# Weekend in Shanghai or Tokyo?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekend-in-shanghai-or-tokyo/596717>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 18, 2011, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekend-in-shanghai-or-tokyo/596717 "2011-09-18T15:20:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cebe11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@cebe11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cebe11)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekend-in-shanghai-or-tokyo/596717/1 "2011-09-18T15:20:51Z")

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So I have an upcoming business trip to Asia and will need to spend a weekend there. Where should I spend the weekend? Tell me the reasons for your choice and what you would do while there if you were me?

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekend-in-shanghai-or-tokyo/596717/2 "2011-09-18T17:09:26Z")

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Since you can’t be toubled to give even the barest of hints of what you like, I’d suggest you don’t do either but just stay in your business hotel and watch CNN.

I lived in both. Howsabout you give some indication of your interests?

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**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekend-in-shanghai-or-tokyo/596717/3 "2011-09-18T20:42:17Z")

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I’ll have a go at Tokyo:

Pluses:

Lots of great food. Extremely safe. Good customer service. Good transit system. Some good stuff you can do on your own (baseball games, fish market). Good day trips that might be beautiful this time of year (Hakone).

Minuses:

Horrible exchange rate at the moment. Fairly expensive (nice) hotels. Relatively long immigration lines and airport commute (could make a difference on a brief weekend). Most of the best dining/bar/club experiences are (IME) relatively inaccessible if you don’t speak the language or have a Japanese host (if you have even a remote connection whom you could con into being your tour guide, I’d totally recommend it). Not much of a typical tourist city with a round of scenic/historic sites to check off (well, to be fair, we bombed most of it to the ground).