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My nephew is going to Japan for a month this summer as a college graduation present and he’s invited me to come along! Because I have ventured foreignly no farther than the English speaking Caribbean on a cruise ship, I have lots of questions. However, I don’t know what I don’t know so I don’t know what questions to ask. Where do I start with preparing for this? I need to get an expedited passport, that much I know. I’ve tried to learn Japanese in the past but it never clicked like French or Spanish. I’m also in grad school currently so time and the amount of new info I can cram in my head is limited. How much Japanese do I need to know and how can I learn it, or can I get by with Google lens translating and polite apologies? I’m also worried about sticking out like a sore thumb and attracting attention. I’m a tall (5’10”, so not basketball player tall, but enough to stand out) curvy goonette (size 16, not freakishly fat in America but internationally, welp) and I’m blonde. A nonzero amount of times in life I have been stopped by Asian tourists who come up to my shoulder asking to take a picture with me (LA and Las Vegas). This is not a brag, humble or otherwise. I really hate attention. Am I overblowing how bad I’ll stick out in my head? (Nephew is 6’2”, average build, and a handsome guy so I’m sure he will not go unnoticed either, but he’s a guy and doesn’t have anxiety about this nonsense). What else can you tell me? I’m super excited about seeing historical stuff and collecting seashells there so if anyone has any suggestions for those I’d love to hear them. I suppose I’m freaking out about this a little because even though nephew is 21 he’s still an 8 year old in my heart and I will always be auntie bear ready to rip poo poo up for him if necessary  I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say. Thanks goons!
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Apr 6, 2024 23:23
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Thora posted:My nephew is going to Japan for a month this summer as a college graduation present and he’s invited me to come along! Prolly just ask this in the japan thread in the tourism & travel section. Personally i don't think anyone will notice you in japan on account of how it's not 1998.
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Apr 7, 2024 05:16
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slinkimalinki posted:Prolly just ask this in the japan thread in the tourism & travel section. I don’t think I knew that we had a tnt sub. Thanks for the info on both the points you mentioned. Will repost there.
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Apr 7, 2024 22:47
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Since the repost isn't in yet-- Prep is basically just passport, comfortable shoes and pants (don't sleep on this part, if you wear new jeans on day one you will regret it for weeks) for walking, and sort out how you want phone coverage--maybe your US plan has international roaming, maybe you can get an unlock and rent a SIM, maybe you do a phone or hotspot rental, and depending on the exact option and provider some like advance notice. Language is not a huge deal in touristy or big-city areas. Especially for things like mass transit or chain restaurants, English is not necessarily spoken well but definitely supported in menus/kiosks/maps/etc. At this point, your strategy should be less about learning the language and more a little bit of pronunciation practice (honestly very easy, if you have Spanish) combined with a phrasebook. Stretch goal would be memorizing the katakana script, which is essentially Japanese italics in that it's the standard proper way to present loanwords and thus you might be able to sound out a rough meaning, or picking a few important written words and remembering that 手洗 is (sometimes) the "logo" for toilet, 会計 for cashier, 入 for entrance, 出 for exit, etc. Not worrying about using them properly in a sentence or anything, just "if I have to pee, I look for a sign with this on it". About the only exception is small restaurants and bars in poorer areas, in my experience; if the owner-chef-waitress doesn't speak English she may not want to deal near closing with a party that can't speak Japanese. But on the other hand there are just as many that love the idea of having some cultural exchange while they work. You will stick out. You will stick out like a sore thumb. You would stick out like a sore thumb if you were size 0 and 5'3", and probably still if you were an American-born ethnic Japanese that was size 0 and 5'3"; there's a bunch of indescribable stuff about carriage and posture and fashion sense and when eye contact is/isn't appropriate that... Takes a long time to wear off (and even then, you're still filed in the "immigrant" bucket rather than the "tourist" bucket, which should probably be food for thought back home.) But, assuming you don't encounter a weirdo whose fetish you are, it's more a curious-friendly-"oh cool time to see if I still have my HS English" thing, they take being brushed off for an answer, and the weirdos are in the wrong even by local cultural standards. (The general impression I've gotten from women friends is that the weirdo rate is at least two orders of magnitude higher if you're a blonde; be warned or reassured as appropriate.) E: One other thing--money. Japan is less cash-based than it was in the past, but is still primarily cash-based; you'll want to have (and are safe having) fifty or a hundred bucks-equivalent in your wallet at all times, more if you plan on spending. Most ATMs do not work with American cards, but 7-Eleven's do at a fair rate, though keep in mind that many US banks limit ATM transactions to $400 a day. Additionally, the Japan-side airport exchange bureaus are actually not scams, so if you want to change cash for cash feel secure in doing it as soon as you get there. Many places that take credit also take the local mass transit card, so feel free to get one of those and keep it loaded/clear it out with convenience store breakfasts the last couple days. And consider a change purse, because the change denominations go up to what's still $3.50 or so. Mandoric fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Apr 8, 2024 |
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Apr 8, 2024 03:12
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Japan in the summer is hot and humid, maybe wear jeans on the airplane going to and from, but do not wear jeans in Japan as a tourist. The Suica and Pasmo transit/debit cards can be added to your iPhone wallet (no need for a physical card, which had become scarce at some point), and topped up with Apple Pay, which is hugely convenient. You will stick out as a foreigner and this cannot be helped. However you will not get little kids saying "harro harro" at you, nor people gawping at you in amazement that you can walk on your hind legs. If you want to stick out less, dress nicely and not like a slob.
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Apr 10, 2024 17:27
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Thora posted:What else can you tell me? I’m super excited about seeing historical stuff and collecting seashells there so if anyone has any suggestions for those I’d love to hear them. I wouldn't get your hopes up too much on the historical front to be honest. A lot of Japan got obliterated in WW2. You'll see a lot of temples and the like, but when you investigate further you'll find they were built in the 50's and are trying to emulate the style of what came before. Still neat, but it's not the same as going to a 2000 year old building in Rome or something. However, if you want to see some history, taking a train out to Nikko is worth a trip. It's about 3 hours out of Tokyo. The US intentionally avoided it in the war to at least preserve some of Japan's history, and the surrounding area is also nice. Re: standing out, my experience was no-one gave a poo poo. Granted, white dude here, but it's not like you're the first westerner they've seen or anything. Japanese culture can by all reports be a bit insular and passive aggressive towards immigrants living there, but none of that really affects tourists. You might get the odd look, especially outside of the cities, but that'll almost certainly be the extent of it. One of the challenges the Japanese Government thought they faced going into the Olympics before they got 'Rona'd was trying to figure out how to stop the locals just completely ignoring lost tourists and actually trying to help them out. quote:I will always be auntie bear ready to rip poo poo up for him if necessary I mean, as an Uncle I get it, but don't go to other countries with a view that you are surrounded by threats and you have to 'rip poo poo up'. Japan really is one of the safest places on earth. Relax, and enjoy it!
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Apr 13, 2024 22:58
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I will say, the Japanese answer to "is the ship still Theseus's?" has been a resounding yes from long before even recorded history. The chief shrines get rebuilt within a human or working lifetime, to original design with original methods, under some combination of it being repurification or just dealing with humid-climate decay while someone who watched the last iteration go up as a boy could still "nope" anything that was off, if not be a master for it when he was an apprentice the first time around. But yeah, there is a big wartime gap of old-but-not-ancient sites.
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Apr 14, 2024 04:24
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My boss travels to Japan 3-4 times a year and each time he goes he gorges on the tonkatsu every chance he gets. Something about the pork there is just different.
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Apr 14, 2024 08:38
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DavidCameronsPig posted:I mean, as an Uncle I get it, but don't go to other countries with a view that you are surrounded by threats and you have to 'rip poo poo up'. Japan really is one of the safest places on earth. Relax, and enjoy it! This is important for travelling anywhere, and life in general here. If you go expecting hostility then you will find it and everything will be that more difficult. No one, especially your nephew, will thank you for it and everyone will be happier. Secondly it also just sounds pathetic really. I mean rip things up how exactly? Writing a strongly worded trip advisor review? Or like an actual bear, attacking people physically without ever understanding thier intentions, just that they crossed some boundary you imposed, but they didn't understand? Aramoro fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Apr 28, 2024 |
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Apr 28, 2024 11:53
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Mandoric posted:You will stick out. You will stick out like a sore thumb. You would stick out like a sore thumb if you were size 0 and 5'3", and probably still if you were an American-born ethnic Japanese that was size 0 and 5'3"; there's a bunch of indescribable stuff about carriage and posture and fashion sense and when eye contact is/isn't appropriate that... is this hyberbole or are you talking about rural areas or something? i havent been to Japan but i was under the impression that it had several large cities where enough non-Japanese people live and work that the sight of a foreigner was not particularly notable personally ive still not even learned how to deal correctly with eye contact in my own culture, let alone when travelling Earwicker fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Apr 29, 2024 |
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Apr 29, 2024 23:41
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Earwicker posted:is this hyberbole or are you talking about rural areas or something? i havent been to Japan but i was under the impression that it had several large cities where enough non-Japanese people live and work that the sight of a foreigner was not particularly notable More the degree of it mattering? You could be the hundredth, if not later, "tourist or immigrant" a Tokyoite has seen that day; they probably don't cast any automatic aspersion there since they've probably seen a hundred that day; just that doesn't mean that that isn't your category in their assessment.
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Apr 30, 2024 03:22
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