Planning trip to Japan! Advice welcome.

[chadbag]

On 8/20/2018 at 6:27 AM, multivac said:

Just curious, when Americans go through home customs should they declare their purchases and pay tax on them? Duty, sales tax whatever tax?

 

 

On the way back to the US you get a customs form to fill out.  It has all the details.   IIRC each person in your party gets an $800 exemption so you declare your trains etc on the form and as long as you don't have more than a total of $800 per person  in your party (no need to delegate out costs to a specific person) you just hand it to them, they ask a few questions, they stamp it, you go to the exit and hand it to someone, and you walk out.   (Each airport may have a slightly different process, detail wise, but that is the general gist of it).

 

 

ETA:  You don't need to be detailed / itemized by every article  on the form.  You fill out one form for the whole family group if you have one, otherwise one for yourself as a solo.  And I just list a generic "Toys" entry and put everything there related to toys:  trains, gachapon, my daughter's stuff (this last time it was Sumikko Gurashi), stuffed animals, monsters and Ultraman, etc.  (One for packaged food [fresh is not allowed], one for clothing, one for misc stuff like writing tools, school supplies, one for kitchen tools if we have anything, etc.

Edited August 31, 2018 by chadbag

[Ultratram]

I just read up on some of the comments here. Thanks for all the tips. I have the trip planned to arrive on a monday leave sunday. That's the best I could do to extend it. 2 nights in akihabara and 4 in osaka. 

 

So far I only have one day planned for kyoto. The rail museum and general sight seeing. Is the 103 series still running on nara line? Would be nice to see.

 

What model shops should I go see in akihabara? I am sure that will be one of the first things I do in town.

[Ultratram]

My trip went well!

Stayed 2 nights in room kuhane1304 at Washington hotel in akihabara. Finally got a keikyu stainless steel 1000 series from greenmax. A tomix 115 series with nagano and green body cars. I brought my nara line 103 with me.

 

Sadly didn't see any of the 103s on the nara line when I was in kyoto. Road some old 205 series though. A station attendant said he only sees the 103s about 3 times a day and I didn't have time to wait all day. Oh well. My train shopping was fairly light as I still did a lot of sight seeing but I was able to stop by joshin super kids land in den den town and pick up the e353 basic set for $80!  

 

Saw some trams at the beginning of the hankai tram line. There was also a local train nerd getting pictures too.

 

Final thoughts... rode a N700A nozomi to Osaka from Tokyo.  What a blast. But what in world is 727 cosmetic?!