My Japan Tour Guide

[kaz]

My take on Japan Tour (http://www.estat.us/id10.html)

I wrote this travel guide to Japan based on my experiences. Hope this is useful. If you have any questions, please let me know.

[budd]

this is great! i would add that it is very hard to get out of Japan during summer vacation for school children also. i got bumped THREE days in a row. this may sound inflammatory, but airport personnel seem to have a serious inability to change/make decisions on the fly compared with american airports
thanks for the excellent info! passing the link along to curious friends -- nice layout also!

[budd]

edit: i meant because of traveling schoolchildren :o

[Matsuyuu]

Wow, this's gonna be great when I'm able to go to Japan. Great job!

[kaz]

Hi, I sort of think that people overestimate the cost of going to Japan.

Japan has a lot of good deals for students' budget travel. Actually I have a list of cheap places to stay in Kyoto area, so I will update that, too. Lunch foods are very reasonable in Japan, allowing you to save for better dinner types at night.

I want people to visit Japan and get to know it first hand. Especially people coming from China and Korea, I want them to know that we are good, kind people and we want them to experience our hospitality.

[kaz]

I think the most important cities to cover in Japan is
Tokyo
Kyoto-Nara-Osaka
and
Hiroshima

What do you think?

[budd]

i like them all! Okinawa also.
"Especially people coming from China and Korea, I want them to know that we are good, kind people and we want them to experience our hospitality."
mm-hmm! admirable! 頑張ってを下さい！

[doudesuka]

I would like to give a suggestion. When you come to Japan, be humble. They really take to foreigners who take interest in their culture. If they feel that, they will be hospitable to a fault.
I know some Americans who come to Japan and act obnoxious and arrogant. They give the rest of us a bad name.

[kaz]

Oh Doudesuka I'd give some benefit of doubt! It is just that in Japan all white people are seen as Americans!

[budd]

i (THINK) she is giving a suggestion to other Americans :) that when they go, to be humble, which i agree with...
i saw some foreign kids mis-behaving once while i was over there, being really disruptive...
i thought about punching them a few, but that would have probably made matters worse, and it also goes against my code of being incognito amap.

[mdchachi]

kaz,

Good job.

One option for cheap lodging that you didn't mention are youth hostels. It's cheaper plus you can meet other travelers. I've stayed at 5 or 6 of them and they were all good.
http://www.jyh.or.jp/english/
And some were very interesting -- one was an old thatch-roof farmhouse, another was in a temple.
Yes, deciding on a good gift is a real conundrum. The only thing about giving chocolate is that in general Japanese people don't like chocolate & sweets as much Americans & Europeans. Still it's a good choice since we really don't have many classy gift options in the U.S.

For vegetarian food, Indian restaurants are a good option. There are many in Japan. And most Italian restaurants serve basic arrabiata spaghetti.

[budd]

chocolate has worked for me a few times - cannot elaborate until i figure out a way to properly describe it.
but i got desirable results, fo sho
there may be a biological reason why women like chocolate (more than men like chocolate?). miro (http://forum.japanreference.com/showthread.php?threadid=3698)
the card from here (http://www.hiayh.org/homenew.shtml) enables me to stay at the Olympic Memorial Youth Center (http://www.nyc.go.jp/e/).
i liked it - close to Shibuya and Harajuku, and the lodging is essentially a small dorm room with western style bed, with a desk and air-conditioning. 3000 円 a night i think?