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Ok, now that all this talk of Super Toilets and Panty Vending Machines is behind us let's get back onto the actual topic of visitng japan
Might check that stuff out in Hiroshima while we're there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord_Zed
for those of you who have been to japan before (particularly in osaka and hiroshima) what hotels did you stay at and could you please review said hotels
Hiroshima was a day trip for me, so can't comment on the hotel.
Osaka, had stayed (mainly) at Flexstay Shinsaibashi. Quiet, clean, loads of eatery around. Near Daimaru. This is more of a retail therapy area.
The other was ANA Osaka (1 night only). Like any 5 star. Had a cheap rate for it.
Hakone, we stay at an excellent onsen. Kyoto was a lovely homestay. Tokyo, we went with a fairly budget accomodation, which was fairly good but the prices was similar to ANA Osaka (maybe slightly lower).
Let me know if you want the latter 3 places.
Thanks for the info Saintly, we've already found places to stay at in Tokyo, but I'd like to hear a little more about the places you stayed in OsakaQuote:
Originally Posted by Saintly
Update on my plans for Japan, i will now be going with 3 friends at the end of the year instead of 1 friend
my friends consist of
a glutton
a perv
and an otaku
so i need to come up with ideas that each of us would enjoy and find hotels that have rooms for 4 people (hotel i was looking at for tokyo was 3 people maximum)
i guess i should provide more info than that
Friend A: likes gundam, food, Super Sentai, kamen rider, anime, arcades, video games
Friend B: Likes Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, anime, and some other things i wont mention
Friend C: Likes Anime, Manga, Video Games, and wants to go to a "Maid Cafe"
so if anyone knows any places any of my friends might like then please suggest away
also if you've stayed at any hotels that have rooms for 4 people please review/rate them
Hey Firestorm, sorry that I hadn't replied... took awhile for this thread to resurfaced or find :oQuote:
Originally Posted by Firestorm
The ANA Osaka (http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/cp/1/en/hotel/osaja). I can't really comment on the area as I didn't do much exploring (just wanted to sleep after 13hrs of flight and transit, the next morning we left for Tokyo). But the rooms, well.. it's 5 star, great views of the river.
Flexstay Shinsaibashi -> http://www.wmt-osaka.com/shinsaibashi/
The entry is up a flight (5 to 7 steps) of stairs, through the nightguard door then in the lift to reception. You would use the same lift to go up to the room floors. The reception area is like a clinic! as in spotlessly clean! The rooms, are also clean but had some cigarette residue smell. I noticed that they did try their best to get rid of the smell by putting air fresheners in the room. 1 of the 2 rooms we had, was dimly lit and was not sure if they could do anything about it.
In terms of going with 4 people, email (if available) the accomodation places to see what they have for 4 people, checkin/checkout dates as some places don't actually include it in their online reservation system and see what their options/responses are.
Akibahara and DenDen town has a few of those "things I won't mention" and "maid cafe" places. I didn't go looking but they are obvious especially down side streets but more so in Akibahara.
Hope that helps!
thanks for the info Saintly, i'll look into those places and might discuss them with my friends
well with the addition of 2 more people here is the current plan for my japan trip
Osaka (all four of us)
Stay at hotel
go to Osaka castle
go to Den Den Town
Solo Time (where we all split up to do stuff we want to do)
Me and the friend i was originally travelling with will be going to Hiroshima during this time and going to Miyajima while we are there, whilst Friend B will be visiting friends he made the last 2 times he was in Japan, and i have no idea what Friend C will be doing)
Tokyo (all 4 of us)
we'll all meet up again in tokyo and stay at hotels together
go to Akihabara
go to Shibuya
go to Odaiba
go to Ikebukuro
Karaoke
go to Tokyo Tower
now the only problem is getting enough money
while i'm talking about money, does anyone know how much i could sell 3 game and watch games for? I've got Donkey Kong J.R, Fire and Mario Bros (with a dual screen) the boxes of all 3 are pretty beaten up but for how old these things are that is kinda to be expected, the styrophome trays inside the boxes are pretty much complete (one has a bit of damage) all 3 come with their instructions and as for the actual game and watches themselves they are in incredible condition like as if they were never removed from the boxes, selling them might help me money wise for japan
Roppongi is Tokyo's red light district if your perv friend wants to... ya know. ;)
Weell, I dont know of anyplace in Japan as Ive never been but as per your general description of your party members your in the right place :D. You can prolly go to a resto with geishas, have friend A pig out on the food, Friend B perv at the geishas (although that might be frowned upon greatly) and have friend C take snappy shots at the geishas as they're in their colorful costumes like anime coxplay people:D:D
haha, might be a good suggestion for him, sadly (sorta) it doesnt seem like he can come as he will not be able to afford the whole tripQuote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
well Friend B Probably isnt comming and Friend C is unsure if he can go, but it seems likely he canQuote:
Originally Posted by liegeprime
To save money we might be flying with Jetstar instead of Japan Airlines, (it'll save us about $800-900 each)
i think i've foind some farly good hotels in tokyo and osaka that just leaves hiroshima
then the only other problem is getting enough money to actually go, i have saved $800 so far but that is only about 1/7 of how much i'll probably need i'll be getting paid about $300 next week and all of it is going towards japan, I'm gonna have to cut back on buying transformers for a while (sadly) but it is for a good cause (going to japan to buy MORE transformers lol)
I'm not going till mid december but it would be a good idea to start buying/reserving things before hand (eg flights, accomodation etc)
by my calculations it should cost roughly 5000-6000 dollars (excluding spending money) ... i think i might need a second job ...
How long is it that you are going for?Quote:
Originally Posted by Firestorm
You can always try sleeping in transit (that's if you are going on distant locations) to save on accomodation.
We're going for about a month mid december to mid-late janQuote:
Originally Posted by Saintly
Urrrgggghhh I NEED MONEY!!!!!!
i've got a little over $1000 saved so far which is only about 1/6 of the total trip cost (and that's without counting spending money)
with April coming to an end that only gives me 7 months to earn the other $5000 plus spending money
wish me luck everyone, I'm gonna need it (sigh)
oh and if anyone cares about my little Friend A Friend B Friend C problem i was having a while ago, it seems to have all fizzeled down to nothing, Friend C doesnt think he'll be able to go now, Friend B is now going in september so it's back to just me and friend A going in december (i hope)
Look on the bright side, at least you don't need to accomodate for everyone else's needs :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Firestorm
My trip is almost a month away, and my friend is only hanging around for half of it. But as Saintly said, on the plus side the less people the less you have to accomodate, so you can spend even more time shopping etc, or going where you please. When I went to Japan on a tour, I always snuck of in the afternoon or evenings so I could explore at my own pace, and check out anything that caught my interest.Quote:
Originally Posted by Firestorm
I thought that was in Kabukicho, which also happens to be near where I'm staying, but for the convenience of Shinjuku station rather than any perverted reason.:pQuote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
So you claim....:p;) heheheheQuote:
Originally Posted by Lord_Zed
Are there like backpackers accomodation in Japan? Coz from the sounds of it, its kinda expensive living there just for a few weeks holiday:( ( excluding the toybuying of course)
living in Japan is expensive period.
1000JPY for 1kg of rice?!? Gah!! :( Transformers are cheaper though. :) :D
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saintly
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord_Zed
Yeah, to be honest I'm kinda glad those 2 arent coming since now my friend and I can do more of the stuff we want to do and we dont have to do the things they wanted to do.
but we've had to recalculate hotel costs for 2 people instead of 3 (and in one case we had to find a new hotel since there were no 2 person rooms available for when we wanted to stay there)
There is I believe, There are also guest houses (shared accomidation) In my case though I'm renting a tiny apartment through Sakura house, so I don't have to share and can use it as a home base and to store toys maybe. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by liegeprime
The rent is ok, no more than here and it's 15 minutes from one of the hearts of town (Tokyo has many).
It is quite exspensive, although he we live in Sydney so were already halfway there. If you go where the locals go, it can be not too bad though, last time I paid less eating out than I would here,transport was cheaper too, if anything toys are the most exspensive part. Ofcourse it varies too, and lots of places charge hideous prices for simple services. Don't go to any restaraunt that the hotel reccomends, they always send you to exspensive fancy places that cost a fortune.
Impulse holiday! Going to Japan in July, touring Tokyo->Osaka in 20 or so days
I'm gonna test drive some of the tips on this thread Firestorm and hopefully add some more when I return.
Awesome, I hope you have fun over there, and i look forward to your report when you get back
Thought I'd reopen this thread seeing as how I'm in Japan. So far found some cool stuff, and yeah, food, transport and accommodation aren't to bad if you shop around.
I have one toy buying tip though, it pays to roam, so far I fround some awesome TF bargains in the out of the way stores that aren't in a prime location, even saw a ROTF Devestator for around $75 not that I'd want to hall that back.
I even found a store with the Botcon Toys, by which I mean this years Botcon toys. Not cheap though.:eek:
Cool, I hope your having fun over there, I cant wait till I get over threre so i can roam the back streets of Akiba hunting down Transformers .... as well as you know see the sights, try the food, etcQuote:
Originally Posted by Lord_Zed
I guess I have an update for my Japan Trip too, I have now purchased my ticket, i will be flying out on the 17th of December 2010 from Melbourne to Tokyo (via Gold Coast) and will be returning on the 22nd of Janruary 2011 From Osaka to Melbourne (Via Cairns)
After buying my ticket my savings for Japan have gone down to $2100 and i still need to find hotels and pay for my Rail pass, then i just need to get money for food and spending, wish december would hurry up and come!!
So how expensive are "ordinary" transformers over there? (Eg an Animated Deluxe)
hehehe now you literally will be eating Ramen for weeks while in Japan:D:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Firestorm
I doubt there's anything there but i might be wrong. There's a Kiddy Land that you can go to at Akihabara. TFs are expensive there but there's other goodies which you might like to grab.Quote:
Originally Posted by Firestorm
Takara Animated Toys from what I saw at an expensive place around end March 2010; so budget to grab them below those prices unless you're happy to pay for them at that range.Quote:
So how expensive are "ordinary" transformers over there? (Eg an Animated Deluxe)
Deluxes - 1980Y to 2400Y/2415Y
Voyager+Deluxe 2pack - 5985Y
Voyager - 3780Y
Deluxe 2pack - 4700Y
Legend - 1260Y
Lord Zed should post an extensive walkthrough of what/where he's been since he's saying he found cheap finds and what not, would help a lot not just Firestorm here, but those planning sometime to go there.
You mustve gone to the expensive places Icy. I like the beer place you went to though :D:D not that I drink beer, but its a curio place for me.
that's a tourist spot that i took down prices for and went to the common shopping area and bought cheaper ones :D so those prices are the max i'll pay if i have the money or if i want all of the Takara Animated TFsQuote:
Originally Posted by liegeprime
It's now time to reinstate that old sig of your dude!Quote:
Originally Posted by liegeprime
There're actually a lot of TFs in the Akihabara area (as I'm sure kurdt_the_goat and jetfire would know this too). I've seen recent release TFs in every second toy or game or manga store that I walked into. I paid very little attention to these though and I did price conversions for 1 or 2 items out of curiousity. I remember the worked out to be more or less the same as AU pre-sale retail prices. However, Jap released stuff will be cheaper. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by iceburn
Quote:
Originally Posted by heroic_decepticon
oops... yah my bad. i was thinking about somewhere else!! i.e. Harjuku
yes, Akihabara has lots!!!!!
Are you sure its not the maids cafes and et al your thinking about Icy?:p;)Quote:
Originally Posted by iceburn
hahahahaa u saw my photos..what do you thinkQuote:
Originally Posted by liegeprime
where? I wanna see.... :DQuote:
Originally Posted by iceburn
In his Facebook account , tons of photos some very interesting places he hanged out in:DQuote:
Originally Posted by heroic_decepticon
oh, guess that's why. I don't have you guys' facebook contacts... heh.Quote:
Originally Posted by liegeprime
whats yoursQuote:
Originally Posted by heroic_decepticon
heroic_decepticon@yahoo.com.sgQuote:
Originally Posted by iceburn
please add me (and leave a quick message with you useID so I know who you are and don't reject)
I'll see what I can do when I get back. A lot of the main shops charge like a wounded bull, or are the same as here. There are a few hidden away that were doing 1088 yen Deluxes and the like on ROTF stuff, even found some cheap Binaltechs. There more likely clearance sales of older toys, as I haven't seen any really cheap Animated yet, though Voyagers are still better priced than OZ.Quote:
Originally Posted by liegeprime
In the non Toy area been to some cool places, including two rather awesome bars, and as someone who seldom drinks thats high praise. I went to Kagaya the maddest bar in Tokyo on Friday. Behind me is the bartender.
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/d...r/IMG_0910.jpg
I'm taking the same flight route, bar that I actually return to Melbourne from Osaka via gold coast as well. I hope the Jetstar flight is worth the $300 saved from not going with a major carrier.Quote:
Originally Posted by Firestorm
My advice with hotels is to thoroughly shop around. I found that every day I searched I found a better deal than with the previous day.
Admittedly I haven't done nearly as much research on nightspots than I have on toygawking. Any more suggestions on cool places to hang out Lord Zed?Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord_Zed
how long are you staying for? you could order some revoltech assembleborg there :P (i want the new green one)
Well traveled around a couple places in Japan now. Went to the Silver Pavilion in Kyoto, (I've already been to the much more famous gold one). Also went to Hirsohima and Miwa Jima. Stayed in a traditional Japanese Ryokan on Miya Jima and walked down a mountain rather cool.
Just some tips for those travelling to Japan in the future. On the toy front the back srtreets of Akihabara, and Den Den town are still the best places I've found for toys, yes there are some high prices out there, but those who hunt should find bargains. Also Mandarake secondhand stores are also a good place to find bargains, it's all mostly second hand, but its all still packaged.
On the non toy front I've found food in Japan can be quite cheap, as little 540 yen could get you a decent meal like the Katsudon + 100 yen for a salad I had tonight. On the other hand there are some quite fancy pricey meals too. but there easy to avoid. Eat where the working class does if you need to save yen.
Also accommodation so far has been quite cheap around 6000-7000 Yen each a night on average for a quite decent hotel, the one we stayed in at Kyoto was the most impressive bargain, the New Miyako I recommend it right near the station. The Ryokan was more but it was worth it. Entry fees also very cheap, castles, shrines usually set you back around 500-1000 yen on average. Going to the super Aquarium at Osaka tomorrow, probably one of the priciest entry fees I've encountered at 2000 yen, but thats nothing compared to OZ.
On the way to Hiroshima I noticed some cranes (not the bird) around Himeji Castle. Apparently its undergoing major restoration work which will not be fully completed till 2015 or so. So you may want to reconsider visiting there, parts of it will be closed of till 2011 at least I didn't end up going went to the Kure Yamoto ( the ship not the toy company) museum in Kure instead, quite cool. As an alternative to Himeji Castle I recomend Matsumoto Castle I went on Monday, very nice old castle not a rebuilt one. It's not as big as Himeji but its quite pretty and can be done as a day trip from Tokyo. We also got a free quide.:)
Also I can't recommend Miya Jima enough, so pretty and tranquil, spend a day and night there if you can.
I've just been following my friend who researched some places, or has previous experience. So far Kagaya's is a cool crazy bar, you need to book though more details when I find his business card. Zoetrope is a whiskey bar in Shinjuku which has a scifi movie theme, trailers of scifi and fantasy films are played on a screen in the background. I've heard there is a Submarine themed bar in Shunjuku too, but I have yet to find it. All these bars are small affairs literally run singlehandedly or near abouts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lint
I also went to the lock up restaurant, a themed restaurant where the sexily dressed warden leads you in handcuffs to a booth styled like a prison cell. There's some crazy food, and the drinks are strange colours and served in beakers and testubes.
If I see one, can't promise atm.Quote:
Originally Posted by kaiden
hah no, i didnt mean for me. and im not sure if you'll see any, as from what i know its bought from their online store and needs to be delivered to a japanese address (for example your hotel) the reason why i mentioned it is because i thought you liked revoltech toys as much as i do - and it would be cheaper to get it while you're in japan rather than through ebay at inflated prices.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord_Zed
im actually waiting for all of wave 3 to come out as a friend will be in japan for an exchange program and so will be able to send me all of them cheaper.
i probably should have posted the images in the revoltech thread, but im so lazy :P
but here it is for you -
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_gg-03.jpg http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_gg-02.jpg http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_gg-01.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_pp-03.jpg http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_pp-02.jpg http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_pp-01.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_ss-03.jpg http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_ss-02.jpg http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_ss-01.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_ts-01.jpg http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_ts-03.jpg http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_ts-02.jpg http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...h_cs_ts-04.jpg