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Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong Theme Parks Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong Holiday Planning Questions, Suggestions and Tips.

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Old 20 Jul 19, 09:48 PM  
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redfox5
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Japan Plans & Questions!

Hello!

My countdown is almost up, just over a month to go and feeling very excited as we booked some tickets & tours today. Thought I would share my plans as we are trying to fit so much in. We are only there for 1 week! Has anyone managed to fit loads in or have we overstretched ourselves? I also have some questions...

Day 1 - Fly to Tokyo.

Day 2 - Arrive at 11am & check into The B Suidobashi. Head over to Harajuki - Take≈≈≈≈a Street, have a mooch about and grab some food. Then depending on how nice we are dressed, have a drink at bar in Park Hyatt Tokyo(The one from Lost In Translation) or check out the view from Tokyo Metroplitian Building.

Day 3 - Senso - Ji, though we may skip this if we end up being so tired and sleeping late. Then Imperial Palace & Gardens. Might also check out the Modern Art Museum. Spending the evening at Akihabara, seeing if I can manage to drag DH into a Made Caf (he's resisting at the moment!), otherwise checking out the arcades and shops.

Day 4 - Hopefully the Ghibi Museum (I've put a request for tickets with Voyagin, fingers crossed!) & afterwards Inokashira - Koen Park.
If we have time might see Meiji Shine. We then have a pub crawl booked with Magical Trips, this starts at the Shibuya Crossing and afterwards will come back to see the Hachiko Statue.

Day 5 - Take the bullet train to Kyoto. Not sure what time we will be leaving our hotel, depends on tiredness ect but hope to be there by 2pm latest. Check into Citadines Karasuma-Gojo Kyoto. Then check out Tofuku-Ji & Kyoto Station. Then walk to Gion to meet with guide as booked Magical Trips Gion food tour.

Day 6 - Get to Fusnimi-Inari Taisha Shrine by about 6am to beat the crowds. Walk to the top! Then head to Arashiyama to see Tanryu-Ji, followed by the Bamboo Grove. Guessing we will be knackered after this so an early night for us!

Day 7 - Tea Ceremony in Gion before taking the bullet train back to Tokyo. Checking back into the The B Suidobashi, which I just discovered today is near a Moomin Caf! So will hopefully eat there. Will use the rest of the day to catch up on anything we missed, otherwise might visit the Mori Art Museum & Tokyo Tower. Or I'm sure I read somewhere online that you can get cheap Disney tickets for after 6pm, so might go to Disneyland but it's about an hour on the train from our hotel so it's a small maybe.

Day 8 - Tokyo Disney Sea! I am so excited! Unfortunately we couldn't fit both parks in the trip so decided on this one. I booked tickets today with Voyagin, that can be picked up at the station near the park.

Day 9 - Fly back to the UK.

Questions!

1) I have a JR Pass, I know I can use this for the bullet train & to get back to the airport from my hotel. But will I get much use of it getting around Tokyo & Kyoto? When I've been using Google Maps to figure out distances, it sometimes says JR (then name of line) so presumably I can use it on that?

2)For all other lines, I'm planning to get a Suica card. Can this be used in both Tokyo and Kyoto? Is this all I really need for travelling on the trains?

3)Toilets! Annoyingly I have a child's bladder. I have read in guide books that public toilets are in lots of convenience/department stores but what about near temples/shrines ect? I am worried about Fusnimi-Inari Taisha Shrine especially. Do they have toilets near the start?

4)Does anyone know if Rigevidon(contraceptive pill) is legal in Japan? I don't really get a straight answer when I google this. Also can I bring Paracetamol in? I would normally take this with me on the plane for headaches but I guess if not, there would be something similar to buy over there?

I feel like when I started writing this I had more questions but now I've forgotten them! Thanks for reading this very long post! Also would appreciate any tips or advice. Thank you!
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Old 21 Jul 19, 02:07 AM  
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Jr pass. Good for bullet trains but we found little use in Tokyo or Kyoto. We mainly use the metro line. Hyperdia app is your life. It works and is awesome.

Suica works well. We have used ours on all trains and a bus.

Toilets are everywhere. I mean everywhere. You will pass 2 or 3 whilst changing trains. Shrines too. In fact some large shops will have signs saying they dont have toilets inside. There are maps everywhere too and all say where restrooms are. Toilet are pretty clean but rarely have drying functions. Bring a small towel and handsoap.

Paracetemol is fine. Codeine is not. If you need more paracetemol then ask for american name tylenol in a drug store (found in big stations too).

Just a note on your plan. We found fushimi inari shrine to be seriously overcrowded and too full of pushy instagram people. It wasnt pleasant. We were there at 10am and it was crawling speed, then again I imagine fewer people are doing the full route if that is your plan. We found Nara and the 5 story pagoda to be lighter on people purely due to the expansive space. Be warned the deer wont be hungry in the afternoon...

We were in kyoto over Gion float festival day so spent our time watching the parade and eating street food. That being said pontoncho alley was cute in the evening but not relaxing. We had a tea ceremony in Nara (eena house) which was awesome.

Edited at 02:23 AM.
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Old 21 Jul 19, 03:04 AM  
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Other notes. Rubbish bins dont really exist. Large parks have some and so do MacDonald's/kfc/burger king. We use McDs as out preferred rubbish site - they are a huge corporation so I dont mind.

7-11, lawson, family mart all have decent food but vegetables and fruit are harder to come by in Tokyo, not so in Kyoto. Major stations can be daunting to transfer and not all stations are immediately in latin alphabet, it is a good idea to photograph or memorise favourite stations.

We used jungle formula as there are bitey insects. OH didnt and looked like a pin cushion. They OH did and was fine thereafter. We used the roll on stick. Temperature has been north of 27C in tokyo and hovered around 30 in Kyoto. Family have been wearing dresses and shorts plus sandals without issue. We use lightweight socks in temples.

Ninjo-jo castle was excellent.

Edited at 03:08 AM.
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Old 21 Jul 19, 05:55 AM  
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Thank you for all your help! You've put my mind at rest regarding toilets lol!

I am also currently downloading the Hyper Dia App.

Fushimi Inari shrine is one of the things I am looking to forward the most which is why I've planned for it so early as seen so many YouTube videos that recommend getting their early. I actually wish we had more time in Kyoto, there are so many more things I want to see. I also don't have time to go to Nara, which I know I would love. I am already planning a return trip in my head!

Thanks for the tip on insects, bitey things seem to love DH so will make sure I get some Jungle Formula.

The weather is another thing I am unsure about, as I'm going near the start of September, I'm guessing it will still be pretty hot? I have no idea what to pack.
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Old 21 Jul 19, 07:16 AM  
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We are here now. It is 28C in tokyo and you can drink the air. Kyoto was hotter and we got a tan through the clouds. We did not find the weather oppressive though. Juat drink more Ocha.

If you dont speak any japanese you can survive but i would at least learn counting. Not numbers, they have been useless, but counting. Hitotsu, futatsu mittsu etc that helps when ordering and pointing. Sumimasen, arigato, gomen nasai those will get you through a day.

If (when) we do Japan (again) we are going to skip tokyo (apart from disney)

Edited at 07:24 AM.
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Old 21 Jul 19, 10:14 AM  
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We were in Japan in May. We found the JR pass invaluable travelling around Tokyo on the JR Yamanote line. Only used the metro once or twice. We did not use the pass within Kyoto but travelled to Nara, Hiroshima etc. from Kyoto with it.

With regard to the Imperial Palace & Gardens (if you dont already know this) check you are not planning to go on a day it is closed (like we did)!

Personally I would give the Kyoto Tower a miss. We went up at night because we were given a half price ticket voucher from our hotel but it was really busy at the top and we left after about 5 minutes. We preferred the view from the top of Kyoto Station. Not as high but its free with plenty of room to walk about.

We had no problems finding toilets and they were always very clean. We also had no problems with insects at all and we were in lots of Japanese gardens - I guess it depends on the time of year.
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Old 21 Jul 19, 02:57 PM  
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I think it is times (regarding bitey things). There were portable signs up in the parks advising people to wear long sleeves with insect pictures. Our kyoto airbnb host advised the same (which OH ignored and got bitten :-D ).

Tokyo government building has a good view. No sight of fuji-san for us due to cloud (even on shinkansen days).

Forgot to mention. Shinkansen is a 3 by 2 seating, we got seats 1d 1e 2d 2e so sat in a 4. You can easily spin the seats to face each other but lose the tables by doing so. We did it for a gimmick then put it back as we wanted to eat.
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Old 21 Jul 19, 08:28 PM  
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Originally Posted by kk20 View Post
I think it is times (regarding bitey things). There were portable signs up in the parks advising people to wear long sleeves with insect pictures. Our kyoto airbnb host advised the same (which OH ignored and got bitten :-D ).

Tokyo government building has a good view. No sight of fuji-san for us due to cloud (even on shinkansen days).

Forgot to mention. Shinkansen is a 3 by 2 seating, we got seats 1d 1e 2d 2e so sat in a 4. You can easily spin the seats to face each other but lose the tables by doing so. We did it for a gimmick then put it back as we wanted to eat.
We didnt see Fuji either - even on a day trip to Hakone. It was completely hidden.

On our trip back to Tokyo from Kyoto a group of Japanese women turned the seats on the Shinkansen to face each other and then they all took out sheets of oragami paper and started making birds etc. with one of the women teaching them. It was fascinating and I wanted to join in! I did in fact buy origami paper later to try but of course I havent looked at it since returning home.

Edit: we went up the Govt Building at night and decided to go back during the day a few days later for a daytime view. When we got there the queues were horrendous - we took one look and decided to give it a miss.

Edited at 08:33 PM.
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Old 22 Jul 19, 05:04 PM  
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We went to Fusnimi-Inari Taisha late afternoon/ early evening and it wasnt too crowded. More people at the beginning but as we walked further up there were less and less people and at times we were the only ones. This was a different time of year so dont know if this will be the case when you go.

JR pass can be used on JR buses and ferries as well as trains.

Definitely take insect repellent- despite all my research this is something I was not aware of. Usually I always take with me - this time didnt and suffered the consequences! Funnily enough we were only bitten at the beginning of holiday not the end!

Enjoy!
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Old 25 Jul 19, 11:30 PM  
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Thanks for all your advice!

Did everyone rent pocket wifi while there? Or is it best to get the data sim?
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