Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jhicks99]

I've returned from Tokyo, I think I did a lot in the 4 and a half days I had there. My hotel was fantastic and in a great location. Only 10 minutes walking from Shibuya station and a mere 5000 yen a day I was extremely pleased with it.

I followed some of your advice so thanks a lot!

I managed to see:

- Shibuya (pretty much every day as I had to walk through it)
- Roppongi (after drinking in Shibuya I pulled an all nighter there with some Japanese friends I met my first night in)
- Roppongi Hills (swanky area for the well off)
- Asakusa (not much diff from a Korean palace with a market thrown in)
- Akasaka (nice area for the well off)
- Ueno (finished up here at the park and market before going back to Haneda)
- Shinjuku (also went up the Tokyo Metro Building here for the free observatory)
- Tokyo Tower
- Tusukiji fish market
- Ginza (like Gangnam station area meets Apgujeong on crack)
- Akhibara (my favourite part of Tokyo, incredibly unique mix of electronic and video game stores, manga stores, maid cafes, arcades and adult themed stores, I even checked out a maid cafe)
- Obadai Marine Park (stunning view of Tokyo from across the bay, where the famous Fuji TV building is)
- Yokohama City (Japan's second largest city, has a stunning Chinatown and is beautiful around the water at night)
- Harajuku (great market and felt like Hongdae wandering around the various sidestreets, Hongdae in a very good way, cute cafes etc...)
- Omote Sando (Garosgil st on crack x1000)

I also stopped in many other insignificant areas and managed to walk back from Tokyo Tower to Shibuya without a map (a 6 km trek, something I challenged myself to do).

I felt exhausted after each day but wanted to make the most of my time there. It also really helped that some older friends I met from Toronto who have since moved back to Japan came out of the woodwork to help show me around, without them I couldn't have hit so many spots at once.

Thanks again, I can't recommend Tokyo enough to someone who wants to go. It's simply incredible. Don't let anyone tell you it's like Seoul.. on the surface yes in many areas they're spitting images of one another, but once you sink your teeth into it a bit it's vastly different and wonderfully unique. I didn't break the bank either.

[shostahoosier]

Jhicks I totally agree with you. Tokyo has to be my favorite city in Asia...there are few places on Earth like it.

There's a vibe in Tokyo that you cant find anywhere in Korea (and I prefer Korea to Japan!).

I loved being able to walk through the park and seeing people (of different nationalities) practice Capoeira...next to a Japanese hip hop concert...which was next to a string ensemble. It was eclectic and not pretentious at all.

I love Tokyo!

[Hotwire]

Seoul NOTHING like Tokyo.

YOu try walking through the biggest public park in Seoul with your shirt off in August, drinking a beer and not getting pointed at or stared at or shouted 'FORIEGNER!' at ONCE whilst you watch group of 20+ dreadlocked Rastafarians play different types of drums who are also drinking, smoking and at least half of them tattood and topless (and no kids pointing and shouting africs saraahm! at them)

[jhicks99]

I don't agree with the concept of comparing cities since everyone has their own taste... but I've read a number of threads of people saying how Osaka and other cities are better places to visit or live than Tokyo. I also heard a lot of the same things about Busan... until I went there and as nice as it was, the scale was much smaller and it had so much less to offer for ME that I could never choose it over Seoul. I think the comparisons to Tokyo must be similar as Tokyo is so vast and has so much to offer I can't imagine another city in Japan competing with it on that scale.

That just might be the type of person I am, as I also find no other American city can satisfy me nearly as well as NYC can and the same goes for Toronto in Canada (although Montreal is spectacular in its own right), everything else just feels like its operating on a much smaller scaler and has far less overall to offer. There's just something about cities that carry the mantle of being the largest in a given country that make them so wonderful, I don't know why that is and that certainly doesn't make all the other cities a poor experience. You almost feel like you're visiting the pulse of the country, but missing out on what the experience is like for the vast majority who actually live there.

That said I can't wait to explore Osaka and its surrounding cities and visit the countryside, and I hope I'm blown away. It would be foolish for me to expect another Tokyo like experience, just as it would be foolish to expect Busan to be like Seoul.

[shostahoosier]