Japan - Short Video of our trip

Hi all

I put together this short video of our trip to japan which you can find here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7QIIoKNuO4&list=UU_W8CMC2-QeLJeoVav7W4Wg&index=1&feature=plcp

We had a blast and the video has been picked up by the Uk Japanese Tourism board and stuck on their Facebook and twitter page :)

Hope you all enjoy!

You sure packed a lot of variety into 2:28! ^

Nice!

Great video!

Cant wait for our first trip next month!

How long did you actually stay in Japan? Where did you go?

thanks for all your kind words and sorry for not getting back to you all sooner.

In answer to your questions we stayed in Tokyo and Kyoto and we visited Hiroshima, Okayama, Hakone on day trips.

Whilst we were there for just over 2 weeks we just found that Tokyo and Kyoto offered so much to do we kinda ended up staying put and doing some thorough exploring instead of blitzing around all over the place.

We also weighed up our options in terms of what we wanted to see, for example skipping Osaka after hearing that it was very similar to Tokyo.

The other point is that we travelled over new year which whilst fantastic for seeing something very different also meant that a lot of places wound down for the holidays.

Full breakdown of places we visited

Tokyo - most if not all of the main tourist locations, from akihabara to shinjuku and back. MAke sure you go tot Harakuju on a Sunday, best day to go. If you like theme parks visit Disney Sea (best days Monday to Wednesday). Probably the finest of all the Disney parks (expensive tho!).

Kyoto - Shrines, shrines and more shrines. But also importantly the Monkey Park! Just ask at your hotel or hostel for directions, well worth it. Avoid the Toei movie studio, it'll take you 45 mins to walk around it and there isn't a whole lot to see. Also make sure your wife/girlfriend does the Maiko experience, we got fantastic pictures, be warned tho the locals go nuts seeing a foreign girl in traditional maiko clothes so expect to be photographed a lot (we where even photographed just for riding in a rickshaw!)

Okayama - there's a nice castle to see and a garden but that's about it. We went there more to see a friend who's living in Japan and ended up doing Karaoke until 5am which was really the highlight of the trip.

Hiroshima - Visit Miyajima Island just off the coast. ferry is free for JR pass holders. Lovely place to spend and afternoon and if your into food lots of delicious fried things on sticks to try. Vegetarians may struggle.
Also visit the A-Bomb dome, one of the few buildings to survive the nuclear bomb. Avoid the peace museum unless you want to ruin your day and feel guilty (this goes double if your american, saw a fair few ashen faced and very guilty looking american tourists.).

Hakone - great place to go or the day, buy a free pass ticket from Shinjuku station, takes a little while to get there but worth a look. If your very lucky it won't be cloudy and you'll get great views of Mt Fuji. (tho the best place to get pics of Mt Fuji is on the bullet train, ask for reserve seats looking towards it).

Last tips: take money, lots of money. We met too many people who seriously underestimated how much they needed and for this reason couldn't/wouldn't do stuff. My own experience is Japan has London prices + 20% everywhere. It's also bloody hard to figure out where the decent yet reasonably priced restaurants are (if you don't read japanese or know where to go). In Kyoto they are in the train station on around the 5th floor if i remember. To put it in perspective we met a friend and his girl who took us here and it cost us just shy of 5,000 yen (about £40 when I went) for 4 people. When my wife and I ate in Gion (the old seriously touristy area) we where paying double that for 2.

And get lost. It really is the best way to wander around. We stayed at very good hostels which provided maps to most places (see www.hostelworld.com to search for hostels and then choose the ones that have the best reviews).

This way we could wander around an area and either back track the way we went or grab a local fish out the map and ask them to point out were we where in the language of mime.

Anyway hope this helps, if you have any other questions I'll try to answer them!

Great vid! You really captured the feel of the country.

Nice video! has a very "Lost in Translation" feel to it. Can't wait to go to Japan next week. what video editing software did you use to create this video?

Great video, sounds like you really made the most of your trip, and avoided the right things. I also did the Arashiyama monkey park and the Maiko thing, both really fun. I'm glad I avoided the Toei studio as well- we were considering doing that.

Great video!

Avoid the Toei movie studio, it'll take you 45 mins to walk around it and there isn't a whole lot to see.

I once was referred to a one-day job there by a friend testing some remote guidance thing for tourists. I had to sit around there for 4 hours before testing it for 30 minutes and that was a very long 4 hours (I was free to explore the park, but there wasn't much to explore....).

Thanks again guys :D

truth be told I did end up in the Toei studios, I work in film here in the UK so I couldn't resist, even after having heard it was a bit pants.

I think the highlight of the place was the area dedicated to power ranges etc. Discovering your taller than the megazord has its perks!

Hi Scoy i edited on Adobe Premier Pro CS5. I didn't even use all of the footage, simply too much shot.

Ooh i forgot to mention, people should really visit the Ninja Akasaka restaurant in Tokyo. Simply fantastic.

Also if you go to Disney Sea and eat in Magelans ask for the Wine Cellar room, nice secret dining area ;)

Great video and it is done well.

I enjoyed it.

Hi there,

For those travelling to Kyoto, there is also a Ninja Restaurant in Kyoto.
They dont speak much english but the menu is in english and we got by with sign language.

I must admit i was not that keen to start with, but turned out a fun experience!