Am in Tokyo, Japan for a short vacation but still following all of you in the forum. It is a wonderful city here but, I can't wait to get back to Praha. My heart is still there. g
Hi Glen, We will start in Tokyo from Oct. 11 for 39 days touring Japan on our own by Shinkanzen. If you have any advice, let me know by private message.
Hi Magan and Sova, Magan, I will send you some observations (superficial as they may be - I'm only here 5 days) and Sova, no, I'm not flying American but it wouldn't be a real problem anyway. The aircraft undergoing safety inspections are MD-80's - they don't fly international. I am flying Continental (a friend of mine works for them so our tickets were free - one of the reasons a poor boy like me can make the trip) :wink: Anway, leave tomorrow afternoon to head home - 13 1/2 hours to Newark and another 3 back to Tampa - just in time to start planning my fall trip to Praha (that flight probably won't be free but, I would hock my grandmother to get back there :shock: )
Thanks, Katka It's like the common saying "Close, but no cigar". Tokyo is an amazing place, but Prague is magical.
I am back in Tampa now. I had a terrific time - saw some wonderful things and met some great people. The flight was super (I flew with a friend who works for Continental Airlines and we were able to get Business First on all legs for free - that is one of the reasons I made the trip - who can argue with a price like that?) and the hotel was a true five star experience (got a special deal on that, too). They don't have trams there and the buses you see are mostly tourist buses but their metro and train facilities are amazing (think Prague system multiplied by 10 or 15 times the size). Got to throw snowballs on Mt. Fuji, take a catamaran ride on a crater lake, visit Shinto and Buddhist temples, see the gardens at the Imperial Palace, and sample some of the local nightlife. Although there are many other things I would like to see and do in Japan, when the trip was nearing its end, I was ready to go home. Prague is still the only place that I am sad to leave. Hope to see many of you there when I visit in the fall.
ok Mt. Fuji Catamaran on crater lake Imperial Palace East Garden Temple in complex near hotel Tokyo Tower view from the hotel
Although I've never had a yen to go to Japan (har har), your pictures may make me think twice. Beautiful!
Nice pictures! Glenn, what language was the most common that you heard? How did you communicate to others? Any english sighn's posted anywhere? Děkuji, Zatím nashledanou, Jody
Japanese was by far the most common language but, of course there were visitors speaking English (of all varieties), Spanish, French, Greek, and some others I could not make out. Alot of locals spoke a very little English and I had a phrase book to help me out - had no problems. There are English translations for most things in the subways and train stations.
As far as I know Tokyo metro lines are "lettered" (A, B, C... as in Prague), and stations of each line are numbered (as we can see at Glenn's picture above), besides it's "君が代" names, so it should be easy to use for foreign tourists. But it seems to be pretty extensive, as Glenn said, comparable maybe to London, maybe even more extensive.
That sounds like a great trip. You know how to travel on a shoestring. Nice pictures. Who knew the Japanese had their own Eiffel tower. That was Mt. Fuji? Just out of curiosity. Is that snow capped all year round?