Thursday, June 01, 2006
Sayonara to Japan...
Including Japan in our trip was my idea and I think to begin with Nikky just played along because it seemed so far in the future. Nervousness increased when we started reading the guidebooks in New Zealand, and it seemed like we were going to leave the laid back easy life of the South Island and travel to another planet rather than just another country.One of the reasons I wanted to come here was to see the huge contrasts between the old and the new, and Tokyo certainly gave us plenty of opportunities to see them. We visited very old, quiet, peaceful temples and shrines but we were never very far from the madness that is the rest of the city, and I definitely enjoyed the 'new' more than Nikky did.
We were never short of an old temple or three to visit, and one of our tips for anyone else coming is definitely to make sure that you plan your itinerary to try and avoid 'Temple Fatigue', especially in Kyoto where it's hard to see anything else at times.
Almost everywhere we have been since leaving home we have been amazed by how friendly and helpful people are to the bumbling & illiterate English visitors and Japan has been no exception. Our attempts at a few basic words of Japanese (we never really graduated to anything that could be called phrases!) were well received and never really failed to help us get what we wanted or find our way around. Aside from the school trips we encountered numerous other people who spoke some English out on the streets, and the combination of their willingness to both help us and practice their English skills were very useful on occasions (especially when trying to interpret timetables at bus stops!).
We'd read all about the politeness and relative formality of lots of things in everyday life, but it still surprised us a little until we actually got used to it. Walk into any small convenience store and all the staff in the shop will turn around and call out a greeting to you (of course I can also imagine how this might become a little irritating after a while!). We eventually trained ourselves to hand over money or credit cards in shops with both hands as is polite, and by the end of our three weeks I found that I was instinctively joining in the bowing that seems to mark the end of any transaction or meeting. So if you notice that I'm still doing this when I get home then I can only apologise!
After a while the politeness, the bowing, the funny little cartoon characters that appear everywhere (even on quite serious building site safety signs!), the fact that absolutely everything seems to run perfectly on schedule and all the other little things that are just different from home..... well you might start to think that it's all just a bit scary, but somehow it isn't.
Back in New Zealand we met a fellow English traveller who'd only just left Japan and was hugely enthusiastic about going back, then at Tokyo airport just before we left we met a Hawaiian guy who was back for his 4th visit and was equally enthusiastic to be back (we never did get his name, but the Hawaiian chocolates he gave us were great, so thanks!). Having now spent three weeks here I can understand what they mean, it's a strangely addictive place and I'm definitely looking forward to coming back some time.
We have managed to come up with a few 'Top Tips' for Japan as well, so here we go with:
"Three Things You Need in Japan"
1) Wads of cash
Although Japan is not half as expensive as you might think if you’re careful where you shop and eat, one thing that isn’t always easy is getting money. Not all ATM’s accept foreign cards (although this is apparently improving), which means that you usually have to find a Post Office or Citibank ATM to be certain of getting money. Some of the ATM’s also close down at 9pm, and may not be available at weekends!
The other unexpected problem is that, although Japan is just as high tech as you think, there are still many places where you can’t use credit cards. Many restaurants, hostels and even some hotels do not accept cards. So you need to make sure you’ve always got enough cash to cover yourself for a cople of days unless you want to keep going out of your way to withdraw more.
2) Tokyo Bilingual City Atlas
I read about this before we arrived and it’s been very useful. It doesn’t look all that detailed but that's mainly because of the Japanese system of addresses doesn't really rely on anything as simple as road names! However, everything is written in both languages, so if you get lost you can show the bus driver/taxi driver/friendly member of the public where you are trying to get to (although even the taxi drivers are not famous for knowing their way around). They also do a similar book for the rest of the country.
3) Japan Rail Pass
Actually, this is something you need to have before you get to Japan. It’s only available to foreign tourists and you must buy a voucher outside Japan and then exchange it for the pass when you arrive. You can then travel on almost all of the trains and buses operated by the Japan Railways group (including all the bullet trains except for the most direct services that only stop at major cities). It may not look cheap, but it does save you money even if you only do one lengthy return trip from Tokyo and it doesn't restrict you to off peak trains or anything like that so you can pretty much travel when you like.
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