Living in Nakano, I’m pretty sure I can go to either to renew my residency card.
Planning to go this Wednesday and it seems Shinagawa doesn’t have the special PR room anymore.
Anybody with recent October experience at either? End of September was crazy at both I imagine due to the October 1 price changes, so I’m hoping things have quieted down a bit
Pachinko in Japan is gray area gambling. In 2017 there was a Lady Gaga pachinko machine. Pretty cool, it played 16 different songs and had great visuals.
https://www.sankyo-fever.jp/collection/696/
Photo of the machine and a pamphlet that explains the progression/visuals you will see when playing.
I played it a little bit in the day (live in Japan)
My partner just started whittling this week and she made this for me! 😆 Carved and painted. She’s never done anything creative, but I love it 🥰
Anyone know of anywhere to have beginner carving classes? Not woodworking like building furniture or houses, but casual little things like whittling.
My partner recently got into this and is following some online videos, but I thought some live classes might be nice too. Japanese or English fine
Following on from my previous review of the Regent Hong Kong, I am now at the Four Seasons in Macau. Upon arrival at the Macau ferry pier, there was a free car service waiting to pick us up.
Upon arrival at the hotel, we were met and greeted by name by one of the staff. He proceeded to show us around the hotel and explained where we could use our $100 US benefit and enjoy breakfast. Meanwhile our suitcases were taken up to our room, and all check-in was done in the privacy of our room at the end of our tour.
We were upgraded to a large room with a view of the Londoner on the Cotai strip, and fresh fruit and some sweets were waiting for us.
I thought breakfast at the Regent in Hong Kong was amazing, but the Four Seasons was a whole other level. My photos don’t really cover everything that was there. In addition, you could pay roughly another $15 US to add unlimited lobster, but there was no way my stomach could handle that for breakfast so I passed.
By the way, breakfast goes from 7 AM until 2 PM which is pretty incredible.
From some of the other comments I see on Reddit, the Edit breakfast benefit in US hotels seems to be just $40 or so off of the menu, but in Asia, every place I have stayed has given me all you can eat buffets.
PS. We used our $100 credit to order a bottle of wine room service and a piece of cake
I enjoyed the most incredible two nights stay at the Regent Hong Kong using both the Edit and IHG credits.
When I booked, a premium king room for two nights was $1457 US. I left $500 on the bill that was covered by the two CSR credits, and I paid the remainder with 58,000 UR.
Since this is an IHG hotel, I activated the platinum status that automatically comes with the CSR, even though I have never stayed at one of their hotels before.
When it came time to check in, they noted my status, and gave me a free upgrade to the harborview room. It was spectacular.
Unlike normal edit hotels, this hotel gives you $300 US in credit, so I had reserved the two of us to have the dinner buffet which is famous. We are not talking some crappy Vegas buffet, this was lobster/fois gras/crab legs/sirloin steak/Peking duck/sushi/sashimi etc. etc. etc.
Everything was top-notch, and we even got the all you can drink package of prosecco, red/white wine, beer etc. We had a window table with a view of the Harbour, and could have stayed there the full five hours if we wanted to, there was no time limit.
Then on the evening of the second day, we came back from sightseeing to find a birthday cake and bowl of huge cherries with a greeting for us. Truly wonderful.
Again the two nights, seafood buffet with unlimited drinks, upgrade, birthday cake, and did I mention breakfast both days only cost me 58,000 UR.
This is what the CSR is made for
I am a little bummed out I missed out on a cool photo. I never check my gamer score, but I happened to notice it today and realized I missed out on seeing 123456 by one achievement. If I didn’t get that Brotato…
388253052578
Live in Tokyo Japan. I have about 170 friends, but I’m gonna dump about half of them because they are inactive it seems.
If you liked all of the above and finished them, may I suggest Sniper Elite?
It’s got more of a story than hitman, but of course less than first light. Less linear than first light, and has a lot of options on how to achieve the objectives similar to hitman without the disguises.
Sniper elite resistance (#6) is on game pass (I have ultimate, so I don’t know if it’s on the lower levels of GP), and sniper elite 5 is 80% off in the store at $11.99
I’ve been cheering for Japan ever since I watched the heartbreak of Doha in 1994. Fortunately since 1998, they qualify regularly, but every time they get to the knockout stage it’s just heartbreak.
It would be one thing if they lost 3-0 or something, but I’ve seen them lose twice on penalties (to Paraguay and Croatia), and twice at the last moment even after leading the game (to Belgium and now Brazil)
It really does hurt more this way, rather than being blown out.
Well here’s to 2030, cohosted by Morocco/Portugal/Spain (and special Centenary games played in Brazil/Argentina/Uruguay)
Found this guy on another subreddit who made free World Cup charts in various time zones. Beautiful.
You can print them out large, but I just opened the PDF on my iPad and will fill in the scores with my Apple Pencil
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/5ZykNS9n9c
Really helpful since I usually find English WC charts for US, UK, Aus time zones
After a five hour delay in San Francisco, arrived back in Japan at 8 PM tonight, only to find absolutely massive lines at immigration. I think all of the airlines delayed their arrivals until now.
Luckily, having a re-entry I only had to wait in a 3 person line, but I estimate the visitor line to be about 500-600 on EACH side of immigration (reentry is in the middle). They are probably looking at 2-3 hours just to get through immigration
(for any new residents coming back to Japan for the first time, make sure to push past all of the visitors to work your way towards the center where the reentry immigration desks are. No need to get stuck behind all of them)
All limousine buses are canceled except to Shinjuku and TCAT in Hakozaki. When I went to the desk to get tickets to Shinjuku Station at 8:45, I was told the next available bus was at 9:45 PM.
It’s 9:25 PM now and the 9:45 and the next bus are already sold out. There are only two more buses left tonight, so I imagine they will be sold out before 10 PM. Last Narita express is 9:45, so I guess it sucks to be a visitor tonight. There won’t be any buses or trains when they get through immigration. Well at least they’ll have a story to tell I guess
Not bad today, got in 20 minutes after arriving and checking in. Food is quite nice. If you’ve eaten at Momofuku/Bang Bar in the Cosmo, a lot of things will taste familiar.
Left the lounge to make the trek to my gate in Terminal 3 for my United flight, only to arrive and find out that it’s been delayed an hour and a half 😕
From my Chase Sapphire Reserve I had 2x $250 edit credits, 1x $250 IHG credit, in addition to 1 free night certificate from my Bonvoy brilliant (up to 85,000pts) that all needed to be used by the end of this year. Just booked this trip for July.
Decided to take a short trip over to China/Hong Kong/Macau from my home in Japan with my Chinese spouse. I’ve been to China and HK many times, so it’s not a sightseeing trip. Pretty much just going to hang out, eat some food. First time to Macau though.
2 nights @ Grand Hyatt Shanghai 34,000 Hyatt pts transferred from Chase UR 1:1 for a King with Club Access, since I have no status with Hyatt (saved $564)
2 nights @ The Regent Hong Kong using The Edit and IHG credit + boosted 58,000 UR (saved $1457, but I’m also getting breakfast for two, and $300 resort credit, instead of the usual $100 which is a special offer they have)
2 nights @ The Four Seasons Macau using The Edit credit and boosted 41,600 UR (saved $1082, but I’m also getting breakfast for two and $100 resort credit)
2 nights @ JW Marriott Hong Kong using my Brilliant 1 free night certificate and 90,400 Bonvoy points (saved $910 on the booking, and can take advantage of my platinum status for lounge access and late checkout since my flight is at 11:50 PM)
Not a massive return on the Hyatt and Bonvoy booking, but quite satisfied with how it all worked out, especially being able to use both Edit credits, the IHG credit and my Bonvoy free night certificate all on this trip, with $0 out of pocket.
It burned up most of my Bonvoy points as well, which is satisfying, though I still have about 500,000 UR (though I much prefer to keep them over Bonvoy points of course)
From my Chase Sapphire Reserve I had 2x $250 edit credits, 1x $250 IHG credit, in addition to 1 free night certificate from my Bonvoy brilliant (up to 85,000pts) that all needed to be used by the end of this year. Just booked this trip for July.
Decided to take a short trip over to China/Hong Kong/Macau from my home in Japan with my Chinese spouse. I’ve been to China and HK many times, so it’s not a sightseeing trip. Pretty much just going to hang out, eat some food. First time to Macau though.
2 nights @ Grand Hyatt Shanghai 34,000 Hyatt pts transferred from Chase UR 1:1 for a King with Club Access, since I have no status with Hyatt (saved $564)
2 nights @ The Regent Hong Kong using The Edit and IHG credit + boosted 58,000 UR (saved $1457, but I’m also getting breakfast for two, and $300 resort credit, instead of the usual $100 which is a special offer they have)
2 nights @ The Four Seasons Macau using The Edit credit and boosted 41,600 UR (saved $1082, but I’m also getting breakfast for two and $100 resort credit)
2 nights @ JW Marriott Hong Kong using my Brilliant 1 free night certificate and 90,400 Bonvoy points (saved $910 on the booking, and can take advantage of my platinum status for lounge access and late checkout since my flight is at 11:50 PM)
Not a massive return on the Hyatt and Bonvoy booking, but quite satisfied with how it all worked out, especially being able to use both Edit credits, the IHG credit and my Bonvoy free night certificate all on this trip, with $0 out of pocket.
It burned up most of my Bonvoy points as well, which is satisfying, though I still have about 500,000 UR (though I much prefer to keep them over Bonvoy points of course)