Toni’s Spring 2023 Japan Trip

[Raicho485]

Regarding to Himeji,

Train layout place available near the castle! 

And free to see (limited area, HO layout?) or just 200 yen for one hour.. 

(Closed every Tuesday)

 

Himeji train park

https://himeji-train-park.com

https://www.youtube.com/@user-cd6xs2zy3m/videos

 

N and HO scale.. I should check out next time!

[Arctic]

2 hours ago, Raicho485 said:

Regarding to Himeji,

Train layout place available near the castle! 

And free to see (limited area, HO layout?) or just 200 yen for one hour.. 

(Closed every Tuesday)

 

Himeji train park

https://himeji-train-park.com

https://www.youtube.com/@user-cd6xs2zy3m/videos

 

N and HO scale.. I should check out next time!

 

This is the one advertised by rail gallery rokko on their website I believe

 

[Tony Galiani]

Came across a trip report to Shimoda on the Izu peninsula and it looks intriguing.  Thinking it might be nice for a day trip from Tokyo and a good reason to ride the Saphir Odoriko.  Wondering how hard the town is to navigate without English.  We did fine in Nikko but always a bit of a concern.  I checked out the aquarium web site as that looked like a nice place to though (I think) there was no Info in English and they don't take credit cards so need to bring cash.  From what I can see, it looks like the beach and aquarium are in walking distance from the train station so that would make getting around relatively easy.

Tony

[cteno4]

Tony,

 

I’ve been to a number of aquariums in japan (I started exhibit design at an aquarium) and they are enjoyable even though usually all the labels and interpretive is in Japanese. A few had english on some labels. Don’t know if that has changed much in the last decade though with more international travel. But they are interesting and japan has interesting spins on their aquarium presentation so it’s not the same as going to another aquarium in the us.

 

jeff

[katoftw]

Shimoda is 3-4 hrs train trip from Tokyo. Not really a day trip duration. Unless you leave super early and depart super late.

 

Station to Beach and/or aquarium is 1.7km one way. Not really walking distances either.

[cteno4]

1.7km not walking distance? That’s like 20 minutes through potentially interesting local environs, noshing, shopping, photoing, etc. Maybe not easy with small kids, but a nice walk for most adults after 3 hrs on a train.

 

jeff

[Tony Galiani]

I will have to think about an overnight stay.  The walking distance is not a problem - on our trips we typically spend a lot of time walking around and it is not unusual for us to log 12 to 16 kilometers in a day.  (At least according to my wife - I don't bother tracking steps but she does.)  We need to walk off all the goodies we eat on our trips!

Ciao,

Tony

[chadbag]

On 2/20/2023 at 6:04 PM, cteno4 said:

Tony,

 

I’ve been to a number of aquariums in japan (I started exhibit design at an aquarium) and they are enjoyable even though usually all the labels and interpretive is in Japanese. A few had english on some labels. Don’t know if that has changed much in the last decade though with more international travel. But they are interesting and japan has interesting spins on their aquarium presentation so it’s not the same as going to another aquarium in the us.

 

jeff

 

Just to back up what Jeff said.  We've been to many different aquariums in Japan, some multiple times, in the last 20 years.  The last being Enoshima in December.  Always interesting and fun.  One of them, somewhere on Ise peninsula IIRC (my son was much smaller than now) had a penguin walk where the penguins would be paraded down an outside "boardwalk" type thing on outside of the aquarium building.  Part of a penguin show but you were standing right there as they paraded by.  Kind of interesting.

 

edit: wrong peninsula 

Edited February 22, 2023 by chadbag

[mojo]

On 2/20/2023 at 1:11 PM, Tony Galiani said:

Came across a trip report to Shimoda on the Izu peninsula and it looks intriguing.  Thinking it might be nice for a day trip from Tokyo and a good reason to ride the Saphir Odoriko.  Wondering how hard the town is to navigate without English.  We did fine in Nikko but always a bit of a concern.  I checked out the aquarium web site as that looked like a nice place to though (I think) there was no Info in English and they don't take credit cards so need to bring cash.  From what I can see, it looks like the beach and aquarium are in walking distance from the train station so that would make getting around relatively easy.

Tony

 

Google Translate is your friend. It has a camera mode where you just point your phone at the Japanese text and it appears on screen in English. It works offline too so you don't need wifi/cellular.

 

It's actually quite magical. Even works with handwriting.

 

Combined with Google Maps I think it's fairly easy to get by without much Japanese reading ability now. I can read maybe 100 odd kanji, but even so I use Google Maps and Translate a lot.

[cteno4]

It is magic compared to the old days when it was look back and forth many times between signs and map and/or travel book trying to do pattern matching! I use to make very careful plots of how many blocks to walk, turn, how many more etc from maps to avoid getting too lost, but you had to pay attention and not wander!

 

jeff

[mojo]

I remember doing the same. Later I started using offline maps on my HTC Hero, a very early smartphone with a trackball. The available maps were rubbish though so I started making my own. There was a Windows app that let you download a whole area from Google Maps and then view it on your phone in another app. It was a bit janky, the GPS tended to be off by about 10-15 meters, but once you figured that out it was very useful.

 

Nowadays my main issue is that Google Maps has a somewhat unrealistic expectation for how fast I can walk. I walk at normal speed but end up stopping to take photos and missing my connection.

[chadbag]

On my first time in Tokyo, in 2000, I had a list of shops (manga etc for friends) to stop at.  There were a few I could absolutely not find for hours,  I had the address, knew what "block" of the area it was in, but could not find it.  I asked at a police box and the guy had no idea.  Finally after about 4 hours of circling the same area I found the one store in question.  A few others were also hard.  Now it is much easier, though not always fool proof.  I've had the location shown by the flag planted on the map (based on address) be off by 10m or so and when its a bunch of small shops, not always with the best signage, and many are similar, its not always easy for the gaijin to find it.  Happened with the Kimono Rental place we used near Asakusa for the kids this last time.  Wife was there and had to come down to fetch me.

 

[railsquid]

Google Maps is still sometimes surprisingly unreliable for Japanese addresses, it'll often be close but not pin-point accurate, which is Not Good Enough for urban Japan, as even a couple of dozen metres off can leave you with a confusing search among a multitude of tiny buildings. I usually look up postal addresses on Yahoo Maps (which seems to use actual Japanese address data), then double-check on Google Street View.

 

Not sure if it's fixed now, but I have fond memories of an office where I used to work which was in a typical back street somewhat behind a larger office building; Google confidently directed visitors to the front of the larger building, so we'd often have to guide people in ("turn right at the blue vending machine, go past the skateboard shop, turn right at the soba restaurant, go 15 paces until you see a cat sunning itself, spin round three times then look for a utility pole advertising a pawnbrokers, then peer behind the utility pole and you'll see the cunningly hidden sign for our building"). Or something like that, I can't remember exactly but there was actually a pawnbrokers involved in the description.

[Tony Galiani]

I just need to get over there so I can have those problems!  We struggled with Google Maps on our phones as those dots would lead us close to location then would seem to lose the plot.  We finally realized that some of the shops we were looking for were on upper floors which was not readily apparent to us on our first trip.  Live and learn.

 

Still struggling with purchasing tickets for our May trip.  Once you have status on an airline, it - at least in my opinion - tends to distort your view as you look at prices.  I normally fly Delta but comparing them with United, the costs for all seating classes are higher and the schedules much worse.  Yet I kept looking thinking I was missing something.  But I am not so will try again tomorrow and likely purchase tickets for United.  One of their routes is a code share with ANA and the ORD-HND flight is on ANA metal.  Good arrival time but it would mean rousting my wife up for an early departure - wonder if I can manage that!

 

Ciao,

Tony

[Tony Galiani]

Well, airfares still baffle me though I went ahead and purchased tickets for Japan.  Finally heading back, traveling to Japan at the end of May and returning early June.  I suppose my lack of flexibility hurts a bit - needing to juggle times around my music schedule and work with my wife's vacation time.  Prices continue to be nuts - and even worse for my hoped for trip to Greece later in June - but at least we are going and I am eagerly looking forward to the trip.

 

Now for the fun of working out where we will go.  Thinking of going to Kyoto as we have not been but we shall see.

 

Ciao,

Tony

[SL-san]

8 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

Thinking of going to Kyoto as we have not been but we shall see.

Tony, I can recommend going to Kyoto not just for the interesting railway station (with the Kato shop in the building above) but for the amazing collection of temples, gardens and traditional buildings (I was an Architect and Landscape Designer so am a bit biased).  Yes it is overrun with tourists, but a walk along the 'Philosopher's Path' can be restorative! A visit to the Kyoto Railway Museum is a must not only for the displays of 1 to1 rolling stock (lots of SLs) but for a pretty amazing and huge model railway!!  I even found a Hobbyland Pochi shop in downtown Kyoto and bought an immaculate "second-hand" Kato D51 (2016-6) for 6,000yen!!!

We will be going to Japan (for the 7th time) also in May, so I might wave as I pass by on the train.

 

Cheers,

Graeme

 

[Tony Galiani]

Thanks for the info.  I was not aware of the Philosopher's Path so looked it up last night and it is now on my list of places to go.  Wasn't aware of the Kato or Hobbyland Pochi sites so good news there as well!

Cheers,

Tony

[Wolf]

On 2/25/2023 at 7:47 AM, railsquid said:

go 15 paces until you see a cat sunning itself,

Absolute golden direction advice XD

[JR East]

On 2/27/2023 at 3:19 AM, SL-san said:

Yes it is overrun with tourists, but a walk along the 'Philosopher's Path' can be restorative!

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the ugly white marker but it's for protecting peoples privacy. 

Edited February 28, 2023 by JR East
typo

[Tony Galiani]

Let the hoop jumping begin!  I checked my reservation last night and need to complete United's Travel Ready process - only I cannot until my passport arrives though it should arrive in plenty of time.  I also see I need to do the Japan entry requirements - though first I plan to read up on everyone's entry experience from the 2022 thread so I know what to expect.

Not a major big deal but I sort of long for the days I just put my passport in my pocket and headed out.

Ciao,

Tony

[JR East]

18 minutes ago, Tony Galiani said:

I also see I need to do the Japan entry requirements

 

The only thing I'm seeing is to be 3 times vaccinated with one of those:

 

・Comirnaty / Pfizer
・Spikevax / Moderna
・Vaxzevria / AstraZeneca
・JCOVDEN / Janssen
・COVAXIN /Bharat Biotech
・Nuvaxovid/ Novavax

 

and basically, for a less than 90 days leisure trip, that's all. 

 

 

It seems it recommended to use https://vjw-lp.digital.go.jp/en/ to speedup the entry procedure. 

 

JM. 

[Tony Galiani]

Thanks.  I have book marked the site so I can follow up.  Fortunately, we have had our vaccines so just a matter of entering the info I guess.

Tony

[JR East]

The web site is quite convenient and it's the first time I'm experimenting it inc. barcodes for immigration & customs controls. I'll be able to give a feedback after my travel early april. I did that in 15' inc. the registration of my mother. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, JR East said:

The web site is quite convenient and it's the first time I'm experimenting it inc. barcodes for immigration & customs controls. I'll be able to give a feedback after my travel early april. I did that in 15' inc. the registration of my mother. 

Actually they’re QR codes, and only for the one of customs or immigration.  The other one is still personal and upfront.  QR for health as well.  Works very well, I was off the plane and in the car in 20 minutes.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Bob Martin

[bikkuri bahn]

Quote

Yes it is overrun with tourists, but a walk along the 'Philosopher's Path' can be restorative! 

FWIW I was there this past weekend, walked the whole length in the late afternoon.  Wasn't crowded at all, even on a Saturday.  When the cherry blossoms are in bloom it's likely swamped, but otherwise my advice is to go there either very early, or in the late afternoon after 4pm, like I did. At some point you can drop by one of the numerous cafes that are along the path, or if you end your walk on the Nanzenji end, you drop by a Blue Bottle cafe, if you're partial to their coffee.