Good preparations for a visit to Japan?

Fellow gamers,



For quite some time I´ve been thinking of doing japan for a week or so, planning of going this summer.

since I, to be honest, are not very familiar with Japan or japanese culture I thought it would be good start to ask around here at first since a lot people are from japan, or have experience from the land of the rising sun..

Okey so If im going to japan I would like to dig a little deeper than the average tourist. Sure I want to visit the "must haves" but if possible, also find places/stuff/cultural venues that the normal japanese go to.

Music is my bag, especially jazz. How is the jazz scene in Japan? How about traditional japanese music?

What cities could be of interest except Tokyo and Kyoto?

Can you get around with english or is it "advisable" to learn some
japanese phrases?

Thanks!

 

if you like jazz track down SunShip, Tokyo Jihen*i'm not sure if they dissolved or not* and Pe'z. theres most likely more japanese jazz bands. but those are the ones i know. someone else could probably answer that better than i did. and give info on how often they play

 

Before you leave get a business card for your hotel which sometimes has a map on the back. I say that because if you want to go out of the tourist areas and just wander around and discover things it's easier to get into a taxi and hand the card to the driver and be taken right back to your hotel when you're done. I do that and just explore and follow what interests me throughout the day and worry about where I am and getting back later.

If you take the train, learn the name of the train line. If you wander again you can alwys find a taxi and ask the driver to take you to the nearest station for that line. Or you could just ask a convenience store clerk the same thing.

I'm sure others could tell you the best way in japanese to ask. I'd say, "Ichican chikaku Yamanote Line eki," I've only used it in my city for the monorail station so I'm not sure if you'd say "Yamanote Line" or something else. I basically say, "the closest monorail station."

Other than that, get lost and have fun. Look more left and right and less forwards and backwards. You can sometimes miss an entrance to an interesting area that you never knew was there even if you've passed it before. Always choose the small alley over the big alley. If it's closed during the day it probably means it will be open all night.

That's about all that pops into my head...

 

a week is not enough, especially if youre going to travel around.

you can easily spend a week in tokyo and still miss most of what it has to offer...

 

I'm going to spend 3 weeks in japan (less travel time)

Hopefully that will be enough