Traveling in Japan - Advice/Tips/etc?

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So here's the deal I'm planning a trip to Japan. Which is actually a pretty big deal for me. I've traveled around before in Europe but I have almost always had family at the places where I'm going to. I pretty much have family everywhere. Except for Japan. So it's a whole lot of information and new things to deal with. I figure asking here for any tips or advice would be smart place to start.

My plan so far is pretty basic. Leave in April and comeback in two weeks. Not a long time but work does that. I should be right on time for the cherry blossoms. Then I figure a temple, and some other more touristy things. Like going geeky/electronic store places. Beyond that, not much sorted out. To be fair I'm still working it out, but to be not so fair I suck at planning ahead. Also I figure it would be a good idea to cram some Japanese language studies between now and the trip. I figure at minimum I should be able to ask for directions and order food.

So any advice, things to do/see, places to stay would be great, thanks.

You know I've often asked these and never really got answers to them. But I can answer this one (to some extent) so let's do that. Typo in your title, btw.

So regarding your trip: good luck with the cherry blossoms, my friend and I did ten days in Japan around late March/Early April and missed the cherry blossoms by two weeks. They vary considerably so I hope you guessed well.

Okay, what you want to do (and even eat) varies widely based on where you're going to go.

Basics
Okay, so I assume you've gotten a plane ticket and hotels are set. Remember your passport, etc right?

You should also check your credit cards to see what their policy is regarding foreign currency transactions. Some of them charge additional fees for foreign currency transactions while some don't (usually the more expensive ones don't) so call ahead. Here's a list of cards without foreign transaction fees. It's by no means exhaustive but all your current card(s) have a foreign transaction fee you've got time to apply for one of these. Call someone up and talk to them about your needs, they'll set you straight because they want your business.

It's also a pretty good time to be going to Japan since the Yen is pretty devalued versus the dollar at the moment. You'll be fine getting money from an ATM at the airport when you arrive in Japan but you might want to make sure you have a pure ATM card, not ATM-Debit. Sometimes ATM-Debit cards will have some issues so I like having a backup pure ATM card for traveling to foreign countries.

Talk to your cell phone provider as well. Honestly traveling in a foreign country becomes about a thousand times easier when you have a smartphone with a basic data connection. I use T-Mobile because they offer free (slow) internet and texting in most foreign countries, but check with whoever your provider is if you aren't with them. Chances are you can pay a small fee that month and they'll give you a not-terrible price for some slow internet, enough to run Google Maps and Google Translate if need be.

Google Maps has the minor issue (for me) of listing everything in Japanese (katakana? kanji? hirigana? one of those) in Japan (and in Korea puts it in Korean, go figure) but you can figure out directions, including public transit, really easily with Google Maps. Seriously, it's a lifesaver and I can't recommend having it on you enough.

Money, communication, directions. That about covers the basics. Oh! Don't tip anyone, nobody does that outside of America. If you aren't American, feel free to ignore that advice.

Arrival
I assume you're flying into Tokyo, in that event you should know that Haneda is close enough to take a taxi into the city center but if you're flying into Narita you're going to want to take the train; a taxi from Narita to the Tokyo city center will take well over an hour and run you around three hundred bucks. I mean, you can do it but the train's like thirty bucks so... yeah.

But that's okay! There's a train station right next to Narita and the trains are pretty easy to figure out. There's English menus for buying tickets, everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) is in both katakana and romaji so even I could read where the next stop was. It's giant so it can be a bit overwhelming but you'll figure it out pretty quickly, just stick with it.

Where to go
So where are you going to go in Japan? Well that's up to you, dur, but just so you know Tokyo is freaking huge (see below) and you could easily spend quite a bit of time there. But then the rest of Japan is neat too, and if you are lucky enough to be there during the cherry blossoms Kyoto would have been amazing with all of them in bloom. If you want nature and historical structures Kyoto's a great location but then so are the northern cities, I hear really good things about Sapporo and Hiroshima. If you love the night life Tokyo has the best and there's so much of it you could easily go for two weeks.

Ultimately you SHOULD plan this out though and book hotels. Tokyo to Kyoto was around four hours each way by train. I'd say a week of Tokyo wouldn't be outlandish, though if you're by yourself you might limit it; I can only manage about four days in a city by myself before I run out of things I personally want to do, though I can manage longer if I have a friend.

Know that wherever you go in Tokyo things will often have English labels and restaurants will have English menus. Outside of Tokyo it's a crap shoot but eateries will generally have picture menus so you can always go with the universal language of pointing. Also they use arabic characters for numbers so buying stuff anywhere is pretty easy.

Trains
Either way you'll be taking trains. No seriously, the greater Tokyo area is freaking HUGE! Here's the greater tokyo area superimposed on top of a bit of England:

IMAGE(http://fun.yukozimo.com/media/no/12761-1.jpg)

Yeah. So if you plan on going anywhere in Tokyo you'll probably be doing that on a train. In fact if you're going anywhere outside of Tokyo you'll probably be doing it on a train, but let's stick to Tokyo for a bit.

So there are three main lines in Tokyo that you can travel on and each of them have a separate ticketing system and separate stops. It's not really worth getting a pass, you should just buy tickets for exact fair. The ticketing systems are in English and easy enough, and they'll give transfers if you need to take Company A's line to Company B's line to get to your stop.

If you're traveling outside of Tokyo you're going to be using the JR line for that. For my friend and I, we traveled to Kyoto and got a JR Pass for like a hundred dollars and change. It's available for that price to pretty much anyone outside of Japan and let you just walk on to JR trains (excepting the fastest bullet trains) which is super useful. It ended up significantly cheaper for us as it was the same price as we'd pay just to go to and come back from Kyoto/Tokyo and also let us take the trains from Kyoto to Osaka. Getting the pass was a bit finnicky because we had to figure out which office to go to and Tokyo station is a freaking labyrinth but it was eventually sorted.

Places to See
This place in Roppongi had the best freaking ramen I've ever had. They don't speak English much but they have English menus and understand pointing. Get the white pork broth one, trust me on that.

Star/Bookmark/Keep on you the location of your local embassy, just in case. It never hurts to be prepared.

I really enjoyed Yoyogi Park in Tokyo, it was very relaxing. Also it sometimes has Japanese people dressed up as greasers and in poodle skirts dancing to rock music. Because why not.

The Tesukiji fish market is pretty impressive as well and you can get really good sushi around there, of course. Get up early and go in the morning if you can, when it's busy and everything's bustling.

Arashiyama in Kyoto is a wonderful place to hike around and take pictures of, especially the time of year you're going in April.

Den Den Town in Osaka: Okay, look, you mentioned electronics so I know you're going to Akihabara when you're there. Everyone does. Honestly, I wasn't that impressed with it as it was very... used up. Like it's gotten so popular that people don't even work to make it interesting, you know? By all means, go and spend a few hours there but I don't think you'll find much to do beyond those first few hours. But Den Den Town, that's the new spot from everything I hear. Read up on it and whatnot, it's pretty close to Kyoto if you're going that way and Osaka seems like a fun city to visit in either event. But if you want old Japanese video games and random electronic stores I'm pretty sure you want to consider here.

Himeji Castle is the iconic Japanese castle. I wasn't able to see it because it was under construction when I was there, but that construction is scheduled to end in March of this year. You're there in April. Awesome. If it's open I really, really suggest you go see it, it'll be amazing.

Welp, those are my suggestions. I wandered around Japan, when to Shibuya crossing, did all the other touristy stuff that I'm sure you'll find in various travel guides. But those are the places I'd suggest. Good luck man, I'm sure you'll have a blast.

masterO, which airport will you fly into and out of ? Most tickets will allow you to arrive in narita(tokyo) or kansai (osaka) and then leave from the other. Thats great if you can do that, saves back tracking.
Ive live d here for 8 years but I havent done all that much travelling, i prefer SE asia for holidays but my highlights would be (in no real order)

Small mountain towns, pretty, quaint, nice Ryokans, relaxing. Takayama in gifu is nice but there are these kinds of towns all over japan in places like Nagano, gifu,anywhere

Shimanami Kaido - if you like bike riding. you can hire bikes cheaply at the start of a 7 bridge journey across the sea that divides Honshu from Shikoku. Takes about 2 days to ride the whole thing so you can stay in a ryokan mid way through the trip. You can drop off the rental bike on the other side.

Kyoto and Nara - the two big historical temple/shrine cities, loads to see and heaps of places to stay and food to eat.

If you are a big city boy then i guess Osaka or Tokyo will be your thing, Both have big night club areas, shopping areas,electronic/hentai areas (those 2 go hand in hand here).

I can answer any specific questions you might have, otherwise various online guides will have you covered for general things to do and travel preparations. Japan is also pretty much the safest place in the world so you can be at ease during your time here. The worst thing that's likely to happen is getting lost.

For cherry blossoms, I always find they're earlier than I expect, around March 30 here, then lasting for 2 weeks (the weather is almost still winter as far as I'm concerned!). Also, you need to really hope that the weather is fairly calm because any kind of serious storm will just blow all the blossoms away, even when they are still in bloom.

Heh, I recently became obsessed with the idea of going to Japan on vacation some time in the future thanks to Drew Scanlon of Giant Bomb showing off his pictures. I know practically nothing about what would be involved to go, so I'm going to keep an eye on this thread. I don't know if I'll be going this year, but I want to go at some point.

I guess I should've known we'd have some community members there.

Also, further Tokyo hugeness, this was posted on reddit a couple days ago:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/21vn60I.jpg)

Great posts - especially as I'm trying to go to Japan in august (yes, supposed to be bad but no choice on holiday times).

However, bnpederson is incorrect. People tip in Europe too. Maybe people in us tip a lot in comparison? No idea. However, since that observation was wrong can anyone confirm that you shouldn't tip in japan?

Duae, its going to be sticky and hot!
But visit UNIQLO and stock up on silk dry tshirts and pants and you will be fine.
Yeah, GT is right, its really hard to make a bet on cherry blossoms. Some years they stay for weeks, next year a storm on the wrong day and boom they are gone. They come up earlier in the south as its warmer there. Here in the middle - Nagoya near the sea they are late march /early April, but they come to the mountains a bit later

Oh and you definitely shouldn't tip in japan, the staff/waiters etc will be confused and may follow you out on to the street to return the money you accidentally left

I love August but I've gotten used to the humidity. As long as you can deal with sweating most of the time it's not a big deal at all. Of course, make sure to stay hydrated.

In terms of the budget, how much should one plan for -- considering 10-14 days of sightseeing, using modest accommodations, and light shopping?

Duoae wrote:

Great posts - especially as I'm trying to go to Japan in august (yes, supposed to be bad but no choice on holiday times).

However, bnpederson is incorrect. People tip in Europe too. Maybe people in us tip a lot in comparison? No idea. However, since that observation was wrong can anyone confirm that you shouldn't tip in japan?

Where in Europe? In Germany it was expected they'd accept the change (like a twenty euro note for a eighteen euro bill they'd just keep the whole thing) but the standard American 20%-25% on the bill was, I was told, appreciated but excessive. I've been told the same thing about Australia and Japan, people will follow you outside to give you your "forgotten" change sometimes in Japan.

Oh, I do have one specific question (hopefully not hijacking the thread), I wanted to do Mt. Fuji. Has anyone done that climb? Advice?

bnpederson wrote:
Duoae wrote:

Great posts - especially as I'm trying to go to Japan in august (yes, supposed to be bad but no choice on holiday times).

However, bnpederson is incorrect. People tip in Europe too. Maybe people in us tip a lot in comparison? No idea. However, since that observation was wrong can anyone confirm that you shouldn't tip in japan?

Where in Europe? In Germany it was expected they'd accept the change (like a twenty euro note for a eighteen euro bill they'd just keep the whole thing) but the standard American 20%-25% on the bill was, I was told, appreciated but excessive. I've been told the same thing about Australia and Japan, people will follow you outside to give you your "forgotten" change sometimes in Japan.

All of UK and Ireland, France, Italy and Malta. I don't remember Switzerland as I was too young.

Yeah, American 20-25% is way more than I have ever tipped except on one amazing occasion. I usually tip 10-ish%, though obviously if service is crap or the food is not good then I withhold some or all of it. If there's a service charge automatically added (not very common in my experience) then I don't tip either.

Nothing to see here.

Duoae wrote:

All of UK and Ireland, France, Italy and Malta. I don't remember Switzerland as I was too young.

Yeah, American 20-25% is way more than I have ever tipped except on one amazing occasion. I usually tip 10-ish%, though obviously if service is crap or the food is not good then I withhold some or all of it. If there's a service charge automatically added (not very common in my experience) then I don't tip either.

That's probably about right. It wasn't expected that I tip the Taxis in Tokyo when I used them, as an example, whereas that's the custom in the States. I suppose my "don't tip" suggestion was calibrated to Americans who will always (it my limited experience) tip at least a little because we feel bad if we don't. But the up-to-thirty-percent that we generally do here is. See this:

Never tip in Japan, just don't. Be polite, learn how to say please and thank you before you come, that is what will be appreciated.

Mt. Fuji, my impression is that it's overrated, super crowded during climbing season, trash on the way up. Also, don't expected it to be easy, you'll want to carry oxygen and I hear lots of folks have to quit part way. Personally, I prefer the Japan Alps, and there are tons of other great hiking and climbing spots all over the country.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Never tip in Japan, just don't. Be polite, learn how to say please and thank you before you come, that is what will be appreciated.

Mt. Fuji, my impression is that it's overrated, super crowded during climbing season, trash on the way up. Also, don't expected it to be easy, you'll want to carry oxygen and I hear lots of folks have to quit part way. Personally, I prefer the Japan Alps, and there are tons of other great hiking and climbing spots all over the country.

If you had to pick one place for someone to visit out in the countryside or backcountry where would it be?

For money:
10,000 yen per day - a bit tight
15,000 yen per day - comfortable
20,000 yen per day - kind of luxurious

That doesn't include big ticket expenses like your flight or bullet train across the country.

When I came the first time I spent close to 20,000 but partly because I bought lots of video game and anime bs.

Wow I'm jealous! Only thing I know is to make sure to audibly slurp when you have soup or ramen. It's considered an insult if they can't hear you eat.

Haha, I would say that while it isn't rude to do so, it's hardly essential. Do whatever is comfortable for you.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

If you had to pick one place for someone to visit out in the countryside or backcountry where would it be?

Big question! I'm off to work so I'll have to come back to it.

Double.

kamikochi is very backcountry but very beautiful, although i havent been up there myself.

Budget tips - have a huge late lunch, lunch deals are quite good, they end around 2-3 pm. Dinners always costs more, so avoid nice places for dinner, just go to konbini / hole in the wall noodle places. Drink in Izakaiya's not bars. Most places have picture menus which is uber convenient. Buy alcohol from convenience stores when bar hopping.
Highway buses are cheaper than express trains. But obviously not as enjoyable. Willer buses a good one than has an English site.
Trains- different companies have slightly different names/systems but generally there are 3 levels
Express- pay a hefty surcharge, avoids all stops but major stations, fast.
Limited express - this is the one you want in most situations, avoids smaller stops but costs the same as the local.
Local - slow, stops at all stations, only take when you need to get off at a station that the limited express wont.
I use this website to organize my train travel- Jorudan although you need to know the name of the stations to use it.

Hiroshima Peace Museum.

Brownypoints wrote:

kamikochi is very backcountry but very beautiful, although i havent been up there myself.

Unless that can be topped, that's my new dream destination for someday in the future. The google image search for kamikochi is great.

When I went I was primarily visiting family, so I didn't get to see much. I would completely suggest learning katakana. It's used for most foreign words and you can sound out many things that are pretty helpful.

obirano wrote:

When I went I was primarily visiting family, so I didn't get to see much. I would completely suggest learning katakana. It's used for most foreign words and you can sound out many things that are pretty helpful.

It's also just really fun to know how Japanese syllables work and how they use them to approximate foreign words. It'll make any film/anime watching you do make so much more sense. It's a language designed by engineers, not English majors. At least, that's the impression I get doing a bit of study. I mentioned it in the "questions you want answered thread" that Human Japanese on iPad especially is a great way to learn some Japanese fundamentals. The other platform versions are okay, but the iPad version is updated the most often from what I can tell over the last couple years.

Thanks for all the information this has been really helpful. As for the the whole tipping thing. It real varies even in europe. I remember going from Czech republic where you don't to Austria where you do. Although you don't tip as much as the US. But yeah was expecting to tip in Japan.

As for the cherry blossoms I figure they are a gamble. The weather should be nice at least. So I'll visit some outdoors stuff at least. I also figured that akihabara would be a bit played out but still fun to see. The other tech place sounds good, and I'll see if I can visit that soup shop.

I'll probable be arriving and leaving from Tokyo. Definitely going to see that castle mentioned. I love history stuff, so gotta make plans for some of the museums.

The gps phone is a great idea. I normally take a phone just for travel, and my atm card worked well in europe. Thing is the phone is an older one without it. Might look into getting a new one.

Any concerns about standing out? I figure just keep calm and look normal and I'll be fine.

I'm actually going back to Japan in early April for a couple of weeks. There's a pretty good group of GWJers living there as well. I'll post some tips tomorrow.

I actually went to Himeji castle about 10 years ago. Really cool place.

I've been there around eight times now, with various friends and family. I could quite seriously work as an English tour guide there :p. Generally thought to be the finest example of a surviving Japanese castle. Worth checking out if that's your thing.

Another out of the way recommendation.

Takayama City, Gifu. A great jumping off point for parts of the Japan Alps. Part of the old town contains traditional sake breweries. Hida Folk Village for old style Japanese houses. Hida-takayama hot spring area is nearby by bus. Also, if you're into Japanese beef, Hida-gyu is pretty special. I've been there twice, once in August and once the end of March. In August I took a bus up to Mt. Norikura. Beautiful mountain flowers and still ice left over from the winter freeze. The summit itself is just over 3000 meters tall, not far short of Fuji. Spectacular views of course. I also happened to randomly arrive at the night of the summer festival, enjoyed spectacular Taiko drums show and a fireworks competition. In March I stayed at one of the hot spring resorts and, although it was late March, it was snowing heavily. Took a cable car up a nearby mountain, sorry I don't remember which one, and took in the winter forest views. The place I stayed at one of those rare places that had an outdoor bath shared by both women and men. Nothing beats a hot spring in the snow, that's for sure (well maybe with some sake).

Some info from another thread.

Coldstream wrote:
NSMike wrote:

I know a few GWJers were, at one point, learning Japanese, or at least, kanji, and I think they were using some online tool/classes to do so. Any of you folks around or know what they might have been using? After seeing Drew Scanlon's pictures from Japan, I really want to visit there.

So I'm living in Japan and have been immersed in the culture and language for about a year now (less the time I spent on the carrier). Here are a few pearls of wisdom that I've gleaned:

1. Learn hiragana first. This is non-negotiable. Everything else will rest on this. Katakana is next. Kanji will be the remainder, and will never stop needing to be refreshed. Even my Japanese friends forget kanji. Many of the signs in Japan will be a combination of hiragana, katakana, kanji, and romanji.

2. Very basic English is widely understood in Japan, but most people either cannot or (for cultural reasons) will not speak it. If you come here, don't expect everyone to speak English to you. Happily, most people are super polite, and will do their best to help you.

3. There are a huge number of subtleties and inflections regarding word-choice, grammatical endings, and tone-of-voice that are difficult for foreigners to understand. I recommend you learn polite (formal) Japanese and then adjust it for more casual situations once you understand how to do it.

4. Decide whether your goal is primarily to read Japanese, or to speak it. Realistically, short of living in Japan or taking extensive language courses, you're not going to learn to speak Japanese out of a book or off of a website. Similarly, the Japanese in Anime and Manga is very juvenile, and not suitable for polite adult conversation. That said, I've found that Rocket Japanese is a decent resource to get you used to pronunciation and basic conversational words.

Resources:

Books--

Japanese From Zero series by Trombley and Takenaka. This is a really good series that will have you knowing your hiragana and katakana cold while also teaching you essential grammar and culture points. Highly recommended, although the mix of romanji and hiragana can be jolting if you can already read hiragana.

Basic Japanese Grammar by Everett Bleiler

Read Japanese Today by Len Walsh. This is a fun book that will help you learn the meanings of a lot of basic kanji. A few of his translations are off, but overall it's a good book for maintaining motivation and feeling like you're learning something.

Apps--

Japanese (red icon with white kanji on lower right side that reads 日本語 vertically) -- $9.99 app if I recall correctly, and worth every damned penny. Has all the hiragana, katakana, and most of the realistically-used kanji, in a searchable format. Accepts cut-and-paste with translations that are usually pretty decent. Kanji are broken down by school-grade or by frequency of use. Study mode included using SRS.

Tae Kim's Learning Japanese -- Basically an app version of the stuff that's available for free on his website. I've found his explanations helpful for a lot of things, although he gets a bit obscure now and then.

I have a bit of an unfair advantage, since I'm dating a pretty Japanese girl who happens to be a teacher and speaks excellent English. It's like having access to a personal language coach all the time. Even then, Japanese is really challenging to learn (far more so than French) but a thoroughly satisfying challenge. Ganbatte kudasai!

So few more questions,

First is it worth it to buy electronics in Japan? I'm looking to buy a 3ds or 2ds. If I would get a deal on it in Japan I would be tempted. Interested in a few other things as well. Not worried about region issues for what I'm getting.

Second, if I'm planning to stay in Tokyo is a rail pass worth it? I only have 2 weeks so I figure the most I have time for would be Tokyo and Kyoto. The rail pass seems super expensive. Also odds are I'd spend the first week in a hotel in Tokyo. So I figure a metro pass would be enough for that week.

edit: Also tempted to sell a used American 3ds xl or 2ds. Any idea if that would be worth the effort?

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