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It's been seven years since I got into the "travel agency of science" and it has brought me into some pretty nice places, but apart from Argentina (which I ended up visiting some 13 times if I count correctly), it was not very often somewhere that would be extremely exotic for me. Rio was great, but it was just another Latin America and it wasn't even my first time in Brazil. My Hurghada-Cairo stunt was a lot of fun, but I have seen both places before privately, Ireland and Portugal were nice, but I could really have gone there at any time. This basically leaves Mexico and the US as the most interesting places my job has taken me.
Well, until know, as I am about to board a flight to Tokyo (interestingly from Dusseldorf, an airport I have never used before, but will come back in 6 weeks for HSC). Japan is a place I know absolutely nothing about and that's what makes it interesting. It has a terrible reputation for being confusing for a foreigner, with nobody speaking English and everything written in funny pictures, while being terribly expensive at the same time, making any missteps more painful (as compared to say, Thailand, where if you end up in the wrong place, a night in a hotel or a bus ticket won't set you back much). So that almost sounds like an adventure!
The adventure will be tamed a little bit by the presence of my colleague, who has lived ther for a year, so he probably will know his way around. On the other hand, his flight was 7 hours before mine (even though he kept insisting that we will surely meet each other on the airport, until I made him actually look up his itinerary) so we have arranged to meet in a small village on the wild (as wild as you get on Honshu, I guess) pacific coast of the Chiba province, where I have to get by a train. Should the meeting be successful, we will hike into some hills and spend a night wild camping before coming to Kashiwa for the meeting that stars on Monday. I am sure he will do his best to actually meet me there, because I have the tent 
Anyway, I am really looking forward to this. Maybe I will get a little disappointed finding that Japan is yet another modern country, maybe I won't. In any case I plan to bring home a lot of new bird photos for my collection.
  
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Should be fun!! Take plenty of pictures and post them here!! I mostly went to pretty developed parts of Japan, but I had no problems speaking only English. Good luck
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Japan is very modern but its culture is very different from western culture.
For an American, it is confusing since they don't use a grid system for their streets. I think they don't do street numbers or some such as well. And they generally suck at English. My Japanese friend complains that even North Koreans speak English better.
It is also the most polite society on earth. If you ask directions, people will try their hardest to communicate using sign language and waving around. Many will even go out of their way to accompany you until you get to where you need to go.
Also, using the toilet might be confusing. Look for the button that sprays water up your ass. You can control the pressure and sometimes choose the oscillation of the spray. Since it is May, you probably won't need to use the heated seat or heated water.
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Looking forward to those pictures! Have fun!
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You go to a country you know nothing about and dont speak the language and intend to sleep in a tent ? Thats brave af
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Tokyo/Narita and the big cities are pretty sweet as far as trains and stuff go, you can just ask people at the counters etc and they'll point you in the right direction. We had next to no Japanese and managed to navigate without too much trouble.
I never really went out into the country while I was there so I have no idea how that'll go 
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From what I understand, most everyone takes English classes in school. So understanding, on some level, may be there. However few people are comfortable speaking it, as they don't want to speak it poorly. Also, there are signs in English in some places (at least, as far as Google street view shows) in addition to Japanese. I'm not sure about cost - I'm sure it's more expensive in some ways and cheaper in others.
Hope you enjoy the trip, beware of giant flying wasps, and if you happen to see giant mecha it's probably a statue. Probably.
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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
where in Chiba are you going? i used to live near kujukurihama
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I have a ticket for my train! System is quite confusing, but people have beem so helpful!
Lichter: i go to awa-amatsu, a place we randomly picked on the outward coast.
Nothing brave in here, outdoors is my life, it is the cities that scare me, so this is more of a cowardly escape and i want the birds of course
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Eh the only expensive things in Japan are rent/living costs, school and fruits.
Rest is cheaper than Central-Europe (e.g. Austria) for example.
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Trains are pretty steep if you dont buy a pass (not efficient for me) and hotels arent cheap either. I can see an austrian feeling at home here but just cross your northern border and see how a cheap country looks like
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On May 14 2016 15:49 opisska wrote:Trains are pretty steep if you dont buy a pass (not efficient for me) and hotels arent cheap either. I can see an austrian feeling at home here but just cross your northern border and see how a cheap country looks like
Really? Trains are cheaper than Austria or Germany (the places I've been to). Especially the one way tickets. Passes are obviously tons cheaper.
Yeah hotels aren't cheap. I was meant to include that into the rent/living expenses.
But food (except fruits) is very cheap compared to here. Maybe Austria is just a stupidly expensive country. ^^
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You'll have an awesome time in Japan though. It has lots to offer for every kind of person and hiking there is great. You have to be mindful of the Suzumebachi though. :D
These guys will be coming around soon again, but it only starts to get real bad in July.
On May 14 2016 16:32 sharkie wrote:Show nested quote +On May 14 2016 15:49 opisska wrote:Trains are pretty steep if you dont buy a pass (not efficient for me) and hotels arent cheap either. I can see an austrian feeling at home here but just cross your northern border and see how a cheap country looks like Really? Trains are cheaper than Austria or Germany (the places I've been to). Especially the one way tickets. Passes are obviously tons cheaper. Yeah hotels aren't cheap. I was meant to include that into the rent/living expenses. But food (except fruits) is very cheap compared to here. Maybe Austria is just a stupidly expensive country. ^^
Yup. Every time I come back to Germany from Japan I'm astonished by how inexpensive groceries are here. One way tickets in Germany are a little more expensive, but compared to Japan there's tons of discounts for trains.
For budget travel busses are definitely recommandable, they don't even take that long in Japan, unless you want to go to Kagoshima or Sapporo. ^^
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On May 14 2016 16:32 sharkie wrote:Show nested quote +On May 14 2016 15:49 opisska wrote:Trains are pretty steep if you dont buy a pass (not efficient for me) and hotels arent cheap either. I can see an austrian feeling at home here but just cross your northern border and see how a cheap country looks like Really? Trains are cheaper than Austria or Germany (the places I've been to). Especially the one way tickets. Passes are obviously tons cheaper. Yeah hotels aren't cheap. I was meant to include that into the rent/living expenses. But food (except fruits) is very cheap compared to here. Maybe Austria is just a stupidly expensive country. ^^
Yeah, I am really surprised how cheap food is and retroactively think about some people who told me otherwise that they are idiots I think sometimes people insist on eating exactly the same as at home and then it gets absurdly expensive. The 7/11 system where you buy food and they heat it is fantastic for foreigners, as you can examine your lunch before you buy it and quite cheap.
Comparing trains anywhere to Germany/Austria is just not a good idea. I don't now that many details about Austrian prices, went just once and it was expensive, but Germans are completely out of their minds with train prices ... Anyway, I just went from a trip, mostly regular fare with one express and I paid some 5000 yen for some 300 km, that's about 13 cents per kilometer, which is 2.5 times the standard fare in Czech Republic - and for many lines, you can get big discounts here (for single tickets). It's actually not that extreme of a difference, but Japan is reaaaaally huge, so the prices add up.
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On May 14 2016 09:49 Phredxor wrote:Tokyo/Narita and the big cities are pretty sweet as far as trains and stuff go, you can just ask people at the counters etc and they'll point you in the right direction. We had next to no Japanese and managed to navigate without too much trouble. I never really went out into the country while I was there so I have no idea how that'll go
In the country you stop seeing signs and announcements in English and you probably have to ask a few people before you get someone who will speak English. I'm sure it's not that bad, and anyone going to Japan who doesn't know the language doesn't want to go to those areas anyway.
Just learn how to say 'I want to go to X' in Japanese, and then you'll be able to get all the meaning from their expression and gestures and pointing.
dokodoko ni ikitai ndesu
to somewhere (dokodoko) I want to go.
nagoyajou ni hairitai ndesu.
I want to go in Nagoya castle.
resutoran ha doko desuka
where is a restaurant?
koko ha doko
Where am I? *then you point to the map you're holding.
Four phrases that were pretty much all I used when asking directions, besides 'sumimasen' and 'arigatou gozaimashita.'
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On May 15 2016 20:19 opisska wrote:Show nested quote +On May 14 2016 16:32 sharkie wrote:On May 14 2016 15:49 opisska wrote:Trains are pretty steep if you dont buy a pass (not efficient for me) and hotels arent cheap either. I can see an austrian feeling at home here but just cross your northern border and see how a cheap country looks like Really? Trains are cheaper than Austria or Germany (the places I've been to). Especially the one way tickets. Passes are obviously tons cheaper. Yeah hotels aren't cheap. I was meant to include that into the rent/living expenses. But food (except fruits) is very cheap compared to here. Maybe Austria is just a stupidly expensive country. ^^ Yeah, I am really surprised how cheap food is and retroactively think about some people who told me otherwise that they are idiots I think sometimes people insist on eating exactly the same as at home and then it gets absurdly expensive. The 7/11 system where you buy food and they heat it is fantastic for foreigners, as you can examine your lunch before you buy it and quite cheap.
Japan has really good cheap food. It gets expensive if you are a tourist and want to eat something like kaiseki, omakase or one of the dozens of Michelin star rated restaurants in Tokyo. I've visited there with family and we always end up spending a lot of money on food.
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The quality of food and produce in Japan amazes me. Something as simple as chicken eggs, I noticed the difference immediately.
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Never been able to visit Japan but I got that in plan for the next year.
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