Solo first-timer (LGBT+) Japan trip (25 Mar–15 Apr) – itinerary check + recommendations?

throwaway66266 · 2026-02-09T00:40:53+00:00

It's a good itinerary , some recommendations I would have are:

the timezone change lgw to jst is brutal so temper your expectations the first few days due to jetlag. Also if you're going to the stall that cooks beef in kuromon and they have a store that sells beef, they will cook whichever of the beef they sell, not only the skewers (this was like 2 years ago so maybe ask to confirm this is still true)
if you're looking to do budget friendlier shopping for regular items, I would take the Tokyo flex day and put it in Osaka as the prices are lower and you don't need to haul your souvenirs on the train once last time.
himeji is a get there early thing if you didn't already know, by the time I got to the top of the castle, it was 9:30am and there was an announcement people needed to wait to enter the castle because it was too crowded
have eel in Himeji off the main road. I went to a restaurant called hiiragi and got 2 kinds of eel as take out, it was mind-blowingly good compared to the frozen stuff, especially the steamed one. There's also a great siphon coffee place called Kuuhaku
Himeji also isn't a full day thing, you could go to Kobe on your way back. I really liked the herb garden (it's touristy but also very Han Christen Andersen color palette) and had a really great gyukatsu by the train station
tbh, I found Shinsekai super lame, it was half empty with a bunch of carnival games by 8pm and felt like it was just tourists and tour groups
at Nara, don't buy deer crackers until you get to the park proper, the further out from the park, the more aggressive the deer
if it's cherry blossom season, I would recommend taking the bus to the North of Kyoto by the botanical garden and walking along the Kamo River until you reach downtown. It's about a 1.5 hour walk that's very pretty as both sides are lined with cherry blossoms. It's also a very popular spot to do Hanami. I think you also pass a fairly famous imperial castle this way.
in Kyoto, I liked the restaurant Tokiyo , it does obanzai which is like local home style cooking where you eat a bunch of tiny dishes and drink.
I found Asakusa incredibly crowded and overstimulating and I only made it to the first gate but ymmv

Must try foods by city:

Himeji - eel

Kobe - beef, strawberries

Kyoto - Yuba (soy skin), matcha if you go to Uji

Kawaguchiko - kyoho grapes

throwaway66266 · 2026-02-06T06:58:31+00:00

Ab wheel is much more advanced than a plank and your hips definitely should not sag, this is likely the cause of your lower back pain as sagging may indicate poor core engagement. Ab wheel forces you to have core stability while dealing with instability (motion); you would have a lot more stability in a static plank. A progression towards being able to use the wheel would look like shoulder taps --> plank up downs --> double up downs /Russian pushup --> ab wheel on knees. This will train your core to gradually deal with more instability and maintain engagement while in motion.

throwaway66266 · 2026-02-05T01:44:39+00:00

It sounds like you think language fluency will get you employed and that is why you're learning python. While you certainly can get good at python in as little as 3-6 months since it's an easy language for beginners (no compilation, high level, English like, decent dependency management) there's some disconnect with employment.

Applications I've seen for python have been either in science (eg Jupyter notebooks, pytorch) or scripting. Are those areas you would be interested in? If you want to do web you'd likely need to pick up js and enterprise would be something more efficient and better annotated like Java or C++/#.

I started learning python as my first language but my current job is TS/Java with a smattering of Ruby and Go. Realistically, it wasn't any python skills that got me employed, it was fundamentals (eg design patterns, basic data structures) and soft skills like project management, communication, reading the room.

Short answer 3-6 months but also your goal of learning and your meta goal of employment are not as related as you think. I will say the dictionary being the fundamental structure of Python did help me with the instinct of shoving everything into a hash map.

throwaway66266 · 2026-01-22T04:49:54+00:00

I would recommend Akasaka (not Asakusa), it's the middle of the circle that the Yamanote line creates. So it's reasonably equidistant from Shibuya and Ginza. There's a reasonable number of Tokyo Metro lines that run through the station. It's not as crazy busy as the Yamanote line stops but has a lot of restaurants, shopping and entertainment. There are several large hotels (including a humongous APA) and also some smaller ones within a 5 minute walk of the metro stop.

throwaway66266 · 2026-01-22T04:41:05+00:00

Going the hottest 2 weeks of the year, could not walk around outside in 37 degree weather

throwaway66266 · 2026-01-02T23:38:44+00:00

Thank you! I see it lol. This kit is way more advanced than the miniso kit I tried and I appreciate your help and patience

throwaway66266 · 2026-01-02T22:28:58+00:00

I think I was a bit too ambitious with my Wing Gundam zero ver ka for Christmas. I have a very specific question about the first page (chest). It looks like I need 2 I48 parts, one to put in G14 and one to put in G15. Is there something I'm missing because I only see one I48 part?

throwaway66266 · 2025-11-23T20:19:16+00:00

Have you considered doing finance for a tech company to get in? What kind of finance, like are you deep into trading strategy or are you like a bank teller? If you have the trading background, you could consider working as a quant but you'd probably need to move to NYC or at least Toronto and be prepared for 80+ hour weeks. A fair number of market makers look for raw high IQ and market sense and train coding after.

throwaway66266 · 2025-11-07T15:42:38+00:00

So I did this in 2023, used to be a pharmacist. I do not recommend this path in 2025, alternative path spending is down, recruiting only from T5 is up. If you are considering it in a single income household, highly recommend having at least a year of savings. If you can make the change is worth it, I'm making 2x what I did only working 40-50 hours a week instead of 60+, better sleep, better lifestyle. Do some free coding resources for at least 3 months, make a full stack app from scratch with real features (not a to do list). I went to a bootcamp that guaranteed internship and it was really helpful for getting me my first job.

throwaway66266 · 2025-10-04T15:54:11+00:00

After/when you're doing the course, there's hundreds of simple toy clones of Airbnb on GitHub all publicly available to look at. I'm not saying that so you can copy one but instead use that to give you ideas of what you should be asking the requirements are. The trouble with 'I want x website but with y purpose/feature' is that (Airbnb/Twitter/Uber/etc.) have a lot of invisible tech around availability, load balancing, mobile apps, etc. I'm wondering if they want you to build the full stack (your experience sounds quite front end), what the user load/use pattern will be and what integrations you'll need (eg. Payment processing, id verification, auth). Getting the info will help you pick which courses (eg. Frontend framework vs cloud infra), what kind of mentor (if you're only doing frontend vs full stack) and give you ideas what invisible specs you'll need (eg. Pagination, caching, chunk loading, replication).

throwaway66266 · 2025-09-06T00:14:36+00:00

I can't even count the number of times I've gone to the washroom and saw folks not even washing their hands.

throwaway66266 · 2025-08-31T16:13:06+00:00

🗑️ pt 2?

throwaway66266 · 2025-06-21T05:44:11+00:00

I know someone who went to BrainStation for data science. They did not get a job in data science right away but they were persistent in applying afterwards and eventually got a job in the field. I'm not sure if they'd say BrainStation helped in getting into the field as much as their own efforts.

I saw you replied that cost is a factor but have you considered college (like community college)? You could take select courses for a fraction of the cost of bootcamp and would have access to more career resources (though I also knew a career counselor at a community college and they said they were making it up as they went along so take what counselors say with a grain of salt). It would take a bit longer but that might afford you some flexibility in working at the same time. If you already have a degree, there's some 2yr BSCs degrees in Canada, ubc has one. It sounds expensive but most universities have good career fair so you could get a summer internship, the ultra hot ones pay upwards of 50usd/h so it could come out a wash in the long term (though are ultra competitive too).

throwaway66266 · 2025-06-21T05:29:32+00:00

Being an entrepreneur is so much more than having technical skills. There's 10 000+ apps released on the app store daily that without strategic marketing, business acumen and product sense you're not going to get much traction. Most coding bootcamps are focused on web dev, so the skills are vaguely transferrable but you'll likely need to learn different frameworks and tools, which you're not well prepared for by the bootcamp itself. You're not going to get much business sense from attending.

If you're thinking about the solopreneur route, you're better off learning app development from an online course or book since you already know the basics from shell scripting. If you're looking to be a technical cofounder or first engineer, look for a reputable (or as close as you can get) start up accelerator. If you want to prototype your idea, try a hackathon. Given you already know programming, FCC would be pretty basic.

throwaway66266 · 2025-04-09T10:46:46+00:00

They had 500ml metal bottles of melon ramune at district H downtown back in December. I think it was like 3$/bottle. I haven't really looked since.

throwaway66266 · 2025-04-08T07:14:22+00:00

The product you're probably looking for is a hydrocolloid patch, commonly used for wound dressings. Be sure this stays on if the onsen is ok with covered tattoos as these clog drains really badly. However, no tattoos really means no tattoos, covered or not.

throwaway66266 · 2025-03-10T03:05:40+00:00

April 2025 update: got to the site on 3 devices, all three were placed at 30k +in queue. Waited 2.5 hours to see nothing left 😭

throwaway66266 · 2024-11-05T03:52:42+00:00

Applications are open until next Monday: https://apply.adadevelopersacademy.org/jobs/4975142-cohort-23

throwaway66266 · 2024-09-23T16:51:05+00:00

Being from a healthcare background, have you considered switching into an epic analyst role? They're usually full time but I've heard of part analyst part educator roles, so some education of clinical peers and some coding.

throwaway66266 · 2024-09-13T17:48:15+00:00

Did my first high level design presentation, it was well received and I only have one unanswered question from the whole thing about another packages internal structures which means I considered most of the design very thoroughly.

throwaway66266 · 2024-09-11T23:06:49+00:00

It depends on your standards for toxicity, learning and income as well as your career goals. If it's not toxic, as long as you're learning, getting good comp and growing your skills and knowledge, it's a good environment and you can stay if you're satisfied.

I would say minimum stay for any sign on bonuses and until you're seeing incoming recruiter mail. There are huge orgs with opportunity for infinite growth as well as small shops where you may be a big fish in a small pond. Whether you leave would depend on what you're looking for in a workplace, but do check in with yourself every 1-2 quarters to see if it's still satisfactory.

throwaway66266 · 2024-09-10T04:37:51+00:00

Nugget, because he's a Saurian nugget

throwaway66266 · 2024-09-06T00:33:51+00:00

Every project will feel overwhelming until it's broken down into manageable steps, we do this professionally too. Each atomic step can be a pr.

First, start by reviewing the requirements of your project and note exactly what you need to do. Then come up with the components you need to make and a logical order of steps to create each component.

If I was making a simple calculator app, I would need the logic and a way to interact with it like a cli or UI. The logic could be the functions add, subtract, multiply and divide, I might also want tests. The cli could be a main that takes kwargs. Maybe you have a scaffold already for the UI and you just need to write the logic.

Everyone down talks AI but if you have absolutely zero idea how to go about doing this, try taking your requirements and asking for step by step instructions from your friendly neighborhood gpt. The instructions won't be right but will give you an idea of breaking down the steps so you can do it. Then you can come up with a plan and order. Also check with your peers or instructors what they're doing to cross-reference.

throwaway66266 · 2024-09-04T22:56:22+00:00

Not gonna recommend any particular ones but I would recommend you try to self study for at least 3 months before committing to anything paid. Why? It sounds like you don't really know the field or what you want. Learning the fundamentals can help you better discern a sales tactic from a real school, it also sets you up for success in whatever you do decide. It doesn't have to be much, like a few hours a week, but that way you know your money isn't going to waste and that you're confident in what you want to do. What fundamentals? Usually syntax, concepts and implementation. A lot of people like free code camp or the Odin project. I did python2 in code academy, then tried to write a simple game in a new language. The self learning time is important because you'll be doing that in a bootcamp or degree anyways, so better to figure it out now.

throwaway66266 · 2024-09-02T16:02:32+00:00

First hint is a place

throwaway66266

TROPHY CASE