Japan Travel For The Newbie: Tips And Observations

April 4th, 2007

I was originally planning to write a series of posts with travel tips for Japan, but in the interest of sticking to what this blog is supposed to be about, I decided on one super-mega-post. I hope these tips help others who are going to Japan for the first time, as we just did. I’m no Japan expert; just a confused tourist. A more general post with photographs of trip highlights will follow shortly.

Money

Check out this link: JNTO Website.

• The Japanese money system is based on the Yen. The coins are, 1 yen, 5 yen, 10 yen, 50 yen, 100 yen, 500 yen.
• The most common bills are 1,000 yen, 5,000 yen, and 10,000 yen.
• The approximate conversion is 100 yen = 1 American dollar. When looking at prices in yen, the easiest ball park figure is to move the decimal point over two places. Coffee for 450 yen is about $4.50. Likewise, a dinner that is 1,200 yen, that’s about $12.
• In stores, commonly you’ll see a tray on the counter near the cashier. You’re supposed to put your money on this tray. The cashier will hand you the receipt and change.
• There doesn’t seem to be any sales tax, so the prices listed are what you pay — very convenient, and helpful for the clueless tourist fumbling with the new money system.
• Likewise, no tip is required in restaurants, taxis or even hotels. No wasted time figure out a 15% gratuity of anything.
• Pretty much every store we visited could make change from the 10,000 yen bill.
• Some stores and restaurants did take American credit cards like Visa and Mastercard, including the train stations. However, many smaller stores and restaurants were cash-only.

Mass Transit

Subways

Photo by aranandjennie.

• Subways are very convenient, clean, and on time.
• The closest analogy I have is the BART where you buy a ticket at a machine based on a big map showing the price of each destination station based on where you’re currently at. It seemed an average price was about 120 one way.
• After buying a ticket, you stick it in a slot on a gate in order to gain entry. Once you pass through the gate, pull out the ticket on the other site as you’ll need it to get out of the subway station at your destination. If the fare is used up on your card, you don’t pull it out on the other end.
• The subway stations are filled with cool shops, vending machines, kiosks, and restaurants. It seems it’s totally fine to ride the subway with a drink in hand.
• People do queue up in line to get on the train. There are usually markers on the ground indicating where the train will stop and therefore where the line should be.
• The Tokyo and Kyoto subways were pretty insanely crowded. Go with the flow or get crushed.
• The Shinkansen is a longer, faster train ride between cities, with seats similar to airplanes. Snacks and bento lunch boxes are available. You can pay more to reserve a seat.
• Lastly another oddity is that there are different, competing subway lines run by different companies. Sometimes you have to wander through a station to hook up with a train run by another company.

Buses

Photo by stephencannon.

• You board a bus from the back door and get out on the front. You can pay first but it’s more common to pay as you leave.
• Instead of pulling a rope to indicate you want off, there are buttons over every seat, including in the middle of the bus for the passengers that are standing. There is also a huge electronic sign in front near the driver that shows what the next stop is and what the fare will be based on where you boarded.
• In Kyoto we bought a two day pass that covered all bus rides and subway within the city limits (excluding the JR line). Awesome deal.

Taxis

• No tipping!
• Cars drive on the opposite side of the street from America. The driver sits on the right.
• Many cabs we saw had forward rear view mirrors on the hoods.
• Cab doors open automatically.

Shopping

Photo by Webomatica.

• The shopping is insanely great. It seems it’s a cultural thing to treat the customer like a deity.
• As soon as you walk in a store the retail clerks (commonly cute girls) will smile and greet you with “irasshaimase.” Clerks watch you like a hawk and any motion to buy means they leap into action, answering questions.
• Even in the crappiest fast food restaurants customer service is important.
• Helpful for the tourist is the clerks won’t rip you off (bad customer service). Several times we offered up way too much and the cashier always returned the excess money and explained why.
• Packaging is rather out of control. They’ll always give a plastic / paper bag, plus wrap whatever you buy in some piece of paper, and even stick a piece of tape on it to close it. Even junk food bought in convenience stores like crackers or cookies were commonly double-packed in foil within a container, plus with a sack of desiccant to top it off. Note: There is definitely a cleanliness / food quality obsession in Japan, but I also feel it’s a strange contradiction: despite how environmentally aware much of Japan is, this packaging thing is strangely wasteful to me as a tourist, especially being from San Francisco where a law just passed banning plastic bags from stores.
• We found prices surprisingly reasonable, especially when considering the lack of sales tax and tipping. If you come from a large metropolitan area you likely won’t flinch.

Food

Photo by Webomatica.

The Awesome

• If you enjoy Japanese food, you’re in for a treat. The quality is a step above anything in America and in some cases, perfection. I’ve never had sushi this fresh, with large hunks of buttery, fishy flesh everywhere even in subway stands for less than 10 bucks.
• Also incredible are bakeries that seem to be French inspired, with pastry, cakes, and croissants exquisitely prepared.
• Going along with the aforementioned customer service perfection is food preparation and cleanliness as an art. I’m sure we’ve all had experiences with bugs or hairs in American food — well, none of that in Japan.
• One strange dining realm (that could form the basis of a whole research project) are Japanese versions of American fast food. There’s Mos Burger, and First Kitchen where I got a shrimp pizza and my wife had a tonkatsu (breaded, fried pork) burger, with fries and a “CC Lemon” soda. The “meal deal” was called a “set.” Condiments were ketchup with horseradish and strange mayonnaise pastes. The pork cutlet had a lettuce leaf embedded in the center. McDonald’s has variations such as fried eggs on burgers and a shrimp burger. I ate a BLT burger with a light pepper dressing.
• Also handy are the crazy vending machines. Available are hot and cold beverages: tea, coffee, water, juice, vitamin drinks, and strange combinations of all of the above. I had a yogurt drink with bits of gelatin (tapioca?) floating in it, and my wife had “Pocari Sweat”.

The Not So Awesome

• There’s a definite lack of ethnic diversity beyond European and American restaurants. I didn’t see a single Mexican taqueria, only one Thai restaurant, and nary an Indian curry place. I suppose coming from California rather skews my perception in terms of dining variety.
• The other thing I found strangely absent was a total lack of good, solid whole wheat bread. I started craving a hunk of organic, non processed, sprouted wheat as in my bread of choice: Alvarado Street. You’ll commonly see sandwiches made from crustless white bread that’s as pale as daikon.

Electronics

Photo by rytc.

• Since most readers of this blog are computer types, you may be pleased to know that although the voltage is lower in Japan I was able to power and charge my laptop by borrowing a three-prong to two-prong adapter.
• Both hotels we stayed at had Internet in the room, although the first in Tokyo charged about $12 a day to use it. The only alternative was to use an Internet club in the hotel which had higher charges.
• The biggest disadvantage to using the hotel’s computers or ones in a club is the Japanese keyboard layout is different. Several symbols are in a different places and there are hiragana / katakana characters all over it.
• Many locals were totally zoned out texting on Pantone colored cellphones.
• Here’s a short list of cool technology moments:
  • Escalators that turn on as you approach.
  • Subnotebooks. Drool.
  • Train seats that automatically rotate to face the other way.
  • Plane seats on a flight from Kyoto to Japan that were huge and had adjustments to every position and angle.
  • Massage chairs: 10 minutes for 2 bucks.
  • Hotel check-out computers.
  • Sliding doors everywhere.
  • Bathrooms: toilets with bidets, warmed seats, and flush noises if you’re gaseous. Odor dispensers, automatic soap and water activators, and hand dryers.
  • I think all the bugs are blasted by secret, silent microwaves.

Language

• Most of the locals we interacted with were customer service professionals trained to be super polite, so using my out of practice Japanese skills didn’t prove to be a problem. My mangling of the Japanese language was met with blank, polite stares, and mangling of English.
• I’d recommend getting a phrase book and reviewing the most basic tourist phrases: “how much is this?” “what is this?” “where’s the toilet?” “please”, “thank you” and basic directions like left, right, and counting.
• Reading signs proved to be difficult, but if you care, hiragana and katakana (reserved for foreign words) are the basic syllabic writing, and kanji is the pictographic writing from China. Sadly, anything very important is in kanji. I quickly realized I had forgotten 99% of the kanji I learned in school and was left sounding out katakana (of which there are surprisingly many) on signs and menus. Luckilly it seems one never forgets hiragana.
• Pronunciation is straightforward — syllables are always pronounced the same way.
• Thankfully, all major streets, tourist destinations, and subway stations have English (Romaji) plus all the free tourist maps offered up by the hotels were Westernized.
• Lastly, most stores display prices with roman numerals, so the most important task of shopping proved easier.

Crash Course Diagram Of Hiragana and Katakana

Red = the English equivalent
Black = Hiragana
Blue = Katakana

Wikipedia: Hiragana, Katakana

The Most Basic Kanji You Need (unless you want to learn 10,000 more)

Numbers from 1 — 10:

一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 七, 六, 八, 九, 十

Day: æ—¥ (nichi)

Month: 月 (gatsu)

Yen: 円

Name: 名前 (namae)

And it might be good to learn some locations:

Japan: 日本 (Nihon)

Tokyo: 東京

Wikipedia: Kanji

For more, check out About.com, or play around with this Japanese to English and English to Japanese dictionary to learn some common words: Japanese to English Dictionary

That’s about it. Japan is an awesome place to visit. If you have any further questions or tips of your own, feel free to comment!