Preparing For The Trip
Preparing for a trip halfway across the world has it's difficulties, the most important being the language barrier that exists. I'll cover that and also talk about other basic prep things, such as what to pack.
I've been catching up with James May's "Our Man In Japan," and he mentions that if you're an english speaker and travel to a country using the Roman Alphabet, even if you're not sure of what the word means, you can at least get a sound in your head and either deduct or just translate. This doesn't work in Japan if you don't know the alphabets, Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. For someone like me, they look real cool, but I honestly can't read anything, and my vocabulary is also tiny, as I really only know how to say, "Hello," "Thank You," and "Ramen."
There are plenty of language learning resources that are free and easily accessible: phone apps, libraries, videos on YouTube, etc. There are an equally large number of paid resources, classes, tutors, books, audio, etc. I took the easier path and decided I just wasn't going to learn any of the language before I left. Not necessarily because I didn't want to, I just didn't have the time or energy for it leading into the trip. This is fine though, because I have technology.
Even just 10 or 15 years ago, a trip to Japan would be completely different in terms of available technology. I'm fairly certain 2009 was the year I finally ditched the flip phone for a Blackberry Storm. I honestly can't imagine trying to go to a country where I didn't know the language and was only equipped with print maps and a translation book. Having a smart phone and WiFi on the fly is incredible! It's not that kids today "will never know the struggle we went through," it's that they'll be able to make the world smaller and smaller and more connected and it's beautiful.
With that, let's jump into my top 10 recommendations on traveling in Japan!
1) My absolute number one recommendation on prepping for a trip to Japan is having a phone and or WiFi device to help with maps, directions, and translations. This advice should be used any travel anywhere, but especially with the language barrier, it's huge. Double good if it also takes quality photos to save space and weight.
2) Portable Charger. Seriously, do not forget to pack a portable charger. I may have left mine at home and was embarrassed when I realized it, but you'll need it! So I bought a new one in Tokyo. More on this in a moment.
3) Shoes. Buy a really good pair of walking shoes, trainers, joggers, runners, or whatever is your preferred movement shoe style. You will walk so much every day! Even if it's all in the same city.
4) Have a day bag. I started my trip with my trusty 12 year old day bag that has a pocket for a drink, an outside zip for easily accessible items like the JR Pass and coin purse, and plenty of room if I buy some souvenirs along the way.
5) Coin Purse. Currently the smallest Japanese bill is the ¥1000 ($10). Everything smaller is in coin form: ¥500 ($5), 100, 50, 10, 5, and 1. You will receive and spend a lot of coins! This is pretty much standard for every country except the United States, because we don't like change.
6) Headphones. Headphones are especially key if you're solo traveling and don't know the language, because hearing familiar music, videos, or audiobooks are welcoming. I pretty much listened to the same playlist on repeat.
7) Backpack/Luggage. If you're going the route of backpack like I am, a backpack with a hip belt. The hip belt helps shift weight onto the hips to keep the weight of the bag vertical, so it lessens the stress on my back and shoulders.
8) JR Rail Pass. If the itinerary only consists of a few major cities, the JR Pass might not be cost effective, but where I'm literally going everywhere, I will take my golden ticket!
9) Subway/Metro IC Card of Choice. There's at least 8 or 10 different brands that sell a subway pass and have a combination app for taking the subway, but conveniently, most trains in busses in every city are all connected on the IC system, so I went with a Pasmo Card, but most people I know use Suica. Tap in, tap out subway riding.
10) Multi Device Charger Splitter. Every hotel in Japan has at least two outlets, the average I would say is 3, and one had like 8. Just myself alone every day I'd need to charge my iPhone, iWatch, headphones, portable charger, and the pocket WiFi. Every other day I'd need to charge the remote on my selfie stick, and my iPad. That's 7 devices just for me!
With the recommendation of a portable charger, The pocket WiFi will only last about half the day on a full charge. The device itself doesn't rest, always running. This in particular is because you're connected to WiFi, it means all normal data saving backups will just run constantly. I have pretty much completely ditched my DSLR for the cameras on my iPhone, and all photos and videos were constantly being pumped into cloud backup.
Image quality on phones has significantly improved, and it saves space and weight. Anyone want to buy a Nikon D610?
-Joe
I've been catching up with James May's "Our Man In Japan," and he mentions that if you're an english speaker and travel to a country using the Roman Alphabet, even if you're not sure of what the word means, you can at least get a sound in your head and either deduct or just translate. This doesn't work in Japan if you don't know the alphabets, Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. For someone like me, they look real cool, but I honestly can't read anything, and my vocabulary is also tiny, as I really only know how to say, "Hello," "Thank You," and "Ramen."
There are plenty of language learning resources that are free and easily accessible: phone apps, libraries, videos on YouTube, etc. There are an equally large number of paid resources, classes, tutors, books, audio, etc. I took the easier path and decided I just wasn't going to learn any of the language before I left. Not necessarily because I didn't want to, I just didn't have the time or energy for it leading into the trip. This is fine though, because I have technology.
Even just 10 or 15 years ago, a trip to Japan would be completely different in terms of available technology. I'm fairly certain 2009 was the year I finally ditched the flip phone for a Blackberry Storm. I honestly can't imagine trying to go to a country where I didn't know the language and was only equipped with print maps and a translation book. Having a smart phone and WiFi on the fly is incredible! It's not that kids today "will never know the struggle we went through," it's that they'll be able to make the world smaller and smaller and more connected and it's beautiful.
With that, let's jump into my top 10 recommendations on traveling in Japan!
1) My absolute number one recommendation on prepping for a trip to Japan is having a phone and or WiFi device to help with maps, directions, and translations. This advice should be used any travel anywhere, but especially with the language barrier, it's huge. Double good if it also takes quality photos to save space and weight.
2) Portable Charger. Seriously, do not forget to pack a portable charger. I may have left mine at home and was embarrassed when I realized it, but you'll need it! So I bought a new one in Tokyo. More on this in a moment.
3) Shoes. Buy a really good pair of walking shoes, trainers, joggers, runners, or whatever is your preferred movement shoe style. You will walk so much every day! Even if it's all in the same city.
4) Have a day bag. I started my trip with my trusty 12 year old day bag that has a pocket for a drink, an outside zip for easily accessible items like the JR Pass and coin purse, and plenty of room if I buy some souvenirs along the way.
5) Coin Purse. Currently the smallest Japanese bill is the ¥1000 ($10). Everything smaller is in coin form: ¥500 ($5), 100, 50, 10, 5, and 1. You will receive and spend a lot of coins! This is pretty much standard for every country except the United States, because we don't like change.
6) Headphones. Headphones are especially key if you're solo traveling and don't know the language, because hearing familiar music, videos, or audiobooks are welcoming. I pretty much listened to the same playlist on repeat.
7) Backpack/Luggage. If you're going the route of backpack like I am, a backpack with a hip belt. The hip belt helps shift weight onto the hips to keep the weight of the bag vertical, so it lessens the stress on my back and shoulders.
8) JR Rail Pass. If the itinerary only consists of a few major cities, the JR Pass might not be cost effective, but where I'm literally going everywhere, I will take my golden ticket!
9) Subway/Metro IC Card of Choice. There's at least 8 or 10 different brands that sell a subway pass and have a combination app for taking the subway, but conveniently, most trains in busses in every city are all connected on the IC system, so I went with a Pasmo Card, but most people I know use Suica. Tap in, tap out subway riding.
10) Multi Device Charger Splitter. Every hotel in Japan has at least two outlets, the average I would say is 3, and one had like 8. Just myself alone every day I'd need to charge my iPhone, iWatch, headphones, portable charger, and the pocket WiFi. Every other day I'd need to charge the remote on my selfie stick, and my iPad. That's 7 devices just for me!
With the recommendation of a portable charger, The pocket WiFi will only last about half the day on a full charge. The device itself doesn't rest, always running. This in particular is because you're connected to WiFi, it means all normal data saving backups will just run constantly. I have pretty much completely ditched my DSLR for the cameras on my iPhone, and all photos and videos were constantly being pumped into cloud backup.
Image quality on phones has significantly improved, and it saves space and weight. Anyone want to buy a Nikon D610?
-Joe
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