Tokyo environs for 5 days , Singapore for 3 days, leaving this weekend!

[popdoc]

Suggestions, pls!
Taking my 2 1/4 kit.
TYVM!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[angusparker]

For Tokyo, here is a start:

Meiji Jingu - temple in a nice urban park
Asakusa Jinja - shrine in a bustling neighborhood, other street photography nearby
Ikebukuro Red Light and Entertainment District at night
Hakone w/ views of Mt Fuji - Long day trip from Tokyo, Onsen as well
Kamakura (Daibutsu & Bamboo Grove) - short day trip from Tokyo

[Vaughn]

If you want to get away from the city itself for a day, take the train(s) to Nikko for the day.

The free public observation room at the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (about 45th Floor) in the Shinjuku area is pretty cool -- especially after dark.

[popdoc]

Thanks, Vaughn & Parker!
Any other suggestions, friends?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[angusparker]

If you want to get away from the city itself for a day, take the train(s) to Nikko for the day.

The free public observation room at the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (about 45th Floor) in the Shinjuku area is pretty cool -- especially after dark.

Nikko is beautiful and worthwhile but check how much time it takes and whether it fits into your five day trip. I’m more into temple / natural Japan myself, but others really like the modern/urban Japan. Some of the train lines might be worth photographing including Tokyo Station itself which is modeled after Amsterdam’s main station if I remember correctly - certainly looks similar.

[Scott Davis]

For Singapore, the marina area, especially the Gardens by the Bay, and the Marina Bay Sands hotel (the one with the floating sky deck that spans several towers that was in Crazy Rich Asians - the movie). The park with the dinky remains of Fort Canning in the central district is also interesting (it was the site of some of the last British resistance to the Japanese invasion in WW II). Singapore's Chinatown is also nearby and has several areas with preserved late 19th/early 20th century shophouses, so you can get a tiny feel for what it was like before the major development that has happened since the 1970s. If you want to get some more military history experience, head over to Sentosa where the remains of Fort Serapong are located. It's not as manicured and developed as Fort Canning. On the other end of Sentosa is Fort Siloso, which has been turned into a museum. Of course you'll want to stop in the Raffles Hotel and get a Singapore Sling cocktail in their bar (although you'll be paying way too much for the experience, but... bucket list and all that). There's a shopping mall near the Raffles Hotel (The Peninsula Plaza) that features multiple used camera dealers - the bargains aren't what they used to be but they do have pretty imrpessive selections of used stuff (at least they did when I was there, it's been a few years so that may have changed).

For getting around, taxis are good, while not necessarily cheap. Public transit is clean, fast, and efficient but I found changing trains in certain stations to be confusing because they basically took two (or more) lines that weren't originally intended to connect, and then built a station that linked them all, so it can be a lot of "down this hall, up these stairs, turn left, down another hall, down a set of stairs, up another set of stairs, turn right, down the hall" to get to your connecting train. So kind of like Mexico City, but less intuitive.

[Vaughn]

Nikko is beautiful and worthwhile but check how much time it takes and whether it fits into your five day trip. I’m more into temple / natural Japan myself...

Definitely -- it would eat a full day, but a great way to see some of the countryside from the train (2 hours each way). Once in Nikko, we walked, but busses can take people to the World Heritage Site (temples/shines) just up the road. It was a busy place (and around New Years is a busy time), but we came across a path that lead away from the main temples and up to a hilltop shrine, then down to some falls, creeks and temples/shines amongst the cedars -- and no one else around. It was my temple highlight of the trip.

We got a package deal thru the rail company that got us the train tickets and bus passes. We stayed overnight in Nikko at a hostel and had another full day to take the bus up past Lake Chuzenji for a nice hike before taking the bus back down and catching the train back to Tokyo. The bus ride up and back is what we use to call an E-Ticket ride (referring to the best rides at Disneyland). Sit in the front!

But one can easily spend 5 days in Tokyo, wandering around the big parks, temples, small neighborhoods, and eating a different type of wonderful food every meal. Or pick up snacks or a coffee at one of the thousand convience stores (7-11, Lawson, Family Mart). Lots of eBikes to rent all around Tokyo with an app for your phone, too.

Have fun!!!

[mhayashi]

When do you visit Tokyo?
What do you expect?

Edo castle (The emperor’s palace) is in the middle of downtown Tokyo near Ginza. So it’s very common and convenient to visit there.
https://sankan.kunaicho.go.jp/english/index.html

Tokyo photographic art museum is also in downtown Tokyo.
https://topmuseum.jp/e/contents/index.html

Kawagoe city
30 min by train from Tokyo.
https://koedo.or.jp/en/

Tokyo Tourist guide
https://www.gotokyo.org/en/index.html