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Anonymous
My friend and I are big into traveling to new places and sightseeing. Have traveled to states in the US, Ireland, Spain and we plan to go to France soon. Our big trip though is we decided next year we may want to go visit Japan.

We want to go there because it seems like a place with a very rich culture and has interesting things to see and do and has a good amount of mainstream pop culture coming from it. The place seems like it'ld be an overall amazing place to visit. So my question is, for someone planning to visit, has anyone here been there? What places would you suggest to visit? Places to avoid? Is summer a good time to go? Are they friendly to tourists? Good places to stay? anything like that really and explain if you enjoyed being there if you've been there.

We are open to anything. We play music and travel but are just looking for a cool place. We don't hate anime related places and would like to see some like pokemon and Gundam, we are extremely welcome to learning about history and culture, love places to meet women haha, Nightlife, just things different than what we would normally do, We love eating but are vegetarian. so anything you can suggest we research would help

thanks alot n_n
>> Anonymous
>So my question is, for someone planning to visit, has anyone here been there?

A lot of people from this board have been there. If you look on this board, there is a huge thread already available for tourism in Japan. It actually lists a lof ot what to do/eat and where to stay. Check that one out.

>What places would you suggest to visit?

in tokyo, look around at every train stop. I wont hype any locations, but people usually have fun in shibuya, akihabara, shinjuku, ikkebukuro, marunouchi (to look at the skyscrapers), ginza, roppongi, and odaiba. There's a lot to see though, so again I reccomend just getting off every large station and exploring a little bit. Kobe, nikko, chiba, kyoto, all very nice places to visit if you have the money to move around a lot.

>Places to avoid?

It depends on what you don't like. If you don't like seedy looking places, racism, or getting beat up, I'd reccomend against places like kabukicho in tokyo, or osaka in general. But honestly, the crime rate in Japan is really, really low. You're way more likely to die in a car accident (speaking of cars....don't get in them in Tokyo. They're unnecessary and quite dangerous, and taxis are really expensive)


>Is summer a good time to go?
summer is an awful time to go. There's a lot of tourists, lots of typhoon bullshit, chinese industrial dust (in april/may), It's sticky and gross and there's a lot of people in one area. the only reason it doesn't smell that bad is because Japan has a hygienic culture. There's a lot of mosquitos in the summer too, and they'll definitely be going after the dirty foreign dude with a high meat and dairy diet.
>> Anonymous
>Are they friendly to tourists?
Most Japanese people that I've encountered are very friendly to tourists. The problem is, Japanese people have a habit of not voicing their opinions in public, especially about a stranger. While that's just politeness in western culture, they will go to very great lengths to make you think they like you. Unfortunately, they probably don't. Westerners are usually just too brash and rude in their minds, not to mention overweight, smelly, and conversation stealers. Avoid these things, and you should be alright. If you are reasonably handsome, blonde, blue eyed, and thin, you're pretty much in though. Japanese club girls will be lining up for you. Don't expect that kind of treatment anywhere else though, kyoto/kobe girls are pretty reserved and uptight.

>Good places to stay?

ryoukan, love hotels, (if you have the money) business hotels. If you meet some girls there, some love hotels have swimming pools in the room, in addition to a lot of other stuff. They're like 300 dollars a night, but it's worth it to try it once. regular love hotels are very cheap though, 50/70 dollars for a night. They don't have a lot of motels over there, but you might be able to find a hostel or two.

again refer to the other thread, there's just a lot more information over there, and a lot of people contributed so you shouldn't make them do it again.