The Japan Trip Resource Thread!

[IanE]

A week and you're worried about loneliness? I'm intending to go for anything up to six months (traveling through Asia).

[QualityChimp]

should I try and speak in my dodgy Japanese, or just stick to English?

I spent months trying to learn some basic Japanese ready for my trip, and had mixed results...

The first thing I asked when we arrived was some old construction worker who I asked "where is this hotel?" and he just waved his hands, shook his head and walked away!

In a restaurant I had to order food for a group of us and took the waitress outside to point at the food and say "two of these, one of those" etc and she waited until I'd finished before saying "That was really good, well done. I'll go and get your food ready". Felt a right chump.

Got the hotels sorted with "my name is QualityChimp, I have a room for one night" but despite being a bloke, I always wanted to say "I have a vaginal infection" and see how confused the staff were. I always bottled it.

I told a few people I liked Godzilla.

It was fun for a while to go to the places where you were thrown in at the deep end as there's no English at all like the capsule Hotel I stayed in at Fukuoka and the Iga Ueno Ninja Museum!

I'm glad I got to visit the Bandai Museum before it closed.

You're going to have a great time!

[Anpanman]

I'll second Iga Ueno, great place to visit, and you get a castle thrown in for free.

Where our home in Japan is, it's Japan only I'm afraid, Dave Heats can probably testify to that as I think he's still out there.

The problem with my Japanese is that instead of just saying the words in my natural tongue I try and speak them in a Japaneasy way with no English accent and fail miserably as my inflections go all over the place.

[QualityChimp]

Ha ha ha, I know what you mean, Ampanman!

I find myself talking like Sonny Chiba in Kill Bill!

I wouldn't normally talk in a gruff voice, but for some reason my efforts to speak Japanese sound like that.

[112]

Ampanman, Mr Davey Heats is back in the UK, in fact he has been back a while now. I wont rain on his chips too much, so ill wait for him to come on and let yah know what went on.

112

[Anpanman]

Cheers for that 112, sent him a mail but not heard anything.

Hope he had a good time anyway.

[L3wisD]

Flying out next month! Can't wait!

Just thought of something however...
What is the deal with tipping?

In america you're - You're pretty much - expected to tip waiters, bellboys and taxi drivers ETC.

I'd hate to offer a Japanese Waiter a tip for working hard, only to offend him or something..

[Kieran76]

Tipping is a no no if I remember correctly. I never tipped as I was sure I read it was not expected.

[randombs]

Yeah, they're not into that kinda stuff.

I got into a bit of an argument with this guy in Osaka selling apples from his van (he knew bugger-all English, my Japanese is OK but still not good enough).

It's his fault though for saying 'service' which put me on the defensive (spent a year or so in Syria so I'm used to bribing people and stuff), and after much to-ing and fro-ing I got him to weigh the apples only to find he'd actually given me 50% extra free

I was super embarassed and told him how I'd been thinking throughout the exchange that Osakans are really cool and laid-back and that, and we ended up having a laugh about the whole thing.

I taught him the correct word - discount - so hopefully he still remembers it!

[kryss]

They say "service" when giving you freebies.

I used to have to walk past the Bandai Museum every day on the way to work. The building was actually shown very briefly in the anime "punipuni poemi" before it became the BM. I never actually went around the actual museum, just wandered around the Gundam shop.

[Darwock]

Yeah you don't tip - but when you sit down, a lot of Izakayas will give you a dish of some unidentifiable substance that you didn't ask for, and whack a few hundred yen onto your bill for the privilege. That would be a service charge.

I remember my first night on the town in Japan, one of our group didn't know the "no tipping" thing, and left some money on the table. We moved on, and were standing outside a club about to go in - all of a sudden the waiter from the previous place came running down the street to return the money she'd left..

[Asura]

Also, it's worth mentioning that you should take your passport EVERYWHERE with you in Tokyo, especially if you plan on making big-ish purchases...

This isn't the complete story; as someone that lives in Japan I'll fill in the blanks.

As a non-Japanese citizen, it is against the law for you to be in Japan and NOT be carryind ID. Although I've never heard of it happening, the police can ask you for ID at any time - and on the offchance you are arrested, or if you have any brushes with the law, you're expected to have that ID with you.

For ID, there are several options. The first is to carry a passport or an international driver's permit - either of these will do the job. Obviously though, you don't want to carry your passport everywhere; a photocopy of it will suffice for most purposes, as long as the picture is recognisably you. You'll need two sheets; one of your photo page and one of your visa.

However, if you're staying longer than a tourist visa normally allows (90 days), although you can extend a tourist visa to 180 days, I'd still apply for a foreign ID card - you can do it at any city hall or similar place.

[Asura]

In a restaurant I had to order food for a group of us and took the waitress outside to point at the food and say "two of these, one of those" etc and she waited until I'd finished before saying "That was really good, well done. I'll go and get your food ready". Felt a right chump.

Although being English, feeling this way is natural, to anyone who has yet to go, it's safe to assume everyone of east asian descent you see is either Japanese or speaks Japanese. On the rare occasion you're wrong, then they won't mind, as they know it's a perfectly fair assumption given how few foreigners live in Japan. If they react negatively, then they're obviously a **** and don't pay it any mind.

[teddymeow]

Well, the final countdown has begun.

In exactly one week I'll have just landed in Narita!!

Woohoo!!!

[Darwock]

Although I've never heard of it happening, the police can ask you for ID at any time

I'm amazed you've never heard of it happening.. it's happened to me twice in just over a year and it's happened to my friends countless times. I think a lot of the time the police are just bored.. I hope that's all it is and not xenophobia in action. I once spent 40 minutes standing trying to explain that the bike I was riding was my own, that I had the receipt and the registration papers, and that I was incredibly late for work. Three coppers took it in turns to come up and ask me the same retarded questions (all of which could be answered by looking at my alien registration card) - what's your name, where are you from, where do you work?

It happened when I was just here on holiday too though, I got stopped in Shin Osaka station and had to produce my passport. My friend had neglected the advice and left it in the hotel, it was only cos I could communicate enough that he didn't get hauled off to the nick. Incidentally, on his 2nd trip to Japan he DID get hauled off to the nick for not carrying ID. Took a few hours and phone calls to sort out.

It really is crucial to carry your passport.