What would you do and see in Japan?

[Toekeyohdrift]

Heading out there around November this year and haven't been since I was 13, so my interests have changed since to say the least. If you were to go to Japan what would you get into? Trying to avoid most illegal stuff as I'm Japanese and won't get the leniency that white foreigners might get. Also, high altitude stuff is out of the question due to the season. Might hit up some islands, sleep in some internet cafes, bike around, and overall keep it cheap if I can. Any suggestions?

 

[Matt Derrick]

i was watching a documentary showing how some companies are doing quasi-legal tour groups of the areas around fukishima. it was interesting seeing all the abandoned places around there.

 

[Colinleath]

Have you figured out how to get let in yet? I thought i heard they still had COVID restrictions in place and only tourist groups were let in, not solo vagabonds-- i think i want to go in the fall if I can solo bike travel there-

 

[NeCo]

Hello, nice to meet you
I think you have already traveled to Japan, but I will leave it. I would like to leave you with a few pieces of advice.
I didn't write clearly where I was going, so other than that...
If you want to keep food costs down, go to a supermarket instead of a convenience store. If you go before closing,
Food and lunch boxes before the expiration date are sold at half price. If you run out of daily necessities, please go to the drug store. By the way, some local drugstores are half supermarkets, so if you go there before they close, like the same supermarkets, you can buy cheap lunch boxes.
After that, it will be an entertainment miscellaneous goods supermarket, but Don Quijote is open almost 24 hours a day, so it's fun just to look inside, so I recommend it. → 驚安の殿堂　ドン・キホーテ - https://www.donki.com/


It will be winter in Japan in November, so please protect yourself from the cold. In this season, it is very cold and hard to ride a bicycle in Japan.
If you find it difficult to get around by bicycle, there is also a weekend pass (holidays, Saturdays, and Sundays only) that allows you to ride as much as you want for one day by paying around 2,000 yen for JR and transportation companies in each area. *There are various prices as they are issued by each transportation company.
In the Kanto region, there are unlimited ride tickets for foreign tourists → 西武鉄道の訪日外国人向け切符、駅でも発売 | レスポンス（Response.jp） - https://response.jp/article/2015/06/19/253773.html
Depending on the area, there are tourist spots that are fun to visit by bicycle touring, such as footbaths that can be enjoyed for free in hot spring towns, meals that can only be eaten in the area, and shrines (Shikoku area, Kusatsu Onsen, etc.).
Also, if you get lost, please go to the police box. There are also police officers who can speak English, so I think you can rest assured. ,

By the way, it's a digression. The things I want to see in Japan are in Ginza, Tokyo. This is the Okuno Building. I saw it on YouTube in a retro building and found out. Urban development in Tokyo demolishes old buildings and constructs new buildings at a high speed, so I'd like to go see them before they are demolished. → 築85年のアートな銀座「奥野ビル」から 新たなデザイン＆アートを発信 - 2019年記事 - https://sumau.com/2019-n/article/620

I'm Japanese, so I'm writing while using translation, so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes in the English translation.
I will also leave the Japanese one

こんにちは初めまして
もう既に、日本に旅行済みだと思いますが残しておきます。何個かの助言を残しておきたいと思います。
どこに行くのか明確に書いてなかったのでそれ以外で…
食費を安く抑えたいのなら、コンビニではなく、スーパーに行ってください。閉店前に行くと、
半額で賞味期限切れ前の食品やお弁当が売ってたりします。あと日用品が無くなったらドラッグストア行ってみてください。ちなみに地方のドラッグストアは半分スーパーになってるとこがあるのでこれも同じスーパーと同じく閉店前に行くとお弁当が安く買えたりします
後は、エンタメ系雑貨スーパーになりますがドンキホーテはほぼ、24h空いてて店内見るだけでも楽しいのでオススメしておきます

11月は日本では冬になりますので寒いので防寒して下さい。この季節に自転車はかなり日本では寒さでキツイので（沖縄だけは冬でも18〜20度をウロウロしてるので冬に自転車ツーリングならおすすめです）
自転車で回るのが辛くなったら、週末パスという（祝日、土曜日、日曜日のみ）地区ごとのJR、交通機関の会社の2000円ぐらい払うと1日だけ乗り放題と言う切符もあります。※交通会社が各会社で発行してる物なので値段は色々あります
関東なら外国人旅行者向けの乗り放題の切符もあります→ 西武鉄道の訪日外国人向け切符、駅でも発売 | レスポンス（Response.jp） - https://response.jp/article/2015/06/19/253773.html
地区によっては温泉街だとあちこちに無料で入れる足湯やその場所でしか食べれない食事や神社など自転車ツーリングで行ったら楽しい観光地もあります（四国地方、草津温泉など）
あと、道に迷ったら交番に行ってみて下さい。英語が話せるお巡りさんも居るので安心するかと思います。、

ちなみにですが、余談です。日本で行って見たいものは、東京、銀座にある。おくのビルです。レトロなビルでYouTubeで見て知りました。東京は都市開発で古いビルを壊して新しい建物を作るスピードが早いので、取り壊される前に行って見たいです。→ 築85年のアートな銀座「奥野ビル」から 新たなデザイン＆アートを発信 - 2019年記事 - https://sumau.com/2019-n/article/620

日本人という事で、翻訳を使いながら書いてるので英語で翻訳間違えがあると申し訳ないので
日本語の方も残しておきます

 

[Colinleath]

Thank you! I went to Taiwan in October/ November instead but still hope to go to Japan some day. Very cool to hear your first-hand recommendations!!

 

[Koala]

Basically following up with you OP, haha. And giving my experience to others...I spent a week and a half in Tokyo recently and it was a really cool experience. Onsens (hot baths, cold plunges and saunas --- make sure they're tattoo-friendly) were insanely cheap and relaxing, it was fun walking around Shinjuku and people-watching, karaoke at hole-in-the-wall places was super fun. We went to a comedy show, a punk show in Shinjuku at a venue called Earthdom. We went to an infoshop called Irregular Rhythm Asylum and found out about a really sick free art exhibit about hundreds of Japanese balloon bombs that fell all over the western USA in the 40s (but only one detonated). That infoshop sometimes has events but nothing while we were there. Theres a Food Not Bombs in very very far south Tokyo but they share only once a month, 4th Sunday of each month (18:30-19:00 at Shitakusho-mae Park in Yokosuka). We ate ramen and went to an immersive-artsy museum. We did karaoke in a teeny tiny bar and also in a Phillipino lady's living-room-turned-karaoke-bar. I felt pretty satisfied and done after a week.

I will say it was very expensive and extremely underwhelming after spending nearly 4 months in SE Asia. i really missed having so many options for cheap and independent means of transportation in SE Asia (easy bikes to rent and cheap scooters with no license requirements). The culture of Japan is extemely polite and quiet overall, something I have literally never seen before so that was quite interesting. It was extremely culture-shocking after the utter chaos and lawlessness and outgoing culture of SE Asia. We considered hitchhiking down to Kyoto and Osaka but after so many months of traveling were feeling burnt out and not super into the draws of those places (more temples which we'd been seeing for months, and city stuff, karaoke etc which we'd already done lots of thru Asia and Tokyo). We ended up going back to Vietnam where we love the food (I'm vegetarian and Vietnam has absolutely mastered mock meat and vegetarian/buddhist buffets) and can rent scooters and get off the beaten path and extremely cheaply have our own hotel rooms.

I would probably go back to Japan at some point, hopefully with some leads on friends/friends-of-friends to connect with because we found it hard to connect with people. And I would go with a lot of money to maybe go to a sumo wrestling tournament and hike Mt Fuji in season, and actually check out high speed rail. And do the IRL Mario Karting in the streets which would have required me to have an international license which I stupidly did not get from AAA for $20 before I flew overseas.