Travelling to Japan

[trollnystan]

SNIP

No smart phone over here man. They're too big, fragile and clunky for me (plus expensive) so I just stick to my little, iron-skinned dumb phone

And you need to work on your sales pitch! Watch some infomercials by Billy Mays and soak in the super salesman glory!

Ah, know that feel about it costing. I only got mine because I got money after my paternal grandmother, my last grandparent, died. So THAT'S a fun connection to have with your phone =/

Yeah, was never much of a salesperson. I got fired from my telephone sales job after only two months lol =P

Anyway, there is always the PC version if you feel like spending money on that, and they have a demo version of that too I believe!

 

[Dense_Electric]

I won't bother linking to a bunch of specific articles, but check out www.tofugu.com sometime (I *highly* recommend the How to be a Baka Gaijin articles). Search for anything related to travel, dude knows his stuff.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

SNIP

No smart phone over here man. They're too big, fragile and clunky for me (plus expensive) so I just stick to my little, iron-skinned dumb phone

And you need to work on your sales pitch! Watch some infomercials by Billy Mays and soak in the super salesman glory!

Ah, know that feel about it costing. I only got mine because I got money after my paternal grandmother, my last grandparent, died. So THAT'S a fun connection to have with your phone =/

Yeah, was never much of a salesperson. I got fired from my telephone sales job after only two months lol =P

Anyway, there is always the PC version if you feel like spending money on that, and they have a demo version of that too I believe!

Well then... You must certainly be assaulted by many interesting feels whenever you load up some angry birds!

Thanks! I have a couple grand coming to me from tax returns and left over grant money so I may just invest in all these programs and stuff!

 

[floppylobster]

I've been about 6-7 times. You'll need a lot of money. Especially if you want to eat. Buy a Japan Rail pass if you want to see the country. But you'll have to do it way ahead of time so look into it now.

I get by in Japan without a phone every time but I can speak Japanese.

 

[Flamezdudes]

Holy crap, this thread is useful for me. I'm looking to travel there next year for a few weeks with my best friend and needed help with details...

 

[Angie7F]

the skeezy mega-gaijin bars like Gas Panic or Sam & Daves.

LOL and Wall Street...

I did not know that many of the huge Gaspanics closed down in Roppongi.
If there is any industry that is taking the hit of the bad economy apart from the foreign financial companies, it would be the roppongi night scene that was feeding off the staff that work in such companies...


Any how, back on track.

I think Japan is quite warm.
If you were a thick jacket and go on the trains or go to department stores etc you would end up sweating like a pig, and the you step out where it is freezing, so you end up feeling even colder.
I actually appreciate that the recent power shortage has encourage the country to go easy on the heating.

As for the low tech, high tech thing.
The toilet speaks and flushes and washes your butt. i dont think anything can get more high tech than that...
It just feels low tech because you dont know your way around.


I think it is pretty important to have someone to show you around regardless of where you travel.

 

[licey]

Re the ATM thing - I've never had an ATM fail to read my card, but that's because I applied for a credit card that was linked with Citibank and Visa (which incidentally saw no transaction fees for me whilst I was in Japan). I recommend that for those who still have time to shop around, try to get a travel credit card without overseas fees and lists Japan as a country that the card can be used in. Even if the 7-11/Lawsons ATMs fail, the Citibank one won't (although I never had trouble with 7-11). I know in Australia that 28degrees is a very popular card, but I'm not sure if that's global. Either way, it's a nice method to ensure that I wasn't carrying around loads of cash. Make no mistake though, a lot of the shops are small, and hence won't accept cards. It's still predominately a cash economy, especially for tourists.

I was there for a month and stayed in hostels during my time there. Websites like hostelworld and the like are pretty good if you're planning on "roughing" it and sharing rooms as you can book in advance on the internet and so forth. Again, they prefer cash, although a few places will offer card facilities if pushed (you may have to pay a surcharge).

As for the whole foreigner thing, it really does depend on your appearance (as bad as it sounds) if you're there for a short period of time and don't know the language well or at all. My friend, who went a year before me, had a completely different experience to what I had. Being caucasian really helped him make friends and start conversations with native Japanese people whilst travelling was a lot lonelier for me (I'm of Asian descent, so I looked native). Whilst I'm sure I would've had a different experience if I was fluent/stayed longer, do expect to get treated differently (usually better) based on how you look (at least initially). Travelling with a friend is always good, but that's obviously not always possible.

Lastly, don't expect anything. As weird as that sounds, it always good to go in without preconceptions. That way, you're able to absorb the culture without thinking "this wasn't what I thought it would be like" and being hung up over discrepancies.