Aussie Wendy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2008
We (me, hubby and for part of the time our 20 year old daughter) have recently returned from 2 weeks in Japan. Had a lot of fun but it was challenging at times-mostly because of the language differences when things went wrong. For those of you who plan to travel to Japan and don’t want to troll through a whole trip report, here are some up front thoughts and tips for future travellers. I am attempting to minimise duplication of info already provided by Lurkyloo and others. For those of you who want to cut straight to the report skip the following and follow the links at the end.
1. As others say you don’t need to read or speak Japanese to enjoy Japan (especially if only going to the Disney resort and Tokyo). Elsewhere while you don’t need it, knowing some basic phrases in Katakana would make life a little easier for shopping in supermarkets, reading train and bus info etc. We managed OK without it but had some problems when we had an unexpected issue with delayed travel, see below. Mostly you can use simple words and sign language to get your point across. We found everyone, even in the tourist info offices, have very limited English. The major buses and trains do put up the destination and the next stop in English which is wonderful but at the station it can still be confusing with the myriad types of trains and making sure you get on the right one that you bought your ticket for. Many restaurants have picture menus but we sometimes ended up in places where they didn’t and then had little idea what we were ordering! It was all part of the experience and no big deal. Some minor examples-our first foray into a supermarket (we had self contained accommodation in Kyoto) we came home with butter and margarine instead of margarine and cheese (we have discovered cheese is VERY expensive in Japan and limited range for sale). In Tokyo we bought what looked like the milk we bought in Kyoto and ended up with liquid yoghurt. We caught the wrong train to reach Hikone-despite my noting all the warnings on-line, and paid an expensive “top-up” fare.
Our main problem was the day we were to catch a train to Kanazawa on the west coast. Bad weather closed down train lines but there were significant delays with this info being posted on the boards so it looked like trains were still running. No information was posted anywhere in English-info in Japanese was being scrolled under the boards but not sure how much they were being told either-there were lots of confused faces on the locals too. You had to queue in incredibly long JR desk lines to find out what was going on/re-schedule your tickets. Finally around 4pm (3rd time for the day in queues) we were told all lines were down til the next day and we had to find emergency accommodation for the night. The tourist office staff seemed to struggle to understand our request for lists of possible hotels and when asked-after a lot of sign language-referred us to a Japanese speaking, Japanese keyboard internet centre which was not much help-there seemed to be none in the station (we were using free wifi or cables in hotels so didn’t have access everywhere). Anyway we found a hotel in the end & cancelled our accommodaton in Kanazawa. All the people we encountered I must add, were incredibly nice and tried always very hard to help. I would recommend if travelling around a lot, learn some basic Japanese and/or take a translation book with you. UPDATE: We would now (several years on) just buy a SIM card to include data access to look up hotels if need be and to translate on the go.
2. Beware of transport delays and cancellations cf above. From around 11am that day various lines were progressively shut down including the Kansai airport line from about 2pm til the next day. Unlike here in Brisbane when there’s a problem, I did not see that JR were putting on extra buses to the airport as an alternative but not needing them I could be wrong. The shinkansen to Tokyo started running again, I think it was later that afternoon. I would recommend building in some fat in your travel plans. For example, I would now never schedule a trip from Osaka back to Tokyo the same day as a flight home and would know alternatives if one form of transport was down- what to do, where to go to find alternatives. Many lines were significantly delayed 3 days earlier due to the weather too, so I suspect this is not an uncommon event and we were there in the relatively “stable” weather pattern of April.
Postscript-I have since looked it up and this was the worst storm in the area since 1959 with all flights cancelled til the next day as well and four casualties with building collapses in smaller towns. I have been told by locals posting elsewhere that this was an unusual event to be so widespread. Still worth appreciating things like this can happen.
3. On the topic of travel, on buses and trains the next station always appeared in English as well as Japanese on the boards inside the carriage/bus and was announced in English though sometimes on the buses delays made it unclear if it was the stop it had stopped at or the next one coming up so we got off at the wrong stop sometimes but they weren't too far apart. The major trains were very clear though we found on a brief trip on the trains in Osaka they were less foreign-tourist friendly compared to Kyoto. Directions to sights from bus stops in Kyoto were not sign posted unlike train exits. Machines dispensing tickets are at all stations and have an English button which steps you through and labels everything in English making them very easy to use.
Due to the delay issue we paid extra for a reserved seat to Kanazawa (we did not have a JR pass as for what we did it was dearer). Because our train - the second scheduled for the day - happened to actually be the first one running they allowed it to jam full of people - I guess understandable but the reserved carriages were so full of “non-reserved” people crowding the aisles and entry you couldn’t get on. It was the classic Delhi scramble as we literally forced our way on board elbowing people and being so thankful we had minimal luggage. Sometime later we and others, forcibly pushed our way to our seats and were able to sit down. Our train to Tokyo-which we also reserved as it seemed easier to know which carriage to go to, time of arrival printed on ticket etc, was half empty and a totally different experience! We however, didn’t find Tokyo trains/subway too crazy (well no different to peak hours in any city). I would consider it worth the extra $ (if no JR Pass) or effort (if hold JR pass) to reserve a seat-even if for later the same day as it does make it easier unless you are a single person travelling light. Also if you don’t hold a JR Rail Pass and intend travelling around the Kansai region consider getting a JR West Rail pass (Kansai Pass) for 1, 2, 3 or 4 days. The 1 day pass is worth it even just for the express train from the airport to Kyoto.
4. As people say, many places do not accept credit cards. We used cash a lot but whilst our bank advised they would all be chip and pin, we found where we did use a credit card it was swipe and signature and only once using a pin and never a chip. We never ended up using an ATM but others on assorted websites give advice in this regard eg only some accept foreign cards (such as Citibank).
5. Our “Travel sim” for mobile phone calls worked but only on one of our newer phones (Nokia E71).
6. We found western toilet options everywhere we went, always with paper, running water and often soap and sometimes antiseptic wash as well. Disney has antiseptic wash as well as soap in all toilets. All were very clean. Many in department stores, major tourist venues etc had hand dryers (Dyson style now popular here in Aus). The Japanese still do carry their little hand towels with them but only once or twice at temples did we find we needed something with which to dry our hands. Many toilet seats were heated (luxury!) and where not, like in our machiya, they have fuzzy toilet seat covers instead.
My hubby wouldn’t let me buy one eg from Tokyu Hands or Passport to bring home. I thought it a great idea for winter nights! We were also impressed many fast food outlets, even MacDonalds (yes we succumbed), had a hand basin and soap in the corner of the store for hand washing.
7. The food was excellent, always served tongue burning hot and most often cooked while you wait, even in tiny hole-in-the-wall type places. We did find when eating in restaurants that as a meal was ready it was served, so if my hubby (most often) ordered a simpler meal than my daughter and I he got his and had eaten it by the time my and my daughter’s were served-not the concept of serve all persons at once as we have in the west but it meant food was wonderfully hot. We also almost always were given iced water automatically as they do in the US (or serve yourself in café style places) and often wet towels or wipes. Food was also very cheap. We were eating main meals at converted Aus$6-$7-mostly bowls of ramen or udon or Japanese curry (I have become an addict-its mild compared to Indian or Thai but I love the flavours) or pasta. Tempura and rice and other seafood/meaty mains were often still only $10-12. Packets of ready made sandwiches in 7-11 type stores (Lawsons were the nicest) and department store food hall basements were normally ¥300-350 (Aus$3.50-4). Add drinks and crisps and/or a cake or tart (should have taken a pic but didn’t-Lawsons chocolate tarts were very, very yummy) and lunches/light dinners were $8-$10/person. Italian cafes and restaurants were everywhere-I think of Japan I think Italian now. Perhaps because pasta resembles noodles. It was always very good.
8. On the topic of water (well we were some sentences ago), we are on rain water tanks at home and find Brisbane and surrounding areas water intolerable. The water in Kyoto and across the south and west was like drinking our rain water - tasted good and didn’t upset our stomachs as changing water often does for us. Tokyo wasn’t as good but still wasn’t bad. Meant we saved money on not buying bottled water.
That’s all I can think of for now. Onto the trip report. Advance apologies food porn is limited-as always we simply forget or the pics came out too bad. I am doing this out of order since it is the Disboards after all-and starting with our last 2 days at Disney Sea and Disneyland then I will double back to Kyoto, Kanazawa and Tokyo.
Day 1 Travel Day
Day 2 Kyoto Southern Higashiyama Part 1
Day 2 Cont.
Day 3 Arashiyama and Kinkakuji
Day 4 Hikone and Kiyomizu light-up
Day 5 Nara
Day 5 Nara continued
Day 6 Kyoto-Fushimi-Inari, Ginkakuji, Shoren-in light-up in 3 parts
Day 7 We leave Kyoto-NOT
Day 8 Kanazawa at last
Day 9 In and around Kanazawa
Day 10 Off to Tokyo
Day 11 In Tokyo-cherry blossom!
Day 12 Sunday in Tokyo and off to Disney
Day 13 Disney Sea part 1
Day 13 Part 2 DisneySea cont.
Part 3 Disneysea
Day 14 Disneyland Part 1
Day 14 Disneyland Part 2
Day 14 Disneyland part 3 to home
1. As others say you don’t need to read or speak Japanese to enjoy Japan (especially if only going to the Disney resort and Tokyo). Elsewhere while you don’t need it, knowing some basic phrases in Katakana would make life a little easier for shopping in supermarkets, reading train and bus info etc. We managed OK without it but had some problems when we had an unexpected issue with delayed travel, see below. Mostly you can use simple words and sign language to get your point across. We found everyone, even in the tourist info offices, have very limited English. The major buses and trains do put up the destination and the next stop in English which is wonderful but at the station it can still be confusing with the myriad types of trains and making sure you get on the right one that you bought your ticket for. Many restaurants have picture menus but we sometimes ended up in places where they didn’t and then had little idea what we were ordering! It was all part of the experience and no big deal. Some minor examples-our first foray into a supermarket (we had self contained accommodation in Kyoto) we came home with butter and margarine instead of margarine and cheese (we have discovered cheese is VERY expensive in Japan and limited range for sale). In Tokyo we bought what looked like the milk we bought in Kyoto and ended up with liquid yoghurt. We caught the wrong train to reach Hikone-despite my noting all the warnings on-line, and paid an expensive “top-up” fare.
Our main problem was the day we were to catch a train to Kanazawa on the west coast. Bad weather closed down train lines but there were significant delays with this info being posted on the boards so it looked like trains were still running. No information was posted anywhere in English-info in Japanese was being scrolled under the boards but not sure how much they were being told either-there were lots of confused faces on the locals too. You had to queue in incredibly long JR desk lines to find out what was going on/re-schedule your tickets. Finally around 4pm (3rd time for the day in queues) we were told all lines were down til the next day and we had to find emergency accommodation for the night. The tourist office staff seemed to struggle to understand our request for lists of possible hotels and when asked-after a lot of sign language-referred us to a Japanese speaking, Japanese keyboard internet centre which was not much help-there seemed to be none in the station (we were using free wifi or cables in hotels so didn’t have access everywhere). Anyway we found a hotel in the end & cancelled our accommodaton in Kanazawa. All the people we encountered I must add, were incredibly nice and tried always very hard to help. I would recommend if travelling around a lot, learn some basic Japanese and/or take a translation book with you. UPDATE: We would now (several years on) just buy a SIM card to include data access to look up hotels if need be and to translate on the go.
2. Beware of transport delays and cancellations cf above. From around 11am that day various lines were progressively shut down including the Kansai airport line from about 2pm til the next day. Unlike here in Brisbane when there’s a problem, I did not see that JR were putting on extra buses to the airport as an alternative but not needing them I could be wrong. The shinkansen to Tokyo started running again, I think it was later that afternoon. I would recommend building in some fat in your travel plans. For example, I would now never schedule a trip from Osaka back to Tokyo the same day as a flight home and would know alternatives if one form of transport was down- what to do, where to go to find alternatives. Many lines were significantly delayed 3 days earlier due to the weather too, so I suspect this is not an uncommon event and we were there in the relatively “stable” weather pattern of April.
Postscript-I have since looked it up and this was the worst storm in the area since 1959 with all flights cancelled til the next day as well and four casualties with building collapses in smaller towns. I have been told by locals posting elsewhere that this was an unusual event to be so widespread. Still worth appreciating things like this can happen.
3. On the topic of travel, on buses and trains the next station always appeared in English as well as Japanese on the boards inside the carriage/bus and was announced in English though sometimes on the buses delays made it unclear if it was the stop it had stopped at or the next one coming up so we got off at the wrong stop sometimes but they weren't too far apart. The major trains were very clear though we found on a brief trip on the trains in Osaka they were less foreign-tourist friendly compared to Kyoto. Directions to sights from bus stops in Kyoto were not sign posted unlike train exits. Machines dispensing tickets are at all stations and have an English button which steps you through and labels everything in English making them very easy to use.
Due to the delay issue we paid extra for a reserved seat to Kanazawa (we did not have a JR pass as for what we did it was dearer). Because our train - the second scheduled for the day - happened to actually be the first one running they allowed it to jam full of people - I guess understandable but the reserved carriages were so full of “non-reserved” people crowding the aisles and entry you couldn’t get on. It was the classic Delhi scramble as we literally forced our way on board elbowing people and being so thankful we had minimal luggage. Sometime later we and others, forcibly pushed our way to our seats and were able to sit down. Our train to Tokyo-which we also reserved as it seemed easier to know which carriage to go to, time of arrival printed on ticket etc, was half empty and a totally different experience! We however, didn’t find Tokyo trains/subway too crazy (well no different to peak hours in any city). I would consider it worth the extra $ (if no JR Pass) or effort (if hold JR pass) to reserve a seat-even if for later the same day as it does make it easier unless you are a single person travelling light. Also if you don’t hold a JR Rail Pass and intend travelling around the Kansai region consider getting a JR West Rail pass (Kansai Pass) for 1, 2, 3 or 4 days. The 1 day pass is worth it even just for the express train from the airport to Kyoto.
4. As people say, many places do not accept credit cards. We used cash a lot but whilst our bank advised they would all be chip and pin, we found where we did use a credit card it was swipe and signature and only once using a pin and never a chip. We never ended up using an ATM but others on assorted websites give advice in this regard eg only some accept foreign cards (such as Citibank).
5. Our “Travel sim” for mobile phone calls worked but only on one of our newer phones (Nokia E71).
6. We found western toilet options everywhere we went, always with paper, running water and often soap and sometimes antiseptic wash as well. Disney has antiseptic wash as well as soap in all toilets. All were very clean. Many in department stores, major tourist venues etc had hand dryers (Dyson style now popular here in Aus). The Japanese still do carry their little hand towels with them but only once or twice at temples did we find we needed something with which to dry our hands. Many toilet seats were heated (luxury!) and where not, like in our machiya, they have fuzzy toilet seat covers instead.
My hubby wouldn’t let me buy one eg from Tokyu Hands or Passport to bring home. I thought it a great idea for winter nights! We were also impressed many fast food outlets, even MacDonalds (yes we succumbed), had a hand basin and soap in the corner of the store for hand washing.
7. The food was excellent, always served tongue burning hot and most often cooked while you wait, even in tiny hole-in-the-wall type places. We did find when eating in restaurants that as a meal was ready it was served, so if my hubby (most often) ordered a simpler meal than my daughter and I he got his and had eaten it by the time my and my daughter’s were served-not the concept of serve all persons at once as we have in the west but it meant food was wonderfully hot. We also almost always were given iced water automatically as they do in the US (or serve yourself in café style places) and often wet towels or wipes. Food was also very cheap. We were eating main meals at converted Aus$6-$7-mostly bowls of ramen or udon or Japanese curry (I have become an addict-its mild compared to Indian or Thai but I love the flavours) or pasta. Tempura and rice and other seafood/meaty mains were often still only $10-12. Packets of ready made sandwiches in 7-11 type stores (Lawsons were the nicest) and department store food hall basements were normally ¥300-350 (Aus$3.50-4). Add drinks and crisps and/or a cake or tart (should have taken a pic but didn’t-Lawsons chocolate tarts were very, very yummy) and lunches/light dinners were $8-$10/person. Italian cafes and restaurants were everywhere-I think of Japan I think Italian now. Perhaps because pasta resembles noodles. It was always very good.
8. On the topic of water (well we were some sentences ago), we are on rain water tanks at home and find Brisbane and surrounding areas water intolerable. The water in Kyoto and across the south and west was like drinking our rain water - tasted good and didn’t upset our stomachs as changing water often does for us. Tokyo wasn’t as good but still wasn’t bad. Meant we saved money on not buying bottled water.
That’s all I can think of for now. Onto the trip report. Advance apologies food porn is limited-as always we simply forget or the pics came out too bad. I am doing this out of order since it is the Disboards after all-and starting with our last 2 days at Disney Sea and Disneyland then I will double back to Kyoto, Kanazawa and Tokyo.
Day 1 Travel Day
Day 2 Kyoto Southern Higashiyama Part 1
Day 2 Cont.
Day 3 Arashiyama and Kinkakuji
Day 4 Hikone and Kiyomizu light-up
Day 5 Nara
Day 5 Nara continued
Day 6 Kyoto-Fushimi-Inari, Ginkakuji, Shoren-in light-up in 3 parts
Day 7 We leave Kyoto-NOT
Day 8 Kanazawa at last
Day 9 In and around Kanazawa
Day 10 Off to Tokyo
Day 11 In Tokyo-cherry blossom!
Day 12 Sunday in Tokyo and off to Disney
Day 13 Disney Sea part 1
Day 13 Part 2 DisneySea cont.
Part 3 Disneysea
Day 14 Disneyland Part 1
Day 14 Disneyland Part 2
Day 14 Disneyland part 3 to home
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I am hoping to spend the first few days in Tokyo central - do you think there will be Cherry Blossom festivities still going after the 10th - we will then move to the Disney area on the 15th to avoid weekend crowds. Did you spend time in the parks in Tokyo?
) but that is looking like the most economical option. 
, 
offtopic: They move parents with young children to the front of the queues-why dont they ever offer this assistance to the obviously very elderly. I think they need it even more-my mum nearly collapsed in 2005). We were however highly entertained by this big Russian dude. He was with his family and he went off his rocker-he started yelling out first, then he jumped out of the queue and went to find an official and started abusing them in broken English about how incompetent they all were, how there was all these guys doing nothing in baggage claims and only 5 booths open at immigration, how they were fools, on and on. They ended up taking him away and I thought theyve arrested him, but no, he came back and for an hour continued to roam around the area remonstrating with all and sundry, waving hands and arms about and snapping photos on his phone right, left and centre despite the large NO PHOTO signs everywhere. If it had been Australia I am sure he would have been arrested and he and his family sent back. When his family finally reached the booths he walked across the front and joined them. I give the Japanese 10/10 for forbearance on this one!
