GRcade Travel Topic

No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:

Moggy wrote:I'm sure there was somebody recently that was telling us all that it is childish to complain about food you don't like.

This is different though and I still ate it. The food was expensive too. So I would have expected better quality. But overall it was definitely aimed at young children. Someone dressed as Pikachu came out mid meal and I felt like I shouldn't have been there lol never again. But the Pikachu chef plush was a nice buy there.

Chef Pikachu coming out halfway through was utterly adorable though, me and my wife loved the whole experience.

Also Laga, Daikanyama is nice for restaurants and bars. Felt quite upmarket and young. There's a brewery there (Spring Valley) if you fancy craft beer, though you can also check out the Yona Yona brewing places too. The latter did two-hour nomihodai (all you can drink).

Aoyama and Omotesando are also decent.

Back at Haneda Airport now preparing to head home

Also, whilst having a reputation for being pricey Japanese taxis are in a league of their own. £60 for honestly the best taxi trip I've ever had. Honestly though I thought that was a pretty reasonable price for Ginza to Haneda airport in a big 7 seater (since we have 4 suitcases) that had enough legroom in the middle seats that I couldn't even touch the front seats with my leg, and big comfy wrap around seats. It costs about that much back home for an airport taxi in a regular Skoda.

The Toyota Alphard is clearly the best car ever made for use as a taxi.

Yeah, my taxi back home from my local JR station after a night out was a lot pricier than here. No Uber as well (unless that's started rolling out since I left). Used to get some varied conversations when I was drunk in the back of them - from drivers who were terrified a foreigner had got in, to one who spent the whole journey talking about Princess Diana.

The drivers also wear white gloves, which I suspect would allow them to commit the perfect murder.

Lagamorph wrote:Back at Haneda Airport now preparing to head home

Also, whilst having a reputation for being pricey Japanese taxis are in a league of their own. £60 for honestly the best taxi trip I've ever had. Honestly though I thought that was a pretty reasonable price for Ginza to Haneda airport in a big 7 seater (since we have 4 suitcases) that had enough legroom in the middle seats that I couldn't even touch the front seats with my leg, and big comfy wrap around seats. It costs about that much back home for an airport taxi in a regular Skoda.

The Toyota Alphard is clearly the best car ever made for use as a taxi.

I'm somewhat surprised you got a cab, getting a train from pretty much anywhere in Tokyo to Haneda is super easy. I guess it was due to the amount of cases, but when you get on the trains heading towards Haneda airport they're filled with suitcases anyway.

Just back from a two week cruise in the caribbean. What a joy but the depression is now real.

Qikz wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:Back at Haneda Airport now preparing to head home

Also, whilst having a reputation for being pricey Japanese taxis are in a league of their own. £60 for honestly the best taxi trip I've ever had. Honestly though I thought that was a pretty reasonable price for Ginza to Haneda airport in a big 7 seater (since we have 4 suitcases) that had enough legroom in the middle seats that I couldn't even touch the front seats with my leg, and big comfy wrap around seats. It costs about that much back home for an airport taxi in a regular Skoda.

The Toyota Alphard is clearly the best car ever made for use as a taxi.

I'm somewhat surprised you got a cab, getting a train from pretty much anywhere in Tokyo to Haneda is super easy. I guess it was due to the amount of cases, but when you get on the trains heading towards Haneda airport they're filled with suitcases anyway.

We would have had to walk with 4 suitcases (With two people), 2 of which were quite heavy, to Ginza station and then get two train lines to Haneda, all during the morning commute hours.

£60 was a worthwhile price to avoid the stress of all that.

It was the only time we ended up getting a taxi through the entire trip though, it was just all trains (And we very quickly learned to pick up an IC Card each because outside of JR Lines the Japanese train system is a hellish mess buying tickets) the rest of the time except for when we first arrived, when we got the Universal Studios bus from Itami airport.


Totalled up the whole trip last night though and between Flights, Hotels, Food, Outings, Park Tickets and spending money we managed to go through a little shy of £14k

Holy gooseberry fool we're planning to go to Japan in October for our honeymoon, please tell me it isn't that expensive

Rocsteady wrote:Holy gooseberry fool we're planning to go to Japan in October for our honeymoon, please tell me it isn't that expensive

Admittedly I'm a solo traveller but I only spent about £1000 getting around, eating, buying stuff and going places. That was over 2 weeks. Flights for me were about £1300 to get there and back. My hotel for the next trip is about £600 for 2 weeks and that's a double room. Although to be fair I'm not staying in Tokyo.

Japan is definitely a place if you want to spend more you definitely can though, but there are very cheap very good options. For example Yakitori you can go to places where one skewer is like 300yen, but there's 100yen per skewer places that are just as nice.

Qikz wrote:

Rocsteady wrote:Holy gooseberry fool we're planning to go to Japan in October for our honeymoon, please tell me it isn't that expensive

Admittedly I'm a solo traveller but I only spent about £1000 getting around, eating, buying stuff and going places. That was over 2 weeks. Flights for me were about £1300 to get there and back. My hotel for the next trip is about £600 for 2 weeks and that's a double room. Although to be fair I'm not staying in Tokyo.

Japan is definitely a place if you want to spend more you definitely can though, but there are very cheap very good options. For example Yakitori you can go to places where one skewer is like 300yen, but there's 100yen per skewer places that are just as nice.

In fairness for the price we had upgraded flights and booked hotels that were on-property at Universal Studios and Disney, had a night in a luxury spa room with private hot spring fed outdoor bath and then a hotel right in Ginza, which is basically the area of Tokyo where there are more luxury brand shops than people. At least 3 Louis Vuitton shops within 2 or 3 minutes walk of each other.

That also included park tickets for Disney and Universal (Though one of the three days at Universal was free through work) alongside some ride passes and eating in/around the theme parks so paying the premium for that.

We also got upgraded Green car tickets for the bullet train.

Plus admittedly we went overboard on shopping. We took 2 suitcases with us and came back with 4

Should just go to Benidorm for a week. £340 half board.

Anyone been to Baltimore?

Laga as he steps off the plane in Tokyo

Tomous wrote:Laga as he steps off the plane in Tokyo

More like my wife when she saw her first shop full of gashapon machines.

Sure, it was the gashapons that got you to £14k