Since it's in caps, I'm going to assume GOD is an acronym for something. Maybe "Good Old Dude"?
I really have to credit my girlfriend for airbnb. She found out about it and setup our accommodations in Japan and Korea on this last trip. It turned out to not only save money but also be a positive experience as it afforded us amenities and contacts that we simply wouldn't have had from a normal hotel. We'll be using it again soon, too. We're heading to Los Angeles next month for KCON, a US-based Hallyu convention (as if we didn't get enough Korean culture having just been there last week?
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Fuji-Q's english content is pretty lacking. Their newest attraction isn't even on the english map they provide at the park nor on the english version of their website. The thing that I learned on this trip is that they have a priority pass system. It's sort of hinted at on the english map, but there are no instructions on how it works. Without the priority pass, be prepared for long wait times. We were there from about 9:30am until about 4:30pm and only rode 2 rides. The next day we arrived at 9am and left at about 1pm having ridden 4 rides AND gone through the haunted hospital.
The priority passes are sold per ride at a booth near the carousel in the center of the park. You choose the ride(s) you want and a one hour block of time and buy a priority pass for it. They only sell a limited number for each ride and time period. Using that pass, you show up at the ride during that hour block you chose and enter through the exit (or a marked priority line). That means you skip whatever normal queue is waiting and only maybe have to wait for other people who have priority passes. In our case, we showed up at the beginning of all our time blocks and were able to ride the very next train.
The passes cost $10 for each of the major rides, so this can get expensive. But since they're only open 9-5, there is a good chance you won't get to do much except wait in line if you don't go this route. Also, you can pay $13 just to enter the park and then pay for each ride (the major rides are $10, smaller rides are less...the priority pass does not include this price, so you'd pay $20 to ride priority on a major ride). You can also pay $50 for an unlimited day pass that allows you to ride anything that day (you'd still pay for the priority passes if you want them). Basically, if you think you want to ride 4 or more rides, the day pass makes sense.
The haunted hospital opens at 10, an hour after the park. We found that there was no line if you showed up before that. It gets busy during the day and they tend to close the line early (between 3-4) so they can get through everyone in line before the park closes at 5.
I guess my bottom line assessment is that it's a fun park if you're into that kind of thing as long as you're willing to spend $75-100 on it. Also, getting there from Tokyo will probably cost you around $40 roundtrip. The rail pass can cover part of that (half of it is not JR) and there are some other deals available that bundle a bus with admission for a discount.
This brings me to the JR pass. Personally, I've only ever had the JR East pass. It's a little less money, but it only covers the eastern part of the country. If you're flying into Narita airport, that's actually about an hour train ride into Tokyo and costs $20-30 each way. So that's something that the pass would cover right from the start.
The pass will cover all of your intra-city train travel on JR lines. If you're spending much time in Tokyo, that's quite a lot. Most trips will start at under $2 and go up to maybe around $10 if you're going pretty far within the metro area or places like Yokohama.
If you want to go farther than that, expect to pay $20-30 for short-distance reserved seat trains to nearby cities (like the trip to Mt. Fuji--actually, Otski is the farthest out on JR for that and then you transfer on to another rail company that's not JR).
If you want to go even farther (to more distant cities) the rail pass also covers shinkansens. Those trips usually start at $50-60 and can go into the 100s if you are going cross country. For instance, we went to Ueda (one stop short of Nagano) from Tokyo and that would have been about $60.
Mind you, all of those prices I just quoted are one-way. If you're planning on getting out of Tokyo, the rail pass becomes an excellent value in a hurry. If you're just sticking to one city, there are probably smaller, cheaper options that might be better for you.
In my 3 trips to Japan, I have mostly been in the Tokyo area. I did go to Okinawa and Tsubame on my first trip, but that's because I knew people there. I wasn't really going to see anything specific. On this trip I went to Ueda (as I mentioned above) to go to an onsen. It was a nice change of pace to get out to the countryside and away from the big city for a day.
Food, food, food. I haven't generally bothered to seek out any particular restaurants in Korea or Japan. I just eat at places I come across or get recommendations from friends or people we meet. Anything is different and most things are good, so that's worked well. On this most recent trip a friend took us to Sushiro (or Sushi-do depending on how you want to romanize it). It's a conveyor belt style sushi restaurant and all the plates are 105 yen except some of the specials which were only 189. Food quality was excellent and we may have eaten some species extinct. The four of us spent < $80 total for the privilege. Two big thumbs up for that experience.
Strangely enough, the best Korean BBQ I've had was in Japan on this trip. There's something about Japanese pork that seems juicier and more delicious than any other I've had, so it makes fantastic samgyupsal. And then we had galbi made with wagyu beef...oh.my.god. But yeah, Korean food is my favorite food and is pretty much reason #1 why my girlfriend and I go to Korea. It just turned out we had better K-BBQ in Japan...but we ate lots of things other than BBQ while we were in Korea.
I guess I'm an ABC. I've never really heard it termed that way, but cool. I have not been to China though. I've also never been to Australia. However, both of my parents were also born in America, so I have very little connection to Chinese culture. That being said, I think I'm more interested in seeing Australia than China...but I hear everything can kill you there.