[pobrierce]

So, as it say on my profile, I'm from Portland, Oregon, USA, and I was wonddering, from someone that lives in the USA, that has gone to Japan, some tips on where to stay, how to set up things to do (tours, hikes, bikes, dojo to see, temples etc) and roughly how much spending money that I should bring along with me?

[lasadeykar]

Umm... Not to put too fine a point on this, but do your own research. There are plenty of publishing companies that put out travel guides, and you're on a pretty wonderful research tool at the moment. Use it.

[Diwokfkq]

Can I not be lazy just this once??? lol school has me doing plenty of research

[MaugleeRobins]

Start here: http://www.japan-guide.com/

[priceyicey]

Can I not be lazy just this once??? lol school has me doing plenty of research

Is it really just this once? All your posts so far seem to be a variation of "Can someone give me the answer to this?" I certainly don't speak for everyone here, but no one likes being treated like a magic 8-ball.

[lookanddiscover]

I actually kind of like the 8ball treatment. A little shaking, the holding, all the attention.............. Whoops I may have said too much.

[neniajany]

...A]. from someone that lives in the USA, that has gone to Japan,

B] some tips on where to stay,

C] how to set up things to do (tours, hikes, bikes, dojo to see, temples etc)

D].....and roughly how much spending money that I should bring along with me?

Just a few points;

A] - - surely you mean 'has been' to Japan.

B] - - Answer will depend upon the region/city [cities..?] you will visit.

C] - - See above point ; - + are you travelling alone? in a group? with parents?.......need I continue?

D] - - How long is a piece of string?

Before you provide all of the missing material.... I will not be supplying any answers. Others might....

[M_Marked]

I think the jist here, Technu, is that you are asking for answers that have more "depends" than an old folks home after a toga party. There are no definite answers. You could go very cheaply or you could spend thousands of dollars. And by cheaply i mean relatively cheap. I have always heard that Japan is very expensive to visit.

[topcasinobonua]

And by cheaply i mean relatively cheap. I have always heard that Japan is very expensive to visit.

It's really not. Unless you want an all service trad. Ryokan for the experience that is. For the small budget there's always youth hostels: http://www.jyh.or.jp/english/index.html also: http://www.travellerspoint.com/budge...en-co-104.html

The most expensive really is the flight. The internet yields so many pages of budget traveling in Japan, it's only a tiny bit of typing away! (google is your friend). Also you can find very cheap food in the less touristy areas, again I shall point you toward google or travelwiki (http://wikitravel.org/en/Japan).

[YonkFiorc]

It's really not.

agree wholeheartedly. I stayed in an expensive hotel in tokyo ($200 a night), but from what i've seen there are plenty of pretty cheap ryokan(have heard of $30 a night or possibly less) if you look around. Also food was really cheap, but i didnt do any drinking. The answer to Tenchu's question is it depends. I'd bring lots of spending money, though credit cards are becoming more widely accepted from what I saw, its a good idea to carry at least goman en around to be safe. (i get nervous with less than $100 in my pocket). If you are just going for an experience trip, have no idea about the culture or the language, have no friends you plan on visiting there why not just goto a travel agent assuming you like to have things planned. If not just get a plane ticket and a pocket full of cash and go and figure it out once you are there. No need to book a hotel as you can just find a business ryokan when its time to sleep, and kinda bum around on trains to see things. As for visiting dojo you will need a letter of introduction, I'm not sure about just watching but depending on what kind of dojo it might not be allowed, should talk to you sensei (sound familiar) because they would likely have contacts to assist with this. I would assume there are specific things you want to go see if not see above travel agent comment. I wouldn't fly anything but JAL, the slightly higher price is worth the astronomical increase in service. (then again narita is usually a stop over on the way to malaysia so an extra 6-7 hours of flying the service really matters)

Also if you go in monsoon season, and have no idea how to get to your hotel from the train station, do not just wander around ikebukuro in the rain with your fiance, saying 'you will recognize the building when you see it'. Your SO will become quite agitated and grumpy with you in short order and your luggage will become soaked thru.

Cannot rep you 1stdan but that joke made me laugh and almost puke in disgust at the same time

[WenPyclenoWex]

I am glad to hear its less expensive than i thought. I have always wanted to go. And Have had those "plans" waiting in the wing for years. Maybe the trip is closer than i think. Thanks for the info guys. Sorry about the puking part Ender.

[Zs3ZASpA]

Well I have the benefit of the 'inlaws' being in malaysia. So its easy to arrange a few day stopover in Japan, i've already laid out the 1500 for the plane ticket, whats a few hundo extra for a hotel and shopping. Hardest part is the XYL's Malaysian passport only allows a max of 3 day stay without a visa and even then they can deny it. So far have been lucky. Its amazing how easy travel is with an American passport in terms of not usually needing a visa(for someplace you might actually _want_ to go and not have to worry about being held hostage for ransom.)

[PapsEdisa]

When I stayed in Kyoto, a good place to stay was the Palace Side Hotel. It is right next to the Imperial Palace which feels far from Kyoto station but it is conveniently located near subway stations and they let the guests use their bikes to get around town. If you take a bus or train from site to site, it can add up in price very quickly but Kyoto feels very small if you have a bike.

And the basic guide books have more than enough sites to put together days of touring and you still will not have enough time to see everything so get a guidebook and it's a great place to start.

And to save money on food, cheap family style restaurants tend to have 500-600 yen lunch sets, grocery stores have premade bento for dinners, and breakfast can be convenience store onigiri and juice or tea or whatever. This helps to dodge the really expensive meals unless you want to do it on purpose.

[FEti0TUI]

I've been to Japan a few times. Your choices for where to stay depend on a lot of factors and cannot be easily answered. Specifically:
- Where in Japan you are going.
- How good your Japanese is
- What standard of 'living' you are accustomed to
- How much money you are willing/able to spend.

Tours, hikes, bikes, temples
- Any good guide book or online guide will help you out with that.
- Again depends on where you are going.
- Depends on whether you like group tours (which are easy but confining) or want to be on your own
- How confident you are you can navigate by yourself.

Dojos:
- Helps to have some introduction to a dojo.
- Depends again on where you are going in Japan

So yeah, you have to do your own homework more than a bit to figure out what you want to do, the available options and which ones are a best fit compromise to your tastes and means. Once you have a better idea, you might want to ask some more focussed questions. Your current question is a bit like:

"I'm planning to visit California, can anyone tell me where I should stay, how to set up going there, what sorts of things I can do when I get there and how to do those and how much money I should have" California is a deliberate choice as the land area of Japan is about the same.

So, as it say on my profile, I'm from Portland, Oregon, USA, and I was wonddering, from someone that lives in the USA, that has gone to Japan, some tips on where to stay, how to set up things to do (tours, hikes, bikes, dojo to see, temples etc) and roughly how much spending money that I should bring along with me?

[agiopwer]

i book airfare and buy my rail pass through iace-usa.com. if you are going to travel between even tokyo--kyoto--tokyo it would make sense to get a rail pass. they've gone up in price but is a deal at $325. you can do away with it though if you stay in only one city. kyoto is my favorite city. i stay at gojo guesthouse: http://www.gojo-guest-house.com/gojo...se/gojo-e.html it is pretty cheap ($25 for a dorm room/$60 for a private room) and is near kiomizudera. it also very near a train station (but then again where isn't there a nearby train station in japan. )

places to visit? hiroshima, osaka, nara, kyoto, tokyo. that will take you at least 2 weeks (remember you lose two days due to traveling there and back) and is probably too much to do in that amount of time, but is doable. i could personally never leave kyoto and would be quite happy.

[InvertPrete]

Like Others have said Tenchu,
Do some research yourself.... Portland has some good resources in and of it self. Once you've done that and
have an idea of the area etc get back to us and we would be more then willing to help give you suggestions etc.
I and many others actually live or reg travel to Japan..... but so far most of your threads have been give me
answers...... it helps if you give a little thought and continue to help with flow of the thread and add your own
research in. Good luck kiddo and get back to us once you have some basic idea... of where in Japan, how long
your thinking of etc etc.

[RealCHEAPsoftDOWNLOAD]

I usually spend a couple months a year in japan for training in other martial arts for the past 10 years.

If you want cheaper airfaire, purchase through a japanese or chinese travel agency. In my experience you will save a couple of hundred dollars over expedia, hotwire or any of the other travel websites. Most of them are bilingual.

some good places to start for tickets are JTBUSA:

http://www.jtbusa.com/en/sp/s-nj.asp

HIS

http://his-usa.com/en/top/Top.aspx


Also if you plan on traveling all over for a lot of city to city travel look into purchasing a JR pass before you leave for japan, you can't purchase one while in japan. the below has some info

http://www.jtbusa.com/en/jr/j-all-1.asp

If you are going to hang around tokyo only for a few days then take advantage of the Suica NEX deal. I did it once and now just take the skyliner as its cheaper and closer to my friends house, but its still a good deal.

http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/suica-nex/


Lonely planet has a decent guidebook for tokyo. There's probably a copy at your local library to get you started.

The exchange rate right now is lousy, so its a lot pricier. Of course when my dad lived in japan it was 330 yen to the dollar and the best I have ever had it was around 160 yen to the dollar in the late 90's.

If you know where and how to eat you can eat well and cheaply, but if you want to eat american style or american sized portions you will have a pricier trip. Start out your day just eating out of a convience store or bakery. The baked goods are typically higher quality than american bakerys and you will find plenty of baked goods not availble in the US (love curry donuts!). They're also quite cheap.