Transport, sumo, karaoke and so on

Hello.

Finally, after 10 years I'll come back to Japan again!!

Please, can you answer the following questions?

1. Transport in Tokyo: do you suggest Suica Card or Tokunai Pass (daily)? Or else?
About Suica Card: if I don't understand japanese, can I switch to English language when I recharge at the machine?
Can I pay in cash?

2. Where can I watch a sumo match in August in Tokyo?
I read that some schools club offer the possibility to watch amateur matches since the official tournament finished and the summer tour is not in Tokyo city.

3. Karaoke: is possible to switch lyrics in romaji? Where can I find Anime songs?

4. Where can I find maps and addresses of Animate and Mandarake shops in Tokyo?

I look forward to your reply. :)

1. Transport in Tokyo: do you suggest Suica Card or Tokunai Pass (daily)? Or else?
About Suica Card: if I don't understand japanese, can I switch to English language when I recharge at the machine?
Can I pay in cash?

I'd get a SUICA card. Yes, it's easy to switch to English menu and yes, you must pay in cash to recharge the machine

4. Where can I find maps and addresses of Animate and Mandarake shops in Tokyo?

I figure the official websites of each would provide a comprehensive list of stores with maps to each location.

1. Transport in Tokyo: do you suggest Suica Card or Tokunai Pass (daily)? Or else?
Suica card. It's theoretically possible to save money with a day pass, but it's only a tiny amount of money and it's not worth the trouble.

Can I pay in cash?
Is this a serious question? Is there anything in the world that you can't pay cash for?

4. Where can I find maps and addresses of Animate and Mandarake shops in Tokyo?

Um, Google? If you want advice, I'd recommend starting with Mandarake in Nakano Broadway.

It happened that some machines accept only cards in other countries so I asked...

Yes ,it's my intention starting from Nakano.

About Ghibli Museum: on the page here on the site states that the tickets cost 1000 yen but when I try to book on Voyagin it becomes 59 USD! Why? Can I book anywhere else at 1000 yen?

About Mandarake in Akihabara: on the site here states that it opens at 12 while other shops usually open at 10... Is it a mistake or is the real opening?

For Ghibli, try JTB. I did once many years ago and it came out to $25 back then. It's a mark-up for the middle-man. I don't think you can do anything about it unless you are in-country....

Mandarake has a very good global website. You will find the details of all the shops easily.

If you look at their website. You'll find most items are located a Nakano. So yes it is a good option to start there.

And I'm guessing you are aware of this already, but each store has a various array of stock or lack of stock. The Akihabara store for example has very limited model trains. While a Nakano, it is a huge depart the model train section.

The Ghibli tickets are only 1000yen, but some companies buy them up and place HUGE mark-ups on them because they are scarce. They are/were doing renovations so not sure when it reopens - check their web site directly.

Karaoke - for Japanese songs usually kanji or kana - if you want the romanji either have it on a tablet/phone or print in advance - it works.

Sumo - attend one of the morning practices.

Animate and Mandrake - check the web. Animate are all over the place, but mandrake few locations (and watch the opening times). There are some other great stores too, so don't limit yourself to just those two.

I've just asked to JTB Office in my country and they say that there are no more tickets available for the whole month of August...
so is there really no hope? :(

For July and August, peak season, Ghibli Museum does an advance sale (by lottery) already from late May for July admission, and late June for August admission. I suppose travel agency sales might be suspended (or only very limited quantity allocated to them) during the peak (school holiday) season.

If you know someone in Japan who can help you with this purchase process:
http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/news/009916.html

So for japanese people are available and for foreigners not?...

LeonGarcia,

No, no, no, that is not what I meant to say. It is simply that even for locals the tickets are available only through lottery (you apply for a day/time slot but you never know if you get them) because they are so popular and there are so many people who want to visit, that the travel agencies might not be able to secure sufficient quantity to sell outside Japan.

Ok. Anyway the office told to call them again in two weeks... but I don't know how the situation could change.

Seeing the schedule on the earlier link, the application period for the lottery for August tickets to Ghibli is from June 25 to June 30, the results coming out from July 9th.

Maybe, maybe the agencies need to apply for tickets for their business, just like I would have to, for example, and they might secure some. Or the museum, seeing the number of applications made, might make tickets available then. But I am not fully familiar with the process.

Sorry but I can't find the information you say in the link above.
Anyway here http://www.jtbgmt.com/eng/ghibli/TicketSystem.html#Purchase while on the top states that "Total 200 tickets per admission day (for all overseas sales including the three Asian regions)" at the end of the page states that "Total 100 tickets maximum per admission date."...
This explains everything...

I can't find the lottery you talk about. So is there still hope?
A poblem is also the fact that in August the museum opens again after a period of renovations.

There is another way for overseas visitors to purchase the tickets without mark-up

https://l-tike.com/st1/ghibli-en/sitetop

I don't know if it works for the popular months.

I think already answered but karaoke only uses japanese text for japanese songs. English, korean, and chinese use katakana as furigana.

Anime songs can be found under アニメ in the karaoke device.

Ok, but the problem is that I can't read hiragana, katakana and so on. I need romaji. But maybe I think to avoid karaoke because I guess they have in particular new songs that I surely don't know since I watch only few new series each year and often not the commercial ones.

About ghibli: from that link it seems all so simple and cheap and finally e-tickets! Is there anything hidden?

Yes, you can go to Lawson and try to buy tickets. The system is a bit frustrating because of the timing of when the tickets go on sale, and when you enter the different screens to select date/time it tells you at that stage there are no tickets.

I believe that Lawson tickets (the one linked by asahana) is related to the advance sale I mentioned earlier.

There is that advance sale (also through Lawson) for July and August, and then if any are left, they go on sale from the 10th of the previous month (meaning July 10th for August admission).

LeonGarcia, do you have your hotel booked already? One thing you could try is that you could ask the concierge of your hotel to try for the advance ticket sale, or the regular Lawson ticket sale.