Japan Help!!

wonder_lander · 18 Sep 2007 at 18:24

OK I'm going out to Japan next Wednesday for 6 days to see the F1 grandprix at the Fuji Speedway.

I'll be flying into Narita and am staying in the Tokyo Hilton.

I plan on site seeing on the Friday and Monday, any recommendations?

On the Saturday and Sunday I need to get over to the Fuji Speedway, does anyone have any useful knowledge that can help me work out how I can best do this journey? I'm assuming some form of train but just need to work out the route and whether I can buy in advance etc!!

Nobody work for ANA airways do they?

Any other useful hints or tips welcome!

Droolinggimp · 18 Sep 2007 at 19:32

Never been there. Dont know much about Japan BUT I would imagine the trains and/or the tube will be your best bet.

Most major cities etc have great infrastructure for this type of thing. I would go check out the Fuji speedway website, or even the F1 website im sure on there you would find out some travel info on getting there etc.

wonder_lander · 19 Sep 2007 at 12:21

The official site points to tickets being bought to include a travel package.

I haven't seen my tickets yet, should be here this week so I'm not sure of we've got travel sorted!!

I e-mailed the hotel and they've replied with options so I think I should be OK!

Mat · 19 Sep 2007 at 13:45

The bullet trains always run on time, to the nearest 10 seconds or so. Theres a guy with a stopwatch on the station!

Dont be late for them!

wonder_lander · 21 Sep 2007 at 17:45

OK got my travel etc sorted!

Now who can tell me about mobiles!!

Looks like my blackberry won't work out there so is it worth hiring a handet?

Ironic Namesake · 21 Sep 2007 at 19:02

Hiring a handset is relatively cheap, I paid around £30 for 2 weeks rental - can do it at the airport.

If your phone has 3G it should work fine, my K800i worked perfectly out there (although, roaming charges were ridiculous as always)

sniffy · 21 Sep 2007 at 19:06

Mat said:
The bullet trains always run on time, to the nearest 10 seconds or so.

Wow

Are they just incredibly efficient or are we just used to incompetence?

Ironic Namesake · 21 Sep 2007 at 19:09

They're very efficient with trains, the underground runs pretty much to the second accuracy, excellent

Same as in Hong Kong/China as well.

sniffy · 21 Sep 2007 at 19:11

Lucky gits

We should employ who ever organises their infrastructure, obviously know what they're doing!

ic1male · 21 Sep 2007 at 19:15

You can go up the Tokyo Tower, have a look from afar (maybe they do tours) of the Imperial Palace, go to some famous temple/shrine thing (whose name escapes me). Go to Ginza to the Sony Centre and have a play with all the gadgets.

NickK · 21 Sep 2007 at 19:37

wonder_lander said:
I'll be flying into Narita and am staying in the Tokyo Hilton.

Same route I did. You can easily get the limosome (ics) from Narita to the Hilton. Just before you leave the airport it's on your left inside.

The limo is actually a bus that goes around each of the main hotels in the centre of Tokyo. It's a long trip into tokyo (was something like 2 hours) and costs quite a bit.

Also .. if you're in the hilton, the road outside is actually in many racing games as it has a circular ring for the traffic lights.
Also careful if you have Shunjuku station it's big and you can easily get lost - just down the road from the Hilton (walking distance) there's a smaller underground station with only 4 entrances.

I can't remember all the details as it was about 5 years ago..

wonder_lander · 21 Sep 2007 at 20:19

NickK said:
Same route I did. You can easily get the limosome (ics) from Narita to the Hilton. Just before you leave the airport it's on your left inside.

The limo is actually a bus that goes around each of the main hotels in the centre of Tokyo. It's a long trip into tokyo (was something like 2 hours) and costs quite a bit.

Also .. if you're in the hilton, the road outside is actually in many racing games as it has a circular ring for the traffic lights.
Also careful if you have Shunjuku station it's big and you can easily get lost - just down the road from the Hilton (walking distance) there's a smaller underground station with only 4 entrances.

I can't remember all the details as it was about 5 years ago..

Thanks for that wealth of info. We've been wimps and booked return taxis to and from the airport

The hotel have sorted out the routes for me so will go down on tne Friday and pre purchase our travel tickets for the Weekend!!

wonder_lander · 21 Sep 2007 at 20:20

OoOverclockaoO said:
Hiring a handset is relatively cheap, I paid around £30 for 2 weeks rental - can do it at the airport.

If your phone has 3G it should work fine, my K800i worked perfectly out there (although, roaming charges were ridiculous as always)

Unfortunately the work blackberrys don't have 3g so hiring the handset sounds like a good idea! Will have a hunt around at the airport when we land!