Some Tips for Travelers to Japan

[RealJames]

I often get asked by friends and strangers about what to watch out for or what they should know when coming to Japan, here's a list I've compiled.
If anyone has additions I'd love to hear them and add them to the list!

• Look right first before crossing the street, not left, or the back of your head will get smacked by a bus
• When walking down the street and someones walking the opposite direction to you, go to the left of them, not the right, generally.
• J-walking is surprisingly uncommon, people will wait for the walk signal even if the road is absolutely empty. (Due to insurance reasons it would seem)
• In some cities there ares no buttons to push to trigger the cross-walk, it just happens on it's own and you wait for it.
• If you look or glance at someone in the eye's while walking in the opposite direction they'll think "what's his problem?" or "why's he looking at me?"
• Eating in public is rude
• While on the train or subway, be quiet, I put my cellphone on vibrate, people generally either don't talk to each other or whisper inaudibly
• While on the subway, it's normal for it to be so packed that people will be shoulder-to-shoulder with you.
• There are specific cars on the train and subway that are women-only for certain times of the day, it's marked in english on the ground and walls near them.
• Many people in Japan, as much as they want to, feel very uncomfortable dealing with foreigners, less than 2% of Japan's population is foreign, we have to be understanding of this. Having said that, almost everybody in japan under 55yrs old has studied English grammar and vocabulary for 3 years in junior high, and 3 years in high school, so if you speak slowly, and clearly, they'll actually understand a lot of what you say, just leave out prepositions and stick to 3 or 4 word phrases, and use body language
• When you pay for things at the store, you don't hand the cashier the money directly, there's this tray somewhere on the counter or near the till that you put your money in, they then take it from there, they hand you back the coin first, then the bills with the receipt
• Every time you enter and leave a store all the employees will utter some incomprehensible phrase that basically means welcome to the store, but they say it thousands of times a week so it bears no similarity to it's proper pronunciation. and you don't have to acknowledge it, no one does.
• Tips and tax are included in absolutely everything everywhere, even at the grocery store when things cost some uneven amount of yen, like 387y, it's included. the exception seems to be taxi drivers, tipping them isn't strange, but it's also not rude if you don't.
• Speaking of taxi's, don't touch the doors, they open and close for you, automatically
• Taxi's have a gps nav thing on the middle of the dash, and it shows the path the cabbi takes to your destination, so you can see he isn't taking some retarded obscure loopy path to screw you over, which is nice. Cabbi's are very well dressed, and wear gloves, and will help you load and unload luggage into/from the trunk.
• People smoke everywhere here, in restaurants too, you're in a different culture, don't judge people for it, our culture has much worse habits.
• Don't be shocked if a man takes the last seat and lets his girlfriend/wife stand beside him
• If Japanese words are written with English characters, read them as though they are french, the pronunciation will be a hell of a lot better.
• if you are tying to use an English word in hopes that it will be understood, break it into consonant-vowel syllables, and if unsure, use U as the vowel, L's and R's are the same, V's and B's are the same for example,

  television - te re bi
  milk - mi ru ku
  toilet - to i re

• Learning a few basic phrases is very useful, like

  ___ ikitai (ee key tie) = i want to go to _____
  doko? = where?
  arigato = thanks
  gomen = sorry
  eigo (eh ee go) = English
  sumimasen (sue me mah sen) = excuse me (you'll probably say this before saying ___ikitai)

  for example if you're at the train station and you want to go to Umeda, you'll stop someone that looks like they know what they're doing by getting their attention with "sumimasen?"
  and then they'll just look at you puzzled and a little panicked, and you say "Umeda ikitai..." and it helps if you try to look lost and confused haha
  they'll point you to the right direction, usually while speaking Japanese incredibly quickly, but look at where they point.. and if you really have no idea what they're trying to say, ask "doko?" and sorta start walking in the direction you think they meant, while keeping eye contact, and a confused look, and they'll either show affirmation or be disappointed that you didn't understand haha....body language goes a looong way.
• At the end, try to remember to say "arigato" or if you have the memory for the entire polite version "arigatogozaimasu", this would be more appropriate, but most Japanese people will be happy to hear arigato from you and understand that it's probably all you know how to say.
• Make sure you don't try to stay at the wrong kind of hotel.
• Don't expect people to be able to speak English, no matter how public their job may be.
• For men, not shaving is rude, having stubble is like, being dirty, but if you're a foreigner, and not wearing a suit, it's fine, you're obviously a tourist
• In restaurants, most menu's will have pictures, so point. If not, outside many restaurants there will be life-like versions of each dish, just wave over one of the staff and point at what you want.
• Once inside, they will either give you a plastic wrapped moist towel, or a waiter will come by and hold one out for you to take from them, in which case it'll be hot/warm, use this to clean your hands, keep it near for while you're eating and after, unless it's a nicer restaurant, it's the only one you'll get.
• If you're eating food that comes on skewers, there will be a cup somewhere on the table which you're expected to put all your skewers into.
• Don't stick your chopsticks in your rice, it bares too much resemblance to a custom meant for honouring the dead
• If you're not sure what to do with them, just lay them across the top of the bowl, or on the edge of a dish, or sometimes there will be little chopstick holder things.
• Don't point with chopsticks
• It is virtually impossible to be vegetarian here, and if you don't know what you're ordering, it could be something you'd never consider eating. Keep an open mind.
• For prices on basically everything, drop the last two digits and call it dollars, ex 1130Y = 11$, close enough
• There are virtually no garbages anywhere, it's incredible how clean the places is considering there's almost no place for you to dispose of anything, the only places I've seen them are at the train station or outside the convenient stores, but considering you never ever eat in public, it's not so often you have something you want to throw out.
• Japan has somehow not entered the world of 24hrs, few stores are open 24hrs, and the last train/subway is between midnight and 1am, first one around 5 am (in Osaka, I don't remember Tokyo).
• Supposedly, pickpocketing has become a problem in Japan, but I swear people here have little concept of what crime is, it's like a couple dozen people get pick-pocketed in a year and shit hath hiteth the fan
• When you enter any kind of semi-private establishment, check to see if everyone inside is wearing slippers, at which point you should be too, one place you might not expect it is in change rooms at stores, take your shoes off for them, one cue for it is a slightly raised floor, this usually indicates the shoe->slipper desire.
• If you're in a very urban area at a later time in the evening, especially on the weekends, it's not uncommon to come across a very very drunk (normally respectable) business man, and this man will more than likely be doing something incredibly obscene... this is a very high stress society, and alcohol has been associated with relaxation, a lot
• Small-talk i not very common, there is no such thing as an "awkward silence" with a strange.
• People in Japan do not hug each other, they'll seriously be like what the hell just happened, if you hug them.
• Japanese people are generally timid and modest.
• Japanese people are generally incredibly kind to foreigners, they will usually not help unless it's asked for though, as much as they may want to do so.
• It can also be easy to take advantage of this boundless kindness, they will help you as much as you ask them too and will not say no, try to not overstep the boundary of common courtesy.
• It's common that streets will have rather large storm drains along the side which may be uncovers, watch your step!

Thank you for the input so I could revise the list!

[dogsbody70]

Hi James that seems really useful advice.

[RealJames]

Originally Posted by dogsbody70

Hi James that seems really useful advice.

Thanks! I'd like to append other advice/tips from others that I may have neglected to mention ^^b
But I think I'm nearing the 10000character limit on that post :O
I Might have to append it to this post!

[dogsbody70]

"•people in Japan do not hug each other, they'll seriously be like what the hell just happened, if you hug them."


YouTube - FREE HUGS in JAPAN(Tokyo) part1　フリーハグ I showed her this free hug video and she was astonished although it was mostly non-japanese who enjoyed those hugs.


That must be why my japanese friend is so aghast about hugs. mind you she has become used to it Now. LOL.

also she is jealous of the thoughtfulness and kindness of my husband. she simply cannot understand it-- although she knows how to take advantage LOL. she is of the older generation of course.

[JohnBraden]

I suggest this be "sticky"ed....

[RealJames]

Originally Posted by JohnBraden

I suggest this be "sticky"ed....

Thanks, I spent a fair bit of time on it lol, it would be a shame for it to drift into the unvisited realms of the forum.

[diru1]

This post has been a great help, but you mentioned some things ive never heard about.

• if you look at someone in the eye's while walking in the opposite direction they'll think "what's his problem?" or "why's he looking at me?"

Does this apply in general? like around Tokyo, because I have a problem where I tend to do that all the time here. Not stare but look at people walking past.

[Sitron]

Nice post man. I'll print this out for my trip.

[MMM]

j-walking is surprisingly uncommon, people will wait for the walk signal even if the road is absolutely empty..

Tell people in Osaka that. I see jay walking all the time there.

there's no button to push to trigger the cross-walk, it just happens on it's own and you wait for it.

Again, you say "Japan" but I think your scope is limited. In Nishinomiya there are buttons on some crosswalks.

if you look at someone in the eye's while walking in the opposite direction they'll think "what's his problem?" or "why's he looking at me?"

Is that not true anywhere?

eating in public is rude

Then how do restaurants stay in business?

I think you mean eating or drinking on the street or at a bus stop is considered rude, but this is becoming an outdated way of thinking held mostly by the very old.

while on the train or subway, be quiet, i put my cellphone on vibrate, people generally either don't talk to each other or whisper inaudibly

It's not quite as bad as a library.

there are specific cars on the train and subway that are women-only for certain times of the day, it's marked in english on the ground and walls near them, this is because japanese men are perverted and grope young girls frequently.

I think you need to choose your words more carefully. Not all, most, or even many of Japanese men are perverts. Not all the perverts are Japanese. It only takes a few to ruin it for everyone.

many people in Japan have no idea how to deal with foreigners, less than 2% of Japans population is foreign, we have to be understanding of this. having said that, almost everybody in japan under 55yrs old has studied english grammar and vocabulary for 3 years in junior high, and 3 years in highschool, so if you speak slowly, and clearly, they'll actually understand a lot of what you say, just leave out prepositions and stick to 3 or 4 word phrases, and use body language

Again, your language is very judgmental and degrading.

every time you enter and leave a store all the employees will utter some incomprehensible phrase that basically means welcome to the store, but they say it thousands of times a week so it bears no similarity to it's proper pronunciation. and you don't have to acknowledge it.

Do you like living in Japan?

That's as far as I can go for now.

[diru1]

Originally Posted by MMM

j-walking is surprisingly uncommon, people will wait for the walk signal even if the road is absolutely empty..

Tell people in Osaka that. I see jay walking all the time there.

there's no button to push to trigger the cross-walk, it just happens on it's own and you wait for it.

Again, you say "Japan" but I think your scope is limited. In Nishinomiya there are buttons on some crosswalks.

if you look at someone in the eye's while walking in the opposite direction they'll think "what's his problem?" or "why's he looking at me?"

Is that not true anywhere?

eating in public is rude

Then how do restaurants stay in business?

I think you mean eating or drinking on the street or at a bus stop is considered rude, but this is becoming an outdated way of thinking held mostly by the very old.

while on the train or subway, be quiet, i put my cellphone on vibrate, people generally either don't talk to each other or whisper inaudibly

It's not quite as bad as a library.

there are specific cars on the train and subway that are women-only for certain times of the day, it's marked in english on the ground and walls near them, this is because japanese men are perverted and grope young girls frequently.

I think you need to choose your words more carefully. Not all, most, or even many of Japanese men are perverts. Not all the perverts are Japanese. It only takes a few to ruin it for everyone.

many people in Japan have no idea how to deal with foreigners, less than 2% of Japans population is foreign, we have to be understanding of this. having said that, almost everybody in japan under 55yrs old has studied english grammar and vocabulary for 3 years in junior high, and 3 years in highschool, so if you speak slowly, and clearly, they'll actually understand a lot of what you say, just leave out prepositions and stick to 3 or 4 word phrases, and use body language

Again, your language is very judgmental and degrading.

every time you enter and leave a store all the employees will utter some incomprehensible phrase that basically means welcome to the store, but they say it thousands of times a week so it bears no similarity to it's proper pronunciation. and you don't have to acknowledge it.

Do you like living in Japan?

That's as far as I can go for now.

Lol I don't know what to belive now, I guess its a persons personal opinion?