Japan trip, part 0

I’m back from my break! What I didn’t mention before was that I was spending my break in Japan 🙂 It was an amazing trip, and I loved it there. The people were nice and polite. The public transportation was great. The food was delicious. The cities were clean. There were so many things to see, and many things are more orderly and efficient there. I’m going to miss being there!

I have a lot to say about my trip, especially since I was there for 12 days, and I also have a lot of photos to go through. While I get those ready, I wanted to spend this entry rambling about useful things to know as a foreigner visiting Japan.

Culture / Etiquette

I think this is true of any trip you take abroad, but it’s good to know about the country’s culture and etiquette, so you don’t accidentally do something rude or offensive. I thought it was useful to know train, restaurant, and paying etiquette in Japan. For example:

1. People tend to line up for the subway/trains before they come (it’s marked where the doors will line up). When the train does arrive, they stand to the sides of the door to let people out before they go in. Even in the busiest Tokyo stations, I saw nice and neat lines.
2. It’s considered rude to be loud on the trains, and there’s always PSAs telling people to silence their phones and not talk on them. (You can still use them, which they do a lot, but don’t be loud on them.)
3. You don’t tip, and you typically bring your restaurant bill to the front to pay (instead of at the table). Some places do meal tickets instead where you pay first.
4. There is usually a tray by the cashiers, which is where you put your money or credit card, instead of handing it directly to the person. They then return your change or card in the same tray.

Useful Sites

Japan Guide – This site is absolutely amazing, and I planned most of my trip using it. It lists attractions per city, including how to get to them and the public transportation costs. There are also many pages with tips and explanations of how things work in Japan.

Hyperdia – I used this site so much alongside Google Maps to figure out which train to use. Google Maps helped me figure out which stations I wanted, and Hyperdia gave me train timetables, costs, route options, and sometimes the platform number.

Japanese Guest Houses – This helped me find and book a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn). The staff there can be your go between and check for availability and ask any questions you have to the ryokan. You can also book through them, which is what I did.

Tripadvisor helped in finding hotels and restaurants. I also booked things through Expedia and Travelocity.

Money

Yen is used in Japan, and cash is used more than credit card. Narita airport has surprisingly good rates for USD and Euros, so we exchanged some cash there after we landed. For the rest of the trip, we used ATMs. Not all ATMs accept foreign cards though, so we mainly relied on ones inside 7 Elevens.

Language Barrier

The touristy areas are very friendly to English, Chinese, and Korean speakers. Many restaurants have either picture menus or versions in those three languages. Train stations usually have English, even the ticket machines. My husband and I have been studying Japanese on and off, but not enough to use it all the time. Knowing some Japanese did help us though, but I think you can get by without it.

We did find it was really helpful to know hiragana and katakana, and they aren’t hard to learn. When we were in Osaka, a few train stations didn’t have romaji (English characters) on their station maps, so we relied on reading the kana. We were also at a sushi restaurant where the chef didn’t know any English. Our friends had to order by pointing out each individual nigiri piece, while my husband and I were able to read the kana and order in Japanese, which was way faster.

Trains

Japan has trains run by different companies. Getting a pass or card for one type of train doesn’t mean you can use it on all trains. We ended up buying tickets as we went by using the ticket machines.

We also had a Japan Rail Pass, which a lot of foreigners get ahead of time (you can’t get this inside Japan). This allows unlimited use of JR trains, the Hikari and Kodama bullet trains, and the N’EX (cannot be used on non-JR trains). The pass is not cheap, and it’s really only worth it if you are changing cities. I suggest using Japan Guide or Hyperdia to estimate your JR fares to see if it’s worth it for you. Even though we stayed for 12 days, only the 7 day pass was worth it for us.

Luggage Delivery

This is amazing, and I highly recommend using it if it makes sense in your travel plans. Japan has a delivery service (takuhaibin) within the country that is low cost and reliable. For nearby cities, it is next day delivery. Many people use it to forward their luggage from hotel to hotel. Unless you’re trying to deliver to the airport, you don’t need a prior reservation. Just take it to a place that does it or do it through your hotel the day of. You’ll need the address in Japanese, which I was able to look up with Japanese Google Maps.

For example, we used it to forward our luggage from Tokyo to Kyoto, and then back to Tokyo from Kyoto. Since it’s next day delivery, we just packed a smaller bag for the day we didn’t have our luggage. It was so much easier to go through train stations and such when we just had a small bag instead of 2 large suitcases.

Anyway…

I already wrote a lot, so I’ll save the rest for when I actually talk about the trip 🙂 My next entry will be about Fuji Q and Shibuya!