Going to Tokyo August 16-20 - Any Recommendations for places to go?

[detourne_me]

Hey guys,
I'm planning a short vacation to Tokyo in a few weeks and I was wondering what I should do there.
Are there any english sites for punk shows that you know of?
Are there any must-see places in the cool/geeky neighborhoods?

I just figured Destructoid would be a good place to ask for recommendations since i think a lot of the community is familiar with japan.
Thanks,

[Sir Legendhead]

You'll probably get better results once you make an intro thread...not that it's a big deal for me personally, but most of the other guys would rather you introduce yourself first. As far as Japan, I've never been there myself, but I know for a fact a few people here have. One of them will help you out, I'm sure.

Good luck!

[Poopface Morty]

We need a 'Going to Japan - Traveler's Guide' thread or something.

[Zodiac Eclipse]

Hey there, you might wanna visit our sister site Japanator if you're looking for the real 411 on what to do and see while in Japan. We can tell you what region specific games and consoles to bootleg while you're there, but I can't really think of anyone off hand that has great intimate knowledge of Japanese tourism.

[Poopface Morty]

/\/\/\ Or that too.

[detourne_me]

Thanks for the tip.
I know it was a bit of a cold call.
I've left a few comments on the blog posts before, but never thought about going into the forums.

[detourne_me]

Actually... I was wondering about getting Catherine... but usually i'm into games more like mass effect, fallout etc.

[MATRiX]

Anything Dodonpachi. ANYTHING.

[Sir Legendhead]

Hey there, you might wanna visit our sister site Japanator if you're looking for the real 411 on what to do and see while in Japan. We can tell you what region specific games and consoles to bootleg while you're there, but I can't really think of anyone off hand that has great intimate knowledge of Japanese tourism.

Harris Bueller went to college there, if I remember correctly...he still stops by sometimes (I think).

[Harris Bueller]

Harris Bueller went to college there, if I remember correctly...he still stops by sometimes (I think).

That I did, sir. And that I do, sir.

I was only in Tokyo for two weeks but there's a lot of cool stuff to see. Most of what I remember properly is tourist kind of stuff since I was drunk almost every night after sunset but there are some things to keep in mind.

Get a map. For the love of god get your own map. Tokyo is confusing as fuck and you will be lost most of the time if you don't have someone showing you around. You can generally keep your bearings based on subway stations but if you get lost the signboards with indeterminable kanji will be of little help.

If you have an idevice then get the Lonely Planet Guide to Tokyo app. It has a lot of cool tourist things, a semi-decent map, and will give you an idea of what there is to do in each neighbourhood. If you're there for 4 days I figure you'll probably be in Shibuya, Shinjuku, Roppongi, Harajuku, and Akihabara most of the time (and that covers a fuck tonne of space).

Not sure about any specific punk bars though. If you go to Roppongi there's a lot of people who speak English (and a lot of foreign people) so you can ask around but it's kind of a waste to spend all your time in Japan drinking with Australian people. I used an online guide (http://www.tokyoclubsguide.com/) as well as my iphone app to figure out where to go. Clubs are really expensive in Tokyo but some of them are really cool. WOMB is crazy but it'll probably cost about $40 to get in and there might not even be anything specific going on.

Go to Uniqlo (I went to one I Harajuku that was really close to the subway station) and Graniph. Graniph is where Suda51 shops and the basis for lots of the clothes in No More Heroes. They also have an English site so you can browse some stuff. Make sure to try clothes on before hand, too. Japanese sizes are smaller than American stuff. If you're really tall or really large then you might have trouble clothing shopping and should disregard this paragraph.

Yodobashi Camera is worth checking out. It's a fucking massive electronics department store that sells pretty much everything.

My memories of Akihabara are pretty muddled but once you actually get into Denki-cho it's hard to go wrong. That said, the subway stop for Akihabara is like 5-10 minutes outside of Denki-cho and I spent like 30 minutes figuring out what the fuck I was doing before I found the treasure trove of amazing games and game related stuff.

Lastly, I highly recommend the Sword Museum. I can't remember which neighbourhood it's in specifically and it's buried in the middle of what appeared to be a residential district (although I passed the Square-Enix store on my way there and it was fucking awesome) but once I found it it was absolutely worth it. It's only one floor so it's not a huge time sink but the swords on display are absolutely gorgeous.