Jump to content

Post Covid-19 Tourism to Japan


Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, TestudoToTetsudo said:

Now I gotta figure out what other trains I want to ride.  I'm thinking the Azusa, need to think of a few others too.  Maybe try some of the Hybrid trains.  I've done a Joyful Train last time I was there (Resort Shirakami, 2 separate fleet types).  Not really into SLs since my interest is mostly the current network.  And there will be a lot of "train riding by osmosis" going to tourist and family things around Tokyo and Kyoto.

 

Fun to plan, thanks for listening to my rant!

 

Great plan!

 

If you want to take the Azusa (which I highly recommend), you could do Shinjuku-Matsumoto with Azusa and then Matsumoto-Nagoya with the Ltd. Exp. Shinano.

I recommend the Shinano front car, as it's wide open on the front and you can view the driver doing it's things. It's a Green class car, but it's worth it, I loved it.

From Nagoya, you jump on the Tokaido shinkansen to Kyoto.

 

Paolo

Link to comment
TestudoToTetsudo

  

2 hours ago, railsquid said:

 

What's your son's boredom threshold like? Sitting inside the average Shinkansen for hours on end is not the most exciting of environments.

 

2 hours ago, chadbag said:

 

That is what phones with games/apps are for 🙂     (In a previous generation, the PS portable / Nintendo DX family fulfilled this purpose )

 

 

1 hour ago, railsquid said:

 

Maybe, but sitting on Shinkansens for long periods over multiple days? It's a lot less exciting from the inside than it looks on the outside.

 

1 hour ago, chadbag said:

 

3.5 / 4 years old is a little young.  My son was probably in the 5-7 year old range when we started doing all day trips (often multiple in a row).  Leaving Amagasaki (Outside Osaka -- 30 min bus ride to Amagasaki station, to Osaka, to Shin-Osaka, get on Shinkansen and go)  at 6am and getting back at 9pm, with a trip to Tokyo, Nagasaki, etc during the day.   My son enjoyed the different train types and wanted to ride them and we used portable games during the ride (or slept 🙂 ) to while away the time.

 

1 hour ago, railsquid said:

Yup, mine is 5 and though I've been taking him on trains since he was about 2, I'd rather chew my own leg off than attempt the above itenary at 3 or 4.  Now he's 5 and can draw a map of Japan I can conceive of doing a Shinkansen trip to Hakodate this summer, though we might look at flying back for some variety.

 

YCMV ("your child may vary").

 

1 hour ago, chadbag said:

One thing you can do is just take a short hop on a specific type you want to ride.  The mini-Shinkansen start in Tokyo and go on the regular Shinkansen tracks until they branch off.  A 4 year old won't know the difference between riding an E6 on the main line vs the "branch" line,  My son and I took an E4 a stop or three -- same with E7 and E2/E3 etc.  To say we'd been on one.

 

 

1 hour ago, railsquid said:

Yeah, I'd guess "ride ALL the Shinkansen."" means go on all the different types, not the entire network. Like Chadbag says, a couple of trips up and down the Shinkansen north of Tokyo should get most E-types quite easily, and Fukushima is reasonably close for watching uncoupling operations. The Railway Museum in Saitama has an excellent vantage point for watching the Shinkansen traffic.

 

Thanks everyone for the many quick comments!  I guess I was kind of merging his spur-of-the-moment idea -- and only if he persisted in it as an interest -- with my own more solid goal for the next Japan trip, which might be when he's 4 or 5 since we're not rushing to be the first ones back.  And kind of "dreaming in specifics/daydreaming in Hyperdia" in terms of "hmmmmm if this hypothetical were to happen what would it entail?"  This is not any sort of concrete plan at this point.

 

My son is pretty good on trains even for hours on end, he loves looking out the window and then when he's done with that he watches cartoons on my phone.  His first overnight trip -- before COVID -- when we went to Chicago on Amtrak's Capitol Limited, he was great and better behaved than at home.

 

"Ride all the Shinkansen" could just as well be trying to collect all the currently operating types as you have noted, but I was already planning on covering much of the network for my own goal.  Will have to see how he grows and the situation evolves between now and whenever this trip can happen.  And of course I'll be working around family gatherings (usually one big family reunion day and then individual dinner gatherings with relatives we want one-on-one time with) and other touristy things we want to do as a family (Arashiyama Monkey Park, Saitama Railway Museum, etc.).  Maybe we could do this where I go out for a long day trip, but my wife comes with me, and after an early stop they get off and she takes him back to Tokyo (or Kyoto) while I take the rest of the day to do the really long stretches...so he can "collect" that Shinkansen type even while I go to collect the route.

 

One family thing I hope we can do involving Shinkansen: Get my parents to come onto the platform at one of the Tokyo Joetsu Shinkansen stations so we can re-create the generational family photo scene at the end of the JR East 30th Anniversary commercial...my parents first took me on the Shinkansen when I was 3 myself on the Joetsu Shinkansen...so we'd be coming full circle doing something similar with my son!

 

 

Thanks for the reality check -- even if I was somewhat daydreaming aloud!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
TestudoToTetsudo
28 minutes ago, paolo said:

 

Great plan!

 

If you want to take the Azusa (which I highly recommend), you could do Shinjuku-Matsumoto with Azusa and then Matsumoto-Nagoya with the Ltd. Exp. Shinano.

I recommend the Shinano front car, as it's wide open on the front and you can view the driver doing it's things. It's a Green class car, but it's worth it, I loved it.

From Nagoya, you jump on the Tokaido shinkansen to Kyoto.

 

Paolo


Thanks for the tip!  I've done the Shinano's equipment on the Hida back when I was a kid...but haven't done the Shinano route.

Link to comment
On 6/11/2020 at 11:25 AM, railsquid said:

 

 

Government planning to permit entry of up to 250 business travellers per day from Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand, Australia:

 

一日250人程度の入国許可へ ベトナムなど4カ国対象

 

This is still at the somewhat vague planning stage.

 

From the article, following conditions to apply:

- no use of public transport

- smartphone must record movement data

 

Per this other report, anyone entering under this scheme will be required to provide proof of a negative PCR test.

 

 

According to this article: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20200702/k10012492151000.html some sort of agreement has been made with Vietnam, and negotiations are progressing with the other three countries. A few other E/SE Asian countries (Taiwan, Singaport, Brunei) are also being considered. Again, this is restricted business travel only.

 

Other existing restrictions have been extended (and expanded), current government info (also in English) available here: http://www.moj.go.jp/hisho/kouhou/hisho06_00099.html

 

In local news, daily cases in Tokyo have leapt into 3 digit territory, which is a statistical rounding error compared to some other countries but causing much chatter in the media, though it is in part due to aggressive tracing and testing of clusters.

Link to comment
On 5/27/2020 at 10:23 PM, railsquid said:

Japan to subsidise holidays in effort to revive tourism


 

 

What I thought it was, the plan came up earlier in the crisis.

 

I'll be sure to report on any trips 😉

 

Ah well:

 

Japan's Go To Travel campaign to exclude Tokyo as coronavirus cases spike

 

That excludes both Tokyo residents and people planning to visit Tokyo from taking advantage of this for now.

 

In other news: Record 286 cases of coronavirus confirmed in Tokyo.

Link to comment

For vaguely random reasons I mooched over to Haneda Airport and while the domestic terminal seems kind of quiet-but-normal, the international terminal looks it's about to be used as the set for one of those films where the only people left are the film's protagonists and a bunch of zombies. According to the departures board, the only destinations available are Hanoi and somewhere in the US.

 

Anyway got to go before my brains get eaten.

  • Like 2
Link to comment

Well yeah, but experiencing it first-hand was mildly disorientating, to say the least.

 

Check-in counters at 5pm on a Friday afternoon:

 

haneda-2020-09-18_01.thumb.jpg.a04f2cd67442f2cb94f6cccfadbda2ed.jpg

 

haneda-2020-09-18_02.thumb.jpg.ba70329316c289ef323bbdf6fa6c02c2.jpg

 

Coincidentally this is now "Terminal 3", not the "International Terminal" any more (though the renaming seems to have taken place in March, too early to be a knee-jerk reaction to the lack of international flights).

There were more people up on the roof deck, where you could see planes from a variety of companies ranging from JAL to ANA, with the odd Air Do jet and a single Delta flight.

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
1 hour ago, railsquid said:

Check-in counters at 5pm on a Friday afternoon:

 

Looks like Milano Malpensa airport on an average Sunday...

Edited by Socimi
Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...