Current Events > Ok, Japan trip done. General stuff we did, pros and cons.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Arrived in Tokyo on the 17th, travelled to Kyoto on the 21st, spent a day in Osaka, then back to Tokyo on the 25th, flew out on the 30th. Stayed in 4 different hotels.

Went to a sumo tournament, saw the hanshin tigers vs tokyo in the baseball, went to the nintendo museum, the studio ghibli museum, a bunch of different temples (one had 1001 buddha statues), the most amazing aquarium I've ever seen. Ate a whole bunch of food, bought some new kitchen gear and some souvenirs.

With the disclaimer that just because I stayed in a city for 2 weeks doesn't mean I know fuck all aboout it, here's some stuff I picked up:

Things I loved:

• sumo was way more exciting than I expected. Been sleeping on this one. Very cool ritualistic aspect and the fights are tense, you never really know who's going to win and it's over in seconds. I used to think they were just fat dudes, but fuck me these fat dudes are athletic.
• Baseball was incredible. Are Japanese sports fans the best in the world? I've never been to a sports event like this. It had all the energy of any sporting event I've ever been to and endless booze and food available from the tray girls at all times and fans singing these catchy songs, and yet no one was fighting or causing a scene. People queued orderly for food. The stadium was left as if no one had even visited it.
• Ghibli museum just about had me tearing up. Beautiful exhibits and saw a unique short film you can't see anywhere else. Got my best souvenirs here.
• Uh, the food? It's hard to even know where to start here. The food was better than I was even prepared for. Like even just going into any random hole in the wall with no reviews is like the best restaurant you've ever been to anywhere else. And all so cheap.
• Convenience stores 7/11 etc. Wow is the rest of the world behind here. The convenience store food is so good i question why the fuck I'm paying triple the price for some ultra processed dry sandwich with no flavour back home. I will miss these a lot.
• Izekayas were so much fun to eat and drink at. I got drunk a lot.
• The general care people take for everything. Japanese people take care of all their stuff. There was very little damage, mess or broken anything. One example is the toilets. Every toilet in japan has an electric bidet system, like every single one. And yet they all work perfectly. How?? Back home we can't even get a cubicle with a functioning door lock, and yet japan will happily put these complex electronic flushing systems in nightclub toilets and they always work 100%. This extends to every facet of life. You buy a second hand knick knack in a store and the shopkeeper will check it to make sure it's in perfect order (it will be). Amazing cultural attitude to taking care of things.
• Everything in Tokyo has an ultra amount of specificity to it. If you need a 7 story building of headphones you will find it. If you need an entire street of just kitchen tools you will find it. I could have spent a hell of a lot more time in kappabashi (the kitchen district). I wanted to deck out my entire kitchen there and easily could have.
• The subway is clean, fast, efficient and quiet. Well, the trains and people are quiet, but more on that later.
• The food ordering systems are so much more advanced that ours, wtf.
• That aquarium was the most amazing aquarium I've ever been to, hands down.
• The shinkansen (bullet train) made me simply angry that we don't have one.
• Mt Fuji was breathtaking to see from the bullet train.
• Karaoke was pretty cool, all you can drink for the night. Got very drunk.

Things that were ok/overrated, or I just happened to notice:

• Nintendo museum was cool to tick off the list but it was just not all that exciting, and super packed. I wish I'd done something One Piece instead.
• There's a lot of random ass jobs in Japan. Like, at a hotel there will be 3 guys who's full time job it is to usher cars out of the building. You go into a shop and there are two people there who are just there to greet you. I guess I'm used to Scotland where there is one guy on a train or 2 waiters in a busy restaurant. Not so in Japan. They have like 10 wait staff in a place that seats 20 people. People have ultra specific, presumably very boring jobs, and yet they do them all with consumate politeness.
• The customer service is excellent and people are always super polite and often formal but somehow it unnerved me. Someone shouldn't be this polite and helpful working minimum wage in a 7/11 at midnight, why are you so nice? Makes me think of that david mitchell rant about customer service. This point could fall anywhere on the good-to-bad scale for me.

That's that I didn't care for or even hated:

• Being unable to jaywalk in a city where there's pedestrian crossings every block. Jesus this got old fast. The only thing that kept me from doing it was the social pressure and the ever present sense that being publically embarrassing in japan is a mortal sin.
• Carrying my passport. Made me nervous the whole time.
• The nigerian street touts late at night in Kabukicho. I never felt in danger in Japan except for walking around here after sundown. These guys will not leave you alone and do not have good intentions.
• Some people love the introverted nature of Japan, but I found it a little lonely. I understand that it's maybe language, it's maybe just being tired of tourists, it's maybe just wanting to leave you alone. But I've travelled a lot and it genuinely felt a bit weird to not have people curiously ask me about where I'm from outside of a bar person making polite conversation.
• So many people. I started to get a bit overwhelmed at how intense tokyo is.
• The copious, eye-watering amounts of consumerism. Single use plastics everywhere. Intense amounts of stuff to buy. It's a plastic hellscape in japan. Those gacha machines are everywhere, likely filling up landfills with plastic junk everywhere.
• What's up with the toilet paper? I've seen rolling paper thicker than this. I guess the bidet's offset this somewhat.

The shinkansen (bullet train) made me simply angry that we don't have one.

Makes zero sense in a tiny country like the UK. That's the thinking behind why we are paying 100bn so you can get from just outside London to Birmingham 15 minutes faster.

ai123 posted...

Makes zero sense in a tiny country like the UK. That's the thinking behind why we are paying 100bn so you can get from just outside London to Birmingham 15 minutes faster.

I would settle for a connecting line from the borders to Carlisle

Unfortunately, employment in Japan is very different than how it is in the US. Customer is always right sort of deal, and employers generally having more leverage than their workers aka don't like it apply somewhere else mentality... it's also why hazing is a well known issue the higher you go up the corporate ladder.

Never went to a Japanese baseball game but in Korea you can take anything you want inside. There's fried chicken stands outside and you can just buy a big box of chicken and waltz on in. Or you can get chicken in the stadium. You can bring in beer too but you can get it for dirt cheap inside the stadium. It's just amusing how different it is from a US baseball stadium where they search you like you're a prisoner and then everything inside costs 10 times more than it would anywhere else. Sadly Korean beer is literally the worst in the world.

pinky0926 posted...

The customer service is excellent and people are always super polite and often formal but somehow it unnerved me. Someone shouldn't be this polite and helpful working minimum wage in a 7/11 at midnight, why are you so nice? Makes me think of that david mitchell rant about customer service. This point could fall anywhere on the good-to-bad scale for me

After a while it started to annoy me how every time you'd walk into a shop or a convenience store on Japan, every staff member would stop what they were doing and yell a greeting. People do this in Korea as well but usually without the over the top theatrical yelling.

pinky0926 posted...

Uh, the food? It's hard to even know where to start here. The food was better than I was even prepared for. Like even just going into any random hole in the wall with no reviews is like the best restaurant you've ever been to anywhere else. And all so cheap.

This was my biggest pro. The food was incredible. Had a different meal everyday and it was all amazing. The hornyposting took 2nd place for me because the food was that good >_>

pinky0926 posted...

Carrying my passport. Made me nervous the whole time.

Wait, you did? I never carried it lol. Are we supposed to? >_>

sfcalimari posted...

After a while it started to annoy me how every time you'd walk into a shop or a convenience store on Japan, every staff member would stop what they were doing and yell a greeting. People do this in Korea as well but usually without the over the top theatrical yelling.

Oh I forgot one thing I absolutely hated

• the sheer amount of jingles. Every time you go into a 7/11. Every station platform. How are japanese people not going insane at this? I don't need a 20 second midi song every time I get on a train.

NeonPhoenix posted...

Wait, you did? I never carried it lol. Are we supposed to? >_>

By law, yes.

pinky0926 posted...

By law, yes.

I had a picture of it on my phone lol. Would that work? I had my passport locked in my hotel safe the entire time cuz I didn't want to lose it

Homeless_Waifu posted...

Unfortunately, employment in Japan is very different than how it is in the US. Customer is always right sort of deal, and employers generally having more leverage than their workers aka don't like it apply somewhere else mentality... it's also why hazing is a well known issue the higher you go up the corporate ladder.

Japan is capitalistic but it's way way better than the ultra hypercapitalism the US has become.

pinky0926 posted...

The nigerian street touts late at night in Kabukicho. I never felt in danger in Japan except for walking around here after sundown. These guys will not leave you alone and do not have good intentions.

This fascinated me and Im now going down a rabbit hole, reading about peoples experiences regarding this. Never knew it was a thing.

The_Popo posted...

This fascinated me and Im now going down a rabbit hole, reading about peoples experiences regarding this. Never knew it was a thing.

It's very real. They'll come up to you with a group of them, sometimes they'll try to put their arm around you and say something like "My friend, do you want to try out our bar?". When I was in Shinjuku, they would chase me down from down the block cuz I stuck out being a tall gaijin lol

Never go with them. It's all scams >_> They'll either drug your drink and take money or just extort you inside

NeonPhoenix posted...

I had a picture of it on my phone lol. Would that work? I had my passport locked in my hotel safe the entire time cuz I didn't want to lose it

No it would not. You need your passport on you at all times. If a police officer stopped you & asked for it (which they can) hed give you up to a 100k yen fine for not having it.

If you apply for and get Japans Trusted Traveler card you can carry that instead. Its a legal ID for Japan.

Oh. Well, I'll still risk it lol >_> If they get me by the balls and I gotta pay 1000 gaijin dollars, so be it

NeonPhoenix posted...

Wait, you did? I never carried it lol. Are we supposed to? >_>

I do it for tax-free purchases, idk why TC did it.

people are quiet

idk if this was just the time of the day or the location but when I took a metro back to my hotel from odaiba, there were a bunch who were pretty chatty. maybe they weren't native and were just fluent in Japanese?

NeonPhoenix posted...

Wait, you did? I never carried it lol. Are we supposed to? >_>

I would recommend any foreigner have it while away. In case you lose something, get lost, or a Japanese officer stops you for being suspicious while foreign. Since you dont have a citizens card, your passport is your only ID which they will care about.

NeonPhoenix posted...

It's very real. They'll come up to you with a group of them, sometimes they'll try to put their arm around you and say something like "My friend, do you want to try out our bar?". When I was in Shinjuku, they would chase me down from down the block cuz I stuck out being a tall gaijin lol

Never go with them. It's all scams >_> They'll either drug your drink and take money or just extort you inside

Many years ago, i was in Akabane for work. Some hustler guy came up to me shouting JAPANESE SECKSU JAPANESE SECKSU.

Protip, they are usually not Japanese (foreigners are usually not allowed in places where it doesnt happen) and there are a lot of Vietnamese and Filipina girls working there. And from what former workers have told me, the conditions are poor and they get attacked on occasion. And nobody is gonna believe the foreign sex worker over some dignified Jiji who is gloriously nipponjin.

pinky0926 posted...

That aquarium was the most amazing aquarium I've ever been to, hands down.

Was that the art aquarium in Ginza? That place is fantastic. I'm actually kind of upset it's a temporary thing, because it's amazingly gorgeous.

pinky0926 posted...

The nigerian street touts late at night in Kabukicho. I never felt in danger in Japan except for walking around here after sundown. These guys will not leave you alone and do not have good intentions.

Yeah, never go to Kabukicho, Roppongi, or even parts of Shinjuku after dark unless you are with a local. That's asking for trouble.

pinky0926 posted...

Some people love the introverted nature of Japan, but I found it a little lonely. I understand that it's maybe language, it's maybe just being tired of tourists, it's maybe just wanting to leave you alone. But I've travelled a lot and it genuinely felt a bit weird to not have people curiously ask me about where I'm from outside of a bar person making polite conversation.

You can absolutely get this, but not in the places you went to.

Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka are the three cities everyone and their dog go to when visiting Japan, so those places are inundated with tourists. The locals aren't going to ask you about where you're from and make much small talk, because your story is probably the same as several dozen other people they've interacted with that day and they have long since stopped caring.

If you want the experience where the locals are friendly and will happily strike up a conversation with you, go somewhere where they don't get a lot of tourists. Every time I go up into rural Tohoku, I meet some fantastic people and have great conversations, and you'll get far more of them who will strike up conversations with you because they don't see a lot of foreigners in that part of the country.

pinky0926 posted...

So many people. I started to get a bit overwhelmed at how intense tokyo is.

Again, go literally anywhere else in Japan to avoid this (except maybe Nagoya, which is also pretty crowded).

The street touts just want you to have a sexy massage.

/s

Kabukicho is great otherwise. Just endlessly rip on cigarettes and drink with the locals.

Starks posted...

The street touts just want you to have a sexy massage.

/s

One tried to sell me overpriced jeans once. I would have preferred he took me to a sexy massage.

Starks posted...

Kabukicho is great otherwise. Just endlessly rip on cigarettes and drink with the locals.

yeah, it was a blast at night. Just keep your witsabout you like any other city and Kamurocho, I mean Kabukicho at night is fine

Neon ran into Mr Libido at night

pinky0926 posted...

* That aquarium was the most amazing aquarium I've ever been to, hands down.
* Being unable to jaywalk in a city where there's pedestrian crossings every block. Jesus this got old fast. The only thing that kept me from doing it was the social pressure and the ever present sense that being publically embarrassing in japan is a mortal sin.
* The copious, eye-watering amounts of consumerism. Single use plastics everywhere. Intense amounts of stuff to buy. It's a plastic hellscape in japan. Those gacha machines are everywhere, likely filling up landfills with plastic junk everywhere.

Which aquarium?

You literally recognize that there are crosswalks at every block and yet you still feel that deep of a need to jaywalk? A few more steps gonna kill you that much?

I don't know if all of the gacha places have them because I didn't bother with most gacha machines, but nearly all of the ones I did use had collection bins for your to put the capsules in after you removed your prizes so they could reuse them. Also, vending machines very frequently have an associated bin for you to put empty bottles in for recycling. When you do residential trash, you're supposed to divide your trash up into combustibles / non-combustibles / plastic / etc. The impression I got is that they are far more responsible with recycling/garbage than the US is.

The_Nintendo_Master posted...

You literally recognize that there are crosswalks at every block and yet you still feel that deep of a need to jaywalk? A few more steps gonna kill you that much?

I think it's more like no one jaywalks, even at crossings with the red light. Like it can be at the dead of night at 2am with no car or anyone else in sight and pedestrians will STILL wait at the crossing for minutes until the sign turns green.

The_Nintendo_Master posted...

Which aquarium?

The one in okinawa.

You literally recognize that there are crosswalks at every block and yet you still feel that deep of a need to jaywalk? A few more steps gonna kill you that much?

Its the crosswalks with lights that annoyed me. Waiting to cross a street with no cars around quite a lot.

I don't know if all of the gacha places have them because I didn't bother with most gacha machines, but nearly all of the ones I did use had collection bins for your to put the capsules in after you removed your prizes so they could reuse them. Also, vending machines very frequently have an associated bin for you to put empty bottles in for recycling. When you do residential trash, you're supposed to divide your trash up into combustibles / non-combustibles / plastic / etc. The impression I got is that they are far more responsible with recycling/garbage than the US is.

Im sure they recycle things better, I just thought there was quite a lot of use in the first place.

my friend and I were walking in Tokyo at night and this, I guess Nigerian guy approached us asking us if we wanted to have sex with pretty Nigerian ladies, but we told him we were leaving Tokyo in a few hours and he just wished us safe travel

Haven't been since I left in 2000. Gotta make it back!

pinky0926 posted...

The one in okinawa.

You must have gone at a good time, then. I've been to Churaumi twice and both times it was absolutely slammed with tourists. Really didn't like it either time, because it took away from the generally chill ambience most aquariums have.

If you were in Okinawa, did you go to Gyokusendo? That may be my favourite natural spot in the entire country.

darkknight109 posted...

Yeah, never go to Kabukicho, Roppongi, or even parts of Shinjuku after dark unless you are with a local. That's asking for trouble.

To be honest the best night I had might have been doing a midnight trip into this district by myself. Found a bar called "rock bar mother" which was run by a middle aged lady who would give you a menu of metal/rock bands and you'd pick one and she'd pull out the entire discography in CD format and you'd pick a song. The sound was so good, sat in there till 4am making friends and smoking

many cigarettes.

darkknight109 posted...

If you were in Okinawa, did you go to Gyokusendo? That may be my favourite natural spot in the entire country.

Missed that, sadly

ai123 posted...

That's the thinking behind why we are paying 100bn so you can get from just outside London to Birmingham 15 minutes faster.

That's not at all the reason HS2 is being built, it's being built because more trains need to run London and Birmingham and the current tracks can't safely handle any more trains.

Thae aquarium in okinawa is cool as hell. So epic standing in front of the giant tank watching a goddamn whale shark go past endlessly. 10,000 times better than the lame Monterey Bay otter aquarium.

I'm learning Japanese in preparation for a Japan trip in about 4 or 5 years or so.

Cuticrusader09 posted...

No it would not. You need your passport on you at all times. If a police officer stopped you & asked for it (which they can) hed give you up to a 100k yen fine for not having it.

If you apply for and get Japans Trusted Traveler card you can carry that instead. Its a legal ID for Japan.

How often do they actually ticket non-citizens for not having their passports? I've never lived in Japan but when I was in South Korea it was obvious that laws were rarely enforced. Like the cops would stand around on the sidewalk while every car passing by would egregiously break obvious traffic laws, but they'd only spring into action and start handing out fines if someone got into a road rage fight or an accident. I seem to remember that there was a rule that you had to always carry your "foreigner" registration card, but I never got asked for it anywhere but at airport security and when renewing my work visa, and I never heard of anyone getting pulled up for it. I'm sure that if I ever got asked for it and I didn't have it, the Korean cop or whoever would accept my apology and leave me alone. And I'm sure that if a bunch of drunk foreigners got into a fight at a nightclub, suddenly they'd all get hit with fines for not having their id cards.

CableZL posted...

I'm learning Japanese in preparation for a Japan trip in about 4 or 5 years or so.

You really dont need it outside a few words if you're just staying the major cities. If you have Google Translate and Maps, like 90% of the legwork is done for you >_>

sfcalimari posted...

How often do they actually ticket non-citizens for not having their passports? I've never lived in Japan but when I was in South Korea it was obvious that laws were rarely enforced. Like the cops would stand around on the sidewalk while every car passing by would egregiously break obvious traffic laws, but they'd only spring into action and start handing out fines if someone got into a road rage fight or an accident. I seem to remember that there was a rule that you had to always carry your "foreigner" registration card, but I never got asked for it anywhere but at airport security and when renewing my work visa, and I never heard of anyone getting pulled up for it. I'm sure that if I ever got asked for it and I didn't have it, the Korean cop or whoever would accept my apology and leave me alone. And I'm sure that if a bunch of drunk foreigners got into a fight at a nightclub, suddenly they'd all get hit with fines for not having their id cards.

Yes but how silly would you feel if it happened to you and you got some outlandishly big fine because of it

NeonPhoenix posted...

You really dont need it outside a few words if you're just staying the major cities. If you have Google Translate and Maps, like 90% of the legwork is done for you >_>

You don't need it, but I wish I spoke more japanese. I feel I would have gotten further with locals if I did.

But yeah google translate and maps does everything for you, and "sumimasen", "dozo", "hai, "arigato gozaimasu" go a really long way with body language, lol

Im planning on going to Japan in October. I have never been before. My biggest concern is the language barrier, but I hear from people its not that much of an issue.

Lvaneede posted...

Im planning on going to Japan in October. I have never been before. My biggest concern is the language barrier, but I hear from people its not that much of an issue.

Not that many people speak english, or they choose not to. You can have some slightly awkward scenarios where a waiter will rattle off a bunch of things in japanese to you and you have to try and figure out from context what they mean.

But travelling has never been easier thanks to tech. You can instantly translate what they say/what you say into completely coherent english. Even better, on google translate you can take a picture of anything and it will translate it for you in the picture. It works really well.

A lot of places have english menus.

NeonPhoenix posted...

You really dont need it outside a few words if you're just staying the major cities. If you have Google Translate and Maps, like 90% of the legwork is done for you >_>

Yeah, but I've been wanting to learn other languages in general. I really never liked the fact that I only knew English.

I also never carried my passport anywhere, chance I need it for anything is essentially 0

pinky0926 posted...

The nigerian street touts late at night in Kabukicho. I never felt in danger in Japan except for walking around here after sundown. These guys will not leave you alone and do not have good intentions.

there was actually some sorta recent laws/rules made to make them less aggressive about it, if you can believe it. although honestly I never really felt too troubled walking around there at night? you just do the same thing as you do for people looking for money on the streets back where I live, that is to say, keep walking, look where you're going, don't even acknowledge they exist in any way (not a "no thanks", not a glance at them, etc)

The_Nintendo_Master posted...

The impression I got is that they are far more responsible with recycling/garbage than the US is.

The thing that surprised me most about this sort of thing is the big garbage incineration smokestacks they have. I went up a tall building in tokyo and you can just look out across the city and spot them once you know what they are. they even have these little display boards outside them that show how much energy they're generating and how much of various types of air pollution are created and etc.

my country still just dumps it in landfills mostly because we're too incompetent to build incinerators

Lvaneede posted...

Im planning on going to Japan in October. I have never been before. My biggest concern is the language barrier, but I hear from people its not that much of an issue.

Depends where you go, honestly.

Many of the touristy places have full English service, but once you get out of the big cities English knowledge dies off quickly. That said, as others have pointed out, a working knowledge of a translator program (DeepL is my preference) will get you far.

I still generally recommend that people learn at least the basics of Japanese before they go, but I acknowledge you can have a completely satisfactory trip without knowing a single word of the language.

Lvaneede posted...

Im planning on going to Japan in October. I have never been before. My biggest concern is the language barrier, but I hear from people its not that much of an issue.

I mean if I could manage 20+ years ago without google translate, i dont see why this is even a thing that crosses peoples minds.

Honestly in Tokyo there is English everywhere. And fornthe times where you run into an issue with nobody knowing English, most times they make it really easy on you. All you have to do is point at a picture for what you want. And this was in 2000. I can only imagine it's much easier now. Once you leave tokyo its a bit different. Like my 2 dumb ass friends who hopped on a random train to god knows where, got lost, hopped on another train thinking it take them back and just made things worse. next thing you know authorities are trying to find 2 helpless American kids...

pinky0926 posted...

Yes but how silly would you feel if it happened to you and you got some outlandishly big fine because of it

So what, you're supposed to have your passport on you every time you walk down the street to a convenience store? At least that is somewhat doable, but are you supposed to have it on your body when sleeping at night in case there's a fire alarm and you have to run out into the street without having time to get your possessions? What about if you're swimming, or buck naked at an onsen? You can see how silly this gets.

Again I've never lived in Japan, only visited, but the vibe I always got in Asia in general was that there were a lot of really heavyhanded laws that the authorities would be really relaxed about until something serious happened like a fight or a car crash or whatever.