I'll be having a few of these on the flight to J-Town

[jdm delivery]

wait where are you going? are you coming to johnstown? or japan?

[Zero]

Nikku/Zero..if you know this

Is there some all day pass I can buy that includes the JR Yamanote Line, and all the other train companies that have boarding around the Yamanote?

Is Ginza within walking distance of one of the stops on that jr line, it's just a little south east of Tokyo right?

Our hotel is pretty close to the airport, I'm just trying to get a feel of how far apart things are

Im not too familiar with tokyo, here is some info on the pass its for JR only, and that will get you damn near everywhere. http://www.jtbusa.com/enhome/jrpass.asp JTB is AWESOME, i recommend anyone that wants to go to japan just take a look at their ticket prices, i guarantee that unless you work for the airline you wont find it cheaper. There are so many lines in that area, you have JR, like 3 different subway lines, and probably another couple above ground lines. Its best to just figure out where you gonna go and what not. Train tickets are cheap, if you can, take JR or any above ground lines as the subways are always more expensive (in relative terms), most everything is in walking distance but 9 times outta 10 its faster to ride the train, unless you have a bike. When I went to tokyo i stayed near shibuya. What hotel are you staying at? APA hotels are nice and they are cheap to boot. just a heads up. Lets see....um....the tokyo train system can be confusing as hell because the map is GINORMOUS. hopefull you will have someone there that can read japanese because its a huge fucking map, it took me like 15 min just to find Omiya on the map to go meet my friend lol. You should come to Osaka, cause thats where I stay at.

ok well you can get an all day pass for all the JR lines for 1500 yen (little under $15 BUT the lines run only til 10pm!! so youll have to start early or end early otherwise get a taxi (expensive)... oh and the little trick you can try... the ticket has a basic calander kinda thing that you have to scratch off the day and month the pass is to be used... if you scratch the month and keep your thumb over the day you can very well get through without haveing to buy another day pass... you have to show your pass to a guy that sits on either side of the small toll booths that take these... ^^normal ticket NOT a day pass!!
because your a foreigner they may or may not want to see it so its more based on luck then anything... that same guy is the person you go to if you got the wrong ticket like i did for the one above... but i just bought another instead of trading lol... i looked for my rail line map but i dont have it i think i left it in Texas >_< i do know that the airport is almost directly south from the map you have showing so if ginza is in that area you wont have too hard of a time... but its prolly not... either way you should be arriving in Narita Airport as its the only one that recieves international flights... this is the easiest way to get there via the JR line but some walking might be in order...

Japan Rail Pass holders can take the JR Narita Express to Tokyo Station, then take the Marunouchi Subway Line (¥160) one stop to Ginza

dont worry though most of the rail lines have both english and japanese so its not that difficult to navigate but if it doesnt youd better study the kanji for the stop you need otherwise your screwed... some of the maps that Nikku is refering to have english but most dont... JR line is the best line to be on to go to alot of places... oh... you need to visit roppongi before you leave... its the party section of Japan and also where Tokyo tower is located and where you can go to the Hard Rock Cafe (expensive as well) i cant remember off hand what rail you use first but you have to switch from the usual JR rail to a JR subway to get to it... i do believe the color for the station is grey and JR is a lime green but you can get a map with some english in there that will help you out... its also about 1400 yen to get to the top of tokyo tower but believe me its WELL worth it... thats also where you can see all kinds of cars as thats where some of the car dealers are... (Astin Martin, Lamborgini just to name the ones i wet my pants at... )

either way have fun i wish i could have stayed long enough in tokyo to find the spoon head quarters like i wanted... but the train rides took an assload of time from me lol

GL ya basterd!!!

[Sean @ NDF]

wow, thanks for the info guys. Yeah, were going to the Tokyo tower. I hear it's an old peice of shit

[Nikku]

Nikku/Zero..if you know this

Is there some all day pass I can buy that includes the JR Yamanote Line, and all the other train companies that have boarding around the Yamanote?

Is Ginza within walking distance of one of the stops on that jr line, it's just a little south east of Tokyo right?

Our hotel is pretty close to the airport, I'm just trying to get a feel of how far apart things are

Im not too familiar with tokyo, here is some info on the pass its for JR only, and that will get you damn near everywhere. http://www.jtbusa.com/enhome/jrpass.asp JTB is AWESOME, i recommend anyone that wants to go to japan just take a look at their ticket prices, i guarantee that unless you work for the airline you wont find it cheaper. There are so many lines in that area, you have JR, like 3 different subway lines, and probably another couple above ground lines. Its best to just figure out where you gonna go and what not. Train tickets are cheap, if you can, take JR or any above ground lines as the subways are always more expensive (in relative terms), most everything is in walking distance but 9 times outta 10 its faster to ride the train, unless you have a bike. When I went to tokyo i stayed near shibuya. What hotel are you staying at? APA hotels are nice and they are cheap to boot. just a heads up. Lets see....um....the tokyo train system can be confusing as hell because the map is GINORMOUS. hopefull you will have someone there that can read japanese because its a huge fucking map, it took me like 15 min just to find Omiya on the map to go meet my friend lol. You should come to Osaka, cause thats where I stay at.

ok well you can get an all day pass for all the JR lines for 1500 yen (little under $15 BUT the lines run only til 10pm!! so youll have to start early or end early otherwise get a taxi (expensive)... oh and the little trick you can try... the ticket has a basic calander kinda thing that you have to scratch off the day and month the pass is to be used... if you scratch the month and keep your thumb over the day you can very well get through without haveing to buy another day pass... you have to show your pass to a guy that sits on either side of the small toll booths that take these... ^^normal ticket NOT a day pass!!
because your a foreigner they may or may not want to see it so its more based on luck then anything... that same guy is the person you go to if you got the wrong ticket like i did for the one above... but i just bought another instead of trading lol... i looked for my rail line map but i dont have it i think i left it in Texas >_< i do know that the airport is almost directly south from the map you have showing so if ginza is in that area you wont have too hard of a time... but its prolly not... either way you should be arriving in Narita Airport as its the only one that recieves international flights... this is the easiest way to get there via the JR line but some walking might be in order...

Japan Rail Pass holders can take the JR Narita Express to Tokyo Station, then take the Marunouchi Subway Line (¥160) one stop to Ginza

dont worry though most of the rail lines have both english and japanese so its not that difficult to navigate but if it doesnt youd better study the kanji for the stop you need otherwise your screwed... some of the maps that Nikku is refering to have english but most dont... JR line is the best line to be on to go to alot of places... oh... you need to visit roppongi before you leave... its the party section of Japan and also where Tokyo tower is located and where you can go to the Hard Rock Cafe (expensive as well) i cant remember off hand what rail you use first but you have to switch from the usual JR rail to a JR subway to get to it... i do believe the color for the station is grey and JR is a lime green but you can get a map with some english in there that will help you out... its also about 1400 yen to get to the top of tokyo tower but believe me its WELL worth it... thats also where you can see all kinds of cars as thats where some of the car dealers are... (Astin Martin, Lamborgini just to name the ones i wet my pants at... )

either way have fun i wish i could have stayed long enough in tokyo to find the spoon head quarters like i wanted... but the train rides took an assload of time from me lol

GL ya basterd!!!

Correction, JR lines run later then 10pm, the last train is closer to midnite. The one day pass will only cover a particular area, the pass i linked to will let you go anywhere on JR, that includes the shinkansen . IE, its a fucking steal of a deal considering round trip shinkansen tickets from Osaka to Tokyo was about 20,000 yen (about $200). Also, its not good to memorize trains by color, they often switch trains out and they end up using different colors, etc. Sean you should head down to the JTB office in LA and see if they have a JR map of tokyo you can have, that will give you the chance to look at it ahead of time and figure things out, as i said, the tokyo map is fucking ginormous and if you have never navigated a japanese train map/station it may be a little overwhelming. Zero made a good suggestion about learning the Kanji for the places you want to go, you dont have to know how to read all of them but knowing what they look like will help you out a lot. If you go to Ueno station (im pretty sure you will at least once because its a pretty big hub station) you will see what i mean about how big the map is . And something to remember about japanese folks, in my experience, while a lot of them may love americans, the same lot are terrified to talk to americans. like i get stared at ALL the time, and unless i initiate a conversation all it ends up being is me being stared at. there is the rare occassion where someone will come up to you and try to talk to you to practice their english. avoid that at all costs. trust me , if you dont, they will follow you.....everywhere lol. unless its a hot chick, in which case, give her my phone number . haha. Are you going to have someone with you that speaks japanese?

[Nikku]

wow, thanks for the info guys. Yeah, were going to the Tokyo tower. I hear it's an old peice of shit

word up, if you need any other info let me know.

[Zero]

Correction, JR lines run later then 10pm, the last train is closer to midnite. The one day pass will only cover a particular area, the pass i linked to will let you go anywhere on JR, that includes the shinkansen . IE, its a fucking steal of a deal considering round trip shinkansen tickets from Osaka to Tokyo was about 20,000 yen (about $200). Also, its not good to memorize trains by color, they often switch trains out and they end up using different colors, etc. Sean you should head down to the JTB office in LA and see if they have a JR map of tokyo you can have, that will give you the chance to look at it ahead of time and figure things out, as i said, the tokyo map is fucking ginormous and if you have never navigated a japanese train map/station it may be a little overwhelming. Zero made a good suggestion about learning the Kanji for the places you want to go, you dont have to know how to read all of them but knowing what they look like will help you out a lot. If you go to Ueno station (im pretty sure you will at least once because its a pretty big hub station) you will see what i mean about how big the map is . And something to remember about japanese folks, in my experience, while a lot of them may love americans, the same lot are terrified to talk to americans. like i get stared at ALL the time, and unless i initiate a conversation all it ends up being is me being stared at. there is the rare occassion where someone will come up to you and try to talk to you to practice their english. avoid that at all costs. trust me , if you dont, they will follow you.....everywhere lol. unless its a hot chick, in which case, give her my phone number . haha. Are you going to have someone with you that speaks japanese?

i was referring to the map that you can get as far as the colors... the colors on the train symbolize what kind of train it is as i usually took the lime green JR line that stopped every where but the express had different colors then that... and the JR subway was symbolized by light grey on that map where as all the JR lines were Lime green and im talking about that big ass loop when i say JR cause it was the only one i really was on lol... just one of the things i noticed while i was there... i will admit i didnt have a big experience in tokyo cause i only spent a total of 7 days out of 2 years there but i did do enough running around that my second trip (on my way back to the states) i already knew where everything was that i wanted to go so it made my 8 hour run around alot shorter then if i had to figure it all out...

[Nikku]

Correction, JR lines run later then 10pm, the last train is closer to midnite. The one day pass will only cover a particular area, the pass i linked to will let you go anywhere on JR, that includes the shinkansen . IE, its a fucking steal of a deal considering round trip shinkansen tickets from Osaka to Tokyo was about 20,000 yen (about $200). Also, its not good to memorize trains by color, they often switch trains out and they end up using different colors, etc. Sean you should head down to the JTB office in LA and see if they have a JR map of tokyo you can have, that will give you the chance to look at it ahead of time and figure things out, as i said, the tokyo map is fucking ginormous and if you have never navigated a japanese train map/station it may be a little overwhelming. Zero made a good suggestion about learning the Kanji for the places you want to go, you dont have to know how to read all of them but knowing what they look like will help you out a lot. If you go to Ueno station (im pretty sure you will at least once because its a pretty big hub station) you will see what i mean about how big the map is . And something to remember about japanese folks, in my experience, while a lot of them may love americans, the same lot are terrified to talk to americans. like i get stared at ALL the time, and unless i initiate a conversation all it ends up being is me being stared at. there is the rare occassion where someone will come up to you and try to talk to you to practice their english. avoid that at all costs. trust me , if you dont, they will follow you.....everywhere lol. unless its a hot chick, in which case, give her my phone number . haha. Are you going to have someone with you that speaks japanese?

i was referring to the map that you can get as far as the colors... the colors on the train symbolize what kind of train it is as i usually took the lime green JR line that stopped every where but the express had different colors then that... and the JR subway was symbolized by light grey on that map where as all the JR lines were Lime green and im talking about that big ass loop when i say JR cause it was the only one i really was on lol... just one of the things i noticed while i was there... i will admit i didnt have a big experience in tokyo cause i only spent a total of 7 days out of 2 years there but i did do enough running around that my second trip (on my way back to the states) i already knew where everything was that i wanted to go so it made my 8 hour run around alot shorter then if i had to figure it all out...

the train colors dont indicate weather its a kukankaisoku, futsuu, or otherwise, the colors on the map are only to indicate a different line, weather its the yamanote-sen, etc, thats the shitty part, the best thing to do is learn your platforms....or learn japanese

[Sean @ NDF]

Ummm, me and jack speak minimal japanese...not sure if his wife is coming or not, who is japanese, but if she does I will just disregard everything you guys just told me =P

I'll try going and getting a map of the joint ahead of time

[Zero]

^^ ass lol

[Nikku]

Ummm, me and jack speak minimal japanese...not sure if his wife is coming or not, who is japanese, but if she does I will just disregard everything you guys just told me =P

I'll try going and getting a map of the joint ahead of time

hahah how minimal? .