Japan 2014 Discussion

[HostDave]

I don't generally start a thread this far in advance for one of our adventures, but since there is a lot to plan and questions to answer you can get started here whenever you're ready! The itineraries I just posted are only a guideline. What the end result will be depends on availability of hotels and other factors, so everything is subject to change.

The cruise to get home is still up in the air, but the current intention is to book Crystal Symphony's "Pagodas to Paradise" cruise from Tokyo to Los Angeles using our 50th Milestone. Today I received a flyer from Crystal pushing this as one of their "sale" cruises, by the way. Not the best way to use up the free cruise credit, but with nothing on the horizon of interest aboard Crystal, this may have to be it. I keep expecting Crystal to discontinue the free cruise credit just when we find something worthwhile to use it on.

There may still be something wedged in for the Fall, but everything is up in the air at the moment, so don't hold your breath just yet. We might get a new dog instead

[YFlower]

I was VERY excited to see your new plans up! I just returned from a 9-day trip to Japan last month--family heritage thing. I re-read your Japan entries and found the ryokan/onsen ones especially humorous and wished I had read them again before my trip, not after.

I had been to Japan twice before, but the most recent trip was 18 years ago for a conference with a few days of touring thrown in. Compared to that trip, I definitely noticed more dual Japanese/English signage this time and a lot more people who said they didn't speak English (hotel, train ticket windows, restaurants/stores in tourist areas) when I asked them (in Japanese), but definitely understood it at bit more even though they demure or say "skoshi".

I don't know if it's a trend, but the whole smart phone thing seems to help because my brother, who paid far less attention when our grandmother spoke to us, used his/had others show them theirs to communicate. Also, in one store, I clearly wasn't understanding what the two young women were saying, so she turned to her laptop at the register and typed away and then would turn back to me to speak a couple of words in English. I didn't get it, so she'd type away again. Finally I understood what she was asking...and she was pleased to have communicated and I was relieved she wasn't telling me my credit card wasn't going through or some such, but just something innocuous about packaging the items.

Good luck with the planning and thanks for updating us!

BTW, I used an awesome mini portable MiFi rental service (about $79 for 8 days) if you're interested. Great internet speeds pretty much everywhere. I had it mailed to the first hotel (or you can pick-up at airport), and they provide a mailer for you to return it.

[HostDave]

I'm definitely interested in the rental. It drives me crazy when I don't have internet on the road. I was surprised how unusual it was to have it in hotels in such a high-tech country. The hotels I have looked at so far do offer free internet, so maybe things have improved in the past couple of years. I'm sure we'll rent a cellphone again "just in case." I never thought of using a smartphone to help with language...good idea! Learning the small amount of Japanese that I did had a lot of entertainment value for us. It was hard not to laugh at the reactions. Hopefully I'll be even better this time with more time to bone up on it. Oh heck, no I won't. I'm horrible at languages, but Rosetta Stone did help me pronounce the words correctly so at least I can read from a phone or phrase book and not sound totally ridiculous.

I sure do wish Japanese hotels would take reservations farther in advance. When I get on a roll with the planning I like to get it all done before I change my mind...or forget what the heck I had in mind to begin with.

You're right about the signage improvements. When we were there during the 2002 world cruise the signs for the shinkansen were all in Japanese only. I had no idea what the guide was looking at based on the ticket I was holding. I finally asked her how to know which train we were supposed to get on and it made some sense after she explained it. However, in 2009 all of the signs were bi-lingual and it was very easy to figure out. Of course, last time we didn't go very off off the beaten track. We'll have to see what happens in the smaller towns!

[YFlower]

Here's the link. I got the 75 mbps; didn't get the extra battery and did not need. I just charged it each night (and used it as my MiFi while it was in the hotel room). I didn't get a phone; found my IPhone worked just fine, contrary to what the ATT web site lead me to believe. For a couple of conference calls, I just skyped using the MiFi. We had free internet in the Kyoto Hotel, but the MiFi was sometimes faster, always seemingly as fast, and definitely more reliable (the hotel had a couple of short outages).

http://globaladvancedcomm.com/pocketwifi.html

[HostDave]

Thanks! I'll check it out for sure. Our phones are so old they barely work here, so we'll have to rent one

[HostDave]

Thanks again for the information. It looks like something that would really help me out. I know you don't want me to skip a day of posting because I don't have internet Seems like a pretty good deal, too. It costs me more than they charge for a month to activate my 4g laptop card for a couple of weeks.

You will notice that I stuck the visit to Tokyo Disneyland at the beginning this time. I'm not taking any chances of getting sick and missing most of it! If we take Crystal Symphony back to LA we'll be back in Tokyo again at the end. I wonder if the port really is Tokyo or if it is the port in Yokohama? Maybe I should ask the expert on CC Just kidding...I know where to get info without resorting to desperate measures.

[YFlower]

LOL. Based on a thread over in the other place, it sounds like it may well be in Tokyo proper.

If you want to email them about coverage in Hokkaido and the places you are going, the email that they responded (pretty quickly) to a couple of questions I had is info@globaladvanced.com. We were in Tokyo and points south as far as Hiroshima/Miyajima and coverage was peachy.

FYI, you first make the reservation, and they then email you and confirm the order details. That email then has a link that you use to process payment. (I would have been confused as to why I wasn't asked for payment upfront if my brother hadn't mentioned this.) I had problems with 2 of my 3 credit cards (the credit card company rejecting foreign transaction), but a third did go through. This is all by way of mentioning that I was in a bit of a panic because I left it to less than a week before I was heading out. My brother was more on top of his planning (as it seems you are), so hopefully you won't have issues. He did his about a month to six weeks in advance. Supposedly you also get a discount for liking them on FB. I did, though wasn't really sure I got the discount; my FB name is a pseudonym and so doesn't match the credit card. It was so much less than the international data plan I usually fork over for that I didn't check or quibble.

FWIW, it also was nice having it delivered to the hotel. After the long overnight flight, the last thing I wanted to do was find the pick-up place at NRT even though I did have a guide meeting me outside of customs.

[YFlower]

Thought I would also mention that we had a wonderful English-speaking guide (she lived in the states for a couple of years) for the portion of our trip from Tokyo to Hakone. She spoke movingly and honestly about the earthquake/tsunami and a couple of volunteer trips she took to the area; when tourism came to a grinding halt, the consortium she's a contractor for offered such organized trips to guides. I can see about getting her particulars from my mom if you're interested.

[HostDave]

I might take you up on that after I've firmed up a few dates. I wonder if there is any way to get a guide to show us the tsunami affected area and talk about what happened. Not so much as an attraction per se, but to gain a better understanding of the whole situation. And, of course, pass it along here and in the blog. I read somewhere that a couple was in Matsushima and their hotel tried to discourage them from going to look at the damage, but they ended up getting a taxi driver to take them. I certainly don't want to do anything offensive, but I think it helps to keep the spotlight on what happened rather than just forget about it. Not that I have a huge spotlight here, but every little bit helps.

[YFlower]

Just let me know. She did it very sensitively, but it was very moving. She even asked first if we were interested before speaking about it. We all really appreciated and welcomed it and were so pleased to hear about it firsthand from someone who'd gone twice. We'd cancelled this same trip in 2011 because of the situation, so I was especially pleased that my nieces (13-26 years) could learn about it from her. Her stories were both heartwarming and heartbreaking; I totally agree with you that it's important to keep the area in mind.

She would be more expensive because she'd have to get there from the Tokyo suburbs, but I presume she would know another more local private guide who could help you if she was too expensive.