What place should i visit in Tokyo?

[amakuzax]

So in about 2 Weeks i will visit Tokyo, if my EF Language School finally replies… if not then i will go there 1 week later…

So the most important questions:
What place do you recommend me to visit?
Also a question is there a place in tokyo with free wifi access near Shibuya where i will stay?
How much money should i take with me when will stay there for 3 weeks?
Do you recommend me to buy a sim-card and if yes then which one would you recommend?
(Already paid for housing,breakfast etc…)

Also you can tell me which city should i visit next year as i plan to visit japan every summer till i finish my high school (4 years left) and then move to Japan and study Computer Engineering still not sure if i should learn in a big city like Tokyo or maybe some other town which is not that big but cheaper and has a lot of locals

[Glias]

Train stations have free wifi (some of them don’t need a log-in and some do, usually just needs an email address or phone number), as well as places like Starbucks. There’s a Starbucks on the opposite corner of Hachiko statue at the famous Shibuya crossing. It gets pretty crowded there, though, because everyone goes to the second floor to take pictures of the intersection while people cross. I felt like I could find wifi really easily, so if you think you can get away with not buying a sim card, then save the money. My bill for two weeks of phone rental from Haneda airport ended up at around $170 USD. But if you do decide to get a sim card, be sure to have cellular data turned OFF when you’re not using it. Otherwise, apps running in the background will add usage charges even if you don’t use your phone all day.

It really depends on how spendy you are (quality vs cheap food, souvenirs??)! I think I got by with 60,000 yen for two weeks withdrawn from ATMs (the conversion rate was best this way–I have a local credit union bank card and the convenient store ATMs worked just fine), but I also used my credit card for bigger purchases when cards were accepted. I didn’t buy nearly as many souvenirs as my friend did…

As for places to visit, I got a lot of recommendations from people in the thread I made. I asked specifically about Asakusa and Shinjuku areas in Tokyo.

I personally really enjoyed Kanazawa, Takayama, and Matsumoto. I didn’t see everything I wanted to while I was in Kyoto, so I want to go back there and re-visit Kanazawa, too. Kenrokuen is just so beautiful.

Hakone and Lake Ashi were serene. Ah. *already reminiscing

[amakuzax]

Well i always had a weird feeling and it was to visit Fukuoka and then Hiroshima but i plan to do this when i will finally move to Japan, now i need to move to Warsaw and live alone for a year to prove to my parents that i won’t end on the surgeons table with all organs stolen or getting high on acid…

[jprspereira]

I can’t give you any knowledge about Tokyo but… good luck with that I know what it feels like when your parents don’t fully trust you in this aspect of independence.

[amakuzax]

Well they trust me a lot but they are scared because my brother lived alone for about half a year and got into drugs didn’t go to school and he’s 25 now and only finished primary school… with an C- at the end… But i want to show them that i can survive without them too, and i always told them that i want to travel around Japan as i find this country completely different.

One elder which was about 100 years old told me one clever thing:
“Don’t live like me, always in the same place whole life, go travel around the world and find a place to live in, don’t go after money but go after what you truly believe, and remember kid most important thing i learned through my life improve yourself and find your own bad sides and replace them with better ones, remember if others will loiter in a place and thrash talk about others its because that they already lost their hope for themselves don’t lose it and just travel where ever you go ignore others and follow your dreams”

Actually it was a bit different but because he told me that in Polish it’s a bit tricky to translate, i wanted to visit this man last year when i was in poland in my hometown but he’s dead i’ve been to his grave and bought some flowers and as a last goodbye left it on his grave

but this old man opened my eyes and i found out that i don’t need to study and be there where i can earn a lot but to move to another place where i will be happy and start my life there…

Right now i can continue my education in Germany and become a programmer at really Big Company in 2-3 years but i don’t want to live here because i really deeply hate this country, the mentality behind these people i don’t understand it… i mean it’s not a bad place but i think that i don’t really fit here

[riccyjay]

I’m sure lots of people can help you here, but you might want to say a little more about what you’re interested in - Tokyo’s a big place! Do you want to see ‘traditional’ Japan, try unusual food, get drunk, watch some music, see ‘weird’ Japan, practice Japanese, buy Japanese media, relax in ‘nature’, see giant industrial projects…?

[amakuzax]

Well i’m 17 so i can’t really drink alcohol i am an abstinent also but i want to try sake in Kyoto or niigata one of those cities has an amazing shop with a lot of sake machines to choose from… i want to visit the modern weird technologically advanced one, i’ll also want to see some temples but i will visit them when i move there

i am really into IT,Gaming Culture but not so much into the “Otaku” culture as it just creeps me out a bit… can stand it and it’s really good but its kinda not my thing, i like anime but are not into those weird spheres of anime…

[jprspereira]

Well… such an awesome and sad story at the same time =/ I think you’re in the right path

My older brother always had health problems his whole life. Right now he’s 33 yo and he’s in the worst situation that he has ever been. Not drugs or anything “negative”… Simply, he has been terribly unlucky. Because of that, my parents are always afraid of me making mistakes… I feel like I never tried anything new in my entire life because my parents always had my path “figured out”. They got me private classes, they got me into the best private high school in Portugal… now I’m in the best University… Everything happened while they worked 15h/day for it to happen.

I feel like I need to get lost and explore who am I and who I want to be. I need to learn to fail. I need to learn to fail and stand up again. That’s actually one of my main motivations to learn Japanese Because I feel I could learn A LOT if I went to Japan to live atleast for a while. I want to see what I’m capable of doing in the other side of the world When I get my economics right, I’ll probably do it. Until then, gotta study!

Gl on your life’s project mate! Who knows if we end up meeting one day in Japan

[amakuzax]

Well, for sure maybe i plan to move to tokyo in 2019/2020 so when you will be around that time in Tokyo then for sure we can meet, i am not one of those guys scared to meet IRL actually living in Frankfurt, i’ve been born in Poland Silesia (1/2 Polish/German part) and i speak Polish,German,English and want to learn Japanese as i’ve been with 1 Japanese women and 1 thai women in my past and believe me… it’s experience of your life such a honest and really sweet girlfriend i never had and want to have again but now i got no time for dating till 2019… also i’m 17 right now failed 2 classes, one because i was abused by the teacher which got kicked out from school and the other year because i moved in the middle of the schoolyear to germany and lost a whole year of school but this won’t stop me from achieving my life goals some people go right now to job at my age in Germany as here you finish Primary school, secoundary school and can get an intership at a big company and work at the age of 17 and will have a spot after the intership at the age of 20 then but for me it’s just really stupid as it is really limiting the possibilities and i find that the most fun part of life are the people which you meet at your studies and they will be your friends for a longer while

@edit Also i know how you feel, my mother is proud of me but won’t say a thing if i get good grades because she is ashamed of my brother still living of my mom’s money at the age of 25… almost 26 and taking hard drugs now without a school and with no hopes for future, i tried to help my brother but nothing helps as he think that he’s the most educated and smartest man ever and all the people living around him are fools… i want to get rid of him and all the problems i had because of him and start to live on my own my mom knows that already and is scared

[tankenka]

Well… that depends quite a bit on who you are as a person and what you enjoy in your day to day life.

Ultimately, if you are in Tokyo for as long as three weeks then you can do quite a bit. If you like anime and electronics (ESPECIALLY if you like both those things), then you must visit Akihabara (THE largest electronics district on earth)… there are some verrrrrrry cool stores nestled underneath the buildings that are havens for the technically inclined… plus… anime everywhere.

Asakusa is pretty neat from a historical perspective. Tokyo Tower and the huge temple very close to it are pretty neat.

There is also Odaiba and Palette Town (where you will also find the Toyota Showroom and some sweeeeet F1 Racing Simulators, plus the largest Ferris Wheel in the world is… get on the Crystal Box line (all see-through)!

Go to Omotesando Hills / Harajyuku. That is a pretty nifty area, and Yoyogi Park, as well as the Meiji Jingu.

Check out the Shibuya Scramble at the Hachiko Exit - that’s worth looking at just for the sheer volume of people.

Shinjyuku Park costs about 200-300 yen to go in, but it is a truly amazing park, and worth every yen.

If you go to Ginza, that is one of the faster ways to get yourself to the castle in the middle of the city.

If you want to get out of the city a little bit, hop on a train (the Keheintohoku line, for example) and head out to the Saitama Shintoshin. Or in the other direction to Yokohama. Plus, there are a huge number of parks and nooks and crannies around Tokyo city that are pretty amazing. Such as if you go to Ueno, from the west exit you’ll find the Ueno Cultural Centre (Ueno Bunka Kaikan) with an outdoor museum and Ueno park (which has lots of neat stuff to discover). Or if you head out the lower south exit, there’s a fantastic bakery inside the station, but just outside is a bustling vendor street (very busy, foot traffic only), where, under the Tokyo railway line, you’ll find some incredible local ramen shops.

Roppoingi… well, it has some amazing movie theatres, and much of it is pretty classy in the daytime. But it is a place where ex-pats (expatriates) go to party… it is a party district and, unless that’s your thing, it isn’t really a whole lot of fun. I went there only a handful of times when I last lived in Tokyo… for television auditions, to see movies, and once for a small birthday party.

Oh! Ikebukero! Definitely an interesting part of Tokyo to visit. Sunshine Plaza has (or at least had) a massive Ultraman Statue! Plus, there used to be (might still be) this really amazing icecream parlour called “Milky Way” that had giant parfaits that were sooooo tasty!

As for other cities in the future: Sapporo, Hakodate, Kushiro, Chiba, Osaka, Kobe, Yokohama, Chima, Tochigi, Arashiyama, Shizuoka, Takamatsu (and visit Naoshima if you like art galleries), Fukuoka, and of course, Okinawa. And really, any number of places! There are so many incredible things to find in this country! I’ve been here a goodly while (a few years) and I still love living here.

Have fun in your adventures! Be safe, and remember that cities are the same anywhere in the world… even though Japan is a LOT safer than many other places.

Added Info
As an aside, a very close friend of mine is a Physics professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland, and she said that she has never felt safer anywhere in the world than she does in Japan. She absolutely loved it here while she stayed.

I fully agree with what that elderly man said… get out of the box and explore. Chase your dreams and passions. Also, if you want to get into some cool programming… check out the Super Data Science programs by Kirill Eremenko and his counterpart (Deep Learning, Machine Learning, and AI Programming) - they’re really first rate courses. I’m studying them now, and they’re super helpful! Also, as a person who has always chased his dreams… it’s really hard, and many many many people will tell you to give up and just do something easy. But… resist… don’t give up. Follow your dreams and passions. It is absolutely the most worthwhile thing in the world when you do succeed (but remember, for every 10 dreams or goals you try to achieve, you will make just one sort of work… of every 10 that just sort of work, ONE will come true… so… never give up trying new things!! “It is better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all.”)

Best of luck in your adventures. And if you are in Tokyo for the Japanese long weekend (the 15th, 16th, and 17th of July), you can go to Tokyo Summer Comiket!! The LARGEST anime convention on earth! Wahooooo!! (At Tokyo Big Site in Odaiba!)

Enjoy!

[SpicyDragon]

I got a sim card with Sakura mobile. Great service, was super useful to look up things while on the go (e.g. Google maps was my friend) and for translation apps (Google translate with photos is my friend too!). Much better than trying to find free wi-fi.

The prettiest places I saw was Miyajima, but you can’t live there. Cities that felt nice enough that I would settle there are Kanazawa and Nagoya. Tokyo was a bit overwhelmingly big, but I really liked the feel of Nagoya. I’d go work there if I could.

[eucibous]

Meiji Jingu, Shinjuku Gyoen, Kamakura, Yokohama, Asakusa

Plenty of places with wifi, I live in Shibuya-ku. Just find a cafe that has free wifi.

[amakuzax]

So i just called my travel agent and realized that they forgot about me and didn’t send the mail with the reservation and i will fly to Tokyo first on the 31st…

i think it’s kinda good because i will save 800 euros on a flight ticket ;D
also got 5% discount in return

[anon451839]

This is kind of weird, really, but my favorite place in Tokyo is always Odaiba. It’s this island out in the bay and there aren’t really any tourists there. It’s got a couple of malls and a Toyota theme park type thing. Big ferris wheel, a pet store, a place that sells weird kit kats. It’s just one of those places that’s so intensely local that you can sit and people watch for ages and not get bored. It’s not business suits or tourists or cosplay kids … it’s just regular suburban people.

Sapporo is amazing.

Take lots of cash.

[amakuzax]

well i will take 400 euros with me and then maybe beg my parents to get a bit moar ;D