Suggestions for travel in Japan

[JMO]

Jim Jones made a good suggestion, get some guide books and spend some time with them to figure out where you want to go and what to do - it will be time and money well spent. One other practical consideration those guide books will tell you is that, as a visitor from the US, your ATM card will not work in most of the ATM machines you will see (they are everywhere in Japan as in many/most other places around the world). For US travellers you have to be aware that only the Japanese Post Office branches and (interestingly) the Citibank outposts and their ATMs will work with US ATM cards. The good news is that if you take trains to get from one city or town to the next, there is usually a Post Office right next to each central train station, and the you can find your way to other local Post Office branches when you are in whatever location. All Post Offices have some ATMs in their lobbies that will accept a wide variety of ATM and credit cards, but you need to know that those lobbies are not open 24/7, so don't get caught out late at night with insufficient folding money. You'll need cash to get around, and in many local restaurants (though credit cards are accepted in most restaurants), but it is an important consideration to understand that you won't be able to get cash just everywhere. ...

[Jim Andrada]

And unless things have changed remarkably in the last few years, Traveler's Checks are pretty useless. You can get them cashed at major banks but it's a a back office process that takes an hour or two. Japan is still largely a cash society and nobody even blinks if you hand them a 10,000Y ($100) bill for a small purchase.

Another trick to remember. If you need to ask someone something, write it down legibly. Six years of English is standard in Jr High/High School but most people don't speak it. Many people however can read it.

And don't be surprised if you ask for directions and someone just takes you where you want to go. I remember one night my wife and I were going to a show with friends and all except my wife were in front of the theater on schedule. My wife didn't show up for 20 minutes. She said some American guy was looking confused in the subway so she just took him where he wanted to go - it was easier than explaining how to do it.

That brings to mind something very important. Punctuality is essential. Being 10 minutes late to an appointment is considered extremely insulting without some really good reason (like rescuing lost foreigners, I guess).

We had a party one day and a half hour beforehand I took our Great Dane out for a walk in nearby city park. I noticed several of our guests sitting on benches looking at their watches, but they didn't see me.

I went home and just as the clock struck 2PM the doorbell rang and all our Japanese friends were there. The Americans straggled in over the next 30 minutes. Unlike the US where classes start 10 minutes after the hour, my wife tells me that Japanese classes start exactly on the hour and end a few minutes before the hour. Trains leave on time. If you're 3 seconds late you've missed it. If you get to the station only a minute or two before train time they'll exchange your ticket for a later train - but if you show up even a second after the posted departure time you're out of luck and your ticket is worthless. Don't ask how I know. Be on time!!!!!

[David R Munson]

Now that the thread has been resurrected, a few notes for future readers:

• Be aware that taxis in Japan are typically a luxury service. Do not be surprised if you drop $80-100 on what seems like a relatively short ride, considering the price. Not a problem if you arrive with a good budget and expect to pay as much. If you're a miserly traveler like I tend to be, explore other options.
• Hostels are a great option for travel in Japan. Hostelworld.com is a great resource and has allowed me to do things like average $22/night for lodging in Tokyo in the last few years. If you immediately recoil from the idea of a hostel, it's time to take another look - hostels now aren't necessarily what you expect. In particular in Tokyo and Kyoto I recommend the Khaosan hostels. They're often booked months in advance, so plan and book early.
• The well-traveled, must-go sites are well-traveled must-gos for a reason, but I've found at least as much enjoyment in the more pedestrian (read: everywhere else) areas. Pick a street, pick a direction, pick a subway stop (etc) and go wandering. It's my method wherever I go and it has brought me so many happy surprises I cannot recommend it enough.
• Don't forget about Osaka. Tokyo is practically mythological, and the history and cultural significance of Kyoto make it a no-brainer, and I feel like Osaka gets short-changed. Great city, great local culture, great local food. Even Tennoji and Shinsekai, the "bad" (ha!) parts of Osaka have a special charm to me. Dotonbori is great, but again, don't forget about everyday Japan.
• If you have time and the inclination, learn a little Japanese before you go. Don't worry about reading and writing, though learning the hiragana (a phonetic syllabary) would be both manageable and extremely useful. Basic functional language will go a long way toward getting along day-to-day and building relationships along the way. There are many resources now, take your pick. I recommend japanesepod101 (Google it!) for functional language and a free Anki deck or smartphone app for the hiragana. This is something that should be fun. Language isn't something you learn, it's something you live.

[Jim Andrada]

And as an add-on to David's post, the easiest way to learn Hiragana (and Katakana) is to get a pack of flash cards and spend a few hours with them. Use the cards honestly (Don't cheat and look slyly out of the corner of your eye at the reflection of the flip side in your mirror) and like you mean it - work at it for three or four hours. I guarantee you can learn them in one long day each. I did and I was 50 years old when I started.

Oh yeah - why would you want to know them! Because both sets of simplified symbols are PHONETIC, unlike the Kanji which have absolutely no obviously rational system for ferreting out the pronunciation. Particularly when used for male first names. Even the Japanese are often stumped by how to pronounce someone's name - I kid you not! And place names are another horror show - if you don't live nearby you probably can't pronounce the printed name in the JR station map. I remember once walking though the town of Yufuin - very nice scenic area on Kyushu - and noticing a sign pointing to the left to the Yufuin Town Hall, and right to Yufuin Station. Of course they used different characters for the town name on each sign. I asked the stationmaster about it and he told me that area around the station used to be a different town, and when it merged with Yufuin, the railroad decided it was too much trouble to change the maps so they just changed the pronunciation of the characters. Sounds like BS, but this is Japan - it's probably true

Which brings us back to why you want to learn the Kana (besides the fact that one of the earliest literary works in Japanese was written in a precursor of the modern Hiragana.)

And you REALLY want to know them, because (Drumroll) when you nervously look out the window of your train at the sign with the name of the station on it, said sign will be in Kanji - and there will always be Hiragana written nearby with the phonetic name of the station, and you will know where you are and whether you should get off the train or not. Which are good things to know!

And grammatical word endings are written in Hiragana, so it's pretty handy stuff.

Oh yeah - Katakana is used mainly for writing non-Japanese words borrowed from English or some other language, but with the vast majority I believe coming from English. So you can find your hotel (ホテル　＝　Ho Te Ru)　Ah yes, L's and R's - a different issue.