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02-09-2009, 05:33 PM
I have gone twice to Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, Koyasan, and Osaka). I did fine with very limited Japanese. People seemed to know more English in the bigger cities than the in the smaller towns. The first time, I knew very very little, and the second time I had just taken a basic level 1 class. Even the basic level was very very helpful and it enriched my experience!
Traveling (trains etc.) were probably the most stressful part of being there without fluent Japanese. I have heard that writing things down can help people understand better (as someone mentioned above, many people have had some English in school and they may be better at reading English than understanding speech). Drawing pictures and gestures also helped (especially when I left my back pack at the ATM and I had to communicate w/ the police and the lost and found people). I did find it thanks to my stick-figure Manga picture. ^_^
Good luck!
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