Japan - My first Trip ever

Google Maps contribution stories
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As an avid traveler i always, and mostly, went to the USA. This time for the first time in my life i went to Japan this November. With really no expectations i landed in Tokyo and made my way from the Airport to the City. My Travel time was 2.5 Weeks. I decided to also visit smaller citys more on the landside, so i did.

My Route was: Tokyo - Kanazawa - Takayama - Kyoto - Osaka
I travelled with the train only, due to left lane traffic i let the driving be and relaxed in the train seeing the beautiful landscapes in the Shinkanzen.

Tokyo What a beautiful City, untill i was there i wasn’t aware that Tokyo is the biggest city in the World. And everything felt so quiet and respectful. With some Shrines, some Markets and a bit of Shopping i stayed 3 days there and for me was it quite ok to explore the most famous “hotspots” like Electric Citys, Shibuya Crossing and many more. It was worth it For traveller i really can recommend taking the public transport with a Icoca Card, its super easy to move around. What can be a pitty sometimes is finding the exit in the stations. :rofl: Tokyo is a great and super clean city and i had a really good first impression of Japan there. The food is outstanding.

Kanazawa The trip to Kanazawa is a nice Shinkanzen Train ride. Here i definetly recommend you to book the tickets with reserved seats. In Kanazawa you can visit the beautiful Kenroku-en Park also the Higashi Chaya District and many more things. It feels way more empty than Tokyo and is also more relaxed when it comes to People. What i can recommend there to go along is the Bus Loop left or Right from the Main Station. It is also with the Icoca Card and super easy to go around the Town. 2 Days is more than enough to see the Hotspots.

Takayama This place is magic and was super nice. It has a lot of Onsen and Hotels to chill and rest. The food is outsanding and the area is also quite famous for the Hyda Beef, you defintely need to stop and eat at the Central 4 Hamburger and taking the Hyda Beef Burger. I eat a lot of Burgers, but this is one of my all time favorite burger i ever eaten. And i was really sticking to Japanese Food and Food culture but here i had to try and it was so worth it. Don’t miss this spot. But also prebook, it is small and also busy. I also recommend 2 days here for seeing a lot.

Kyoto Sadly this was the place i disliked the most. It is way overrun by Visitors everywhere who are coming in big coaches and filling the areas. Sometimes its even hard to walk and you feel like stuck in a mass of human bodys. So the planned Hotspots were cut short and i put the focus more to shopping and more small things on he outer ring of Kyoto. Also the Bamboo Forrest which i really looked forward was way overcrowded, so i was looking for a “not touristic” Bamboo Forrest which are there and super empty. You just need to search for it.

Osaka i loved Osaka to be my final destination of the Stop. Went to the Universal Studios to see the Nintendo World. Was great. I also recommend there going on a weekday and booking a Fastpass, otherwise you waste a lot of time in queing for rides if this is your thing. Also for Shopping it is great. And after a great and super chill holiday i was flying out from Osaka Airport.

What really impressed me in Japan was the following:

  • Cleaniness, the country is so clean in the places where i have been, this is impressive!
  • Respect, the people there are super respectful and super nice!
  • Pace, everything is slower there from a Checkout to Food and all, i love that!
  • Food, this is not so much of a western influence, so therefore the food is more mild, and not big portions. this is a key to a long and healthy life over there i guess.

And many more things, i was super impressed and i definetly can recommend it and wanna go back there. For me the only one downside was The crowds in Kyoto and the long flight (18h) from Europe to there. And i am a person who is affraid of flying.

But yes, Japan is amazing and if you have the chance to go there, don’t wait!

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An interesting itinerary @Grand_Al
Kyoto indeed is an over-crowded place, and I too wondered how the large wide-body bus would squeeze into the narrow alleys of this historic town.

Among the almost free or cheaper sights in Osaka are the Tsenkaku Tower,

The golden quadrilateral of Japan travel is considered to be the Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka-Hiroshima route.

Of this, Hiroshima has a free hop-on-hop-off bus that takes you through all major tourist places like the Atomic Bomb Dome, the Peace Memorial Park, and the Hiroshima Castle.

I strongly suggest you add some Google Maps locations and also add a few photos from your trip in your post.

Welcome to Connect :pray:

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Wow, it’s so beautiful. It’s like a fantasy city, Japan. It’s still a dream county for me. I learned a lot of details about Japan, brother @Grand_Al . I always consider Japan to be very beautiful, developed, and at the forefront of travel. However, in reality, I have not yet visited this land of the rising sun. I read your travel experience very carefully and scrolled down to find some pictures but couldn’t find them. If there were some pictures in the post, travel enthusiasts like me would be able to see the pictures along with the story and imagine visiting that country.

Like you, I always sit on the left-hand window seat of a car or train when traveling to new places.

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Ein sehr interessanter Reisebericht von Japan @Grand_Al
Ein paar Bilder wÀren sehr schön :+1:

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I suspect both the local guide @Grand_Al and the post are AI bots.
@Annaelisa
What do you think?
Look at the post - it looks like AI-generated.
Also @ErmesT, what is your opinion?

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Ich bin nicht sicher aber in Teilen sieht er fĂŒr mich wie ein persönlicher Beitrag aus.
Vielleicht eine KI Vorlage die angepasst wurde @TusharSuradkar

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Hi @TusharSuradkar , I fully agree with @Annaelisa .
The post is interesting even if me. like you, would have spitted it in a dozen of more specific posts, related to every single place.
In addition the post is coherent with the contributions in Google Maps.
The only issue that I would like to highlight is in fact related to the contributions in Maps, @Grand_Al : A lot of photos posted twice, and a lot of “all good here” reviews that are against the policies.
The last photos are added in a wrong place, and should be moved here

Definitely not the best way to contribute

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I wonder, what made you believe this @TusharSuradkar?
To me, it is a genuine personal report.
I have the impression, now that AI is available to many users, many others tend to believe nobody is able to write a good text by themselves anymore 
?
I agree, @Grand_Al should have included some (but not many!) of his photos and links to some places with his post.
Same as Ermes, I too noticed many duplicates and wonder, if this a result of being pushed by the Maps app to post more photos.
CC @Annaelisa @ErmesT

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@WilfriedB
Ich stimme dir nicht zu. Vielen Texten merkt man sofort an, dass sie von der KI stammen und keine persönlichen Erfahrungen beschreiben. Nicht schön.
Aber man sollte auch nicht sofort jemand verschrecken der sich mit einem Beitrag hier auf Connect versucht.

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Correct.

@WilfriedB I agree with @Annaelisa.
I am only curious and only suspect if the person is real or AI.
Else the post would have been flagged a long time ago.

Anyone who uses AI like ChatGPT can easily tell from the format and layout of the main post, that some rough description of a travel journey was fed to AI for rephrasing.

The person may be real, so I expect the user to come up and comply.
The Google Maps links to places are a must and some photos will be good to have.

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I have to agree with @WilfriedB @Annaelisa and @ErmesT This looks like a real personal post, Yes it could be better with links or photos.
But don’t scare off new posters with accusations. Yes many guides are using AI to help write their posts especially if English is not their first language.
I also noticed some punctuation differences which generally don’t happen if you are using Chat or Gemini.

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Hallo @TerryPG
Die Aussage ist so nicht richtig, @ErmesT stimmt meiner Vermutung eines gemischten, KI/persönlich, zu.
Zudem ist es grundsÀtzlich richtig jemand auf Fehler hinzuweisen und zu sagen was besser gemacht werden sollte.
Wer ist schon fehlerfrei.
Ich bewundere immer alle Moderatoren fĂŒr die Arbeit die sie tĂ€glich machen und hilfreiche UnterstĂŒtzung bieten.

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Well, @Annaelisa , I don’t see an issue in asking for the help of the AI for improving a bit our text. That’s very different to ask the AI to fully write our post.
I say that as English is not my mother language, and sometimes the structure of my sentence reflects my Italian origin.
But the post is very personal, even if it lacks of links, so I would like to close this part of the conversation.
When we visited Japan in 2023, @TusharSuradkar , we had more or less the same itinerary, and I can recognise several of the places where @Grand_Al contributed in Google Maps.

So I really hope he will not be scared by this conversation and will add some additional information on the original post.
Myself, I have a long list of posts to write (2024 for me was a very busy year) about the places I visited in Japan, and I find nice that we had the same feelings

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Guys, this was definitely not a AI text. Sorry for my grammar and writing style. :cry: I just wanted to share my experience in a short post. And yes I know it lacks of pics and places. I may overhaul it. Sorry everyone

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Thank you for answering @Grand_Al I’m glad you responded.

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@Grand_Al
Beim Schreibstil gibt es nichts zu entschuldigen, wichtig wĂ€re nur jeweils einen Link zu Google Maps in den Beitrag einzufĂŒgen.

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Ich werde mich noch einarbeiten und diese woche den beitrag schön machen.

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@Grand_Al
Falls Hilfe benötigt wird nur melden

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An interesting post @Grand_Al