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Tokyo/Kyoto Summer trip

BigB

BigB

My girlfriend of 6 years and I just bought plane tickets to tokyo miami-->tokyo june 10th -24th. I still have a remediation test i need to pass the 1st try, but these are motivation to do it. If i don't pass, hopefully the 2nd or 3rd try is before those dates.
 
Thought about tokyo initially --> kyoto for 3-7 days --> back to tokyo. Anyone have any suggestions as to what to see? Also, I know a few members here live in/near tokyo. Filmost and George, any others? I'd be down to link up. Speaking of fil, anyone have his contact? He hasn't logged on since dec2016.
 
My girlfriend is vegetarian, but my main goal is to eat the best ramen...everywhere and all kinds. Gf wants to do some more sightseeing. I went to japan for a month and traveled everywhere with my friend who's family is from there, but that was when i was like 10. Now i'm 26, so I want to experience everything as an adult. 
 
 
 
One place that has always stuck in my mind is the Yanaka district. You get a real sense of old traditional Tokyo.... and it has the most densely populated area of shrines in Japan. Differing from the flashier tourist spots.... i found this place very quiet and relaxing... i spent over half a day strolling through the area looking at shrines and local shops..... may not be everyones cup of tea but i loved it...... its not far from Ueno which is another area i enjoyed... loved the national museum....
 
From my experience the bits of advise i can pass on are:
 
- If you are taking a cashpassport, make sure it works in Japan. I had taken mine to South America and the UK with absolutely no problems. Got to Japan to find out none of the ATMs would accept my card.... this caused me a huge amount of stress as i only had about $50 in cash on me..... in the end by complete chance i found one particular ATM, that are located in some of post offices, that accepted my card. Just something worth avoiding if you can... it nearly ruined my trip....
 
- If you were planning to go to the Ghibli musuem (as i wanted to lol) its best you buy the ticket before you leave. They sell a certain amount of tickets per day and are often booked out weeks in advance.
 
Wish i could help you out more with the ramen search. I will say there was Hidakaya Ramen restaurant near my hotel and i ate there nearly everyday for breakfast. In this case cheap is not bad. The vegetable ramen was insanely good. Not found anything here in Oz that is even remotely close. I miss it sooo much lol
 
 
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD5Zh9bkCh0
 
I really recommend hiking Mt.Takao. There's a cool beer garden and some good eats as well. I spent a couple weeks in Tokyo a few years back....only I went in august.

I also highly recommend you seek this place out. Hachiojibal. It's not ramen but the food is extraordinary.

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Their pizza was even better than ones I ate in Italy on my honeymoon.
 
thanks, i've actually heard of yanaka, but forgot about it. Regarding the $, I know japan is a very cash dominant currency, so we have already learned about that haha. i've been using ramen adventures on youtube as a ramen guide in tokyo....obsessed white person, can't go wrong with that he even has a book lol
Tinnie said:
One place that has always stuck in my mind is the Yanaka district. You get a real sense of old traditional Tokyo.... and it has the most densely populated area of shrines in Japan. Differing from the flashier tourist spots.... i found this place very quiet and relaxing... i spent over half a day strolling through the area looking at shrines and local shops..... may not be everyones cup of tea but i loved it...... its not far from Ueno which is another area i enjoyed... loved the national museum....
 
From my experience the bits of advise i can pass on are:
 
- If you are taking a cashpassport, make sure it works in Japan. I had taken mine to South America and the UK with absolutely no problems. Got to Japan to find out none of the ATMs would accept my card.... this caused me a huge amount of stress as i only had about $50 in cash on me..... in the end by complete chance i found one particular ATM, that are located in some of post offices, that accepted my card. Just something worth avoiding if you can... it nearly ruined my trip....
 
- If you were planning to go to the Ghibli musuem (as i wanted to lol) its best you buy the ticket before you leave. They sell a certain amount of tickets per day and are often booked out weeks in advance.
 
Wish i could help you out more with the ramen search. I will say there was Hidakaya Ramen restaurant near my hotel and i ate there nearly everyday for breakfast. In this case cheap is not bad. The vegetable ramen was insanely good. Not found anything here in Oz that is even remotely close. I miss it sooo much lol
 
 
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thanks, i know i'm going during the rainy season but no other time I can feasibly go. I'll try to check takao out on a clear day. and pizza in japan? going to have to tell me more to convince me to go haha
t0mato said:
I really recommend hiking Mt.Takao. There's a cool beer garden and some good eats as well. I spent a couple weeks in Tokyo a few years back....only I went in august.

I also highly recommend you seek this place out. Hachiojibal. It's not ramen but the food is extraordinary.

attachicon.gif
IMG_4517.JPG

Their pizza was even better than ones I ate in Italy on my honeymoon.
Click to expand...
 
 
Oddly enough the best shwamars I had were in Tokyo. In the shopping/garment district. Little hole in the wall dive. Next to and H&M store.
 
I had to dig deep but I found some pizza pics.

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Here's a big ass spider on mt takao. It was absurdly humid when I was there and I couldn't get any photos of the views because of the fog.

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If you're in Ginza there's a busy little izakaya underneath some giant bridge. I stumbled onto it while I was lost. The beer is ice cold and the food was pretty good. I got assortment of grilled chicken innards.

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Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills has good observation decks.. It's one of the tallest towers in Tokyo, and you can make out Mt Fuji in the distance from up there on a good day.
Also there's a really great ramen joint on the way from Roppongi walking towards NishiAzabu.. It's called Akanoren. If you're walking away from Roppongi Dori heading towards Gaen-Nishi Dori, it's on the left side of the street, near a Sunkus convenience store. It has red fabric all around the entrance and over the doorway. (If you get to the big intersection where Hobson's Ice Cream is, you've gone too far)
 
Have a great time on your trip - there's so much to do and see in Tokyo that it's almost difficult to give suggestions. The good thing is that you can't go wrong no matter what you do. I've spent about 6.5 months there on various trips and would go back again in a heartbeat.
 
 
 
 
 
thanks for the suggestions and help. I wanted to asked your guys' experience of a few things. How is ordering food there, do places have english menus commonly? Do a lot of people speak english? I know a few basic phrases, but my girlfriend is a vegetarian, open to some fish but doesn't want to eat any nikku (meat). Also, how is ordering ramen? I hear on the machines the upper left corner is the one to choose, but not always. 
 
I had to do lots of pointing. Nobody I tried to communicate with spoke English, but that's not to say that there aren't English speakers there.
 
spicefreak said:
Seems like they'd be a bit out of your way but, if you could get seeds or dried pods of the tokuyama pepper, I'd be happy to pay for them. Or trade you anything british you might be into.
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I've asked a few of my friends over there if they know anybody. they're investigating 
 
BigB said:
thanks for the suggestions and help. I wanted to asked your guys' experience of a few things. How is ordering food there, do places have english menus commonly? Do a lot of people speak english? I know a few basic phrases, but my girlfriend is a vegetarian, open to some fish but doesn't want to eat any nikku (meat). Also, how is ordering ramen? I hear on the machines the upper left corner is the one to choose, but not always. 
Click to expand...
 
 
 Many places will have English menus, although sometimes it takes some creative thinking to figure out what they mean lol.. like they'll be literal translations of the Japanese instead of proper English. But it's not too bad. 
 Same thing with English speakers.. a lot of the ppl know at least some English, but in my experience are incredibly shy or have such strong accents that it's hard to understand. The Japanese are soooo nice and helpful though, I once had a shopkeeper who left her post to walk me to where I was trying to get to when I needed help.  
 
 As far as the restaurants with machines, a lot of them have pictures on the buttons so you can kinda see what you're ordering. 
 
I had a similar experience to Dalia where i was looking at a train map in a station, trying to figure out why i couldnt find the line i wanted, to get to my hotel. A random man approached me and literally led me through some side streets for about 5 mins, to another entrance to the same station (which had the line i needed), took my money to buy the ticket for me, then pretty much pushed me through the turnstiles in the direction i needed to be lol.... i was a little embarassed tbh... but very suprised how far this stranger went out of his way for me....
 
The only English i encountered was from a few young students, often eager to practice their English with a native speaker (if you could call me that). At the Meiji shrine i was approached by a group of 4 students who, along with general chit chat, gave me a tour of the shrine.... even went as far as to teach me, step by step how to pray there.... 
 
Brilliant lovely people the Japanese are. I got by only knowing hello and thankyou and they appreciate attempts at politelness. You dont get the bad attitudes, that i have at times experienced in other countries, when you dont speak their language... even communicated using a tablet a couple of times, to which they took no offence...
 
This site may help you finding places with english menus.... http://r.gnavi.co.jp/lang/en/pref13/
 
Dalia said:
Hey BigB, 
 
 Would love to hear how your trip went when you're back!! 
 
 
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good news and bad news. The bad news is that i didn't pass my remediation test by 4% on a 100 question cumulative test in cellular, autonomic and cardiophysiology. So, I had to retake it again which was during when the trip would be. I knew this was a possibility, so I didn't end up going even though I had 2 plane tickets. The good news is, I passed my test, got a 91% in the class, and now I'm still a medical student lol
 
BigB said:
 
 
good news and bad news. The bad news is that i didn't pass my remediation test by 4% on a 100 question cumulative test in cellular, autonomic and cardiophysiology. So, I had to retake it again which was during when the trip would be. I knew this was a possibility, so I didn't end up going even though I had 2 plane tickets. The good news is, I passed my test, got a 91% in the class, and now I'm still a medical student lol
Click to expand...
 
Aw man, that is bittersweet for sure.. Good on you for following through with your schooling commitments though! 
 
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