if you find somewhere that is not busy and has a picture menu then you might as well give it a try rather than shop around for somewhere else. During the first few days of our holiday, we passed up some places only to regret it an hour or two later when we couldn’t find anywhere else.

One tends to assume Japanese food is predominately sushi, of which we are huge fans, so I was surprised that we did not have it very often, in fact the only place we did was in the ryokans. We saw a few sushi bars, however found these were significantly outnumbered by the outlets serving noodles, rice dishes, gyoza (steamed dumplings) or panko (breaded) chicken or pork.

I found the eating experience to be a functional one, people would come in, eat, then leave more or less immediately, no lingering over a glass of wine or beer at lunch. Prices were very reasonable, we usually only drunk water and then spent about £5 each on lunch, £10 at the most expensive place.

We did not eat out in the evening very often, we had several nights in ryokans where the meal is provided and we also ate in the hotel restaurants a couple of nights, I got the impression however having dinner out was much the same experience as lunch, i.e. quick and functional. I could not possibly say that there are not restaurants offering a traditional western style dining experience, but we did not find any outside the hotels.

Dinner in the ryokan was certainly a novelty and something I had looked forward to a lot. Dinner is served in your own room whilst you are sat on the floor and there can be up to ten small courses served one at a time. I enjoyed the ceremony part of it all, however some of the food was maybe just a little bit too authentic! I will never forget the moment we realised the bowl of glass udon noodles were actually baby eels.

We were a little disappointed with "nightlife" in Japan, even in Tokyo. There did not seem to be much on offer for 30-something couples. I believe that Tokyo has an exciting nightclub scene, but that does not interest me anymore (not for these last ten years) and the rest seemed to be rather dodgy looking places, with dodgy sounding names that I am not sure a man should take his wife too.

In Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima we found ourselves wandering the town just looking for a "normal" pub or bar in which to have a quiet drink. On most nights we failed to find a single venue suitable despite wandering around the busiest part of town for over an hour. In Kyoto we came across a wine bar, however the cheapest bottle of wine was £250, so we swiftly left. In Hiroshima none of the three pubs in our guidebook actually existed and finally in Tokyo on our last night we found an Irish bar that was worth staying in for more than one drink. I did have to drink Guinness though, wine in Japan is universally awful. They are not a nation of saki, not wine, drinkers.
Read Less

Cheer!
Flag

Mandarin Oriental

Hotel | "A Good Start"

Quote:

I have been interested in trying the Mandarin Oriental chain for a while. As we had already decided that Japan was going to be a holiday of indulgence, the Tokyo Mandarin seemed a good place to try the brand. After our flight from New York, we travelled into the city by train arriving at "Tokyo Station". I believe most people would arrive here as it is a very expensive taxi ride from the airport and the hotel private transfer was a whopping £250 each way. The hotel is located near the station but not really walking distance with big luggage. Upon arrival we were greeted by a bellman who took charge of the luggage whilst an assistant escorted us to reception on the 38th floor. Check in...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on June 26, 2009

Mandarin Oriental
2-1-1 Nihonbashi Muromachi
Tokyo
+81 (3) 3270 8800

Cheer!
Flag

Tamahan

Hotel | "Traditional Japanese Lodgings"

Quote:

Kyoto was the third stop on my tour of Japan. I imagined that the city would represent old Japan and indeed the style of architecture, number of temples and shrines and the common sight of geisha girls going about their daily business, reinforced my preconception. It was therefore fitting that we would try the traditional Japanese style accommodation, the ryokan, for the first time in Kyoto.Although we wanted traditional, the holiday was something of an indulgence for us, so we were not going for budget. We therefore contemplated our options in the luxury end of the ryokan market and finally decided on the Tamahan. We made out booking through www.japaneseguesthouses.com , who were also...Read More

Kyoto was the third stop on my tour of Japan. I imagined that the city would represent old Japan and indeed the style of architecture, number of temples and shrines and the common sight of geisha girls going about their daily business, reinforced my preconception. It was therefore fitting that we would try the traditional Japanese style accommodation, the ryokan, for the first time in Kyoto.

Although we wanted traditional, the holiday was something of an indulgence for us, so we were not going for budget. We therefore contemplated our options in the luxury end of the ryokan market and finally decided on the Tamahan. We made out booking through www.japaneseguesthouses.com , who were also very helpful in answering initial queries concerning the rooms, bathroom facilities etc.

Tamahan is situated in Gion, the historical part of Kyoto. It is on a small side street, but only moments from thriving, old-fashioned market streets. We were doubly fortunate to be staying during the annual (I think) Festival of Lanterns. In the evenings the streets were lit up by trails of lanterns, the shrines were illuminated and the shops and stalls were open until late, we loved wandering around in the evenings.

We arrived in Kyoto by train and took a taxi to the ryokan, it is advisable to print out the address in Japanese script to avoid potential language barriers with the taxi driver, who probably will not understand English. We were very impressed upon arrival and excited to be staying in such a traditional looking establishment, so far we had only seen a very modern Japan. The entrance is down a shady garden path and a curtain is over the doorway, which is kept open most of the time. There are only about ten rooms at the ryokan and presumably we were the only people due to arrive that day as we were greeted by name and invited to take a seat on the steps by the doorway to change out of our shoes and into provided slippers.

Suitably booted we were shown to our room. It was large, with straw tatami floor coverings and the furnishings comprised a very low table, cushions and Japanese artwork. We were delighted and really felt we were in Japan. Kimonons were provided for both of us, which we tended to wear during dinner and most of the time we were in the ryokan.

A number of rooms will share bathroom facilities, but we decided to take a room with private facilities. The loo was western style which we were pleased about as we saw no need to go overboard with our need to get an authentic experience. The bath was Japanese style though and it was fabulous. It was a small, square but a very deep wooden tub with a lid. Each evening it was run for us and a few lemons were chucked in as this ... actually I don’t know exactly what this did ... but we liked it. The lid was great too as the bath was run at anytime in the afternoon and kept the water warm until we wanted to use it.

The evening meal would be served at whatever time was requested earlier in the day. To start with, water and any other drinks ordered would be brought through and at this point we knew we should take our positions kneeling or sitting on cushions on the floor on either side of our very low dining room table. Courses were very traditional, small and served one at a time. On the whole the staff knew how long to leave it before returning to the room to collect the empty dishes. A meal comprised about eight to ten courses, it was very interesting although some courses were hard work. And some were a bit too slimy for me, like the baby eels. An experience not to be missed, although on our third night I have to confess we decided to eat out!

With the evening meal finished, the staff would clear away the plates, bring some tea and then lay out the futons and duvets for the night. We slept very comfortably and whilst the walls are not designed to be sound proofed, nobody comes to a traditional ryokan to make noise and the other guests were after the same peace and quiet as we were. Breakfast is also provided as standard, there is a choice of western or Japanese breakfast. Much as we love to try other cuisines, when it comes to breakfast we prefer western style and so this is what we opted for. It was served in courses, a bit like the dinner although not nearly as many courses. We received eggs, toast, yogurt, honey and fruit and it was a great start to the day.
Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on June 29, 2009

Tamahan
477 Gion, Shimogawara-cho
Kyoto, Japan
81(75)561-3188

Cheer!
Flag

Park Hyatt Tokyo

Hotel | "Lost in Pretension"

Quote:

My recent holiday to Japan included six nights in Tokyo, four at the beginning and two at the end. We had saved money by booking flights with air miles and it just seemed that time of year to splurge on five star accommodation. We decided to book different hotels for the nights at the beginning and end of the holiday, partly so we could plan our sight seeing more efficiently but mainly just for the variety.The Park Hyatt hotel is probably most famous for being the hotel of choice in the "Lost in Translation" film. It looked very stylish and fashionable in the film and I must admit that is the main reason I chose it.The hotel is based in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, which is one ...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on June 25, 2009

Park Hyatt Tokyo
3-7-1-2 Nishi Shinjuku
Tokyo, Japan 163-1055
81-3-5322-1234

Cheer!
Flag

IgoUgo

Japan Journals

Japan Journal 2008

Getting there and around

Japan

Eating and Drinking in Japan

Mandarin Oriental

Tamahan

Park Hyatt Tokyo

About the Writer

More Journals by Cat19

More Japan Journals

Japan Tips & Stories

Popular Japan Hotels