EVERYONE! LOOKING FOR PARTY TIME!

travel times and prices

Concert 1: Fussa
From: Shinjuku to Fussa
Price: 620 yen
Time: 47 minutes
Round Trip: 1240 yen

Concert 2-3: Nakano (2 days)
From: Shinjuku to Nakano
Price: 150 yen
Time: 7 minutes
Round Trip: (2 Days) 600 yen

Concert 4: Nagoya
From: Tokyo to Nagoya:
Route 1: Bullet Train
Price: 10,070 yen (non reserved)
Time: 1 hour 43 minutes
Route 2: Night Bus
Price: 6420 yen
Time: 7 hours
Both Routes end up at Nagoya station.

Nagoya station to Kanayama (where hall is)
Price: 160 yen
Time: three minutes (include another 5 - 10 for walking from station)
Round trip: 320 yen

Concert 5: Kobe
From: Nagoya to ShinKobe
Price: 7650 yen
Time: 1 hour seven minutes
(ALTERNATE ROUTE)
Bus:
From: Nagoya (meitetsu Bus Center) to Kobe (JR Sannomiya Station)
price: 3300 yen
time: 3 hours 13 minutes

Shin-Kobe to Sannomiya Station (where hall is)
price: 200 yen
time: 2 minutes (include another 10 - 15 walking from station)

TRAVEL PLANS:
Where we stay is up to how people are coming. If you need to be cost efficient there are a few ways.

1. Stay in Kanto. You can fly into Narita and only attend the concerts in Kanto. Fussa and Tokyo (Nakano) This is the cheapest route. No far travel and cheap places to stay are easy to find.

2. Chuubu or Kansai
If you don't want to fly in Narita you can fly into Nagoya or Osaka. (Chuubu or Kansai airports) The travel from Nagoya to Kobe isn't far. (Kobe is only on the other side of the bay from Osaka.) Very close from Kansai Airport. These concerts are also only a day apart. So this option is also very cheap.

Railpass:
If you are a foreign traveler to Japan you can purchase a JR railpass. This allows you to ride ANY JR line unlimited for the time allotment. You can even ride the JR buses with them. A two week railpass is 45,100 yen. If you add the price of the trains from Tokyo to Nagoya and Kobe and back it would basically pay for its self. Plus it gives you unlimited rides between concerts in Tokyo and Nagoya/Kobe.

Night Bus:
The reason I listed night buses is because not only is it cheap, It knocks off a place to sleep for the night. If you get on the night bus at 11:00 pm you end up in Nagoya 7 hours later. From Nagoya to Kobe its not really an option because the bus is three hours long but it is a lot cheaper.

Biggest question: LODGING!!!!
There are SO many options I don't even know where to start. My firm belief is that cheap isn't always so bad. (I'm a broke college student) So as far as lodging is concerned I'm always ok with "roughing it" which means staying in a Manga (internet) cafe. These are places where you pay between 1000 to 2000 yen for unlimited internet, free drinks, a mat to sleep on and sometimes free food. (only sometimes) If I'm going SUPER cheap I will get the five hour pack for 800 yen then ride Yamanote sen for a few hours. I don't suggest that though. Manga kissa also offer showers which are usually about 500 yen but they provide you with shampoo and soap and brushes and towels.

Super Hotel
Usually if I have two concerts back to back I like to kick back at a super hotel. Its a cheap hotel that you can stay at. Greater Tokyo ones have been kicked up to 6000 + a night. Still they are convenient and cheeper then a lot of hotels. If there is a two person room and the cost is split its about 4700 yen a night which isn't bad. They also offer a free all you can eat breakfast. Which is always a plus.

Youth Hostel
They are great places to stay and are cheap. My favorite is the "Tokyo International Youth Hostel" In IIdabashi. (Tokyo) Its about 3000 yen a night. Check out time is really early but, its a place to sleep and it has an amazing view. (18th floor of an office building) There are many that can be as cheep as 1500 yen a night.

In short. A trip to Japan can be as cheep or as expensive as you want it to be. You have to wonder how much of a comfort level you want. If you want to sleep in a hotel room every night its going to be expensive but if you don't mind manga kissa or sharing a room with 12 other people you don't know. You can really cut corners and make budget it well.

I look forward to helping as many of you as possible and if you have any questions PLEASE feel free to e-mail me.

~Lala~

Get Ready So Crazy!

Hello everyone! みんな元気？

So I'm going to make another post about kanji. This time I've put it in FAQ format.

Kanji part two

I realized last post that I didn't get too deep into important stuff about kanji. Like what makes it hard and some things to keep in mind

Why is kanji hard?
I've always had the same theory about kanji. Knowing kanji makes life all the more simple. Studying it is the real bitch. The hardest part about studying kanji is trying to remember all a kanji's readings.

Kanji have more then one reading?
For all intensive purposes lets assume that there are two readings for every kanji. They are "on-yomi" and "kun-yomi" the "on-yomi" is the "sound" reading. When the Japanese first adapted kanji from the Chinese they took some of the pronunciations of some kanji. Characters such as 三 and 字 have the same "on-yomi" reading in Japanese and Chinese. さんand じ Not all kanji are this way. The on-yomi is called The next type is the "kun-yomi" The kun yomi is the meaning reading or the "Japanese Reading" This reading usually stands alone and can mean a word. For example the kanji for car 車 is read as "しゃ" in its Chinese reading. But, しゃby itself doesn't mean anything. For it to be a word it must use it's Japanese reading くるま.

So when do you use the on-yomi?
The on-yomi is usually used in compound words. Example. The word "Train" is a compound kanji word. "でんしゃ" in kanji its read as "電車" meaning "electric car" (keep in mind this was before automobiles in Japan that this word was used) One teacher told me "When reading a compound kanji word treat the second or last kanji as the on-yomi reading" This isn't always true but it occurs quite often.

You said "For all intensive purposes …." What does that mean?
This is where kanji gets complicated. While there are the on yomi and kun yomi not all of these have one way of reading them. Some kanji only have an on-yomi, some only have a kun-yomi, and some have multiple on or kun yomi. For example. The kanji "下" has many different readings. "ka, ge, shita, shin, moto, sage(ge)ru, kuda, oresu, oriru, aka, and shito" For those familiar with internet terms, SAGE uses this kanji. It doesn't end there either. Many times a kanji will have a "voiced" sound that isn't listed as a reading.

Ok, I'm scared. What's a "voiced sound"?
Don't be too scared. LOL a voiced sound is when a kanji is in a compound and its reading is slightly altered. An example is to say sometimes you use 時々 the word is repeated so the sound become "tokidoki" (NOT DOKI DOKI) Other kanji have the same issue not only with repeaters but other sounds. There are no rules for when this will happen so you have to learn as you go. Sometimes ka becomes ga.

You said the word 時々is the same sound repeated why are the kanji different?
々 is a kanji made up by the Japanese. It lets you know that the kanji before it is repeated. It doesn't have a sound on its own. Other examples are 人々 (hito bito)[each person]、日々(hi bi)[each day]、examples where the second sound doesn't change are 年々(nen nen)[year by year]、代々(daidai)[generation after generation]、徐々に(jo jo in)[little by little] and so fourth and so on.

Well I think that's all for now. As always you can e-mail me at summernightbreezer@gmail.com with question

SEE YOU NEXT ROUND!
~Lala~