What To Do In Tokyo ?

[leech_]

Hey all,

Well me and 4 other mates are going over to the world cup soccer in europe in June but on the way over we are stopping in tokyo for 3 days... so here is my problem...

- Looking at a map of tokyo it is HUGE!!! where would be the best place for us to stay we were looking sort of in the middle of tokoy somewhere but still that doesnt narrow it down.

- What are some of the general attractions that we should check out keeping in mind that there will be 5 of us all 22 years old.

- I personally want to see a sumo wrestling match are they held often

- The dates we will be in Tokyo are 17, 18, 19th May

Cheers Leigh

[Beer Baron]

unfortunately the big sumo tournament is on in jan each year. I went last year and it was awesome. you can still go to the ryogoku as there may be some training or something, and i think there is a sumo museum there.

i would definately go to harajuku for one day and whilst there visit the meiji jingu shrine.

also head to shinjuku, probably a good idea to go at night. just stay out of the tittie/hostess bars.

if you are there on a friday or saturday night go to roppongi for sure. have a feed then hit some clubs.

try and find a nice yakiniku or shabu-shabu place and splash out on some high qual kobe style beef (just take you wallet for this one!)

try and get to ginza too and walk around.

as for a place to stay, i like shinjuku as it's quite central as has heaps of train lines intersecting there (or near by). It's not that cheap though. I hear Ueno is a good place to stay and more reasonable price wise but

never stayed there myself.

there is heaps of other things to do though, it just depends what you want.

[leech_]

thanks heaps richard alot of those words/places don't mean much to me at the moment i think will google alot of them

annoying about the sumo wrestling though i will do some more research on if any local events are on.

any other advice from others would be appreciated

[sigsputnik]

ah, meant to reply to this earlier.

ok, 3 days, let's see.

if you don't know where to stay, i can recommend a hotel called "St. Hills" in Ochanomizu - http://www.sthills.co.jp/englishmain.html Very nice staff, adequate rooms and good prices. just up the road from Chuo Dori, the Marunouchi subway line and Akihabara. i look to stay there each time i go to tokyo.

stuff to do in three days, well i'm going to make some assumptions about what you like and your ability to get around.

1. you MUST go to Akihabara (not hard if you stay in St Hills). the epitome of tech. walk up the road then to Okachimachi for Ameyoko. lots of little stalls for food and clothes. great place to buy sneakers too (i'm a sneaker freak). if Okachimachi is not your bag, you can instead walk the other way up to Yasukuni Dori and go to Yasukuni Jinja shrine. great and poignant war museum. see the Ohka suicide plane. marvel at how the same firm that once made Zeros now makes Lancers.

2. you MUST go to Shibuya. lots of clothes stores, music stores, good youth culture. then walk up the road to Harajuku. visit Meiji shrine if you want 'old skool' culture. this whole area will blow your mind.

3. Shinjuku is also not bad. very big but worthwhile.

other bits

- i advise you to do stuff you wouldn't normally do. some stuff may be odd, but that's half the fun.

- buy drinks from the drinks machines - pocari sweat, calpis and that.

- TRY RAMEN. AND GYOZA. the little tiny food places are unreal.

- if you go to Harajuku, walk down to Omotesando. There's a sushi shop about half way up the street with heavenly sushi.

- take a camera!

i would probably avoid roppongi. i think it's always been a bit of a dump and even the addition of roppongi hills doesn't really help. interestingly, it's the foreigners that ruin it. but that's just my opinion.

i am F****ING jealous that you are going. You will have a fantastic time!

[leech_]

hey sig thanks heaps bud and what do you mean jealous you have been over there before and for longer periods hehe

omg I checked out that page and saw this line "10 min to baseball stadium" I would love the see a Japanese baseball game as well though again being only there for 3 days and I am not even sure when the season runs baseball rocks

yea I probably should have said we all will generally want to look/do the typical touristy stuff however eg clothes, foot decent shrines/museums etc I am a big fan of war museums so I will be checking the one you mentioned if I can

thanks again Leigh

[dodgybrooks]

dude, head down to odaiba. it's got the toyota megaweb which is a huge toyota showroom with some cool shit including a JGTC supra which you can climb into, but the best bit is the museum there with a changing collection of cars (apart from an F1 car from toyota's 1st year in F1, a paris dakar celica and a GT1, which are always there). last year i was there it had an old skool gt-r and an AE86 dressed up all Initial D style, the time before a whole heap of toyota racing cars from different series, the time before that i can't remember but they probably would have been really cool. well worth a visit.

cheapest places to stay are capsule hotels. there are plenty in shinjuku. they aren't luxury by any stretch but you can only find them in japan so save some money and get some culture at the same time.

[funkymonkey]

What to do in Tokyo

Do it... do it! Cos if you don't hoards of american tourist fanboys will soon enough.

[KAWAII_hachi_roku]

goto shibuya station to view HACHI KO

HACHI-KO PHOTOS AND STORY

[akeenan]

if i was you id buy a japan lonely planet guide

but if you want my opinion

go to shibuya/shinjuku/harajuku 1 day

akihabara/ sumo shit / tokyo tower .... / or if you want to go to Tokyo Dome which will be the baseball stadium your talking about(suidobashi station) go to the 43rd floor of the Tokyo Dome hotel theres a bar there ...its a little expensive but the view is amazing. day 2

Asakusa then from asakusa ride a boat to Odaiba day 3 .

and if theres time go to ginza and any other parks you can fit in

Edited March 17, 2006 by akeenan

[leech_]

lol funky tokyo drift

yea akeenan i was going to get a lonley planet but being on there for 3 days it's a bit of a waste i do have on for Europe though

dodgybrooks i will probably check that out if i have time sounds interesting

i guess i will wait and see how much i like tokyo if its really nice and lots to do i will probably leave europe a week earlier to use that time in Japan if i do that will be around June 28th - 3rd July

[Rezz]

What to do in Tokyo

Do it... do it! Cos if you don't hoards of american tourist fanboys will soon enough.

All that movie needs is Chris Rock and some of his best hand selected 'inoffensive' White jokes and oooh yeah! Summer blockbuster!

Shite.

[leech_]

well we had our "Europe Meeting" and Tokyo was discussed.

Funny thing is without me saying anything of what people have posted in this thread the general gist of places to go and things to see was almost spot on what Sigsputnic had posted so good call Also Beer Baron you might be right one of my mates heard that there is a 15 day tournament on in ryogoku in May. Will try and find out more info about that as well

[sigsputnik]

GO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[leech_]

YEA BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm going to a sumo tournament WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO only drama is going to be booking tickets considering i dont speak japanese

http://www.sumo.or.jp/eng/ticket/index.html

[Beer Baron]

you can buy the sumo tickets on the day. sumo was great fun.

even for 3 days i would buy the lonely planet guide. my advice is buy the tokyo guide, not the japan guide. they even make a condensed version of the tokyo guide, and it's only about 20 bux.

[sigsputnik]

ditto the tokyo guide. the japan guide is more useful for the next trip you take there (and i guarantee you there will be one).

[leech_]

hmm cheers for the info i think i will go pick one up tomorrow should make life a little easier

[Asphalt Jet]

Hey all,

Well me and 4 other mates are going over to the world cup soccer in europe in June but on the way over we are stopping in tokyo for 3 days... so here is my problem...

- Looking at a map of tokyo it is HUGE!!! where would be the best place for us to stay we were looking sort of in the middle of tokoy somewhere but still that doesnt narrow it down.

- What are some of the general attractions that we should check out keeping in mind that there will be 5 of us all 22 years old.

- I personally want to see a sumo wrestling match are they held often

- The dates we will be in Tokyo are 17, 18, 19th May

Cheers Leigh

so your coming to japan, japan stands for have your wallet ready, what kind of funds are you working with,

the city may look huge but hotel rooms are very small and a can be very pricey I can send you an english magazine for japan called metropolitan might help you a lot, up to you, it's like whats the scene japan for non locals its a monthly mag and it's free I have a few months worth. Don,t know how much help i can be, I live in japan just outside of tokyo

Name is Thomas

Edited April 9, 2006 by Asphalt Jet

[leech_]

hey Thomas cheers for the post yea anything that could help us find our way around would be appreciated. Budget varies because 5 of us are going so me and one other guys budgets are a little higher while the other 3 i think will try and save alot which is going to make things a little more interesting. Those magazines sound good can you scan a few of the decent pages in or are they quite large ??? pm me and we can sort something out my email address is [email protected]

Cheers Leigh

[SKYLVIA]

dunno if this has been said, but learn some basic japanese.

although your only going for 3 days, it will come in handy