Tokyo night fever - Halloween

Day 4 Part 2 - Halloween

In Tokyo Halloween is like carnival in Barcelona. A lot of people partying whole night, wearing costumes. It’s a huge party and lots of fun. People take pictures on the street with strangers wearing different costumes, all smiling, happy and half drunk and with a great imagination for costume creation :-D

So, so far our costumes for this night are following:

- Me – a black witch (I decided to stick to reality haha)

- Juli – face painted as Paul Stanley from KISS

- Diego – wearing a goblin mask

- Naho – pink haired “slutty” girl (or as she said Chinese prostitute – here you can easily feel a tension between Japanese and Chinese

So we take a train, using not valid JRP again :-D, meet CS-ers, paint Juli’s face and drink beers in Shibuya, which is the most famous party area in Tokyo.

Actually Naho’s costume could be a regular base clothes in Tokyo, the only different would make her pink devil corns :-D

Shibuya is marked by its famous Hachiko cross, the busiest cross in Tokyo.

Among CS-ers we see Elizabeth, some familiar faces from Nabe home dinner and Michiko, a girl we met in Barcelona, when she was traveling around Europe.

After beers in Shibuya we take a subway and after 2 stops get out to discover some new area of bars and pubs. The curious thing about this area, is that 15 bars have agreed to promote it, during 1 month starting with a Halloween night, offering 2 free drinks to each person who comes there wearing costume in the Halloween night. We couldn’t believe it. How it can be possible, that a group of 200 people (we were approximately group of 20, but when we got there, we saw much more people) gets 30 drinks for free, during 1 month? Yes, it’s possible!! Naho, Diego and other couchsurfers together with a crowd went to Halloween parade, making a circle around the area and then getting back to the initial point. Me, Juli, Michiko and Elizabeth went meanwhile to grab something to eat. After having some nuddles (soba yaki), we met them getting back from the parade, and organizers started to give everybody coupons with freed drinks.

On the left you cans see Bar’s name and then 2 squares mean 2 free drinks! (in Spain I guess they would get broke, since whole town would be there that night haha). As you see we didnt succeed in drinking it all, but since its valid for the whole month of November, we are tihinking to pass by last our last night in Tokyo, 7th of November :-D

After 3 hours drinking bloody maries, vodka oranges , gin tonics, beers and other, we became friends with one of organizers (he is dressed as woverine), drank half of his bar and got some promotional t-shirts, so the evening was pretty successful haha

I was dead tired (3 days with no sleep), but after getting some Japanese energy drink and then a coffee, I kind of recovered and kept drinking free drinks (how could I miss it :-D

Ok, it’s time to catch the last train and get back to Shibuya and go dancing. Naho and Diego and a couple of couchsurfers decide to go to some posh club, where a shuttle bus can take you for free from Shibuya. The problem is that the line for the bus is HUGE and can take may be an hour waiting, besides, the entrance in the club is 4,000 yen (28 Euro) and no drink included. We decide that for our budget is better to stay in Shibuya and we go with 3 more couchsurfers to a small club with music, free entrance and friendly prices.

The bar was ok, we stayed a bit, then went out to a convenience store, bought instant noodle soup and prepared it in the store (in Japan everything is perfectly organized, you can even get hot water in the shop and prepare noodle soup by yourself there) and couple of beers. Juli was hungry so he ate the soup, then we drank the beers and went back to Shibuya cross, making pictures with all curious characters on our way.

Later met Diego and Naho, went to some italian- japanese family restaurant and had a soup at 5 am in the morning and finally went back home to get some sleep :-D

It was a very long and crazy night, great fun, and I got a feeling that we really felt Tokyo vibe – CRAZY!!

Expenses control

• Beers: 1500 yen (11,45 €)
• Face painting: 298 yen (2,27 €)
• Food (noodles): 800 yen (6,11 €)
• Energy drink (which btw was a bomb): 196 yen (1,50 €)
• Coffee: 130 yen (0,99 €)
• Beers and noodle soup at the convenience store: 700 yenes (5,34 €)
• Restaurant at 5 am in the morning, before going home: 650 yenes (4,96 €)

Fuji san

Day 4 (Part 1)

Mount Fuji and 5 lakes (Fuji goko)

We leave half of bags at Heath and Jim place, since we don’t need to travel with all the baggage and they kindly agreed to keep the bags for couple of days and go to Hilton to meet Diego and Naho.

Starting from this night we stay with Diego and Naho at Diego’s place, then on 2nd of November we leave to Osaka, Nara and Kyoto and back to Tokyo on 7th night. On 8th night we take flight to Australia.

Naho and Diego pick us up at 9.00. Diego’s car is called Mitsubishi Pajero (which in Spain is called Montero, since pajero in Spanish means “wanker” haha) In 2 hours we arrive and see impressive view of Mount Fuji and a beautiful lake, all colored with red and yellow autumn leaves.


After taking 1,000 photos we are heading back to Tokyo. At 17.30 we need to meet a group of couchsurfers at Shibuya, change into our Halloween costumes and go party whole night.

Kamakura trip

Day 3: Kamakura trip

We wake up at 8 am and go to Shinjuku station to catch a train. Besides we had to meet Elizabeth, a Mexican girl, from Couchsurfing, who is also traveling around Japan and also wanted to visit Kamakura this day.

Our Japan Rail pass is valid starting from 2^nd of November. But a great idea passed through our head – what if we just show the pass at the metro station, since the guy in metro just sitting inside his small office looking at people passing by, he most likely won’t try to check the pass carefully. So we tried…so it worked! And It worked for 2 days since then, trip to Kamakura was a free one for us so far :-D.

Kamakura was full of nice temples and shrines, green and pretty. We walked around while Naoki was explaining us some details Kamakura history and temples. After cultural part we needed to taste some local food and Naoki said he knew a good Okonomiyaki place nearby.

Okonomiyaki is type of Japanese food, made more o less like egg omelet mixed with cabbage, seafood or meat, which you prepare by yourself on the pan which is incorporated in the table in the restaurant. This place had an offer, for 1,500 yen (11 Euro) you can eat as much okonomiyaki as you can during 2,3 hours. Especially for Juli they brought okonomiyaki without any vegetables (cabbage, onion etc), since he doesn’t eat “green stuff”, and Naoki was very surprised for the first time to see this special way to cook non vegetable okonomiyaki :-D After 2 hours of eating we got out, and I guess we will not eat eggs for at least 1 week haha

Last stop was an impressive Big Buda statue, probably the most impressive thing we saw in Kamakura that day. We took the train back to Tokyo, used our non valid Japan rail pass again and met Naho and Diego at Shinjuku station.

Shinjuku met us again with loads of people and total chaos, since it was a peak hour, everybody was going home from work, so station was full of “robots” and “hot Lolitas” :-D

We met Naho and Diego and went for a beer outside the station. In traditional Japanese restaurants they ask you to take off the shoes so be sure you have clean socks haha

Finally we got to Heath and Jim place, guys arrive around 23.00 with a “happy attitude” after the drinks they had with their friends. We bought some beers and they had some wine, so once again we keep talking and laughing till 2 am…NO SLEEP AGAIN!!! We need to wake up tomorrow at 7 am, since we go with Naho and Diego by car to see Mount Fuji. Why it’s necessary to wake up so early? Because this very night is a Halloween night, and we need to go party whole night. So basically, we go to sleep at 3 am, then wake up at 7 am and plan to come back home, without sleep at around 6 am next day. Conclusion? NO SLEEP AGAIN!!! :-D

Tokyo - welcome to the future

Day 2: Tokyo

In NARITA airport, before going to town, we did following

1. Exchange voucher to Japan Rail Pass (you need to tell when you want to activate JRP, the exact date – so they will type with BIG letters on the pass when it expires). We will use JRP for 7 days, starting with 2nd of November till 8th (I mean this is what we thought in the beginning :-D

2. Buy NEX and SUICA card (a good offer available just for tourists, which includes Narita – Tokyo ticket for Narita express + 2000 yen credit on Suica card, for traveling in Tokyo area – JR and metro.

3. Rent a Japanese mobile phone with Japanese SIM card. The cheapest way to communicate within Japan using a mobile phone is mobile phone email. It’s not a normal email, like gmail for example, that you can access through cell phone, it’s special cell phone email address , for example Elena@vodafone.ne.jp – so you use it to send emails through your phone and its really cheap – approximately 19 euro cents /email, while un sms costs about 70 euro cents. Yeah, that expensive!!

Ok, after all that we take Narita Express and get to Shinjuku station. Our hosts, a gay couple and ambassadors of Tokyo, Heath and Jim, will be home at around 16:30, so we leave bags in coin lockers (Japanese word for it is : koin lokka – haha funny) in the train station and go have a look around the area.

Close to Shijuku station is situated skyscrapers district, with Tokyo Government Building, a huge and impressive construction where you can take a free tour around the building , offered by volunteers and end the route at the observatory on the 45th floor.

After dedicating around 1 hour listening about history of the building and taking pictures of the city on top of it, we decided to grab something to eat. Everywhere we saw big buildings and commercial centers but somehow in the middle of this modern district we found a tiny street with local simple open bars offering noodle soup. In the bar you could see only local and clearly the guy in the bar didn’t speak any English but somehow we understood each other and we had great portion of tasty soup for just 2 Euro/each :-D

If you want to smoke after dinner, like Juli did, be aware that in Shinjuku district due to its central location and business profile, it’s permitted to smoke on the street only in the indicated locations – the fact that Juli was continuously complaining about, of course! :-D

Fist things that impress you in Tokyo, besides skyscrapers and futurist architecture are:

1. Tokyo transport system – total chaos, it blows your mind of because of a huge amount of different subway lines, mixed with train lines – different companies own different lines, so I guess this makes it worse!

2. The way people dress here is surrealistic : girls dressed like little porno Lolita or other type – gothic Lolita. Impossible style combinations, short skirts, long boots, stockings, pink colors mixed with leopard bags and silver shiny shoes.

3. The way young working men dress – all same, like robots – black suit and white shirt, really , it’s a bit scary , you feel like in a clone world :-D

4. The price for the alcohol – even in a convenience store a can of beer is around 1.5 euro…this country definitely is not created for Spanish people :-D

We dropped our bags in Heath and Jim house and went to meet another friends, Naho – a girl we met in Barcelona during her travel and her boyfriend, Diego, originally half Brazilian (by mother) half Japanese. There was a home CS party that night, so even dead from jet lag we decided to go :-D

In the house there were several couchsurfers, Japanese, one French, one Turkish, English, two American girls – well normal CS cocktail I guess.

We had a couple of beers and a soup “Nabe” – which was basically a big pot with water where you put green Chinese cabbage, slices of meat, mushrooms, tofu cheese and some spices. It stays on fire, while people are taking some soup, and then putting some more new ingredients, so it can last for hours I guess :-D We left the house around 23.00 and had to run to the station since the last train was at 23. 15

Next day we had planned a trip to Kamakura. I saw in Tokyo group on Couchsurfing a guy, called Naoki, who was offering to some traveling couchsurfer to show around Kamakura. I wrote him and asked if he can show us too, when we arrive, within a week and he agreed. So we had to meet him at 11 am at Kita Kamakura station, which is 50 minutes away from Tokyo by train.

Again no sleep!!!

Expenses control:

- Nex & Suica package: 7000 yen (53,44€)
- Rented mobile phone with SIM card: 26€
- Coin lockers at Shinjuku station: 500 yen (3,5€) and 400 yen (3,05€) – we needed two for our bags
- Food (noodle soup): 700 yen (5,34€)
- Beers bought in the convenience store for the home party: 1600 yenes (12,21€)
- Contribution for the food at home party: 1000 yen (7,63€)

Start of the trip: Barcelona - London - Tokyo

Day 1
London – Tokyo

Fist stop is Tokyo, mix of technology, future world architecture, traditions and contrasts!
We are still in Barcelona though, checking up for our flight and calling my mother in law to say good buy. She is telling us that Real Madrid has lost 4-0 in the match with a “nobody knows team from the 2nd B Spanish league” - Alcorcón). My God! This is nice news before taking a flight indeed :-D

We arrive to the HUGE London Heathrow Terminal 5 and now need to wait for 2 hours to take the flight to Tokyo. How to spend this precious time? Looking for wireless internet, of course, we need to see what happened with Madrid! :-D Juli has asked BA girl in the airport if she knows any coffee shop with free wireless internet and she gave him a good tip – go to the BA lounge entrance, from there it’s possible to connect to the BA network and have good connection. Of course we followed the advice! Juli ended up standing outside the lounge, close to the escalator, giving advices to other people who were wondering how he got free net :-D

So we took the flight, 13 hours flying, eating and drinking everything we can (the Japanese stewardess is still in shock because of Juli’s requests: “I want beer, tomato juice and a diet coke”, he was telling, and the woman was asking: “ are you sure your stomach can handle?” :-D

Expenses control:
In the airport 8€ (a bottle of water and a sandwich)

Famous Japan Rail Pass

It's a well known fact that transportation in Japan is very expensive. The train system is great and fast, but it cost a looot of money, especially if you don't have enough time.

There is a option that almost all tourist use traveling in Japan - Japan Rail Pass, which is available on the special price only for tourists and only can be bought outside the country, before you get in Japan. This pass can be valid for 1, 2 or 3 weeks, the price is obviously different too. Days start counting in the moment when you use it for the fist time.

Before using JRP should be validated in one of the Japan Rail offices, on arrival.

For our 10 days trip, the best option is JRP for 7 days.

We will use it for traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and while staying in Tokyo city, there are plenty of options to get around - buses, subway, trains.

For those who live in Barcelona, buying JRP is not that simple :-) On the internet you find address "Pl. Països Catalans, s/n", which means Sants Station, Central Barcelona station. But there nobody knows what the "f***k" is JRP, so you go around, asking, wondering and in the end you find out that Japan Travel Bureau or JTB (which sells the pass) is actually situated inside Hotel Barcelo Sants. In the end you go up and ask on the hotels reception, from there everything is easy :-)

The price of the 7 day pass is 28.300 yen (225€). Now we are ready to go :-)

Japan low cost 10 days trip

In Couchsurfing forum, Tokyo group, a fellow traveller shared his experience travelling for 10 days in Japan on low budget. I found it somehow relevant for our blog, so with no excessive effort i will borrow some of his advices and publish here :-)

This is a guide for those who plan to visit Japan during 10 days and dont want to spend more then 500 euro for the whole trip (not counting airplane tickets):

1. Pack your bags light, don’t take more than one pair of shoes etc. If you cant fit everything in a school backpack, youre packed too heavy.
2. Do bring your camera and laptop
3. Don’t buy a JR Rail pass, they’re a good deal but too pricey for the ultra-budget traveller like you.
4. Don’t buy anything to bring home: that easy rule saves you money and excess baggage fees. If you like something, take a photo of it instead! This works great for clothes.
   
5. Don’t be afraid to ask people where the cheap food is nearby! It is possible to eat out for 250 yen.
   

Itinerary:
Day 1 – get to Tokyo- get hotel!
Day 2- Tokyo
Day 3- Tokyo
Day 4- Tokyo
Day 5- Tokyo whole day and catch midnight bus to Kansai KANSAI Osaka
Day 6- Go to Kyoto and walk the path of Philosophy for the day
Day 7- Go to Nara for the day
Day 8- Kyoto -Explore Manga and Inari Shrine!
Day 9- Kyoto -Explore Arashiyama! Catch night-bus to Tokyo!
Day 10 –Bus arrives in Tokyo! Fly home!

THE PLAN
1- Fly to Narita - depends where you flying from you can get more or less good ticket rates. From Europe normally is possible to find a low cost return ticket for 500 euro (KLM, AirFrance, Lufthansa, Finair)
2- Exchange 500 euro into yen at a good place before you leave. You now have 65,000 yen

3- Day 1- Arrive in Narita, go straight to the JR desk and buy a Suica (train smart card) with the Narita Express discount. Catch the N’EX (narita express) to Tokyo Station (2000 yen).
4- From Tokyo station, catch the Hibiya subway to Minami-Senju station (Use your SUICA instead of buying a ticket).
5- From minami-senju go to the hotel EBISU. Its 1500 yen a night, dorm style. Book it for six nights. If its full, ask the staff if there are other good nearby hotel. This is a cheap-hotel area. A good second choice is New Koyo (2500 yen a night)
6- Sleep and be rested, if you need it. There is a supermarket nearby where you can get cheap food, next to the supermarket an old man makes very cheap (200 yen) bento (rice and food boxes), these are good to stock up on for a hungry budget traveller. Explore this area, its called Sanya and is part of Tokyos ‘Shitamachi’ downtown area. The people are quite poor in this area but are just as polite and friendly as any other Japanese. Ask your hotel person to show you how to get to the famous restaurants and temples in Sanya.

7- Day 2- Wake up at your own leisure. Go to Akihabara by the subway. When you get out in Akihabara station, make your way for 200 metres towards the Electric Town exit of the JR Train station (not the same as the subway station). Pick up two of the free maps of the area, one is in English and one is in Japanese. The Japanese one is much better. The best places to go are
obvious on the map, costume stores and fetish stores and maid cafes etc. You can’t find the best parts of Akihabara just by looking off the street, theyre hidden in basements, 6th floors and alleys. That being said, you cannot miss the Love Merci sex store and the massive Don Quihote store. See if you can get a foot massage and a beer at a special maid café and try your luck at the massive video arcades. If you get tired, go to a super-net café (manga kissa) scattered among the higher floors in some of the bigger electric town buildings and sleep or just surf the net and read Japanese comics in yoru private cubicle. If it’s a weekend you will see a lot of cosplayers near the metro station listening to free bands.

8- Day 3- Is it Sunday? Go to Harajuku station. From there, go straight to Yoyogi park and check out the Tokyo Rockabilly club doing their thing. On the way you might see many people dressed up in weird fashion for no reason except to get their photo taken by tourists. (especially on the bridge over the train tracks) Go through Takeshita Street and Harajuku street looking at
the teenage fashion. The best places to see are the upstairs areas of burger joints like ‘Mac’ and
Lotteria, this is where the multicolour teenage fashion victims hang out to escape the rain, crowds or the bright sun wrecking their makeup.

9- Day 4 – Go to Shinjuku and wander through the various alleys. At night, Go to Kabukicho, the famous yakuza area full of hostess bars, host bars, and brothels. Try walking alone and see how many people try to tout and pull your business. Of course, never go anywhere that a stranger on the street tries to drag you, they’re liars.

Other Tokyo activities:

Go to the Suginami Anime museum. Its free -go to the massive 100 yen store in Kinshicho, great
for budget souvenirs. Buy some fireworks and set them off in a park!

-Spent a night at any karaoke place (there is one on EVERY STREET) and make sure you get the ALL YOU CAN DRINK (nomihodai) Deal! (usually around 2000 yen per person, per hour)

- Go to the bohemian area of Shimokitazawa, see a band and do some second-hand-clothes shopping!

- Go nightclubbing/gig seeing in Shibuya, look through trendy stores or bars for their flyers and find one that looks suitably Tokyo-ridiculous, you might need to plan ahead to dress the part (and spend some time in harajuku or akihabara buying a costume..). Goth nights/fashion nights/cyberraves are suitably excellent and usually start at midnight and end at 5am. Definitely bring your camera here. Warning: this is an expensive thing to do, but a very special ‘only in Tokyo’ experience if you pick the right even. It should set you back around 3000 yen to get in plus (maybe?)4000 yen for items to past the dress code (body paint? Maid costume? Who knows) Don’t drink alcohol in these clubs or youll go broke, buy a cheap jar of sake and drink it on the street before you go in (not illegal)

-Go to a flea market!

Leaving Tokyo… Into Kansai!

1- Depending on how budget-conscious you’ve been, you will probably still have spending money after 6 great days in Tokyo. On your last day, check out of your hotel. You can catch a midnight bus from Tokyo to Osaka, which is only around 4000 yen, saving you the cost of a train and the cost of a place to stay that night! You can buy these over the phone from pirvate companies (get a brochure from tourist assistance) or from a JR station (the jr buses are slightly more expensive). Most of these buses have a lot of recline on their chairs, so sleep tight!

2- Youre in Osaka! Get the train to Shin Imamiya station . Look for the big building that says HOTEL RAIZAN on it and walk towards it. There you will find around a couple dozen cheap hotels. The cheapest is 1000 yen a night, but has no showers (theres a public Sento bath attached to the hotel, so you can get naked and refreshed Japanese style!) Many of these hotels do not accommodate women, so you can check at the tourist information desk underneath HOTEL CHUO (there are signs) and the students volunteering there will help you. My pick: Hotel Raizan, 2300 yen a night including a free yukata robe hire, private shower facility, additional public bath, no curfew, free wi-fi and a small but comfortable private room with a TV and free videos! Oh not to mention, a beer and sake vending machine

3- Osaka is a metropolis but not so exciting compared to Tokyo. You can easily get up early and go to Kyoto for a day, then after sunset in Kyoto head back to Osaka to sleep. It takes a bit less than an hour each way.

OPTIONAL INTERMISSION?
By this time, you might be really darn tired, so spending a day just catching up on sleep in Osaka and maybe going to a public bath and just cooking cheap packet noodles for food could be a low-cost and very helpful day. There is a cheap ramen place near the hotel area which you can easily visit (300yen-ish)

Kyoto
Day 1- Get up in Osaka early to get to Kyoto early (8amish)! Catch the JR train to Kyoto as soon as you can. You need to beat the busloads of tourists. In Kyoto, get a daily bus pass and head straight to the Silver Temple (Ginkaku-ji). Wander around the gardens and feel very Zen. Today you will go from the Silver Temple and walk south along the Path of Philosophy, stopping at every temple along the way! Bring food with you however, such as a cheap bento box from a convenience store, as the local food is quite expensive. Half of the temples and shrines are free. Go through Honen-in and Zenrinji Eikando temples, admiring the gardens, it’s the most beautiful place and you get great views from the mountains. You should end up at Sannen-in to
look at the big gates and roman-acqueduct there, don’t pay any admission fees at sannen-in though. If you got up early it shouldn’t be sunset yet, you can go check out Gion which is the old Geisha district, only a short bus ride or leisurely walk from the bottom of the path of philosophy. Head back to Osaka after you eat dinner in Kyoto.

Day 2 Nara. Catch the train from Osaka to Nara. Cost – 760 yen. Go straight to nara-koen park and feed the deer, and check out the giant Buddha. Theres plenty of tourist information if you want to find other thigns to do, but youre only spending one day in Nara and it will be a fairly cheap day, you wont need more than 3000 yen for the whole day. Head back to your hotel in Osaka for the evening for a night out on the town… if you have the cash.

Day 3 - Kyoto- you’ve come from Osaka again. Youre spending the night in Kyoto tonight, though. Book a bed at J-Hoppers in Kyoto, it’s the best hostel and is 2300 a night and easy walk from the JR station. For a second choice, K’s house is less friendly but much newer and shinier and the same price. 3rd choice could be Sparkling Dolphins Inn, right next to J-hoppers and
also quite cheap, or BAKPAK hostel. Book one or two nights. Buy a couple of bus passes Drop your bag off and go to the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Spend the entire morning reading manga,and if you like you can check out their displays and performances. You’ll probably be tired today anyway (1000 yen) There are a couple of museums and galleries within a short walk from the manga museum if you are tired of the manga. After, go straight to InariJR station and check out the Fushimi Inari shrine, a massive fantasyland over a whole mountain covered in
tunnels of a million red gates. It includes hundreds of mini-shrines and a few excellent teahouses. If you are an excellent walker you might make it to the top, but I know no one that has, its not important anyway. The Inari shrine is free and has no closing hours, so could be a good choice for a dawn or later-afternoon visit if the sky is not too dark. Cost of today should be around
900 yen plus food and bed.

Day 4- Kyoto- Youre up and ready to get out the door at7am! Check out of the hotel. Head straight to Arashiyama when the temples open. Walk across the bridge and back simply for the view, then go toTenryū-ji (天龍寺), check out the awesome world-heritage garden. As you leave, walk through the bamboo forest and go to Okochi Sanso Villa. After the villa make your way to Jojakko-in and whatever other attractions in this awesome area you feel excited for.
The cost of this day should be around 2000 yen plus food and bed. After the temples close you can catch another night bus from Kyoto to Tokyo.(4000 yen) and take your return flight home!

At this point, you have seen a really satisfying look at urban and ancient Japan. With more money, of course, you would stay at beautiful ryokan, visit hot springs and eat fugu, but this is about having an amazing time with low cost by exploring Japan via the less commercial methods. You can always go back when you are richer!

Total Cost:
36000 on trains, buses and accommodation
6000 on club, temple and museum entrance fees.
18000 yen, that’s 1800 yen a day for food, video arcade games and making mistakes (like drinking Shochu!).

If you bring more money, you’ll have more freedom with eating out and even drinking booze :-)

Our plan is slightly different, since we will be staying in people houses and also plan to visit Miyajima island. But these are good tips for any traveller who plan to visit Japan!