A long wordy post on Japan

Salam dearest Alia Delaila,

      

 

hajimemashite? feel the itch yet? I thought I'd email this to you but since I haven't updated my blog in ages so I thought why not kill two birds with one stone. Plus, the content wouldn't be much of a different either. So here goes, a blogpost just fer ya, baby girl. Doesn't this make you feel super special?

I drafted this long long post when I was in Kyoto then my ideas evaporated (like all my blog ideas always did). I managed to wake up early and continue writing this up in the comfort on my PJ, 7 days after the trip. I normally give up by then. It is my intention to make your feet itch a little more because Japan is amazing. I hope this long wordy post will be useful to you, I am no travel writer but I am aspired to be. Do let me know if there is anything missing that I should add.

Flight to and fro
First let me share my experience to the country. I bought my ticket 2 months in advance when British Airway (BA) was holding a promo period. For £579, I thought it was worth it for a direct 14 hours flight. I was assuming BA would be fun, but on the day I found that BA was okayyyyy. I am so used to the endless entertainment list on Emirates and Qatar, so BA very (very!!) limited choices of movies and music bored me to almost dying. So I slept for hours, luckily the seat was  large and there was empty seat next to mine, re-watched The Fault in Our Stars for the 3rd time, planned my trip and had my meal and slept again.

The Muslim meal was alright but I think I would have been happier I opted vegetarian food or seafood rather than opting for muslim meal. I was given india style food twice, 'awesome'. Not that I am a picky eater, curry twice was not impressive.

Planning the trip
I only managed for draft an itinerary during the flight. I was caught up work since I got back to the UK 3 weeks prior. I was working 2 weeks straight then a friend came over for my birthday weekend then worked again for 4 days. I managed to google around list a few things that I wanted to visit. I managed to recall the beautiful places in Memoir of a Geisha (one of my fave) that I had been dying to visit. I knew Kyoto is a must visit. I always wanted to visit Hiroshima before I even know what was there to see in there.

I have bought a book as soon as I booked my flights. Eyewitness Travel: Japan. I have always preferred this publishing than Lonely Planet, it has colourful photos to trigger my travelling bug. For each city, it lists the things to do and see with map and how to get there. Quite cool.

I drafted the days that I have against the cities that I wanted to go, how many days roughly I wanted to spend in each and how effectively could I travel to each places without wasting a lot of time being on the train. In the end it fitted nicely, 3 days in Tokyo, I travelled straight to Hiroshima via Osaka, back up to Kyoto for 2 nights then back to Tokyo before going back to the UK.

Pretty much my plans

I told you about the guide that a British-Japanese friend of mine wrote. I only managed to read his email on the plane (haha procrastinated like a pro). I was surprised that he also suggested an almost similar itinerary to what I had already drafted. Another friend of mine (she studied and now works in Tokyo) had a look at my draft and his guide, also thought it was feasible to fit everything within the few days that I have. There is so many things to see and do in Japan, especially in Kyoto. Plan it well. Plan it ahead.

Wifi // Internet
Free wifi is almost non-existant, I realised later. Everytime I tried to connect to the ones that are unlocked, they ended up bringing me to a page where I have to log in, register etc. What worst, it was in Japanese. I bought a data plan  simcard at the airport, 3GB that possibly be more than enough for 8 days trip for about 6100 Yen. The same telco did offer 1G data for about 3700 Yen, I thought I might just get more data rather than less, and then abuse it.

Language barrier
I had to say that it was frustrating. I felt like having a long and deep conversation with the friendly Japanese around me, but I was not linguistically prepared for this trip. I had my phrasebook handy, and a Japanese language app installed. I marked the pages that I commonly used, like the food page because I need to ask if the food contains bifu (beef), tori (chicken) or buteneki (pork). Sometimes, Im not even bothered to try to form a sentence, I just point the phrases on the book to them and smartly try to interpret their response. Japanese are genuinely nice people, they would try their best to communicate but it's my own fault for not preparing well enough to come to their country.

 

Transportation
You were asking about getting around Tokyo. The answer is at first I thought it was confusing. It has more lines than London's underground, and Japanese writing splattered all over the stations and the boards. We're lucky that we're coming to Japan when it is intensively preparing itself for the Olympic 2020, so there are tiny Romanised and English writing on the main signboards. Some trains have english announcer. Shinkansen is well equipped for foreigners. So not to worry too much. BTW, Shinkansen is very very frequent, you can reserve your seat on the day you wish to travel.

It was less easy elsewhere. I had to take trams and trains in Hiroshima, there it was lacking the luxury of bilingual signs so I had to be more alert when I boarded a train or tram.

I am not sure the reason why I felt that I was difficult, was it due to my jetlag-ness or because it was genuinely difficult? I guess my advice would be, take your time, get the map, plan your route, rather be slow than lost then end up in frustration. BTW, each station is large and has lots of different exits. So, be careful.

Be sure to get the JR pass, it is the best thing about being a tourist in Japan, you get a cheaper fare on Shinkansen and all JR line trains. It could only be bought outside of Japan, so buy it online. Mine was 7 days pass, cost me £159 which according to my friend, would could only take them to Osaka and return to Tokyo. But for us foreigner, it's unlimited access to almost the entire of Japan! Big win.

JR pass is only valid on JR lines. So for metro/trams/trains you have to get a day pass or single ticket. There are quite a lot of stairs, partially installed with elevator or you have to look for signs to the lift. So middle age parents might find it slightly physically challenging.

Note: Certain places are best explored on bikes. The pavement is wide for cyclist. And around 6 - 8 AM/PM are the rush hours, try to avoid those hours.

Food/Eating out
Even food labels all are in Japanese! So be careful when buying packed food and sweets. I remembered wanting to buy a matcha biscuits just because it looked harmless, then my friend warned me that the biscuit contained gelatine and quite a lot of food products here contains gelatine which usually made of pork.

I am embarrassed to admit that I wasn't really adventurous on food for this trip especially when I was alone. But overall, trust me, you'll never want to have sushi back in Malaysia or anywhere else again. The food was awesome, melt on your palate, the best I ever tasted. My friend took me to a few chain restaurant, they were cheap but even that tasted so good. I wonder how 5 star restaurant would taste like.


Cutting cost
Japan is expensive according to many people. So do plan on saving. Frankly speaking, converting between pound to yen, Japan is not that bad. It's much cheaper than London, especially for transportation. Food is about equally priced. But I understand if Malaysians in general will feel that Japan is quite expensive bcs yen is much stronger than ringgit.

My friend suggested 5000 Yen per day and the other friend suggested that I bring as much as possible. With JR pass, you're saving quite a lot. Depending on your style of eating and souvenir shopping, I think it was 5000 Yen per day was alright. I slightly overspent on the first day, but that was for starting up. Ya know, internet simcard, a bit of clothes shopping.

I tend to splurge on souvenirs because I am thoughtful kinda person liddat. You can get all the cute and quirky stuff here. OMG so awesome but I didn't have enough space in my luggage nor I have the extra money to get something for everyone and also for myself. If you're into designer outlet, go to Gotemba. JR pass will take you there for free and there is shuttle bus from the train station to the outlet itself. The sales were alright, they have most of the brands that I could find in the UK anyway, so I didn't go crazy.

Another amazing place where you can get most souvenirs shopping done is around the Asakusa Shrine, any touristy areas there will be souvenir stalls, the price would not differ as much, so dont bother looking around. A shop that I found heavenly for souvenir shopping was Daiso. It's a 100Y shop. They have 100Y bowls and cups, chopsticks (thats where I got mine from), chocolates, matcha tea, from household to stationary. I went to one close to Harajuku, it's 4 storey high, so I managed to get lots of stuff from there.

Note: a fridge magnet roughly cost 400Y, a box of 5 pairs of chopsticks cost me 600Y


Safety
Japan as everyone says, is a very safe country. Initially, I took the advice from few friends of mine who had live there for a few years. Everyone is polite and well behaved, it's well lit, even back alley didn't feel like back alley for me, I could leave my handbag to save seat in coffee shops, it's safe for single girl traveller. But don't take my words for it, always beware. I didn't walk out after the sun was down except once when I was in Hiroshima, I was too hungry, I went scavenging for dinner.

Clean, so so clean.

Overall, it's safe, transportation is efficient, it's a bit difficult language and food wise, it's beautiful and it's amazing. Okay, is there any thing else I should rant on this post? I'll write about the places in Japan that I've been to in separate post otherwise this will be too long. Omg, I was so amazed with Japan, I hope you will too! Excited yet?

xxx