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Lol if you think I'm revealing my bespoke Pachinko spot.
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Apr 12, 2024 13:12
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Question Mark Mound posted:If you're wanting to do some study that'll be useful for sure, learn katakana. Hiragana will be for Japanese words you might not know and kanji is a nightmare, but looking at food and drinks menus that will often feature English words writtenin katakana will let you read a surprisingly large amount of them. It drives me crazy how so many Japanese courses try to teach foreigners Hiragana first for some insane reason. Actual "Darmok and Jalad"-tier language comprehension systems.
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Apr 12, 2024 18:41
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Eh, if the goal is to build Japanese language fundamentals and not just teach some people interested in picking up a bit of Japanese for a couple days of travel it totally makes sense to start with hiragana first.
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Apr 12, 2024 19:34
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Question Mark Mound posted:On a personal question though: when shopkeepers talk super fast when counting out my change, are they saying anything else that I should be paying attention to? I can tell that they're saying the coins that they're supplying and the total amount of change and how much I gave them but it's all so fast that I have no idea if they're saying anything else so I just give a quick "arigatou" and head on my way. Probably asking if you want a bag. At a conbini they'll ask if you want something heated up or if you need utensils. I've also had some ask if I wanted the hot and cold items bagged separately.
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Apr 12, 2024 19:46
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Anyone got any recs for a Japanese woodworking place that offers short courses? Anything from a few days to a few weeks would be good. Too early to say right now, but I'm hoping to spend as much of next summer in Japan as I can and that's one of my aims. I'm at around N2 atm and have bought some woodworking books to work on domain-specific vocab, so it doesn't need to be oriented towards foreigners. G-Mawwwwwww posted:I think I'll be fine by October but yeah, italian was WAY better. Yeah, Japanese is up there in the "hard" bracket for languages for native English speakers along with Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Russian. IMO Japanese is probably the most difficult written language in the world; Chinese is at least pretty regular with readings since the characters were, you know, actually designed around the language (as opposed to duct-taped on like they are with Japanese).  (that list is non-comprehensive) Enjoy Kyushu! If you're at the end of October (early November, really) there is both Karatsu Kunchi and the Saga Hot Air Balloon Festival. Ethics_Gradient fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Apr 12, 2024 |
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Apr 12, 2024 20:10
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Looking at Chiketto now for live events I could go attend while in Tokyo. If you had to choose, would you choose kabuki, wrestling, or baseball? Personally I'm leaning toward kabuki and/or wrestling.
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Apr 14, 2024 05:25
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I haven’t gone to see kabuki but it’s live theater. Wrestling is also live theater, but with chops to the chest. What company/location are you looking at? Baseball is fun, but requires probably a little knowledge of the sport. Just being at a game isn’t going to teach you anything. Also, do not get tickets for right field/left field, (外野), those are the standing/singing sections at Japanese pro baseball games. It will at least be noisy and feel awkward to not go along, and doing so means spending half the game cheering/singing.
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Apr 14, 2024 06:29
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I'm planning a Fukuoka trip in November mainly for the weather and to see some sumo live, so if sumo's something you're into, there are tournaments scheduled in Tokyo in May and September.
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Apr 14, 2024 07:22
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harperdc posted:Also, get tickets for right field/left field, (外野), those are the standing/singing sections at Japanese pro baseball games. It will at least be noisy and feel exciting to go along, and doing so means spending half the game cheering/singing.
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Apr 14, 2024 08:34
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Yeah, agreed - that's the best part!
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Apr 14, 2024 09:50
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Let me fix that for youharperdc posted:Also, do not get tickets for
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Apr 14, 2024 09:52
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harperdc posted:I haven’t gone to see kabuki but it’s live theater. Wrestling looks to be a lot cheaper than going to see kabuki. Here's the info from Chiketto they sent me via e-mail: quote:2024/5/2(Thu) DDT Pro Wrestling It was fun going to watch Muay Thai in Thailand, so I figure seeing pro wrestling in Japan would also be its own barrel of fun. I'm American so I'm pretty familiar with baseball via cultural osmosis, even though I'm not a big sports guy. Trying to keep the live shows cheaper since I'm already planning on throwing most of my money at eating gourmet food.
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Apr 14, 2024 11:53
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japanese baseball is fun i love that they televise koshien
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Apr 14, 2024 13:36
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Teriyaki Koinku posted:Wrestling looks to be a lot cheaper than going to see kabuki. Here's the info from Chiketto they sent me via e-mail: I'm going to tell you to go see that show but absolutely do not look up anything about the group hosting the show before seeing it.
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Apr 14, 2024 13:56
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I might've missed it but do most places in Tokyo take all major US credit cards? I just wanna make sure it won't be an issue when I use my Visa to check in to hotels and the like. Also are there any historic sites/shrines/temples in the Tokyo area that you'd all think are must sees? Like in Kyoto there's Kyomizudera and such so I was just wondering if you all had thoughts on those sort of sites I should make sure not to pass up.
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Apr 15, 2024 03:28
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Most places at least take Visa/Mastercard. Anything else is a toss up.
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Apr 15, 2024 03:56
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DiscoJ posted:Most places at least take Visa/Mastercard. Anything else is a toss up. I've seen JCB and Diner's Club listed as being accepted for reservations, but yeah Visa/Mastercard seem like the safest bets. Unrelated, but I think I'm gonna switch my fancy meal for the end of the trip from Pierre Gagnaire to lunch teppanyaki at 634 Musashi and schedule it on the same day for when I go to attend the Delicious in Dungeon expo since: a.) doing so would be like half the cost of going to Gagnaire, meaning more money saved for other activities and expenses throughout the trip and, b.) they're basically at the same location, with the latter being at Solamachi and the former at Sky Tree, so hitting two birds with one stone. I'd probably be eating lunch first then rocking up to the expo in a suit, but hey why not go a little bit stylish for the occasion? 
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Apr 15, 2024 04:01
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Good Listener posted:I might've missed it but do most places in Tokyo take all major US credit cards? I just wanna make sure it won't be an issue when I use my Visa to check in to hotels and the like. Get a PIN for your card before you leave, I had a lot of problems with my Bank of America Visa in 2020. Chip and sign or swipe and sign rarely worked but chip and PIN was less unreliable.
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Apr 15, 2024 04:16
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Midjack posted:Get a PIN for your card before you leave, I had a lot of problems with my Bank of America Visa in 2020. Chip and sign or swipe and sign rarely worked but chip and PIN was less unreliable. I've got a pin for my Wise card I've been putting funds on. My Visa is a normal CC tho, not debit.
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Apr 15, 2024 04:27
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Good Listener posted:I've got a pin for my Wise card I've been putting funds on. My Visa is a normal CC tho, not debit. Same, your bank probably supports a PIN on the credit card though the option may be buried on the website or otherwise a little obscure since the US has never really done PINs on credit cards unlike the rest of the world.
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Apr 15, 2024 04:34
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Keep in mind that while credit card acceptance is much higher in Japan than it used to be, it's still nowhere near universal. Places that take credit card will, in my experience, have no issues with a US Visa card. Things like hotels and department stores all take cards. Bars and non-chain restaurants are a roll of the dice, always have cash.
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Apr 15, 2024 05:33
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Grand Fromage posted:Keep in mind that while credit card acceptance is much higher in Japan than it used to be, it's still nowhere near universal. Places that take credit card will, in my experience, have no issues with a US Visa card. Things like hotels and department stores all take cards. Bars and non-chain restaurants are a roll of the dice, always have cash. Conversely, I had issues at both hotels and large stores. Unless you can find someone who used a card issued by the same bank who issued yours, someone else's experience provides minimal insight for how to expect your cards to be accepted. Cover all your bases.
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Apr 15, 2024 05:55
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If you're not comfortable carrying around cash to cover your trip, ATMs at 7-11s should be your backup plan in case your card is declined.
anakha fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Apr 15, 2024 |
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Apr 15, 2024 06:09
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Always have cash and never fret.
Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Apr 15, 2024 |
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Apr 15, 2024 06:10
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Grand Fromage posted:Always have cash and never fret.
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Apr 15, 2024 07:10
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Good Listener posted:I might've missed it but do most places in Tokyo take all major US credit cards? I just wanna make sure it won't be an issue when I use my Visa to check in to hotels and the like. Everything on this list https://www.hotels.com/go/japan/best-temples-and-shrines-tokyo plus: Zojo-ji Yasukuni Jinja Tsukiji outer market area (and Namiyoke Jinja if you're in the area) Ameyoko shopping street RE: Cash and cards Bring a debit (ATM) card and a credit card. Some card readers don't like the small chip on my US card, so always carry cash as a backup. For big withdrawals, I recommend 7-11 atms because they let you take out up to 100,000 yen/transaction.
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Apr 15, 2024 09:50
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Does anyone happen to know what the ATM fee is per withdrawal in Japan? e: Google says 110/220 yen per transaction.
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Apr 15, 2024 10:59
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Anecdotally, merchants and hotels should have no issues with foreign issued VISAs, but at least until recently there were some attractions and services that did not play nice. I couldn't purchase tickets to Universal using my foreign issued VISA (Canadian TD VISA, credit not debit), I couldn't use one to reload my Apple Wallet Suica, etc. All the while I was paying for food and hotels without issue. In FINTECH terms I think it depends on the acquirer the service uses, but that's almost certainly transparent to the average tourist or consumer, so for big ticket things I would suggest checking ahead of time. As much as I loathe to say it, for travel I think it makes sense having an AMEX handy for emergencies since it seems to be near universal, and foreign MasterCards also reportedly had fewer restrictions than VISA. but, BUT -- someone posted that they were able to reload their Suica with a foreign VISA again a few months ago and I've since been reloading it without issue every month in lead-up to my trip so maybe they're settling things with acquirers slowly.
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Apr 15, 2024 11:37
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On my trip to Japan in March, everywhere that had the contactless sign I used the Wise card in my Google Wallet on my phone and it worked every time.
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Apr 15, 2024 12:23
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Yeah I think what I'm hoping to get across, rather than vouching for a specific card, is that if it's within your means you should try to have a diversity of payment options in plastic to fall back on. And then, as everyone mentioned, cash is king. Like today I can refill my Suica with my foreign VISA. Last year I couldn't, and in 2018 I could, so I don't want to rely on the situation changing again unexpectedly like it has in the past. It actually caught me off-guard last year to be honest, and I was glad I had my AMEX since I don't really want to deal with cash if I don't have to; as well as being unable to use that online for things, obviously 
some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 12:33 on Apr 15, 2024 |
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Apr 15, 2024 12:30
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I’m just taking half a million yen in cash to avoid the problem entirely until we somehow spend half a million yen in cash like 1 week in to a 3 week trip.
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Apr 15, 2024 12:32
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Is American Express really universal in Japan though? I saw some reservation pages that didn't have it listed, but pretty much everyone had Mastercard and Visa listed.
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Apr 15, 2024 13:10
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totalnewbie posted:My general advice for these types of questions is. Yeah agreed. If you want to learn the language cool, learn how to read basic signage, recognize menu items and know 1-10. Tokyo is a busy city so don’t get in the way. for people waiting down the line or block the escalator
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Apr 15, 2024 13:44
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Good Listener posted:I might've missed it but do most places in Tokyo take all major US credit cards? I just wanna make sure it won't be an issue when I use my Visa to check in to hotels and the like. Shrines: Dera is ultra busy all the time, go in at 6am when it’s quiet, yeah it’s early but that’s how you enjoy busy places. There’s sensoji but I think that’s forgettable There’s ryoanji which is one of my fave Get a bicycle for Kyoto because buses are always full of tourists and high school kids and traffic jams Checklist 2 kinds of credit cards, visa and master 2 different bank atm cards. Preferably with 0 fee like Charles Schwab. 30k in cash (just use atm) 300 USD in cash - if not exchange 30k yen A data plan, don’t rely on WiFi like a teenager in 2024, 13 years after the death of Steve Jobs If you have an iPhone - great , add suica to your wallet before you go to japan and top up money with it
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Apr 15, 2024 13:49
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I miss salted cream doryaki, they were the best ;(
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Apr 15, 2024 13:50
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Wonton posted:Shrines: I'm not actually hitting up Kyoto at this time, we're mainly sticking to the Tokyo area. I have been to Kyomizudera and Ryoanji before when I visited back in college though I have a Visa and a Master card. I have a Wise card which currently has 82500yen on it so I should be set there it sounds like. I was going to pick up one of those simcards for internet/data when we land in Haneda. I don't have an iphone though, mine's a Galaxy. I should maybe start planning a bit harder but I'm still kind of waiting to see when/if we can hopefully get a Kirby cafe reservation. I know it's popular so.. Thank you for all the suggestions so far though, I'll check them out during the work day today. Also wrt language stuff, I was doing Duolingo for a while last year but their AI poo poo they did a while back soured me on using their services. Good Listener fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Apr 15, 2024 |
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Apr 15, 2024 14:12
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Shrines are often 24 hrs so you can also go at night. The shops will be closed but the gorgeous architecture will still be there (Senso-ji too!)
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Apr 15, 2024 14:15
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Unfortunately I have yet to see a Western tourist in begging need of funds in Tokyo, because that would be a lot of loving fun.
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Apr 15, 2024 16:20
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Wonton posted:Shrines: It should go without saying, but make sure to tell your banks you are traveling to Japan. I say that it should go without saying but there I was in Japan trying to get cash from an ATM and being told the transaction was declined. Having to wait til 9pm in Japan to call my credit union to tell them that i'm traveling was a bit of a drag.
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Apr 15, 2024 16:46
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Gabriel Grub posted:Unfortunately I have yet to see a Western tourist in begging need of funds in Tokyo, because that would be a lot of loving fun. Headband? Or face palm ranger??
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Apr 15, 2024 16:46
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