i picked a few, compared to their own web booking, still showing booking.com is cheaper. but those hotels i'm looking at were already budget hotels by nature, but with private bathroom attached instead of sharing. speaking of offer for early booking, seems like agoda is doing promotions at the moment.


i went to try out the english, cannot understand wall of japanese texts... in fact, booking.com and agoda seems to show a lot more hotels, and seems like agoda is doing huge discount for many hotels at the moment.

regarding pay later and free cancellation (before certain date), booking.com also the same, just give credit card number and that's it. i used booking.com during my last visit at march and i only pay full payment upon check in. i even use my debit card and it went through during online booking lol...


i think shouldn't be cheap, my visit during march was like RM3k for 2 ppl flying AA (MAS was RM4k+) as i booked the flight like end of last year.

but definitely no where near as expensive as year end during x'mas and new year.

i tried jalan.net in japanese, and you're right, i was definitely surprised! i'm surprised that booking.com is still MUCH cheaper when i search my previously stayed hotel.

and i find it strange that the hotel i stayed previously, using jalan.net in japanese to search for a later date, and found out no informations later of the year means i can't book those dates some other hotels have the info displayed throughout the year though. so not entirely reliable.

thanks for your offer on helping on booking but i don't feel like having a stranger to help me on something involving money transactions, and hotel booking is a pretty personal thing. on top of it and if anything happen, i'll probably have to deal with japanese language communication, and have to come back to you again. =.=


you sure 6800yen is final price, inclusive tax?

tried to search for that hotel, only a few days in a month is at that price (more like 7000+yen for double room), mostly sunday night and check out on monday. the rest average at 10,000+yen (some dates even up to 20,000yen!).

well, my verdict on this matter is that, using international booking website is more reliable and so much easier to deal with english if one don't understand japanese. even if jalan.net offering lower rate than international booking website, most people don't like to deal with hassles.

if stay at hotels RM200 per night further away, pay taxi RM100 to get to fish market, versus staying hotel nearby and paying RM300+, i'll take the formal, anytime. plus you pay RM200 average on other nights instead of that RM300+ every night...

i browsed through the calendar, can definitely see all the pricing for each day (and rooms available). definitely not at 6800yen or i'm just dumb to navigate through that website.

now that's a great price you grabbed there, but as you mentioned, it's a special price and most probably only very limited room available at that price within very limited promotion time frame.

if i'm you, i'd still go for somewhere less expensive (and perhaps much less busy!), trying to search for a time frame within 20th dec ~ 30th dec 2013, there're many business hotels offering at much lower price per night, some are at 7000yen per night and to me that's a huge savings like 3000yen (RM90) per day compared to 10,000yen per day. but that's just me though.

(figured out how to use jalan.net lol)

depends on how many days.

try this link:
http://www.jalan.net/uw/uwp3200/uww3201ini...llbackHistFlg=1

6 days is 52,800, average 8,800yen per day. 5 days, average 8,600. 4 days average 8,050yen. 5th day seems to be the most expensive. change the days of stay at the date section to see the total price.

your question was left out because you're asking if anyone can confirm the latest update on the necessity visa application, which you'll get the fastest and most accurate and reliable answer by giving the embassy a call. they speak english well, because many are malaysians staffs.

by the way, never heard of that news. and you didn't even bothered to check japan embassy, which seems to have nothing mentioned about the news you heard. still have doubt? read the above paragraph again...

anyone will going to tell you to go apply a visa. it's not really that difficult, just the part where you need a company letter stating you're working in a company that is a little cumbersome.

that's pretty bold statement, so far i haven't heard anyone mentioning exceptions (unless special reason) where gaijin don't need visa to enter Japan...

thanks for clarifying.

well, that quoted statements about visa exemption mentioned in the first link was pretty loosely stated - meet relevant condition, God knows what is "relevant conditions"?

the informations in the 2nd link are more reliable, though - firstly, Malaysia wasn't mentioned in the exemption list, and secondly, the below quote:



and by reading just the above quote, i wouldn't even recommend anyone try to enter japan without a visa.

then everyone at the back queuing will be like this

aiyoyo...what's so difficult to just visit the embassy website and read a bit?

http://www.my.emb-japan.go.jp/English/visit.html

pretty sure you don't need to submit bank balance statement, but if you're going for a conference as a student, your school/uni has to prepare the required letters and documents. i think you don't even need to handle all the tasks, if your school/uni is sending you there, then they'll have to prepare everything. at max you submit your personal particulars and photos within visa specs (different from your IC/license photo!).

if the conference is organized by org/party in japan, then they'll have to prepare the documents and you'll have to go to embassy to do the rest, i guess...

if you're trying to apply for holiday, not just you need to provide bank statement, but also company letter...but you can always have your parents as guarantor - need bank statement and company letter as well.

that's interesting, but i think if the reason is valid and convincing, there shouldn't be much problem, but still too much risk to take so just apply a visa.

well my last trip also kena few people in front of me taking much longer time than usual at the counter, while there's literally at least 200 people queueing behind as all counters already queued up average 8~10 people. ugh...

i stayed at hotel during my last visit and the staffs are happy to keep the letter containing the stuffs. should be the same for the hostel, Japanese are usually very helpful and honest in this regards. don't risk collecting at airport unless you fly to narita which usually at afternoon of overnight flight, if flying to haneda sure many shop closed by the time you reach - same for every other flight from all over the world, international flight are all scheduled either late night or early moaning. they usually operate until 7/8pm and restaurants open maybe until 12pm.

or you're talking about other airports?

lol, clearing customs need at least 1 hour to be safe as you might encounter heavy traffics, and possible delay of baggage. your flight might delay, too! there's no guarantee for a good weather. t's possible of losing your way when you trying to locate the post office. heck, maybe walking towards the custom will take longer time than usual if the flight happen to park far away, and i've read that narita airport is so big that the plan might take a long time to taxi to the parking lot. 1 hour is way too risky unless estimated that you arrive at 5pm or earlier.

just post to the hostel, they're more reliable than malaysians.