Thought I'd share. Coming to the end of my 2 week trip to Japan (lived here for 4 years a decade ago). Got a flat 2 minutes from akihabara. View https://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/40191/40712/img_201607…
The View from My Airbnb Unit in Akihabara (Tokyo)
altomic on 06/07/2016 - 19:35
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You will enjoy Tokyo! Make sure you plan well though!
Any tips on what plan well means?
When I get back to Aus I'll shoot you the link for where we first stayed in Tokyo. Great house in Ueno. Only 1 km from where we are now. "Large"(for Tokyo) and reasonably" central ". There is no centre of Tokyo.
(lived here for 4 years a decade ago)
Why did you leave? I know a lot of people that would love to live there.
We were expecting our first child and back then maternity wards were "backward". It would have been great to stay but 4 years was decent….
One thing I suggest is forgoing the JR pass ( if your not going to heaps of places in a very short time) and getting a bus. We went to Sendai ( where we lived for 2.5 years) and for myself and 3 kids it was 7500yen (us$75) one way. Sure it took an extra 4 hours over the shinkansen(bullet train) but we weren't in a hurry and wanted to spend 4 days in Sendai). Plus we went a different way and saw the sights and were the only foreigners around, etc. For me travel is not about seeing as many sights as possible in the fastest time but walking around and seeing how the locals live. What the daily activities are. My kids are a great reminder of that. They want to go to a playground rather than a historical temple. And they'll talk to kids and play with them and I'll interact with the parents and that is seeing a country. My kids just came down from the roof top area and had met some "neighbours" on the stairs who gave them some small statues. That's pretty cool for the kids. It's interaction. It's not the sterility of hotels.
Absolutely agree on the kids opening doors abroad.
My girls were both blonde with long curls, which drives Asian grandmothers crazy! My littlest would adopt a karate stance and say HANDS OFF! when a passing Viet shop keeper would bounce her curls, driving the locals into gales of laughter. In a Malay guesthouse we discovered her in the dining room with ice cream "hanging out with her friends" some of the staff.Yep, that rings so true. I can just imagine. Amazing times. Enjoy it.
Very nice, trust you had a great time, despite the driving licence issue. Thanks for sharing :-)
I'm visiting Tokyo for the first time in October, and staying in Airbnb. Hope I do as well as you!