Tourist Attractions in Japan

I was walking on the street in a warm evening at Tokyo.I looked the road if there were any cars coming because the light was red for pedestrians and there weren't any car so i decided to cross the street.when i was at middle of the way an old japanese lady started to shout at me.she was angry at me for breaking the rules.it was an usual thing in my country but japanese people pay attention to the rules from basic to top at a high level of commitment.at that time i thought these people were wasting their times with some silly rules but after that i realized she must understood that i was a traveler and the road traffic in japan like england is the opposite direction.and i didn't look the right direction because of my habit.and then i understood how these people are helpful and caring lives of others'.It was amazing for me to see that how a simple street crossing made me change.These people are amazing and there is something special in those lands.

Toji-an is an inn near Toji Temple in Kyoto. I saw a good review here on VT in 2005 when I booked a room to stay. I arrived in Kyoto JR Station after a long ride from Kanto area (East Japan) late in the evening, tired. We walked from the station to Toji-an and as we were entering the wooden house, the noren (the Japanese cloth pinned at the upper side of the door frame) was dirty and torn.

We were greeted by a sleepy guy. And when we were walking in, the hallway smelled like toilet (the toilets are at the end of the hallway). When we entered the room, the sheets looked like it hadn't been changed with new ones and there were wrinkles everywhere. And there was a used towel on the hanger! We could hear the guests from the next room talking, and the room door cannot be locked.

At the common room the host was having a small party - a few people looked drunk.

On the web site they said they had their own shower room, but we found out that they didn't --guests had to go to an outside public bath (sento) nearby.

We decided to look for another accommodation but they wouldn't refund our money. So we paid for the night without actually staying there, and the host didn't look a little bit sorry.

Unique Suggestions: What?? You are still trapped?

Fun Alternatives: Find another accommodation. There are many accommodations - hotels, ryokan around the area (around Kyoto JR Station).

Thay have this World Calling Card by AirTel at Delhi Airport that you can call from any public booth. But DO NOT buy those as they Does not work from Japan. You can't just make calls.

Fun Alternatives: You can buy Calling card from Airport at Narita.

Or just use those coins to make calls.

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During the rush hour, you should not travel in the cosmopolitan cities by a local train, a subway or a bus.

It is very difficult to find a right train and to carry your luggage.

Normal rush hours are 6am to 9pm and 5pm to 8pm.

Fun Alternatives: After or before the rush hour, you can travel easily and conveniently.

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From the outside this place looks amazing. The roller coaster twists and turns OUTSIDE the buildings! I saw it from my hotel window and thought: "WOW, gotta try that one!"

Festival Gate turned out to be a ghost town, not an amusement park at all! Everything in there was shut except for a few cafes (and they looked cool tho). Roller coaster was not running. The place was abandoned! Only me and and a few drunk men was in there. Let's just say I got out of there faster than the speed of light. I got that chill down my spine telling me to get out. Not that the drunks did anything but their looks were nasty...

I have no clue if Festival Gate has closed down permanently. Make sure to look it up before you go here.

Unique Suggestions: Take a few good pics of the roller coaster! Then run!

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Good God what a nightmare. This place is just packed wioth people so bad that you can hardly move. In theory, you walk through a line of stalls to go to some shrine in the middle but if you go with friends you are sure to be separated if you take your eyes off of each other for half a second. Children on foot will surely be trampled, and those being carried are doomed to be crushed in your arms. Getting into the shrine proved impossible and everything in the godforsaken place seemed ourtageously expensive.

Unique Suggestions: Off to one corner is a small idol to Amano Uzumi. I thought that was cute, but aside for her, there is nothing to interest and everything to annoy.

Fun Alternatives: Volunteer to go to a warzone and step on landmines but don't come here.

This is something that many independent travellers would regard as a real tourist trap. However, it is not fair of me to put it in this section, as I am not so sure of it.

The Gion corner in Kyoto is the name of a sort of cultural center where visitors (both Japanese and foreign) sit down for an hour-long show with samples of Japanese culture. There is tea ceremony, flower arrangement (ok this IS phony to do on stage...), rakugo (storytelling), bunraku (puppet show), Japanese dance, gagaku (court music) and so on. The performers were ok, albeit perhaps a little weary of having to go through the same short performance twice a night to an endlessly ignorant crowd flashing their cameras...

Somewhat costly and of course not at all the real deal (we got to experience tea ceremony, incense ceremony and flower arrangment privately instead) this could qualify as a tourist trap thing. But then again...

Unique Suggestions: ... If this is your only chance to glimpse the rich culture of Japan, then I think you should take the chance and not let the tourists' cameras or stacked souvenir shelves bother you!

When I was a kid, my dad bought me a Nintendo entertainment system from a store in Japan. We didn't test out the machine because we assumed that what had come in the box was brand new. After flying home, we discovered that we had been sold a broken machine. We couldn't get a refund for obvious reasons. We couldn't get the system repaired either because at the time, the Japanese Nintendo systems were different from the machines sold in the U.S.