Re: Feedback from First Trip to Japan

Lol thank you, but why always complain when people don't speak english ??

"Daniel" <danielroy10@xxxxxxxxxxx> a écrit dans le message de news:
1179577978.722180.327270@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hey everyone,
just came back from a 2-week holiday in Japan, and wanted to give
some feedback/advice for anyone else going or thinking about going.

Plusses about Japan:
1- Very clean! The only spot where I saw any littering was around
Ueno, in Tokyo (and that wasn`t much compared to what we see in most
North American cities).
2- People are extremely honest. I never saw a price different from
what was advertized, and never saw any "mistake" with the change
given
to me after a purchase.
3- Prices don`t fluctuate with the location and time. By this, I mean
that, for example, you will pay the same for your bottle of water if
you`re at the corner store than if you`re at the museum. The prices
in
the hotel restaurants are competitive as compared to the prices in
the
restaurants outside.
4- Many attractions are free, or almost: For example, I visited the
imperial palace for free (even tho I had to reserve my spot in
advance). Some very lovely parks and temples are free.
5- Restaurants can be very affordable: we went every morning to an
all-
you-can-eat in Kyoto station for \500/person! For dinner, we usually
paid about \1300 total, for both of us (at Kyoto station again and
around Ueno in Tokyo).
6- Very efficient subway system in Tokyo and Osaka.
7- Most cities (at least the ones on the touristic path) post at
least
the important directional signs in english.


Minusses about Japan:
1- Way less english is spoken than I imagined. Even receptionists in
hotels in Tokyo could not say a single word of english! (which begs
the question, "what are the job requirements?"). But to their credit,
a lot of them can understand some basic english language, even tho
they wouldn`t even try to speak it.
2- Not everyone appreciates our efforts at japanese language: a
minority will prefer to put the emphasis on our (grammatical/
syntaxic)
mistakes, instead of trying to understand what we`re trying to say.
For example, when trying to ask for some tea to a waitress, we made
the mistake of asking for "kocha" (black tea), instead of
"ocha" (green tea), whilst they had only green tea (we didn`t know
then that there were separate words for black tea and green tea).
Instead of bringing tea, she brought water! After about 15 minutes,
she finally brought tea, and gave us a speech about how it is "ocha",
and not "kocha"! But this is thankfully not widespread behavior.
3- The sidewalks are dangerous, because of the cyclists coming from
all directions, circling around the pedestrians!
4- The buses system in Kyoto is great, but you have to be careful to
use only city buses if you have a daily pass, otherwise you end up
having to pay twice for the fare (they have some kind of private bus
system running in parallel with the city buses). The best way to
protect yourself against this is to stick to the bus numbers in the
city bus leaflets.
5- Some japanese being asked directions for somewhere will prefer to
give any direction, instead of admitting they don`t know! So it can
be
useful to ask multiple opinions for directions.


Feedback about sites and cities:
1- Tokyo: Great for parks and shopping (Ginza is more expensive, Ueno
more affordable). The imperial palace itself is a bit disapointing
(it
looks more like a cafeteria than a palace), but the park surrounding
it is georgeous.
2- Osaka: Great for shopping and entertainment, looked like a 3-
million people circus to me! Go to "Den-Den Town" for great deals on
electronics equipment! I also heard that their (artificial island-
based) airport is very modern and cool. My first choice of city when
I
come back.
3- Kyoto: Good for temples/shrines hopping, but not great for
entertainment. If you have time to spare there, the Geon is very
interesting history-wise, since many of its buildings are from the
Edo
period (i.e. pre-1867).
4- Yokohama (suburb of Tokyo): Good example of great waterfront city
planning, but surprisingly quiet for such a large city.
5- Nara: Great temples, and gorgeous Buddha in one of those! Plus
many
wandering friendly deers around the temples.
6- Ikone (short train ride from Kyoto): Nice historic (Edo-era)
street
and castle, but it seemed to me that some historic furniture in the
castle would make the experience so much better.


Shopping advice:
Good deals: women`s shoes and clothes in SOME department stores.
Bad deals: Men`s shoes, vegetables and fruits (only in Japan have I
seen $12 watermellons!)


Electronic gadgets I`ve only seen in Japan:
- Bidet toilets: According to the market leader in this area, they`re
sold in NA, but I`ve never seen any there.
- Great games on cell phones (it seems that all they do on the subway
is play those)
- At the hairdresser, TV`s in front of each customer and individual
vacuums for each hairdresser.
- Vertical parkings: it looks like a merry-go-round with cars. The
one
I saw must have been about 10 cars vertically. Also, for the cars
just
getting out of it, there was a rotating plate helping the car turn
180
degrees, so that they wouldn`t merge into the street in reverse!


Language:
As mentioned above, not so many people speak english, but many people
from the younger generations understand some of it (a saleswoman told
me (in japanese) she studied it at school 5 years, but still can`t
really say much). If you stay on the touristic path, there are
probably enough signs posted in english to get by. But it makes
everyone`s life easier if you learn at least some important words
before going. As far as the written language is concerned, the
japanese use 3 writing systems; kanji (chinese characters, used
mainly
for nouns), hiragana (used mainly for verbs and prepositions) and
katakana (used mainly for words of foreign origins). Kanji is way too
big to be learned in a short time-frame, and hiragana could only be
useful for the verbs, so I suggest learning katakana, if you have the
desire/time.


Advice for travellers:
- A nice, clean and affordable hotel chain in Japan can be found at
www.toyoto-inn.com. The rooms are not flashy, but very convenient.
They provide an english-language movie channel, computers with
internet in the lobby, computer access from the rooms, toothbrush/
toothpaste/razor and a "beauty pack" for the ladies.
- Don't go in June or July, as I heard it can be very hot! I went in
May, and it was already starting to be very hot. Try to go in the
spring or the fall!
- For free tours of great historical sites throughout Japan (imperial
palace, gardens closed to the public, ...), reserve your spot at
sankan.kunaicho.go.jp/english/index.html. Try to reserve as early as
possible, as spots seem to fill quickly.
- For good authentic food, the sushi places are great (the ones where
the plates turn on a belt around the restaurant, and you pick the
ones
you want), and the japanese noodle places also. Don't worry so much
about picking up some food vocabulary in japanese, since most of the
restaurants display plastic models of their food, I guess to help
people who can't read japanese. No need to tip, and there's no tax on
restaurant food!


That's it for now, even tho I could probably go on and on. Let me
know
if there's anything specific about visiting Japan you'd would like to
know, I'd be happy to try to help.


Daniel



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