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7 Jan
3:43pm, 7 Jan 2025
346 posts
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DT19
Big G, thanks for the info. I plan to take a couple of pots of porridge. Hence my desire to have a kettle, which I didn't have in Chicago and it was a bit of a nightmare!
Gdawg, sounds very positive. Can't believe it's just circa 7 weeks away.
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7 Jan
5:01pm, 7 Jan 2025
18,301 posts
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jdawayinamanger
Right everyone....sorry I have probably missed out on some targets but have added some to the sidebar. Who else is in?
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7 Jan
5:03pm, 7 Jan 2025
18,302 posts
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jdawayinamanger
No direct experience of Tokyo marathon but I did live there for 13 years (well actually just outside Yokohama but it's pretty much the same, at least when viewed from here!) A lovely time of year, loads to see, you could get some rain but it's usually pretty nice. Go with an open mind and an empty stomach 
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7 Jan
7:37pm, 7 Jan 2025
517 posts
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Charlesvdw
30 March Gent. Not as exotic as Tokyo I'm afraid. Aiming for 2:59:xx.
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7 Jan
7:42pm, 7 Jan 2025
348 posts
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DT19
jda, I'm looking forward to trying the Ramen, maybe a classic sushi place and also ideally a wagyu steak. Also Asahi is by beer of choice generally so having it readily available and not at £6 per pint will also be nice.
I think gdawg and oo will also be at London. If not, I'll be drinking alone in Chandos afterwards!
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8:28am
8:28am, 8 Jan 2025
349 posts
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DT19
Big G, another quick question, I'd read a report on the race that said the roads in Tokyo are very bouncy and responsive and it was almost like running on a track. I can see logic in that the city is built around sustaining sn earthquake so materials perhaps are less rigid. Just wondered if you experienced that?
Doing some research last night, the Asahi brewery has a skydeck bar so will look to go there post race. Also came across the concept of drinking rooms where you pay £2 an hour and it's self service drink what you want. Again, post race point of interest. Seems a very cheap city looking at beer and Ramen cost.
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9:19am
9:19am, 8 Jan 2025
4,380 posts
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Big_G
DT, yes, I found it reasonably priced. It’s surprising how many people have asked me if it was expensive, and when I’ve said ‘not really’ they’ve been surprised. We did splash out for a nice hotel when we stayed on the island of Miyajima for a couple of nights, but otherwise we stayed in fairly affordable hotels (some in parts of the country in the region of £50pn for example). Room sizes are small so we tried to make sure the ones we were booking weren’t really tiny, but it was fine for us.
I can’t say I noticed any bounce in the roads actually, but it does make sense for the reason you said.
Sounds silly, but the McDonalds has different stuff to what we have. I’m not one to frequent or recommend McDonalds, but they were a sponsor of the race and a voucher was included, so I went in and scoffed a teriyaki chicken burger, which really hit the spot after the race!
Have you thought about mobile data? eSIM is a good option if your phone supports it. Airalo is a popular one and there are occasionally discount codes if a YouTuber has a deal going on - ‘campoutwest3’ worked for me for NYC for $3 off (this was a couple of months ago so may have lapsed). I didn’t have a supported phone in Japan, so I sorted a SIM that was posted before I left, but Airalo worked well for me in NYC when I had a different phone, and Airalo allows tethering if you want to share the data with someone else. There is loads of Wi-Fi around but the data was really affordable and we found it easier that way, if we wanted maps etc.
I’m usually quite good at figuring out subways but I was totally flummoxed when I landed. We got to where we were going, but in a sleep deprived state at that point I hadn’t spotted that the stations are numbered. So if you’re at station number 7 and want to go to 12, I found that a big help to know which direction to go in, and then it became fine. We used a Suica card for travel and it worked well - before I left, I couldn’t get the travel card to work on my old iPhone, but I think that was an issue with the bank (I use Chase for travelling), so I bought one at the airport. A Suica card is kind of like an Oyster card, but can also be used at some stores or vending machines. Subway, trains, stations, all very clean…..it’s a massive difference between there and, say, London.
For general payments, we used cards for everything, except the machine at the airport for the Suica card was cash only, strangely. There may have been one or two places we saw that didn’t take Mastercard, but we got used to checking the ‘accepted card’ stickers on the door before entering and had no issues at all.
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3:57pm
3:57pm, 8 Jan 2025
350 posts
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DT19
Big G, thanks for the response and further detail. I usually have my wife with me to navigate so I am a bit edgy about arriving somewhere like Tokyo, shattered with a case trying to work it out.
I've been looking at sims as my network classes Tokyo as 'rest of world' for roaming which as my wife found out on a recent similar trip, tehe minute you land and turn your phone one you'll spend £50 on data just by having apps open. Not overly familiar with concept of an e-sim so will look at that. Was just going to buy a 10gb sim off amazon.
I understood that lots of places were cash only, though not from your experience. I've got a monzo card I use for travelling. I've read about suica cards, though I was hoping I could just swipe in and out with my monzo like I would in London.
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4:52pm
4:52pm, 8 Jan 2025
18,309 posts
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jdawayinamanger
Cash used to be important but times change and suica was really growing when I was there. It's still probably worth having a fistful of notes but you might end up hardly needing them. Post offices have cash machines that will take foreign credit cards, which saved us once or twice. Amazingly, cash machines are (were?) mostly shut outside working hours!
But like I said, I'm 10y out of date so some things will have changed.
You could pick up mobile data dongles at the airport but an e-sim will probably be cheaper if you can work it out. We did this for a trip to USA recently and it was ideal.
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