Awesome cheers guys, im going with a friend so i guess we will decide what we want to see on our trip etc, thanks for the help.

I went in April this year for just a week and managed to catch cherry blossoms absolutely everywhere I went. Used the JR pass to go all over Honshu: from Tokyo to Himeji, to Takayama for the spring festival, then meandered through the middle of nowhere onsen-hopping and ended up in Nikko before taking the shinkansen back to Tokyo. Everything was absolutely amazing. I packed only a backpack and wore every piece of clothing I had, from long underwear to shorts and T-shirts - the weather is incredibly variable that time of year, and we covered a lot of ground in terms of elevation and latitude. The two of us spent about $2500 each over the 8 days including JR pass, food, hotels and souvenirs, but we stayed at a really ridiculous ryokan in Takayama, no hostels, and treated several friends to expensive food. If we had tried we could have done it on half that I'm sure.

Try to get a Japanese-speaking friend to help you with your train schedule ahead of time. You can get free reserved seats with JR pass. If you write down your itinerary, you can go to any help counter at a train station and they will be able to reserve your seats in advance. Plus, some of the schedules available in English are just plain wrong. They are probably OK for main lines (even Google Maps Japan can do that) but I found several mistakes in the local trains. Although with JR you can almost always just hop the next one, if you are going off the beaten path there may only be a couple trains a day going to where you want to go.

Even some hotels do not take cash, especially outside of Tokyo. I always felt very safe in Japan so once I got out of the States I didn't worry about carrying all that cash around. You can get a very good exchange rate at Bank of America, if you are a customer (there may be fees if you don't bank there). They will even mail the cash to you, since only certain banks have exchange counters. Forget about malls and airports - total ripoff. I got over 95 at BofA when the mall and airport were offering 81-85.

If you pass through Niigata I highly recommend Dormy Inn for a laundry stop. They have 2 floors with laundry, which are also the floors with public baths. Men's and women's are separate and they switch in the middle of the night so you can try both. The top floor is a rotenburo. It's free to wash but costs money to dry - put your clothes in, go to the bath, come back and switch... it's awesome. And a pajama set and coat comes with the room so you can wash absolutely everything you brought.

I really recommend spending one night at a ryokan if you can splurge a little. Keep in mind that the price includes multi-course dinner and hearty breakfast, and it almost looks like a bargain. The ones in the countryside are very friendly and a lot cheaper, if you don't mind spending a day's travel to get there. Ohnuma has a ridiculous number of baths, very nice staff (my teacher knows the owner) and great food, and you can get there from Niigata in half a day. http://www.ohnuma.co.jp/

Language-wise, a week or two is going to do nothing except for your confidence - but be prepared for it to go either way. I got through the week with no dictionary (not intentionally but I forgot the power cord for my iPhone) and was able to communicate a lot better than I thought I would, but there were some stressful moments (especially since my travelling companion spoke no Japanese).

You are generally not allowed inside a public bath if you have a tatoo. Cover it up if it's small, ask the staff if it isn't.

Best train timetable ever:
http://www.hyperdia.com/

Click on the English button if you need it. I lived off of this while I was there. (FYI the station name for Fukuoka in Kyushu is Hakata, not Fukuoka. Fukuoka Station is somewhere far, far north. Took me a while to figure that out. Drove me nuts.)

It also will give you fare information, so you can compare the costs of all the various trains vs. using a JR pass. If you aren't traveling by train much, a JR pass *may not* be worth the money. Do the math first.

I found the easiest way to get over any weirdness about public bathing was just to take my glasses off. lol. Nobody really cares.

Laundry-wise, business hotels will sometimes have a coin laundry inside, because they have to meet the needs of salarymen who are there all week. Other hotels won't. Ask at the front desk. They'll usually be able to tell you where one is nearby.

Of course, one time I got confused and wound up in a not-so-nice area, and got propositioned by a "working person" *cough* while I was holding a giant bag of laundry. I was asked if I was interested in a good time, and I replied that I was more interested in finding a place to do laundry. lol. Sadly, she didn't know of a place where a fella could go to get a good rinse, spin, and tumble dry.

Like I said, doing laundry can be an adventure...

Aijin wrote:

Small, obviously ornamental tattoos usually are no problem and no one will fuss at you about it unless they're having a bad day and are acting like a *bad word*

I have a small tattoo on the inside of my hip and nobody has ever said a word against it. Tattoos have gained a lot in popularity and acceptance with the youth and though older folk may be a bit iffy about it, younger people are usually perfectly fine with it. More traditional and rural areas tend to be more conservative about these things, just like in most countries, but I can't imagine you having any problem in a metropolitan area.

Thanks! This was my general understanding on the matter but its good to hear it cleared up a bit, i have no false illusions that not everyone will understand my wish to have tattoos, even in my country it can be frowned upon by older generations. I plan to visit Japan, and in the near future spend a long period of time there enjoying the culture, therefore i have to be aware of these things. I am respectful, and if someone has a genuine problem with my tattoos i will attempt to cover up if possible. Live and let live and all that jazz. ^^

京都 国際交流会館　Kyoto International Community House http://www.kcif.or.jp　 is cultural center near many tourist attractions in Kyoto and has a message board where I used to see rooms for rent for as little as 25,000円 per month.

Last edited by bodhisamaya (2009 June 24, 4:14 pm)