The smartphone saves my backside, repeatedly
Just to be honest about things: planning this trip the way I did was absolutely crazy. It was just due to a 10pm getting-crazy-cheap tickets ($350rt) to Tokyo after seeing them on a realtime twitter travel feed and a quick text approval from my boss for the time off. Then added in a Lonely Planet article on "Hokkaido Road Tripping", and boom, there you go.
I did use a local Japan-specialist travel agent called IACE travel in Saratoga, but all they really did was get me Shinkansen (high speed rail) tickets, a car rental up in Hakodate and one night at a businessman's hotel next to the train station. The rest of it was purposefully unplanned. It goes a little something like this:
Fly into Narita.
(somehow) get to Tokyo Station.
The businessman's cheap hotel is within "walking distance" of Tokyo Station. Stay one night.
Get to Tokyo Station in the morning.
Get on the Shinkansen and ride it 5+ hours all the way to the end of the line in Hakodate.
Pick up rental car.
...have no plans for, oh, 13 days...
Drop off rental car.
Get on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.
Find another businessman's hotel for 2 days in/near Akihabara and find a way to get to it.
Stay that night
Enjoy a day on-foot in Akihabara just to see it
Stay that next night
(somehow) get back to Narita airport.
Fly home.
All of this while I'm still unable to walk more than about 400-600 meters max without serious resting / bench-breaks, and while not being able to speak any of the language outside of "thank you", "yes" and "excuse me". Plus a damaged heel from a screw-up during my recent work trip to Austin (short, annoying story I may share later).
Yeah. Not exactly well planned or wise. Some might even call it crazy. Somehow I've survived it and had fun so far. Right now I'm at the start of the 'have no plans' part. The rental car and I ended up in downtown Hakodate, about 18km from the Shinkansen station. I have a local DoCoMo SIM I bought at the BIC Camera in Ginza for $28, so I have data. I downloaded "TripAdvisor" and "Bookings.Com" and was able to get a ~$82.00USD one-night hotel stay at a surprisingly swanky place here in Hakodate, where I'm sitting in my room overlooking the bay and typing this entry.
I've already secured a $40USD hotel room two blocks away tomorrow so I can stick around Hakodate and do a few touristy things. There are some local onsens and a neat mountain tram I want to try, plus I honestly need to rest up from the first two days' activities. Narita to Tokyo Station to the hotel ended up being a $28 limousine-bus ride and a half-hour hell walk toting my rolling luggage. A local taxi ($15 roundtrip) to the BIC Camera and back (he waited the 5 minutes it took me to buy things) got me my local data SIM. My train tickets and the MyFi for the laptop/ipad were waiting for me at the hotel. Due to the rain this morning I took another taxi ($10) to Tokyo Station instead of hoofing it in the wet. Finding and getting on the Shinkansen was joyously easy and the 5 hour ride was beautiful and smooth. From there it was a 4-block walk to the car rental place and that brings up up to date with where I am.
My smartphone is helping me find and book cheapie motels/hotels as I go. By (ab)using Google Voice and forwarding I have free voice calls that use my own number so my office (and family) can reach me while I'm here. The car has an english GPS but the smartphone GPS is definitely helping. The "point and speak" phrasebook app has already proven incredibly valuable. Also, being able to keep in touch with everybody over twitter and SMS has been a huge comfort.
Poking around the various Hokkaido towns and cities I plan to visit it looks like I can plan on $45-120/night rates, so this vacation will come in seriously under-budget. Of course it could all go wrong and I end up sleeping in my car in the middle of some random remote village, but time will tell!
At least it's an adventure. :)
I did use a local Japan-specialist travel agent called IACE travel in Saratoga, but all they really did was get me Shinkansen (high speed rail) tickets, a car rental up in Hakodate and one night at a businessman's hotel next to the train station. The rest of it was purposefully unplanned. It goes a little something like this:
Fly into Narita.
(somehow) get to Tokyo Station.
The businessman's cheap hotel is within "walking distance" of Tokyo Station. Stay one night.
Get to Tokyo Station in the morning.
Get on the Shinkansen and ride it 5+ hours all the way to the end of the line in Hakodate.
Pick up rental car.
...have no plans for, oh, 13 days...
Drop off rental car.
Get on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.
Find another businessman's hotel for 2 days in/near Akihabara and find a way to get to it.
Stay that night
Enjoy a day on-foot in Akihabara just to see it
Stay that next night
(somehow) get back to Narita airport.
Fly home.
All of this while I'm still unable to walk more than about 400-600 meters max without serious resting / bench-breaks, and while not being able to speak any of the language outside of "thank you", "yes" and "excuse me". Plus a damaged heel from a screw-up during my recent work trip to Austin (short, annoying story I may share later).
Yeah. Not exactly well planned or wise. Some might even call it crazy. Somehow I've survived it and had fun so far. Right now I'm at the start of the 'have no plans' part. The rental car and I ended up in downtown Hakodate, about 18km from the Shinkansen station. I have a local DoCoMo SIM I bought at the BIC Camera in Ginza for $28, so I have data. I downloaded "TripAdvisor" and "Bookings.Com" and was able to get a ~$82.00USD one-night hotel stay at a surprisingly swanky place here in Hakodate, where I'm sitting in my room overlooking the bay and typing this entry.
I've already secured a $40USD hotel room two blocks away tomorrow so I can stick around Hakodate and do a few touristy things. There are some local onsens and a neat mountain tram I want to try, plus I honestly need to rest up from the first two days' activities. Narita to Tokyo Station to the hotel ended up being a $28 limousine-bus ride and a half-hour hell walk toting my rolling luggage. A local taxi ($15 roundtrip) to the BIC Camera and back (he waited the 5 minutes it took me to buy things) got me my local data SIM. My train tickets and the MyFi for the laptop/ipad were waiting for me at the hotel. Due to the rain this morning I took another taxi ($10) to Tokyo Station instead of hoofing it in the wet. Finding and getting on the Shinkansen was joyously easy and the 5 hour ride was beautiful and smooth. From there it was a 4-block walk to the car rental place and that brings up up to date with where I am.
My smartphone is helping me find and book cheapie motels/hotels as I go. By (ab)using Google Voice and forwarding I have free voice calls that use my own number so my office (and family) can reach me while I'm here. The car has an english GPS but the smartphone GPS is definitely helping. The "point and speak" phrasebook app has already proven incredibly valuable. Also, being able to keep in touch with everybody over twitter and SMS has been a huge comfort.
Poking around the various Hokkaido towns and cities I plan to visit it looks like I can plan on $45-120/night rates, so this vacation will come in seriously under-budget. Of course it could all go wrong and I end up sleeping in my car in the middle of some random remote village, but time will tell!
At least it's an adventure. :)