Japan

[SecretMachine]

After finishing my PhD and basically being stressed as fuck from work, I'm planning on taking a two trip to Japan.

I know this isn't a travel forum by any means, but I know a lot of forumers have been there. I was thinking about hitting up Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Osaka, Hakone and Nara, if I can fit it all in within two weeks. Planning on staying in hostels/cheap hotels and just generally trying to do everything on a budget. Any one got any recommendations or tips on travelling out there?

ALSO. I'm particularly interested in checking out any awesome guitar shops and picking up some sweet pedals if possible. Anyone ever tried bringing back a guitar from Japan before? I particularly love the look of those special edition Hollowbody jaguars.

[Strange Tales]

For Tokyo, I stayed at Yadoya hostel. It's cheap as shit. Like $35 a night. They're right next to the station and Nakano has so many awesome food places. There is also a fuzz shop in Nakano that is pretty close by to the train station.
http://www.cheap-hostel-tokyo.com/

For guitar shops, ride over to Ochanomizu. There are like 40 guitar shops all next to each other. You can just ride the Chuo Rapid Line there (it's the same line that stops at Nakano).

You can probably do Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto because they're all close by. But only being there for two weeks you're going to spending a lot of time travelling and not a lot of time actually looking.

[D.o.S.]

Keep an eye out for Scarlett Johansson, brah.

[SecretMachine]

For Tokyo, I stayed at Yadoya hostel. It's cheap as shit. Like $35 a night. They're right next to the station and Nakano has so many awesome food places. There is also a fuzz shop in Nakano that is pretty close by to the train station.
http://www.cheap-hostel-tokyo.com/

For guitar shops, ride over to Ochanomizu. There are like 40 guitar shops all next to each other. You can just ride the Chuo Rapid Line there (it's the same line that stops at Nakano).

You can probably do Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto because they're all close by. But only being there for two weeks you're going to spending a lot of time travelling and not a lot of time actually looking.

Thanks for the heads up on the hostel. I'll check it out. They didn't have anything for November, but I heard some places on offer rooms 3 months in advance. How did you book your room with them? Sweet. How do pedal prices compare out there?

nice. Would you recommend getting a Japanese Rail Card?

[SecretMachine]

Keep an eye out for Scarlett Johansson, brah.

[skullservant]

I went with my dad for a week. Stayed in Tokyo and Kyoto. Kinda got the tourist experience, but it was still nice no less. There is an awesome record shop in Tokyo, it's like 5 stories tall, one exclusively being vinyl. It was when I had just graduated high school so I wasn't as much into gear yet. It's amazing over there and I want to go back

[tremolo3]

Keep an eye out for Scarlett Johansson, brah.

bahahaha

thank you

[Strange Tales]

For Tokyo, I stayed at Yadoya hostel. It's cheap as shit. Like $35 a night. They're right next to the station and Nakano has so many awesome food places. There is also a fuzz shop in Nakano that is pretty close by to the train station.
http://www.cheap-hostel-tokyo.com/

For guitar shops, ride over to Ochanomizu. There are like 40 guitar shops all next to each other. You can just ride the Chuo Rapid Line there (it's the same line that stops at Nakano).

You can probably do Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto because they're all close by. But only being there for two weeks you're going to spending a lot of time travelling and not a lot of time actually looking.

Thanks for the heads up on the hostel. I'll check it out. They didn't have anything for November, but I heard some places on offer rooms 3 months in advance. How did you book your room with them? Sweet. How do pedal prices compare out there?

nice. Would you recommend getting a Japanese Rail Card?

Yea, I booked my room like 6 months in advance, just send them an email on that page saying when you'd like to be there and what room you'd like. I did the Momiji room by myself. They're small, but all I needed was a bed, shower, and place to put my things. That place provided that.

They're about the same more or less. I didn't get to look at pedals as much as I'd like so maybe I'm not the best on this, but there are deals to be found. Just have to know the exchange rate so you can check.

My friend gave me a Japanese Rail Card. Unless you're talking about the ones international services offer, I think those make up for themselves only after multiple bullet train rides. If you're talking about a Suica card, those things are the fucking tits and make life so easy. Just put yen on there and don't worry about it until you run low.

[SecretMachine]

For Tokyo, I stayed at Yadoya hostel. It's cheap as shit. Like $35 a night. They're right next to the station and Nakano has so many awesome food places. There is also a fuzz shop in Nakano that is pretty close by to the train station.
http://www.cheap-hostel-tokyo.com/

For guitar shops, ride over to Ochanomizu. There are like 40 guitar shops all next to each other. You can just ride the Chuo Rapid Line there (it's the same line that stops at Nakano).

You can probably do Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto because they're all close by. But only being there for two weeks you're going to spending a lot of time travelling and not a lot of time actually looking.

Thanks for the heads up on the hostel. I'll check it out. They didn't have anything for November, but I heard some places on offer rooms 3 months in advance. How did you book your room with them? Sweet. How do pedal prices compare out there?

nice. Would you recommend getting a Japanese Rail Card?

Yea, I booked my room like 6 months in advance, just send them an email on that page saying when you'd like to be there and what room you'd like. I did the Momiji room by myself. They're small, but all I needed was a bed, shower, and place to put my things. That place provided that.

They're about the same more or less. I didn't get to look at pedals as much as I'd like so maybe I'm not the best on this, but there are deals to be found. Just have to know the exchange rate so you can check.

My friend gave me a Japanese Rail Card. Unless you're talking about the ones international services offer, I think those make up for themselves only after multiple bullet train rides. If you're talking about a Suica card, those things are the fucking tits and make life so easy. Just put yen on there and don't worry about it until you run low.

Ah right, so they might be sold out already. Damn.
Ah yeah, I'm talking about the bullet train ones. Sweet. I'll check out the Suica card, you can use them on bullet trains?

[Strange Tales]

I would email to ask because why not.

Nah, you have to buy bullet train tickets separately. It might be worth it if you are still going to go to all those places since Kyoto, Nara and Osaka are all stops on the bullet train line, but that as I already said, would leave you with little time to actually look at everything.

Honestly, not sure how you get a Suica card now that I think about, my friend just gave me a spare he had.

[backwardsvoyager]

you can get new cards from the most of the loading machines, but you have to load an extra 1000 yen to pay for the card IIRC. at narita airport and probably all the others too there's an english information centre where they can help you buy tickets and all that shit.

the JR pass is only worth it if you're doing like 30k yen or more worth of shinkansen tickets in a week, but that's like the same amount it costs to go return from tokyo to kyoto so it can be worthwhile.

alternately almost all the expensive shinkansen trips can be done on a night rider bus for about a quarter of the price. it is less than a quarter as comfortable, but it's an option

[Andrew]

I'm goin in Aug, super cheap flights and i'm more than used to Summer. I also sold out and booked a Western styled room.

I booked close to Akiba, which I am honestly kind of dreading now though I booked my stay close to a station to I can get around without panicking too much

[HorseyBoy]

^^ What backwardsvoyager said. The JR pass is great if you're doing a lot of bullet trips but, like everyone else has said, you should really plan on spending more time in less locations. Think about what you really want to see and do.
The record shop skullservant mentioned above is Tower Records, which is still right in the middle of Shibuya. There are some decent guitar shops in that area, too (an Ishibashi and Musicland Key). Heartman Vintage is also there. It's small but really worth a look.
I must be the only Westerner who's ever set foot in Ochanomizu and found it pretty underwhelming. A strip of guitar shops pretty much selling the same things - even if it's a giant strip - doesn't do much for me. But if you're looking for new Japanese-made Fenders, you'll find one there.
My favourite Tokyo guitar store (by a huge margin) is TC Gakki. They're in the Shinjuku area: https://www.tcgakki.com/English.html
Hyper Guitars, which is for looking, not buying, is right next door: http://www.hyperguitars.com
And think about whether or not you need a data sim card while you're there. Bmobile do a good 14-day one that you can pick up from airports or hotels: http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/

[SecretMachine]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I might go for JR pass as I do intend to use the bullet train a fair bit.
So far the places I wanna go and the number of nights are as follows.

# of nights / Place
5 Tokyo
1 Hakone
4 Kyoto
1 Hiroshima
1 Kanazawa
2 Tokyo

I'm wondering wherever I'm being too ambitious trying to get from Hiroshima back to Kanazawa, or wherever there's somewhere else I could go instead.
I was thinking of maybe even substituting a day in Kyoto for a day in Osaka.

Basically, I want to do a fair bit of sightseeing, temples, get alot of history, check out some guitar shops, meet some people, get drunk and have fun.
Oh and eat lots of FOOD!

Maybe I'm weird, but I've heard japan is awesome for jazz, so I wouldn't mind seeing some live jazz as well.

[Strange Tales]

^^ What backwardsvoyager said. The JR pass is great if you're doing a lot of bullet trips but, like everyone else has said, you should really plan on spending more time in less locations. Think about what you really want to see and do.
The record shop skullservant mentioned above is Tower Records, which is still right in the middle of Shibuya. There are some decent guitar shops in that area, too (an Ishibashi and Musicland Key). Heartman Vintage is also there. It's small but really worth a look.
I must be the only Westerner who's ever set foot in Ochanomizu and found it pretty underwhelming. A strip of guitar shops pretty much selling the same things - even if it's a giant strip - doesn't do much for me. But if you're looking for new Japanese-made Fenders, you'll find one there.
My favourite Tokyo guitar store (by a huge margin) is TC Gakki. They're in the Shinjuku area: https://www.tcgakki.com/English.html
Hyper Guitars, which is for looking, not buying, is right next door: http://www.hyperguitars.com
And think about whether or not you need a data sim card while you're there. Bmobile do a good 14-day one that you can pick up from airports or hotels: http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/

Yea but Ochanomizu has a dedicated lefty shop, it's the only music shop I've felt truly welcomed in