Traveling in Japan - Advice/Tips/etc?

Another vote for renting wifi. It's amazingly nice.

You only have to go that early to the fish market if you want see the auction. If you just want to wander and eat it's more normal.

That said no matter what you do they'll be a lot of walking. I killed my feet by the second day. So if that's the issue you'll have to be careful.

Looks like I'm in Japan for a few years. Do we have a thread?

Deadmonkeys wrote:

Looks like I'm in Japan for a few years. Do we have a thread?

Not really but that's awesome. Where abouts?

You can start one :).

Mr GT Chris wrote:

You can start one :).

That's a good thought. We should have a "Stranger in a Strange Land" thread where people who live or vacation in a foreign area can post questions and maybe meet-up requests for Goodjers who live there too.

Edit: Aaaaaaand done.

Vector wrote:
Deadmonkeys wrote:

Looks like I'm in Japan for a few years. Do we have a thread?

Not really but that's awesome. Where abouts?

Yup, still curious to know about this.

I'm in Fukuoka Prefecture on Kyushu.

Nice area! A friend and family members live there.

Deadmonkeys wrote:

I'm in Fukuoka Prefecture on Kyushu.

Anything to do with Sasebo naval base? I was in Fukuoka a couple of years ago. It started out as a fireworks festival, and ended in an impromptu 80's dance party with the locals at a night club. Pro-tip: shy girls in yukata (summer kimono) like to dance, but need some encouragement. Dancing like an idiot helps make others less self-conscious, it turns out.

Alcohol helps. Also, don't become the drunk shouting gaijin.

Vector wrote:

Alcohol helps. Also, don't become the drunk shouting gaijin.

Very, very true. Alcohol is a super sensitive subject for the military folks in Japan right now. One drunk gaijin can wipe out a thousand community outreach projects.

This might be better posted in the Frarking frogohs thread but anyway I'm not a drinker but I'm willing to try some sake if I make it to Japan at the end of the year. Any suggestions? I'm more interested in something fruity.

If fruity is your thing, try some good umeshu while you're over there instead. It's a sweet/sour plum wine liqueur that is absolutely delicious but unreasonably difficult to find over here in Aus Vegas. Really classes up a good karaoke session having a bottle in amongst the chuhai cans too

Love umeshu, especially on the rocks in summer. But not a sake fan so can't help you there!

DC Malleus wrote:

If fruity is your thing, try some good umeshu while you're over there instead. It's a sweet/sour plum wine liqueur that is absolutely delicious but unreasonably difficult to find over here in Aus Vegas. Really classes up a good karaoke session having a bottle in amongst the chuhai cans too :D

Funny you should say that. My girlfriend has had some fermenting on our counter for the last month or so. Just a bunch of plums in a large glass container. She claims it will be delicious and/or kill us, since the plums are toxic to eat when they're green. Should be fun.

What about sweet local liquor? I'm talking like the schnapps at a Bavarian beer cafe.

Coldstream wrote:
DC Malleus wrote:

If fruity is your thing, try some good umeshu while you're over there instead. It's a sweet/sour plum wine liqueur that is absolutely delicious but unreasonably difficult to find over here in Aus Vegas. Really classes up a good karaoke session having a bottle in amongst the chuhai cans too :D

Funny you should say that. My girlfriend has had some fermenting on our counter for the last month or so. Just a bunch of plums in a large glass container. She claims it will be delicious and/or kill us, since the plums are toxic to eat when they're green. Should be fun.

My wife used to work at a snack bar. The one time she took me they had cherry sake sitting in the exact same style glass container with a bunch of cherries floating in it. I was already tipsy but I thought it tasted well.

There's also chu-hi if you'd just like to have a can of cold sweet alcoholic beverage.

Deadmonkeys wrote:

I'm in Fukuoka Prefecture on Kyushu.

Fukuoka is an awesome city.

I love Kyushu as a whole, but if you're into hiking at all, I can't recommend Yakushima enough.

(Also, classing up a Karaoke session with umehsu is throwing pearls before drunken, drunken swine. Especially if it's a nomihoudai - all you can drink - place.)

Arise, arise zombie threat!!

I'm attanding a wedding in Tsu, Mei province in May, and i have a day and change unscheduled so far between wedding shinanigans and flying back to the US from KIX. I'm kind of having analysis paralysis for what to do with my time. Any recommendations that aren't more than a few hours travel time from the airport?

With limited time, I'd recommend just kind of wandering around your close vicinity. Try different places to eat, enter some stores, and go to a shrine if there's one nearby. I was just in Japan for three weeks and I spent most of my non-family time just going for walks in in the city and eating all the pizza-man (steamed pizza buns) in the convenience stores.

Yup one of my favorite things was wondering around and getting food. Lots of mom and pop places. With nice gardens/parks.

Did anyone on the thread mention the thing where hotels will ship your bags to your next location so you can more easily travel there by train?

This is in a 3-way tie for best things about Japan. The full list being

1. The rice is good. Everywhere. Even at 7-11. Even at the bento stands for train food.

2. Wifi hotspot rentals

3. Luggage shipping.

psu_13 wrote:

Did anyone on the thread mention the thing where hotels will ship your bags to your next location so you can more easily travel there by train?

This is in a 3-way tie for best things about Japan. The full list being

1. The rice is good. Everywhere. Even at 7-11. Even at the bento stands for train food.

2. Wifi hotspot rentals

3. Luggage shipping.

ooooh. Is this a standard thing?

It also worth noting I don't speak a lick of Japanese, aside from what i can glean from Duolingo between now and may.

Google translate is your friend.

thrawn82 wrote:
psu_13 wrote:

Did anyone on the thread mention the thing where hotels will ship your bags to your next location so you can more easily travel there by train?

This is in a 3-way tie for best things about Japan. The full list being

1. The rice is good. Everywhere. Even at 7-11. Even at the bento stands for train food.

2. Wifi hotspot rentals

3. Luggage shipping.

ooooh. Is this a standard thing?

My wife, who is Japanese handles all this, but yes. She ships our main luggage from the airport (it's a separate kiosk company at Haneda airport and I'm sure other airports offer it as well) to her parents' place. We also had it picked up and shipped from her parents place to Canada. I'm not entirely sure how to do that in English, however. Japan isn't well organized for travel with suitcases so this is highly recommended if you can get past any language barrier.

Another thing we did was rent a pocket wifi at a place in the airport. It was about $80 CAD for three weeks. As long as you're in a reasonably populated area, it will work great. Comes with it's own pocket charger so you can keep it charged on long trips if need be. That wasn't a pay per usage either; flat rate.

Talk to the hotel staff, they are extremely helpful and very willing to give you travel advice. Hell, they even will have utensils behind the desk if you're just eating in your hotel room and forgot to grab some.

Japan is a non-grounded country so if you want to use anything with three prongs, pick up an adapter. If you're having trouble finding one in North America, quickly drop by an electronics store in Japan and ask the staff for one.

A lot more people in the cities speak English far better than you expect. Most of them won't necessarily reveal but if you are in a pinch, just ask in English and someone will at least try and help.

Bars called a Izakaya and they'll offer nomihodai (all you can drink) and tabehodai (all you can eat). These are usually time limited or will come with various restrictions (example: $30 nomihodai if you but two things of food). You can drink anywhere at anytime in Japan but eating is pretty restricted to inside or just outside of a convenience store.

DO NOT GO IN ANY BAR THAT IS LABELED "SNACK"! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

Vector wrote:

DO NOT GO IN ANY BAR THAT IS LABELED "SNACK"! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

this is phrased like it should be obvious, but isn't to me so: Why?

boogle wrote:

Google translate is your friend.

Especially after everyone is about three beers into the evening. Google Translate is *hilarious* and good for making friends.

Vector wrote:

DO NOT GO IN ANY BAR THAT IS LABELED "SNACK"! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

The better ones wouldn't let him in anyway, since the service is in Japanese. Actually, that's a good point to bring up: if someone makes crossed arms or fingers at you (and perhaps says something to the effect of "no gaikokujin" or "gomen nasai"), don't be offended. It's usually because they can't offer satisfactory service (in their opinion) to non-Japanese speakers. Occasionally it's because they've had problems with foreign visitors, but usually the former.

And yeah, don't eat or drink while walking down the street. That's a bit of a faux pas.

thrawn82 wrote:
Vector wrote:

DO NOT GO IN ANY BAR THAT IS LABELED "SNACK"! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

this is phrased like it should be obvious, but isn't to me so: Why?

Mostly this:

Coldstream wrote:
Vector wrote:

DO NOT GO IN ANY BAR THAT IS LABELED "SNACK"! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

The better ones wouldn't let him in anyway, since the service is in Japanese. Actually, that's a good point to bring up: if someone makes crossed arms or fingers at you (and perhaps says something to the effect of "no gaikokujin" or "gomen nasai"), don't be offended. It's usually because they can't offer satisfactory service (in their opinion) to non-Japanese speakers. Occasionally it's because they've had problems with foreign visitors, but usually the former.

But also Snack Bars are very expensive service bars where you'll get waited on by a personal bar girl. All the prices are jacked up. It's almost entirely businessmen complaining about their lives and young pretty women faux fawning over them. My wife used to work at one. Like Coldstream says, the better places will immediately show you the door (and this happened to me in Niigata on a dare to enter a bar called Snack Beaver) but I've been told enough stories of foreigners not understanding where they are and getting a massive bill at the end.

Coldstream wrote:

And yeah, don't eat or drink while walking down the street. That's a bit of a faux pas.

Drinking is fine on the streets and trains. The biggest thing is to carry your garbage with you until you can appropriately drop it off in the correct bins.

Oh yeah the mobile wifi was a life saver. Used that the entire trip. GPS alone is a lifesaver because some places are a bit of a maze. I never had much trouble not knowing Japanese, but I was in pretty big cities most the time. Do learn the basics: please, thank you, etc. That's just polite when traveling in my view. Oh and if they shouting as you enter a store/restaurant it means welcome. Oh and the little models of food in restaurant fronts is exactly how your food will look like.