Japanaland Adventures

From BluWiki

Ideas for our Japan trip happening at the end of 2011!

Arrive in Narita Airport: December 25 @ 5:40pm

Depart from Narita Airport: January 11 @ 7:10 pm

Tokyo

• Ebisu Garden Place
• The Womb (some nightclub)
• Odaiba (Gundam?? -- Fucking this![1])
• Hot Springs
• Harajuku
• Shinjuku
• Shibuya
• Akihabara [2]
• Tokyo Tower
• Tsukiji fish market
• Ghibli Museum (tickets must be bought in advance) Ticket Website [3]

Kyoto

• Manga museum
• The Golden Temple (kinkakujin or something like that)
• Stay at a Ryokan
• Nintendo tour (
• Kiyomizudera Temple
• Fushimi Inari Shrine (the one with a torii gate)
• Hot springs

Wishlist

• Inuyama - Oldest original castle in Japan, on the way to Takayama - 150 min from Tokyo with a transfer at Nagoya
• Takayama Old Town - about 3 hours train ride from Tokyo (possible place to stay [4])
  • Okuhida Hot Springs - Very close to Takayama, very famous set of 5 hot spring towns (Sorta complicated to get to, but only one hour bus from Takayama)
• Kanazawa (Ninja Temple and Kenrokuen, the Japanese garden that might be beautiful in the winter) - 2 hours away from Kyoto, 2.5 hours from Takayama [5]

• Mount Koya[6] - scenic Buddhist temple on a mountain, see pictures (1.5hours away from Osaka, taking non JP trains and buses)- Maybe stay in a Ryokan up there??? =D
• Takahashi/Okayama [7] - original castle on a mountain plus old samurai dwellings in the town at the base of the mountain (4 hours from Tokyo, but 2 hours from Kyoto)
  • Okayama is 90 min away from Kyoto on Hikari Shinkansen, and Takahashi is 35 min away from Okayama on limited express trains. All covered by rail pass
• Hakone Checkpoint (Day trip from Tokyo. Might be able to see Mount Fuji from this national park. Plus there was something like this in Tales of Symphonia)- Here is a cheap hotel we can stay at in Hakone [8]
• Nikko Shrine - a mausoleum for some Tokugawa person (100 min train ride away from Tokyo)
  • Can stay overnight at Kinugawa Onsen, a hot spring resort with a MAZE
• sit at an Izakaya and experience the life of a Japanese salaryman
• visit a maid cafe and/or host club!
• Clubbing - If MF can manage to keep from curling up in a fetal position
• Concert
• Play with katanas
• Good food
• Red light district in Tokyo - For Druv, so he can "deflower an asian"
• Monkey Park in Yamanouchi - 150 min from Tokyo, 50 min (1230 yen) not covered by rail pass
  • The monkeys are sooOOOooo cute! Go look at them [9]
  • There is a closer place to see monkeys near Kyoto, called SaruYama.
• Visit a Yonex store so Rachel can buy a new badminton racquet for hopefully cheaper
• AKB48 -
• Countdown Japan for New Year's Eve! (Some examples: [10][11])

• ...So I looked into getting tickets for Countdown Japan. From what I was able to gather, you can buy them from e+ [12] or PIA [13]. Unfortunately, both require user registration and neither are foreigner-friendly. Also, max 2 tickets per person, so no batch orders. MF will probably have to look into this!

Feel free to add ideas!

Notes

• MF will head off to Toyama for a few days and the rest of the crowd might go with him. -- Likely not
• We want to be in Tokyo for New Year's Eve?
• We will be buying the 7 day Japan Rail Pass (~$360 plus shipping)
• Toyama is in between Takayama and Kanazawa!! *hint hint*
• What do we do about cell phones/communication
• Laptops? - perhaps
• Size of luggage?
  • mf is bringing one large suitcase and a backpack. I believe you will be charged extra for more than one piece of luggage on the plane, I do not recommend.
• For booking Ryokans: [14]
• For what to pack: http://www.gobackpacking.com/Blog/2010/07/19/10-secret-items-pack-woman-next-trip/
• General tips (this guys seems to be Canadian too): [15]
• For the Anime crazed: [16]
• Cheaper place to purchase the rail pass ($351 for 7 day) [17]
• How much money do we need?
  • $700 CAD??

CONFIRMED ITINERARY

December 25 - January 1st : Tokyo

• Stay at Asakusa Smile - Reservation confirmed

7 day travel Itinerary

January 1st - January 7th: Travel

• Day 1: get up early and get on a train to Inuyama. Spend a couple hours exploring old castle
  • Afternoon take train to Takayama and stay the night (MF looking into reservations for Ryokan in Takayama)
• Day 2: Explore old town and other Takayama stuff and head towards Kanazawa in the evening/late afternoon. Stay in Kanazawa overnight (Ryokan Shibaya)
• Day 3: Explore Kanazawa. Head to Kyoto in the afternoon and stay there overnight. (Khaosan Kyoto)
• Day 4: Wander around Kyoto. Stay in Kyoto overnight (Khaosan Kyoto)
• Day 5: Explore Kyoto some more. Stay in Kyoto overnight (Khaosan Kyoto)
• Day 6: Explore Kyoto some more, but head to Okayama afternoon and stay there in Okayama overnight (Oh shit haven't booked that yet)
• Day 7: Explore Okayama/Takahashi and head back to Tokyo (4 hour train ride) in the evening, and that ends the 7 day rail pass trip! (Look for hostel to stay in once we are in Tokyo)

• Day 8: Druv deflowers an asian -- NIGHT OF THE FINAL DAY: 12 HOURS REMAIN

MUST-BRINGS

• Valid passport
• Japan Rail Pass
• Good walking shoes
  • must buy insoles...
• Clubbing clothes and shoes
• Umbrella?
• Confirmation/Addresses for hostel and other bookings
• At least one laptop among the five of us
• Camera and charger
• Fujifilm Instax (Bobby only)
• Toothbrush, toothpaste, toner, moisturizer, body lotion, hand lotion, makeup bag, fine toothed comb, hairspray, blowdry mousse, lipchap
• Tin box of goodies (Rachel only)
  • hair elastics
  • earrings
  • necklaces
  • many bobby pins
  • tweezers
  • bandaids
• Small hand towel and large bath towel (?)
• Gloves/mitts
• Phone and charger
• Contacts and other good stuff (Like sunglasses)
• PJ's!!!
• Advil
• Book
• Tensor bandage (?)
• Backpack?