[jocmueller]

Hi All,

I am new to this Board and this is my first post. I am from Germany, 34 years old, and had a Japanese girlfriend when I studied Business and Economics in California until 1999. I made it throughout whole Asia until now (Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand ...) but never to Japan.

A friend of mine married a Japanese Girl (she lives in Germany and works there for Lufthansa for 7 years now), they married the German way in February. Now it's time for the "Shinto-Marriage" (hope this is the right term) and they invited to Tokyo. We will be around 50 People there from Germany and aroung 80 People from japan, so I hope nobody will get or be lost.

My experiences until now according flights and accomodation:

Flights:

I will go there with Lufthansa, non-stop-flight from Frankfurt. Price for the Ticket roundtrip was EUR 935 (approx. 1.450 US-$), but it is a open-jaw-flight (Gabelflug/dog-leg-flight/multy-city-flight, how ever you call this at your place) which goes back to Zurich (Switzerland, where my parents live) with Swiss Intl. Airlines and not to Frankfurt so it is a bit more expensive than a normal flight. KLM is - as I found out - the cheapest airline with flights for approx. EUR 620 (970 US-$) roundtrip in that period (but you lose time in Amsterdam). So for the people flying form Europe, KLM might be a good choice. British Airways is priced in the middle, but I do not like to fly 2 hours to London and then fly the whole distance back on my way to Japan. I like nonstop-flights as I do not lose too much time on travelling.

Accomodation:

As I was in Bangkok and Hua Hin for 2 weeks in April and spent a lot of money there for accomodations and shopping (Taylor etc.) I decided to book a "low-budget-hotel" in Tokyo. With HRS I found the Prince-Shinagawa-Hotel which costs me approx. 10.000 Yen per Night (approx. 60 EUR, 93 US-$). I found some valuations/reviews for this hotel in the web (tripadvisor, holidaycheck) and I think for that price it is ok. Rooms seem to be pretty small, but who cares - hey, I will be only there to sleep as I want to see as much of the city as possible. Other people of the marriage-group are also in this hotel so it seems to be ok.

Language:

As I had a Japanese girlfriend I know some Japanese (as it is long ago I forgot probably lots of it), and I try to speak Japanese as far as possible - so this should not be a bigger problem. If nothing works I go with English.

Programm:

I will arrive in Tokyo/NRT on Thursday May 29 in the Mornig. First I will go to the Hotel, check in, take a shower, and then go grab some sashimi (love that). Then I plan to go to Shibuya, looking for some fun and shopping stuff as I promised my little sister to bring her some gifts - and what is done is done.

Friday will be the traditional Shinto-Marriage-Ritual Tokyo-Shrine from 12-1 p.m., followed by a meal in a Restaurant close to the shrine. From 08:30 p.m. on the groom is having his birthday party a Japanese Bar and Restaurant as he gets 34 at midnight with Japanese food and open bar (hehe).

Saturday is the Marriage Party at a pretty cool Restaurant, starting 07:30 p.m., so I will have the whole day to recover. There seem to be facultative city-trips during the day, may be I join one of those. After the Diner we plan to go to a club where we have also reservations, sounds like fun.

The good thing is, at the marriage and the birthday party I will get to know lots of Japanese people which might also want to go somewhere (shopping, clubbing) or show me interesting places until Thursday when I leave.

Questions:

I will have leisure time from Sunday to Wednesday then (leave Thursdays in the mornig), plan to go shopping (Jeans: (one green elephant, others?), electronics, kimono if affordable), so if you have good tips (esp. for the kimonos, not too expensive, used is ok), please post). Which Jeans in Japan are good (brands)? Also I am interested in good Bars and Clubs, heard Roppongi is good for that.

I will also check the section abour Japanese fashion in this forum, seems to be a lot of stuff and information there.

After I am back to Germany I will report about things that happened to me, tips for nights out etc. Tips from you according nights out and shopping are also welcome.

CU

Joe