{"id":1504,"date":"2011-02-27T21:56:26","date_gmt":"2011-02-27T13:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/?p=1504"},"modified":"2011-02-27T22:33:35","modified_gmt":"2011-02-27T14:33:35","slug":"japan-trip-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/2011\/02\/27\/japan-trip-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan Trip 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"caption\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/27_japan02.jpg\" alt=\"Japan\" style=\"width:400px; height:250px;\" \/><br \/>\nMiyajima, Hiroshima (<a href=\"http:\/\/www46.tok2.com\/home\/acidism\/lifephotos.html\">sauce<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>It seems like I&#8217;ve been going to Japan every year for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/2006\/06\/06\/trip-to-japan\/\">past<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/2008\/12\/10\/japan-2008\/\">few<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/2007\/12\/20\/japan-trip-2007\/\">years<\/a> due to various reasons, so I guess this should not come as a huge surprise. Yes, I am flying to Japan again. Yes, I will be there for Maaya&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.last.fm\/event\/1704909+%E5%9D%82%E6%9C%AC%E7%9C%9F%E7%B6%BELIVE+TOUR+2011+\">&#8220;You can&#8217;t catch me&#8221;<\/a> 2011 tour, specifically the one in Osaka.<\/p>\n<p>Come to think of it, this trip makes my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/2010\/04\/07\/maaya-sakamoto-15th-anniversary-concert\/\">waxing lyrical<\/a> last year seem a lot less meaningful. Heh.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I will be in Japan from <strong>26 March<\/strong> to <strong>16 April<\/strong>. As this will be my final romp in Japan for the foreseeable future, I have gone all out in an insane attempt to cover as many locations as possible in one trip.<\/p>\n<p>My confirmed itinerary so far:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Osaka<\/li>\n<li>Kyoto<\/li>\n<li>Nara<\/li>\n<li>Hiroshima<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wikitravel.org\/en\/Miyajima\">Miyajima<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Fukuoka<\/li>\n<li>Nagasaki<\/li>\n<li>Kagoshima<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.johnharveyphoto.com\/Japan3\/Ibusuki\/index.html\">Ibusuki<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Nagoya<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japan-guide.com\/e\/e4310.html\">Ise Shima<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Tokyo<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kamakura,_Kanagawa\">Kamakura<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japan-guide.com\/e\/e3800.html\">Nikko<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Still trying to squeeze a few more places in, but this more or less covers every place I want to go to in Kyushu and Kansai.<\/p>\n<p>The sheer logistics of this epic journey is mind boggling. I have been spending a good portion of the past week tabbing between <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hyperdia.com\/\">Hyperdia<\/a>, Google Maps, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.japan-guide.com\/\">Japan Guide<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hostelworld.com\/\">Hostel World<\/a> in order to craft the most complicated tour itinerary the world has ever seen. And they said I was mad.<\/p>\n<p>The awesome thing is that most of the transport costs are covered in a lump-sum I paid for a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanrailpass.net\/eng\/en003.html\">14-day Japan Rail Pass<\/a>. This pass allows you to take unlimited rides on any JR railways, including the Shinkansen bullet trains (but excluding Nozomi trains), for a flat <strong>45,100 yen<\/strong>. This is quite cool because I will need to take the Shinkansen at least ten times to cover that many places in just two weeks and each ride can cost more than 100 USD by itself.<\/p>\n<p>The Japan Rail Pass is so awesome that permanent residents and Japanese citizens are actually banned from purchasing and using it because JR would go bankrupt in a matter of days otherwise. You have to purchase it from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jtbusa.com\/en\/jr\/j-jr.asp\">JTB<\/a> or a tour agency in your home country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/27_japan01.jpg\" alt=\"Japan\" style=\"width:400px; height:250px;\" \/><br \/>\nJapan Rail Pass purchased from JTB<\/p>\n<p>A tip I picked up from booking my accommodations is that in many parts of Japan it is actually possible to find <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jalan.net\/uw\/uwp3200\/uww3201init.do?stayYear=2011&#038;stayMonth=4&#038;stayDay=6&#038;stayCount=1&#038;roomCount=1&#038;adultNum=1&#038;maxPrice=5000&#038;rootCd=04&#038;distCd=01&#038;childPriceFlg=0&#038;roomCrack=100000&#038;screenId=UWW1402&#038;yadNo=392199&#038;planCd=00823442&#038;roomTypeCd=0180327&#038;callbackHistFlg=1\">private single-room business hotels<\/a> that are similar in price or even cheaper than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hostelworld.com\/hosteldetails.php\/Hostel-Ann\/Nagoya\/37374\">backpacker hostels<\/a> in the same area. The catch is that these business hotels are mostly used by locals and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jalan.net\/\">bookings<\/a> are done online in Japanese.<\/p>\n<p>But <strong>2,900 yen<\/strong> a night for a private room with proper facilities does make spending <strong>2,500 yen<\/strong> to squeeze with 5-9 other people in the same dorm room seem like a scam.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the trade off is that you don&#8217;t get the interesting mix of characters one finds in a backpacker hostel nor the tourist-friendly English-speaking counter staff. My own itinerary includes both foreigner-centric hostels and Japanese-centric business hotels. It&#8217;s nice to mix things up a bit.<\/p>\n<p>Really looking forward to setting foot on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.japan-guide.com\/e\/e4414.html\/\">Gunkanjima<\/a>. It&#8217;s like the Disneyland of urban exploration. Already booked my 4000-yen <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gunkan-jima.net\/courses\/gunkanjima-joriku\">guided ferry tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Also hoping to crash a lecture or two at <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/University_of_Tokyo\">Toudai<\/a> before I leave. Preferably political science or sociology. I blame too much <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tokyo_Daigaku_Monogatari\">Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Do drop me a PM on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/DarkMirage\">Twitter<\/a> or an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/contact\/\">email<\/a> if you happen to be in Japan around that time and want to meet up for tea. I will be in Tokyo from <strong>9 April<\/strong> to <strong>16 April<\/strong> and Kyushu\/Kansai before that. I can show you around Akihabara\/Asakusa, which, sad\/happy to say, I know like the back of my hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Miyajima, Hiroshima (sauce) It seems like I&#8217;ve been going to Japan every year for the past few years due to various reasons, so I guess this should not come as a huge surprise. Yes, I am flying to Japan again. &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/2011\/02\/27\/japan-trip-2011\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[51,999,771,1001,1000,366,354,708],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}