Weekly Japan Travel Information and Discussion Thread – April 26, 2024

9 comments

1. Trying to get a itinerary sorted before I start booking hotels for a fall trip. I’ll be in Japan for 14 days, 13 nights at the end of September/start of October. That amount of time seems easiest to just do 5-8 days with Tokyo as a homebase and the remainder with Kyoto/Osaka as a home base, with day trips to Nara, Fuji, maybe Hiroshima, etc in there somewhere. It’s easy, if a bit generic, and maybe that’s what I ended up with. I have more specifics and would be glad to share them.

   But the person in me that loves the mountains wants to incorporate a few days in the Japanese Alps. I was thinking Nagano and Shirikawa go/Takayama for a few days. Which brings me to the question of how you would structure the trip to include those areas, if possible? Originally I was planning to do Tokyo first, then to Nagano, down to Takayama, then to Kyoto/Osaka, finish with Fuji on the way back to Tokyo before I fly out. 5 days Tokyo, 3 days mountains, 4 days Kyoto/Osaka, and then back to Tokyo. But would it make sense to go straight from the plane to Fuji, then to Kyoto and do it the other way? Or am I doing the generic tourist thing and trying to fit too much into my trip? Which I want to be cognizant of as well. Anyway, thanks for the advice!

2. Anyone know when the domestic flight schedules after October 26th get updated? I want to book a flight from Tokyo to Sapporo on November 29th but don’t want to do so until the schedules out

3. If I wanted to visit Yakushima is it reasonable to get around on a bike? Like, its a small island right?

4. So, my wife needed a refill for her asthma inhaler in Kyoto.  We’ve previously refilled using our American online prescription in Spain, Tahiti, Thailand, Doha. and other places. Never been a problem. So we assumed Japan would be similar.. Nope. 

   The first pharmacy “chemist” we went to didn’t sell drugs at all, and they could not tell us where to go.  Then we found a real pharmacy, who told us that we needed a WRITTEN prescription by a Japanese doc.  And there’s a clinic round the corner.  Great! off we go.  But, because we don’t speak Japanese, that clinic won’t see us, even with the translate app, even for something as simple as a refill of a lifelong medication.  She pointed us to another clinic nearby that had an English speaking doc. 

   We had to wait till 6pm when they opened.  We remove shoes at the entry, Fine.  But the slippers we had to put on reeked.  I was gagging the smell was so bad.  Maybe they don’t notice because they’re always masked..  Anyways, that should have been our tip off something was amiss. But, they spoke very broken English and the doctor was willing to see my wife.  First they wanted to charge us 20,000 yen for a visit. We balked and explained my wife wasn’t actually sick, it’s just a prescription refill!  Lots of chatter in Japanese then the price dropped to “under 10,000 yen”. Still ridiculous, but ok. We were stuck.

   Anyways, we filled out some forms and were told to go back to the doctor’s “office”. 

   Stop reading here if you have a fear of doctors.

   This office was the shit nightmares are made of. The office was absolutely *filthy*. The doctor was a hoarder. Crap EVERYWHERE. Including garbage, empty bottles, medical equipment that looked derelict/broken. It wasn’t third world, it was like 7th world.  If we’d actually been sick, we would have b-lined the hell out of there… but we just needed an RX so we stuck it out.

   The Doc listened to my wife’s breathing, blamed China for pollution causing asthma (not wrong…) and 4000 yen later we left with our prescription which we filled no problem.  

   I assume this is atypical.  We’re close to Nijo, so not exactly tourist central but not the burbs either.  I was thinking about visiting a dentist for a cleaning before we leave the country, but if this is at all typical of medical care, I’ll just wait for another cheap country or I might leave the dentist with god knows what disease.

5. Just a warning to all: Golden Week has started! This is the busiest transportation week of the year. We’re actually at the end of our stay in Japan, and we get on a cruise tomorrow. We stupidly assumed getting from Kyoto to Yokohama (Tokyo) via shinkansen would be no problem as every other time we’ve taken the shinkansen we just stroll on up to the ticket office and get on the next train.

   This time, we used klook and while it *looked* wide open, Klook’s availability was a steaming pile of garbage. Everything kept getting cancelled 5 mins after we booked as it was actually sold out. Finally after about 5 attempts we got confirmed tickets/seats for all 4 of us.

   TL;DR – If you’re taking any inter-city trains and don’t already have tickets in the next week, you might be about to have a bad time.

6. what’s the difference between momiji tunnel vs maple corridor? is it really just accessibility, where one is an road you drive through and one is not?

7. There’s this hotel (Hotel Resol Kyoto Kawaramachi Sanjo) I found, it looks pretty nice, I’ve read nothing but flattering reviews online (both on Booking and Google maps)
   my concern is: there is a plan offer for “For girls’ trips or couples’ trips”, I think the room is aesthetically more pleasing. I’m thinking of booking this room but the website says “We do not allow this plan to be used by only one male guest”. I thought it was odd enough to wonder if there are hidden cameras (or such things) in the room. What do you think? Will it be safe or should I forget this hotel altogether?

8. Anyone seen those half kilogram bottles of bath salts at a tax free shop in Japan and can tell me where they saw it? I’m not sure if I should order online so they’ll be delivered to my hotel during my stopover or if I should go to a shop for that discount.

9. I was riding my bike from Fujikawaguchiko to Matsumoto yesterday and my Rinko bag fell off my bike somewhere along the way. Since didn’t know when it happened continued with a hope to get another one in Matsumoto. Do you have a suggestion where to look for a bike bag in Matsumoto?
   Thanks.