This is a guest post by one of Japanite! friends, who visited Tokyo recently and collected some proven advices before his trip. Some veteran Tokyo tourists will find them familiar, but if this is your first time, you might want to print out the list for the road.

1. Sleep in a Japanese Inn

Accommodation is always a great part in any travel budget. If you are not fixed on sleeping in high-priced hotels there are some great alternatives.

The Ryokans are all around Tokyo and they are nice inns that can be found in prices starting from $40 per night. The bonus is that they styled in old fashion Japanese style with paper curtains and futon bed. This is not your regular king size you are used to in high priced hotels, but this will be a much better way to feel the Japanese way of life.

If you are not spoiled and feel you can share bathrooms you can found some Ryokans in central spots for as low as $30 per night. For example you can find Kimi Ryokan that offers English speaking staff and some Japanese atmosphere for $50 per night for a single room. Kimi Ryokan is conveniently located in the Ikebukuro area in close proximity to a subway station.

a typical Ryokan (photo by spinksy)

You can search availability and prices through the International tourism center of Japan for foreign travelers, and Japanese guest houses.

If you are staying for a long period and you are willing to share a room, you can try some of the hostels in the city that are called Gaijin (Stranger in Japanese) Houses. You can find room in rates from $15 per night, and who knows your roommate can be from country.

Start your search in Gaijin House Japan.

2. Travelling alone? try a capsule

We already mentioned here in Japanite! the capsule hotels that are scattered around Tokyo. This hotels (if we can call them one) are for the more adventurous type of tourist. For about $30-$40 you get a capsule with TV, internet connection, shared bath and some towels. If you are a female traveler who travels alone, some might prefer the capsule hotels who accept only women, and feel more safe in the hotel.

Geobeats have a nice video that shows what a sleep in a capsule is all about:

3. Sleep in a chair – for the really adventurous traveler

Some of the backpackers that go through Tokyo have found another way to save in this expensive city: they just sleep in their chairs.

They are called Mangakissa and they are actually internet cafes that are scattered around the city. For about a $1 per hour you will be able to enjoy an endless supply of Japanese comic books, Playstation and Xbox games, and hundreds of titles of music to listen too. Actually for some of the people I know, it will cost them less to be in Tokyo than sitting in their homes in the US doing exactly the same things. In many of this cafes the drinks are for free, and they sell lunch boxes. Some of them offer shower rooms and massage room with extra pay. Anyway it’s a great stop even if you’re not planning on a sleepover. Just don’t say we didn’t warn you: the comic books are in Japanese.

Search for internet cafes in PaperLantern.

4. Avoid the lunch rush hour

After a good night sleep, lunch is always hard to find. If you wake up early in Tokyo, you can find some of the best deals between 11am-14pm. Many restaurants will offer a lunch deal that can be as low as $10, for an plate loaded with sushi or a nice dish of Ramen noodles and meat.

The problem is that you want to try eating your lunch before 12pm and after 13:30pm, in order to avoid the “lunch rush hour” caused by the office workers around the city.

(photo by jetalone)

In the smaller restaurants you can eat while standing or sitting with a small table, and can find a good dish of ramen noodles for about $3.5-$6. Many stores like 7-eleven offers a lunch box (Bento) which can be bought for about $5. Avoid the lunch boxes that are sold in train stations, they tend to be less tasty.

If you are missing home, why not try the usual McDonalds. a BigMac will cost you only $2.5, and a meal is only $6. That’s lower than you might find in your regular McDonalds back home.

5. Shop in the markets, avoid the big stores

Tokyo may offer great deals for sleeping or eating, but unfortunately you might not find such cheap deals via the megastores around. Most brand name stores are pretty expensive, and even the smaller ones, aren’t the best deal around.

For a bit more Japanese atmosphere and much lower prices, head down to the flea markets that can be found around the city. paperlantern is a great source of markets locations.

Look around also for the “hyaku-en shoppu” or the 100-yen shops, which sells everything in about $1 (depends on the rate). You can found more details on this shops here.

6. Forget taxis, get on bikes

A great way to see the city is on bikes. You can rent bikes for about $5 per day and $10 in the weekends. There are many bike renting shops across the city, and you can find a list of shops in Cycle Tokyo.

You don’t need Hello Kitty bikes, but you get the idea (photo by doctorrow)

Another great way is of course trains and subway. The subway can get you anywhere and it’s clean and safe. In some train lines you can also find women only cars, so you can travel in confidence.

If you are on a tight budget, don’t get on taxis. Cabs in Tokyo starts at $7 per ride and adds about $1 for every few hundred feet. It’s a sure way to get your money disappear quickly.

7. A tour guide for free

It can be better than this: a free local tour guide that will show you around the city. As the name implies Tokyo Free Guide offers guides that are doing this completely free of charge. The volunteers students that want to improve their English or retired people that are happy to meet tourists from all around the world. As you know, good things aren’t easy to come by, so you’d better book you guide 2-3 weeks in advance.

Just our word of advice, we heard that some of the guides are not saying no for nice tip if you liked the trip. That’s more than polite to be generous to the guide, based on your satisfaction. You can also find more information on free tour guides through the Japanese National Tourist Organization.

8. Shop in Muji and Uniqlou

Muji is the Japanese equivalent of Ikea, and you can find tons of stuff there in very affordable prices, including toys and art times. Uniqlou is not so kept secret but will allow you to shop for clothes, without feeling you are

That’s all our tips for now. As we’ve said some of them maybe familiar to the locals and people who already traveled Japan. If you have any more tips, share them in the comments below.

It seems it all started in June of 1918, when the prisoners showed their methods to Yoshifusa Iida, a government official that spread the techniques around the nation. Since then the hotdogs or susages, have made a round trip around the world, so in the end you can find this in Harajuku in Tokyo:

Via [Mainichi]

Photo by InfoMofo

We don’t understand why the Japanese people always have to be unique, but hey, if they weren’t Japanite! wouldn’t have anything to write about.

This uniquely designed umbrellas are from a Canadian artists, who makes them in Tokyo. The inspiration came from the natural shape of shells.

Read the full interview with the designer at [PingMag]

The name for the tower will be “Tokyo Sky Tree”, or Tōkyō Sukai Tsurii ,and it will be finished in 2011. 610 meters of concrete and steel, in the heart of Tokyo. If you also want a tower like this in your back yard, you should prepare some money. The cost of the tower is estimated in 60 billion yen or 555 million dollars (if you still believe in the dollar).

For those of you that are concerned what will happen to the tower during earthquakes, you should know that in the bottom of the tower you will find a five tier concrete “pagodas” that are supposes to withstand very strong earthquakes.

The tower will have some restaurants in the top, and a TV station – Nothing crazy or weird. What brings us to believe that until the tower will be completed there will be more weird news about robots that will live in the upper floor. We expect no less from the Japanese.

In the mean time you can enjoy more images (click to enlarge):

And a view from the top of the Tokyo Sky Tree

Here is a video of the name unveiling ceremony:

The new bakery calls itself Shirohige no shou cream kobo, which is translated into White-bearded’ cream puff workshop. Don’t miss out the beautiful bakery website.

The bakery is a huge success, and all of 100 puffs made for each day are gone in 10 minutes from opening. Custard and raw cream puffs are sold for $3.60 (390 yen), maron and maron cream puffs are sold for $3.90 (420 yen). All of the ingredients are carefully chosen, and some of them are organic or imported.

via [Japundit] More images here: [mioracle]

A professional window cleaner in Japan, slept on a bed that’s attached to a building for 20 minutes.The act was made as a publicity stunt for the hotel that launched special program to offer a more relaxing environment in the rooms and quality bedding. More after the break:

Source: [Yahoo News]

Tip: A new study showed that sleeping between 6.5 and 7.5 hours, make you live longer. [Yahoo] have the full story.

Inside the pen you can find a tri-axial sensor that monitors the pen in any direction. A Bluetooth connection between the pen and the computer transmits the movements to the screen. By using Bluetooth, the pen can actually “write” from a distance of 10 meters.

SMK Corp., the company behind the pen claims it is the first wireless pen that can write in the air. Other companies have so far introduced wireless pens that can only write on paper.

SMK corp. showed the new pen in “TEXPO 2008″, an exhibition in Tokyo a couple of days ago. No word on pricing or availably yet.

via [TechOn]

It didn’t take long for our beloved Japanese geeks to get some more services handled by beautiful maids.

The maid costume is very popular in akihabara neighborhood in Tokyo, where you can find many cafés with maid waitresses. The young geeks called otaku really enjoy being served by a maid.

Many times you can finds girls wearing the costume on the streets, promoting the cafés they work in. there is even an English school where the teacher wear the lovely black and white dress.

Now a place called NTK Systems in the neighborhood now provide the same dry cleaning and locker service as before with a tiny change: the front desk clerk is now wearing a maid costume.

According to the report at akibamap, the prices are pretty much the same as for other cleaners. So the special treatment by the maid, actually doesn’t cost you a thing if you need dry cleaning. Wonder how much they charge for a dry cleaning to a maid costume.

We know already that there is a maid café near Los Angeles, but what about some more maid business around America?

The summer is right around the corner, and what’s more refreshing than some models in bikinis strait from Japan?

San-ai, a swimsuit manufacturer from Japan held it’s annual bikini show in Tokyo and showed some splashing designs. That’ all, enjoy the pics!

For the complete 140 images gallery visit [Mainichi]

This office workers, or “Salary men”, as they known in Japan, are suffering from work-related stress and depression. Nevertheless, this high rate may not come as a surprise, as Japan is one the leading nations in the world in suicide rates.

What’s interesting to find out is that the due to the laws in Japan, the family of a person that killed himself because of work may get compensation from the government. In 2007 the government paid to the families of 81 people, and that’s beside another 392, that died from work related sickness.

The conclusion in the end is not so surprising: work less and get rest. It can get you killed in so many ways.

Source: [Yahoo News]

(photo:Tokyo Shinagawa train station during morning rush hour)