Renato1
Established Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2015
- Posts
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These are some thoughts after spending a week in Tokyo in mid May 2019.
We always buy a DK Top 10 Guide of any capital city we visit, and set about knocking off the Top 10, plus check the guide for other interesting sights in whichever area we find ourselves in. The hotel also had a free comprehensive Tokyo travel guide with better maps, which we also made use of.
PROs.
A. ............People are pleasant, and it is a most pleasant and safe place to be. We were expecting it to be very crowded, but didn't find it as crowded as other heavily visited tourist places like Rome and New York. Traffic appeared generally lighter than what we have in Melbourne.
B............. The subway system is a cinch to use. A three days tourist ticket costs 1500 Yen (A$20), but they are only available at certain counters of bigger railway stations, after showing one's passport.
C..............The roads have plenty of large maps for tourists to get their bearings while walking around. I'm partially colour blind and had a tough time spotting the "Your Are Here" marker, whereas my wife could find it instantly.
D. ............Airport taxis are notoriously expensive from Narita airport. If young, fit and healthy, or on a budget, one can use the cheaper train services into Tokyo. but that may involve lugging suitcases between stations, while trying to figure out the subway after a long flight. For older types, it is much easier just to book the efficient Green Tomato minibus service between the airport and hotel, and vice versa.
E.............High Tech. It was confusing at first, but what we thought was an alarm clock between our two beds in our newly built hotel turned out to be the alarm clock and the controller for the room lights and air-conditioning. Very handy, after we finally had it explained to us. Also, instead of having the usual satellite/cable channels, our room had YouTube on the TV which we actually watched and preferred.
F..............Pretty much wherever you are, if hungry or thirsty, you will see a 7 Eleven, Family Mart, Lawsons or some other mini-mart convenience store, all of which have well priced tasty hot fried food (meat patties, fried fish, hash browns, chicken kebabs), superb sandwiches and cans of drink, and they usually have an ATM for getting cash out.
G.............I really liked Narita Airport.
CONs.
A..............If you smoke or vape, well that's banned on the street. Unless you are trying to give up, you won't like Tokyo much. Hotels, department stores, some restaurants and some subways have smoking rooms - it's like never having left the airport. Though there are a few designated smoking areas in some streets, and some restaurants and coffee shops allow smoking inside. Interestingly, the smokers I passed in the designated open-air sites seemed happy, those I saw in through the glass panes of smoking rooms all seemed pretty glum.
B..............Tokyo doesn't seem to have heard of having benches to sit on in the streets. Not a problem for the fit and healthy. But my wife and I had back operations a few years back. So while we had no problem walking around Stockholm and Copenhagen last year, taking occasional sit-down breaks, for us every day in Tokyo became a grind and an exercise in endurance as we got sorer and sorer. We wondered how old folks got along in Tokyo - and realised that we hadn't seen that many, and those that we did seemed to be struggling like us.
C.............My wife likes checking out stores and markets. All I kept hearing her say was "This is ridiculous" with respect to the prices, after she had converted to AUD (divide Yen by 100, and add a third). In sharp contrast, I met a New Zealander who said his wife's luggage was filled to overflowing from all the stuff she had bought because everything was so much cheaper in Tokyo. (Glad I don't live in New Zealand).
D............When hunting for accommodation in Tokyo beware their rooms with a "double bed". Some ads are honest and admit it's actually only a one and a half sized bed, rather than a double bed. The twin bed rooms are more expensive and bigger. The choice often seems to be between sleeping apart or sleeping on top of each other.
E.............Tokyo is the only place I have ever had trouble finding food to eat at night, as we just don't like Japanese food ( I tried every day to get out of my comfort zone by eating Japanese food at breakfast, but it didn't work). We ate most meals at Denny's restaurant, which I initially thought was pretty expensive conpared to back home. But later I realised it was actually inexpensive compared to what other restaurants in the area were charging - which sort of explained why were were often the only non-Japanese people in the restaurant, which was always near full or totally full. We got a bit tired of Denny's and had Chinese one night - ordered standard Chinese meals, cost was dearer than in Australia, and serving size was a lot smaller - and I had to then go and eat more at 7 Eleven. One night we just gave up, and decided to instead have a feast of 7 Eleven food.
F............If you want to see unhappy animals going nuts from boredom or wasting away in inadequate space, then the Zoo at Ueno is the place to go. My wife loves going to zoos in the capital cities, but after only seeing half of it, she said she had had enough and wanted to get the hell out of there.
G..........Never have I paid so much for such sub-average coffee. Prices such as A$7 a cup for milk and coffee, and A$10 to A$12 a cup for sub-average cappuccinos were not untypical while waliking around. The cappuccinos at the Tully's chain were pretty tasty, but were about two thirds froth. The best cappuccinos we had were at Subway for A$4 a cup.
H.........Most smaller places want to be paid in cash rather than take credit cards. The places that do take credit cards want you to sign on a digital pad rather than input a PIN number.
I...........I know it's a matter of personal preference, but the major historical sites in Tokyo seemed to me to be a B-List compared to major sites in other capital cities. I usually take a couple of hundred photos in major capitals, but took only just over a 100 in Tokyo - and that included lots of shots in the zoo, which don't really count.
J...........Prices are most often listed without the tax component, and one gets a bigger bill at the checkout.
I...........I couldn't find Pepsi Max or Pepsi Lite anywhere.
To sum up, while we've met people here and met some tourists over there who really loved Tokyo, for us we'd rate it as just an "Okay".
Happy enough that we went once, but never going back.
Regards,
Renato
We always buy a DK Top 10 Guide of any capital city we visit, and set about knocking off the Top 10, plus check the guide for other interesting sights in whichever area we find ourselves in. The hotel also had a free comprehensive Tokyo travel guide with better maps, which we also made use of.
PROs.
A. ............People are pleasant, and it is a most pleasant and safe place to be. We were expecting it to be very crowded, but didn't find it as crowded as other heavily visited tourist places like Rome and New York. Traffic appeared generally lighter than what we have in Melbourne.
B............. The subway system is a cinch to use. A three days tourist ticket costs 1500 Yen (A$20), but they are only available at certain counters of bigger railway stations, after showing one's passport.
C..............The roads have plenty of large maps for tourists to get their bearings while walking around. I'm partially colour blind and had a tough time spotting the "Your Are Here" marker, whereas my wife could find it instantly.
D. ............Airport taxis are notoriously expensive from Narita airport. If young, fit and healthy, or on a budget, one can use the cheaper train services into Tokyo. but that may involve lugging suitcases between stations, while trying to figure out the subway after a long flight. For older types, it is much easier just to book the efficient Green Tomato minibus service between the airport and hotel, and vice versa.
E.............High Tech. It was confusing at first, but what we thought was an alarm clock between our two beds in our newly built hotel turned out to be the alarm clock and the controller for the room lights and air-conditioning. Very handy, after we finally had it explained to us. Also, instead of having the usual satellite/cable channels, our room had YouTube on the TV which we actually watched and preferred.
F..............Pretty much wherever you are, if hungry or thirsty, you will see a 7 Eleven, Family Mart, Lawsons or some other mini-mart convenience store, all of which have well priced tasty hot fried food (meat patties, fried fish, hash browns, chicken kebabs), superb sandwiches and cans of drink, and they usually have an ATM for getting cash out.
G.............I really liked Narita Airport.
CONs.
A..............If you smoke or vape, well that's banned on the street. Unless you are trying to give up, you won't like Tokyo much. Hotels, department stores, some restaurants and some subways have smoking rooms - it's like never having left the airport. Though there are a few designated smoking areas in some streets, and some restaurants and coffee shops allow smoking inside. Interestingly, the smokers I passed in the designated open-air sites seemed happy, those I saw in through the glass panes of smoking rooms all seemed pretty glum.
B..............Tokyo doesn't seem to have heard of having benches to sit on in the streets. Not a problem for the fit and healthy. But my wife and I had back operations a few years back. So while we had no problem walking around Stockholm and Copenhagen last year, taking occasional sit-down breaks, for us every day in Tokyo became a grind and an exercise in endurance as we got sorer and sorer. We wondered how old folks got along in Tokyo - and realised that we hadn't seen that many, and those that we did seemed to be struggling like us.
C.............My wife likes checking out stores and markets. All I kept hearing her say was "This is ridiculous" with respect to the prices, after she had converted to AUD (divide Yen by 100, and add a third). In sharp contrast, I met a New Zealander who said his wife's luggage was filled to overflowing from all the stuff she had bought because everything was so much cheaper in Tokyo. (Glad I don't live in New Zealand).
D............When hunting for accommodation in Tokyo beware their rooms with a "double bed". Some ads are honest and admit it's actually only a one and a half sized bed, rather than a double bed. The twin bed rooms are more expensive and bigger. The choice often seems to be between sleeping apart or sleeping on top of each other.
E.............Tokyo is the only place I have ever had trouble finding food to eat at night, as we just don't like Japanese food ( I tried every day to get out of my comfort zone by eating Japanese food at breakfast, but it didn't work). We ate most meals at Denny's restaurant, which I initially thought was pretty expensive conpared to back home. But later I realised it was actually inexpensive compared to what other restaurants in the area were charging - which sort of explained why were were often the only non-Japanese people in the restaurant, which was always near full or totally full. We got a bit tired of Denny's and had Chinese one night - ordered standard Chinese meals, cost was dearer than in Australia, and serving size was a lot smaller - and I had to then go and eat more at 7 Eleven. One night we just gave up, and decided to instead have a feast of 7 Eleven food.
F............If you want to see unhappy animals going nuts from boredom or wasting away in inadequate space, then the Zoo at Ueno is the place to go. My wife loves going to zoos in the capital cities, but after only seeing half of it, she said she had had enough and wanted to get the hell out of there.
G..........Never have I paid so much for such sub-average coffee. Prices such as A$7 a cup for milk and coffee, and A$10 to A$12 a cup for sub-average cappuccinos were not untypical while waliking around. The cappuccinos at the Tully's chain were pretty tasty, but were about two thirds froth. The best cappuccinos we had were at Subway for A$4 a cup.
H.........Most smaller places want to be paid in cash rather than take credit cards. The places that do take credit cards want you to sign on a digital pad rather than input a PIN number.
I...........I know it's a matter of personal preference, but the major historical sites in Tokyo seemed to me to be a B-List compared to major sites in other capital cities. I usually take a couple of hundred photos in major capitals, but took only just over a 100 in Tokyo - and that included lots of shots in the zoo, which don't really count.
J...........Prices are most often listed without the tax component, and one gets a bigger bill at the checkout.
I...........I couldn't find Pepsi Max or Pepsi Lite anywhere.
To sum up, while we've met people here and met some tourists over there who really loved Tokyo, for us we'd rate it as just an "Okay".
Happy enough that we went once, but never going back.
Regards,
Renato
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