Hi,
I am turning 40 next year and is considering going to Japan with my wife as a birthday gift. Of course, visiting the toy museums and toy shopping is on top of the list ;D
I would like to ask the members here for some advice regarding the following:
1)Accomodation: where would be the best place to rent? About how much?If you are going to stay in Tokyo, you can get a "gaijin house"- a house with 4 or 5 other people, usually English teachers, for around $800 in Tokyo. Cheaper if you are willing to go farther out. Sakura House is the big one of these, but you can check the classifieds in Metropolis Magazine (Japan) and call around places and ask for more details.
You can get a business hotel type place, which is small and cramped, for around $70-80 per night. These are often centrally located. Several are a 10 minute walk from Akihabara. If you see it on hotel.xom and its $70 or 80, its one of these places.
You can get a decent real hotel for around $200-300 per night (and more if you feel like it).
Also you have to consider the cheap places are small and cramped and if you are a larger-type individual you might want to pay for the real places.
I did a scan of hotels priced from $100-200 and their areas. In general, you want to be to the south and east parts of Tokyo. West and north are bad.
Also the more expensive hotels will have people that speak english to give you tips/directions if you need them.
I am rating on the overall area, and consider food > toys, since you can do all the toy stores in a day or two but you are going to be eating every night.
Shinjuku-bad
Minato-excellent
Shinagawa-good
Koto-Sumida-excellent (for toys)
Ebisu-excellent
Shibuya-Meguro-excellent
Ueno, Taito, Nihonbashi-excellent (older and more rundown than Minato/Ebisu but great food everywhere and close to Akihabara)
Hanzomon, Chiyoda, Ochanomizu-average (boring at night, close to Imperial Palace lots of daytime stuff, great centrally-located train station)
I've never stayed here but the location is good and the price is cheap.
www.wmt.co.jp/en/location/higashiueno/index.html2)Location: Is there anywhere central that we can go that will be accessible to almost everywhere?Any place located on the Yamanote train line loop should be good. For just pure traveling purposes the best are Shinagawa, Nihonbashi, Hanzomon.
3)Transportation: Would getting a train pass be worth it?If you plan to travel to other parts of Japan, absolutely. If you are going to stick around Tokyo your transportation will be $10-20 per day, each person. Also, its about $30 each way to get from the Airport to Tokyo. So 2 weeks in Tokyo with no JR pass will run you around $270 per person and throw in 3 taxi rides at $60.
If I were going to Tokyo, I would consider buying a pair of bicycles at $150 each, and riding those around.
4)Language barrier: is it a big issue? Yes, especially in restaurants without menus with pictures. All the train signs are in English. Bring some way to use google maps on your phone.
Its super hard to find places from the train station if they are not directly outside the exit. The basics are easy (train station to train station) but once you get out of the station, its easy to get lost. Plan on using cabs here and there.
5)Guide: do we really need one?Depending on your budget, a guide for a day is probably a good idea id you have a very specific interest you want to see (such as toys). If you take a bus tour, there will usually be a guide that can speak some English on board.
6) Lenght of stay: what would be a reasonable lenght?Probably 8-10 days is a good first trip if you are going to only Tokyo. If you can do 3 weeks, get a room with sakura house. You can easily spend 3 weeks in Tokyo/Yokohama.
As a side note, I do not recommend going to Tokyo for toys. If I were interested in toys, I would go when a major show is going on like a large comic market or wonder con type of thing. Those are based in Chiba usually (the eastern half).
Oh yeah--don't forget to go to Tokyu Hands.