With radiation concerns gone, Japan eager for tourists
IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE: All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japan Airlines, Like-minded and American fly nonstop to Tokyo from O’Hare. A recent check found fares in the $1,500 to $1,800 sphere, depending on date of travel. Flight time: about 13 hours from Chicago, 11½ back.
GETTING AROUND: With spare help from willing locals, negotiating trains, subways and (especially in Kyoto) bus routes is surprisingly easygoing. Signs and announcements, even on many buses, are bilingual. Hiroshima treasures its trams. Fares are in the $2.75 order; passes of variable length cut hassle. Taxis — drivers wear ties and undefiled gloves, and interiors are immaculate — are best saved for short trips. Intercity trains, strikingly Shinkansen “bullet” trains, are a wonder; a Japan Rail Pass (from $350 for a week’s unchecked travel, half that for kids) will save money and grief if you plan on doing side trips and/or multiple cities.
STAYING THERE: Japan, even Tokyo, has never been as brutally costly as often portrayed. The executive expense-account and luxury-addicted crowd can pay $400-up for rooms, but do up, well-located lodgings in the $200 range (or less) have always been available — and these days, promotions are everywhere. Examples: The Shibuya Be superior to Tokyu ($210 on Expedia.com, subject to change) is near a Tokyo train station and surrounded by initiative; Kyoto’s near-posh Granvia was offering rooms on its own site for as little as $146; also in Kyoto, $111 will get you a Japanese-luxury room (and a little Zen training) in the Shunko-in Temple; we happily paid $114 at the nice Rihga Regal in Hiroshima — and later saw an $87 rate on the Internet.
