My girlfriend and I wanted to visit Japan, so we bought tickets some months ago and we flew there. We found many tips about trips to Japan on this subreddit, so here is our Trip Report.
Accommodations In the first week, we lived in Tokyo, Asakusa (Taitō-ku), in the second one, we visited Hakone-machi, Miyagino for three nights, and the rest of the week we spent in Tokyo, Asakusa (
Asakusa Guest House).
Transportation We had been using
PASMO. We have encountered no problems using this guy. In addition, you can use it at vending machines.
Day 1 We wanted to fly from Wrocław to Warsaw and from Warsaw to Tokyo (Narita). Our carrier was LOT. But... one minute before check-in we heard that our flight (from Wrocław to Warsaw) is canceled. We had 2 separated tickets (WRO -> WAW and WAW -> NAR), so we had a problem. They suggested to wait for another flight, but then we would miss another one (WAW -> NAR). Thus, we got a taxi; it was expensive, but there were no other options (we had about 4 hours to the next flight from Warsaw to Tokyo). We arrived within 3 hours. Great! At Warsaw Airport we heard that current flight is delayed by 1 hour and 30 minutes :P It is not a problem now guys!
In Tokyo (Narita) we landed on the next day (we flew 10 hours) about 10:00. At Airport we bought NinjaWiFi (it was very useful, we had two smartphones and a laptop) and PASMO. It took about 50 minutes to get to Asakusa from Narita. We went there by
Keisei Sky Access Line. We were afraid at the beginning (so many trains, so many lines, wow, such wow; what are we going to doooouuu), but our fear was unfounded. Everything was fine. It was difficult to miss something. Urban transportation was perfect. We had only one incident (and it was our mistake, I will describe it later).
We were a little jet-lagged, so my girlfriend went asleep at 18:00; in this way, I had some time for taking photos :P BTW You will find some photos from the trip on my
Instagram and
Flickr. Our district at night was wonderful and... quiet. It was shocking to me at first, how such big city can be quiet.
Day 2 We went to The Tsukiji Market. It was fine. There were just many people. We got there by metro (in rush hour). It was a memorable experience. So many people in a car. On a station (Shimbashi), people looked like a river. We felt like we were in the Matrix when people in suits were walking in our direction. Additionally, for the first time in our life, we have seen a special space for smokers in the open area.
We ate breakfast at McDonald; it was cheap and good.
After that, we visited Hamarikyu Onshi Garden. The view was awesome; a large garden in central Tokyo. Trees and bushes below, and skyscrapers above.
Another point on the map that was visited by us was The Imperial Palace. Monumental building. But, we could only admire it from the outside.
Day 3 We visited Shibuya. It was a different world comparing it to Asakusa. We have decided that we have to return here at night.
We ate a lunch at Bondi Cafe and went to Yoyogi Park. During our stroll towards the park, we have seen many homeless people near the park. It was looking that they were receiving some help from others. At the park, we have seen many ravens and other birds. So many dinosaurs in one place! It was a beautiful place.
After that, we visited Meiji Shrine and went to Shibuya Station; ate ramen and went home. We returned to Shibuya at night and... it was an amazing view. People were everywhere. We found a pleasurable place, drank a beer and went home.
Day 4 We went to Sendagi; there were a lot of old houses and tiny streets. We ate some bagels at Le bage (where the owner was listening to Gang Starr); they were delicious.
After that, we visited The Former Kusuo Yasuda Residence. A great house (like from Anime). It was built in a way where you could admire garden from different perspectives. You did not have to leave your home, lol. An elderly lady has shown the house to us. It was a little tricky to understand her English, but eventually, we have understood almost everything.
Day 5 We visited Akihabara where I bought a wrist strap for my camera (Yodobashi-Akiba). We have played some games of course (drums were great for two persons!). There were many game shops with old game and consoles. We have eaten at a place where you could order your meal by a tablet in front of you; I do not remember the name of the restaurant. We could also admire a colorful shrine, but I do not remember where exactly it was. BTW If you want to buy some electronic and you know that you will be in Japan, I would consider buying some stuff in Japan. Electronic stuff there was a lot cheaper than in Poland for instance, additionally, if you are not a Japanese, you will not pay taxes. I almost bought a new camera :P
At the evening, we went to Ginza. Luxury was almost everywhere. We have found a skyscraper (Shio Dome) where you would see the view of Tokyo from 46th floor for free. At the bottom of the skyscraper was German restaurant where we have spent some time. You could smoke there inside.
Day 6 We visited Shibuya again. We went to Yamatane Museum of Art; there was a special exhibition:
The Rimpa School. It was something new for us. I must say that was difficult to appreciate this kind of art, but maybe I should spend more time with it to understand it. Nevertheless, I have found some interesting stuff there. It was worth to visit this place.
We liked this special ward (Shibuya), so we just wandered around. And... we met a Japanese girl who was speaking Polish and promoting our country in Japan. It was nearby a place where you could buy a piano; somewhere near Omotesandō station. She had own bakery and you could get "pączek" there. It was a pleasant surprise.
At dinner, we ate sushi and my girlfriend has not noticed that some of them were made of a horse and she ate it... It was quite unexpected. She had to drink a can of beer after this incident :)
Day 7 We visited Katsushika. We went to see Shibamata Taishakuten and some streets which were nearby. There was something like a market with many local tidbits; where you could find a cucumber on a stick for instance. At the end of the street was a shrine.
This ward was looking like an ideal place to live if you have children or you are old. There were many places where you could relax.
At the evening, we have found a restaurant in Taito where was a happy hour; so we dropped into this place to eat some food, but the happy hour favored more alcohol than food, thereupon we left while slightly drunk and somewhat hungry :]
Day 8 We visited Hakone (nearby Gora and Miyagino) and stayed at
Ryokan) with hot spring for three nights. It was very relaxing!
We went for a stroll to Miyagino and from time to time it was looking that people left this place some time ago... I mean, there were people, but we have seen buildings which were looking abandoned.
We have immediately noticed the difference in food between Tokyo and this place. In Tokyo, it was just better, or we have eaten here in wrong places.
But, there was something beautiful in this place. BTW If you use buses here, you have to press a button if you want to get out :P We did not know about it and it was kind surprising when I glanced at a map and noticed that we overlooked our bus stop.
Day 9 We took a cable car and went to Ōwakudani to eat kuro-tamago. You can also admire mount Fuji from this place. Observing the Fuji for the first time is quite astonishing.
After that, we went for a stroll along the lake where you could admire the beautiful nature. We visited Hakone Kuzuryuno-mori and Ancient Cedar Avenue during our trip. We also saw
Hakone Checkpoint, but it was not so interesting. We ended our journey nearby Hakone Karakuri Museum and returned to the Ryokan by bus without overlooking our bus stop :)
Day 10 After breakfast, we went to Odawara (on the seaside). We wanted to drink some coffee and ran into Shonan Pancake; we have never eaten better pancakes. We visited Odawara Castle, everything around this castle was impressive. It was a very hot day, so we had to hide in the shade.
After that, we went to the beach. In Odawara, there were many plates/boards/panels with information about how many meters above sea level you are (in case of Tsunami evacuation). At the evening, we relaxed in Hakone Yuryo (Onsen). We chose communal baths. After rested in Onsen we ate pizza and went home. It was the best meal which we ate in Hakone :P
Day 11 We returned to Tokyo. The day was rainy (a guy from the hotel, gave us an umbrella; he insisted on this :P), so most of the time we spent in buildings. We visited FUJIFILM SQUARE (I possess FUJIFILM X100F :P) and it was a good choice. There were a museum, gallery and every camera/lens which FUJIFILM have ever made, methinks. There are also new models, so you can bring your camera and try their new lenses for instance. I toyed with X-H1 and GFX 50S for a while.
After that, we went to Akihabara to buy some stuff and went home by subway. But... we have not noticed that we entered women-only passenger car. It was no problem for my girl of course, but I felt ashamed. We got out this car at the next station. I do not get how we had not noticed this; there were many reminders/warnings about it (in pink color).
At night, I took some photos during a rain with my umbrella.
Day 12 We visited Odaiba that day; we went there by
Yurikamome which is controlled entirely by computers with no drivers on board! It was impressive. We bought some stuff at Decks Tokyo Beach and went for a stroll towards Toyota Mega Web. On the way, we visited
Kawasaki Robostage where you could admire some robots and VR technology. One robot took a photo of us, found contours, drew a picture and gave it to us. It was awesome :P Here is a
pic.
At Toyota Mega Web, you could see Toyota's latest models and try them. There was also a museum and shop with souvenirs.
At night, we met some people on the roof of Asakusa Guest House. After some conversations about diversity in our cultures, we went to eat sushi and drink some beer.
Day 13 We went to Jingumae (Shibuya) area (we like small streets) and from there we marched to Shinjuku Gyoen. You have to pay 200 yen, but I do not think it is a problem. Additionally, it is a charming and large place.
In the evening, we washed some clothes in public laundry and I was impressed how well it worked. We paid 400 yen and after some minutes of washing and 20 minutes of drying, you could wear it! I have never used public laundry before. This place was near Asakusa Guest House, so we had not to stay there for a whole time.
Day 14 It was the last day before our leaving, so went shopping to buy some souvenirs, etc. First place which we visited was
Kappabashi Street where you could buy some nice things for your kitchen. You can easily spend there 2-3 hours...
After dinner, we went to Omote-Sando and rambled there till 20:00. Every time we were there, we were seeing something new. We have bought some clothes in second-hand shops. It was really good!
Day 15 Time to say goodbye to Japan. Of course, there was a problem with an airplane of our carrier (LOT) and a flight was delayed about 2 hours. While we were waiting I started reading about
accidents and notable incidents of our airplane and I was surprised how many problems they had with a lithium-ion battery in this model.
We went to Wrocław by train :)
Thoughts - We spent about 8200 PLN per person (including everything).
- We want to return to Japan and visit other areas than Tokyo.
- Vending machines are great!
- Food was gorgeous!
- Tokyo at night is just beautiful. If you are a photographer you will appreciate it.
- This subreddit is awesome. I have found here many tips, thanks!
- Urban transportation is perfect.
- I liked calmness in public transportation. In Poland, this level of quietness is rather a rarity.
- If you are going to use NINJA WiFi, here is a coupon code: JULY2018. By using the code you will receive a 10% discount from the total price (UNTIL:AUG 31,2018 pm11:59(JST)).
the_boomr mentioned in another thread that working in CD Projekt Red is his 'ultimate dream job'. So I had an idea of providing some background info about working in Warsaw if anyone is seriously considering this. I've lived there all my life, but do not work at CD Projekt. I think it would help you decide whether this is a good idea.
You should note that most Poles have a love-hate relationship with their country, so it's actually rather hard to get a reasonable assessment of what Poland is like on the Internet from a local.
Prices are in US dollars.
Wages You should be aware that you could make a lot more money by doing the same job at a US or West European company, since wages in Poland are low by worldwide standards. I don't know about CDPRed in particular, but statistically, salaries for programmers are in the 15000-30000$/year range. I see they've attracted some foreign talent, so probably they pay a lot more than average and/or the work is more satisfying - after all, money is not everything. Salaries for programmers are increasing much faster than the average wage.
Cost of living Less than half of what it is in the U.S. Rent is around $700/mo if you want to live near the downtown, but CDPRed's HQ is actually on the other side of the Vistula and you can find something decent for $400/mo in that area.
Language You can live there without knowing Polish, but it might be hard sometimes. Almost everyone in restaurants and the more touristy places knows at least some English, but the older generation and people in boring places like government offices generally don't. Polish is comparatively hard to learn - it's a heavily inflected language with a lot of quirky rules and exceptions, and correct pronunciation is very hard (many consonant clusters and sounds that don't exist in English). Fortunately the spelling is almost entirely phonetic.
Internet Internet is $30/mo for 250 Mbps down / 20 Mbps up. There is no throttling, no censorship and no Comcast style bullshit. Most people use Facebook. There is no Netflix or any equivalent. There is no Amazon, you have to go to more specialized online stores. There is no eBay, but there is a Polish equivalent Allegro, all listings are in Polish. You can use Paypal or credit cards, but most online stores expect payment by bank wire. Fortunately all Polish banks have good online banking. There is something called 'quick wire' where the store website fills out the wire form for you and you just type in an authorization code from an SMS or a scratch card from the bank.
Transport Rush traffic in Warsaw is awful. On the other hand, you can go almost anywhere within the city using only public transport, even at night. It's way better and cheaper than in most American cities, but not on the level of London. Buses are 100% low floor. Trams are around 60% low floor. Monthly pass is $30 and 3-month pass is $75. The monthly and longer passes are contactless cards. There is a public transport navigation app available in English and it is really world class:
http://warszawa.jakdojade.pl/ (the Windows Phone version is shit though)
Bike infrastructure is relatively poor by European standards, but improving. There is a bikesharing scheme that is free to use for 20min then 30 cents for the first hour, it has almost 200 stations. There are some great recreational cycling paths.
The main airport in Warsaw is well connected to the city and there are flights to major hubs in London, Frankfurt and Paris several times daily. It's not as good as living in, say, London, but if you want to travel a lot it's not much of a drag. There is also a new low cost airport in Modlin which takes a lot of time to get to (~1h from city center), but has flights to many interesting places in Europe for $15-$50. If you want to explore Poland itself, Warsaw is the main transport hub and has reasonably fast rail connections to major cities Gdańsk, Cracow, Poznań, Lublin and Białystok, all generally around 3h. There are also good connections to UNESCO heritage sites Toruń and Malbork. The only major city that's hard to get to is Wrocław - 4,5h train ride or ~7-8h bus ride.
Local roads are in rather bad shape, but motorways and expressways are starting to get decent. Motorways are toll roads while expressways are free of charge.
There has been a lot of investment in transport infrastructure in the last 10 years from EU funds and this is likely to continue.
Quality of life There is a lot of greenery in the city and a national park 1 hour away by car. The right bank of Vistula is undeveloped and has beaches and cycling paths. Wild boar sightings are rather common in city limits.
Crime is fairly low and murders are extremely rare. The only place unsafe at night is the district of Old Praga, but you would have to go there on purpose. There is basically zero chance of being shot on the street even in the worst places, as guns are hard to get and very few people have them. The most common crime is property theft (cars, bikes, etc.).
The public healthcare system isn't very good, but as an employed foreigner, you would have it for free. There is no risk of bankruptcy due to medical expenses. You can also pay for supplementary private insurance to get around queues and get a better service. The system utterly sucks at patient satisfaction (e.g. hospital meals are a lot worse than prison meals) but is a lot better when it comes to the quality of the medical services themselves.
There is a mandatory state pension plan, but most people have a low opinion of it, and the pensions that it pays out are very low. You should plan on saving extra money for retirement on your own.
Food International fast food chains include McDonald's, Subway, Burger King, KFC. Big Mac is $3. Big Mac McMenu is $4. McDonald's in Europe is different than in the U.S. - a little more upmarket. Pizza chains include Pizza Hut, Domino's, Telepizza, Dominium, Da Grasso; Dominium is the best in my opinion. Two XXL pizzas are $16, it's generally enough for 4 people or 3 hungry ones. Fast food is not the cheapest option; that would be kebab and Vietnamese bars, and they're hit-and-miss - some are great and some sell the bowel contents of Satan. The most popular foreign cuisine is Italian, but you can find almost everything. A fancy restaurant meal for one will cost around $15.
All stores except the smallest ones stock fresh bread and fresh fruit / vegetables. The standard selection is bell peppers, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, cauliflower, cucumber, bananas, lemons and oranges. Many stores also have fresh mushrooms. Standard Polish bread is white sourdough 60% wheat / 40% rye. American style bread is called "toast bread" (chleb tostowy) and only used for toast. When it comes to meat, chicken and pork are eaten a lot more than beef. Poles love cold cuts and sausages (made mainly from pork) and there's a wide selection of them in the larger stores. They are generally sliced off a large piece by the shopkeeper rather than sold in packages.
There are several shopping malls in Warsaw which usually have a supermarket, some restaurants, some services such as barbers and a shit ton of clothing and apparel. Electronic stores are either in the malls or in separate buildings, but you can save 25-35% by buying online, where prices are comparable to other countries.
Good craft beer is $1.5 in a store and $3 in a downtown bar. There are several multi-tap bars that have around 80 draft beers. Vodka is $7 for a half litre bottle. Wine is $4-$8 unless you want something really fancy. Everyone knows about vodka, but other traditionally Polish alcohols includes mead (ordinary is $8, the best kind made from 66% honey is $22) and flavored spirits. In the last 2-3 years there has been an explosion of popularity of cider, both local and imported, and now almost every bar has some. Cider is $4-$5 for a one litre bottle in a store and $3 for a 330ml bottle in a bar.
Entertainment Movies in cinemas usually have either Polish subtitles or dubbing, but most movies in TV have a Polish voice-over; I know some people find it very strange. So you can watch movies in English in cinemas but not on the TV.
High culture is cheap to access compared to other places in Europe. A theatre ticket will be between $13 and $27. There is a world class opera house and a philharmonic orchestra.
Society Most people are friendly, but not very open. It's uncommon to strike up a conversation with a stranger.
If you are a woman, you are unlikely to be sexually harassed in the street. One of my friends says this problem is basically nonexistent compared to e.g. Paris. There is still a lot of sexism.
There are almost no non-white people here. If you are black, people will automatically identify you as a foreigner and talk to you in English. With Asian people, it's not so clear cut, since there is a Vietnamese minority in Warsaw and the second generation speaks Polish. I can't say anything about racism because I have no non-white friends to ask.
The country is very religious (~80% of the population thinks religion is important) and conservative, but pretty hypocritical about it. There is a strong pressure to receive Catholic sacraments, but few people are serious about their faith. For instance, contraception and sex outside marriage are the norm, except for a minority of fanatics. Due to the political influence of the Church, LGBT rights do not exist. Unlike America, there seems to be more prejudice against non-Christian believers than against atheists.
Additional info CDPRed also has a secondary site in Cracow, which has an amazing medieval old town and is very close to an old salt mine in Wieliczka that is the closest thing on Earth to the mines of Moria; I haven't lived there, but most of the information would still apply. Cost of living in Cracow is slightly lower than in Warsaw.
Hope it helps in planning your future career :)
[EDIT: fixed two typos. EDIT2: added a note about cider.]
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