Citibank
Japanese Credit Bureau
Million Card Service
Sumitomo Credit Service
UC Card Co. Ltd
Here are some practical notes on travel in Japan, based on a trip back in 1996. I apologize for things that I misunderstood, and for things that are now out of date.
Because things go out of date, I've added a postscript at the end.
I still don't have a scanner, but the notes will load faster without pictures anyway!
In 1996, I had a wonderful vacation traveling independently in Japan. Frommer's was a good guidebook, and I used the excellent Berlitz phrasebook. Here are some things that weren't obvious from the guidebooks.
To plan your itinerary, get timetables for the main lines. A good way is to write or telephone the Japanese National Tourist Office and ask for information on train travel in Japan, including the timetables.
Another way is to buy the "Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable." The information from the JNTO was at least as complete and accurate.
Another advantage of using the JNTO timetable was that it had the station names written in Japanese characters, as well as in Western characters. The Japanese characters were very helpful when making train reservations (I could point to the destination name while saying the name).
The JNTO city and town maps also had dual-alphabet writing, making them very helpful for asking directions and occasionally decoding a name in Japanese writing.
The trains in Japan were very good and very pleasant. They were also expensive. If you're going to do a lot of train travel, particularly a long trip by Shinkansen, then consider a JR rail pass.
The way the JR rail pass worked was that before leaving home I bought a voucher for a rail pass. Upon arrival in Japan, you exchange the voucher for the true rail pass at one of several special JR offices set up for this purpose. For example, there's one at Narita Airport, and one at Kansai Airport. The same office can also make train reservations, and they speak English. They'll also explain the layout of a ticket/reservation.
Two surprises about the exchange of the voucher for the rail pass: (1) It took more than an hour to get to the front of the line. (2) The year part of the date looked wrong. It said 8, not 96. 1996 was year 8 of the new emperor's reign.
Reservations in Japan seemed to be used a little differently than in Europe. I frequently found that the trains leaving in the next half-hour or so were full, but the trains after that still had space, and were in the process of filling up. Also, only part of the train is reserved. The rest is for passengers without reservations. Apparently, reservations are often used, not to ensure a ride, but to avoid confusion and struggle.
The food on the train wasn't as good as the food available to be bought in the station, and it was more expensive. That sounds so negative! Let me put it more positively. The food on the train is usually OK, and there are some treats, such as the grape soda with pieces of grape in it, that you don't seem to find anywhere else. The food in the station to be taken onto the train is better (except for some ghastly canned teas) and more interesting and cheaper. In many large train stations, such as the main Kyoto stations, there are very nice, inexpensive restaurants with really delicious food to be eaten in the restaurant.
I had worried before the trip about the fact that Japanese trains and train lockers are designed for small bags. This wasn't a problem on the trains, but it was a problem in the train stations.
The most-common size locker was a 200-yen locker, ~ 9" h x 14" w x 22" d. The largest common size was the 400-yen locker, ~ 21.5" h x 14" w x 22" d. My main bag was described as "carry-on" size, but it was 24" long, including the handle, feet and wheels. The smallest locker it would fit in was a 500-yen size -- very rare at most stations. There's even some extra room in the 22" depth dimension, because the door isn't perfectly flat, but the legs and wheels were too long, even with the extra room. If my bag had been an inch shorter in the long dimension it might have worked. Japanese travelers had carry-on bags that fit nicely in the 400-yen lockers. They might even fit into 300-yen lockers, which I didn't measure
There was good news and bad news about changing money in Japan.
The bad news is that only a tiny percentage of Japanese Automatic Teller Machines accept non-Japanese cards.
According to a Visa/PLUS web page, there are more than 80,000 Visa-branded ATMs in Japan, but only 706 accept non-Japanese Visa cards. Only 432 honor PLUS. That's about one out every 200 ATMs!
From the same web page, here are some institutions whose ATMs
you might look for:
Citibank
Japanese Credit Bureau
Million Card Service
Sumitomo Credit Service
UC Card Co. Ltd
I also found a DC Card machine that honored Cirrus cards. This was right next to a "Visa Electronic Money" ATM and about ten other ATMs, all in a basement of Kyoto Tower, just across the street from the Kyoto JR station.
The ATMs that honor PLUS display the PLUS logo, and the ones that honor Cirrus display the Cirrus logo. It's not like in Europe, where trying ATMs at random is likely to work out, even when you don't see the logo you're looking for.
More bad news: the ATMs weren't particularly easy to use. There were two Japanese bankers trying to help people get money. They got excited when I succeeded in getting money out of a machine. I was the first person to succeed that morning. It had taken me two or three tries.
Maybe it helped to be a computer programmer, used to dealing with absurd instructions, because the instructions were accurate. They were just complicated and unexpected.
The critical sequence was entering and confirming the number
of 10,000-yen notes desired:
press "1", "2", "3", or "4"
press "10,000"
press "yen"
press "confirm"
Considering that there are fewer ATMs honoring PLUS in all of Japan than in Singapore, it's no wonder that I wound up changing money in banks. The good news is that Japanese banks provide very good service, and they changed money at very good rates. Also, you don't have to worry about carrying a lot of cash in Japan. One bank didn't change American Express traveler's checks, but they referred me to another bank down the street.
The typical procedure for changing money at a bank in Japan is about the same as anywhere else. After you get to the head of the line or your number comes up, and you do polite greetings as well as you can, you show them the traveler's checks and your passport. Maybe you use your phrasebook and some sign-language for changing money. They point to a very clear pictogram with the exchange rate and fees. You say "hai!" and sign the traveler's checks. They give you a short form to fill out, or maybe they fill it out themselves and ask you to sign it. They take the passport and the form and the traveler's checks away for 5~10 minutes (you're expected to relax on the very nice couch while they do whatever they do). When the money is ready, they call or gesture for you. Usually they give you brand-new bills in an attractive paper envelope with the name of the bank on it. It's a very pleasant experience!
So, take traveler's checks or change lots of money before leaving the airport!
Taxis in Japan were very good, and there were a lot of them. They can be hailed in the street. I found myself in the rain, facing one that was stopped at a light, and was able to hail it, no problem, by a bowing motion. Watch out to not get hit by the door, which opens automatically.
Outside of the Tokyo and Kyoto, Westerners are often objects of apprehension and curiosity. Fortunately, curiosity usually wins out over apprehension.
A red-headed Western woman told me "it's just like being a movie star," but to me it feels like being a Martian. Some people run and hide to avoid interacting with the Martian. Some like to try a few words of Martian. Some like to have their picture taken with the Martian. When a Martian uses a pay phone, school children may line up behind the Martian, as if in line to use the phone, ignoring an identical phone next to the Martian. As the Martian moves away, they won't use the phone.
You don't believe at first that you can possibly be such an object of curiosity. You pass from puzzlement to disbelief, and then to alternating delight ("I'll walk by there and give those kids a thrill!") and annoyance at all the attention.
Maybe the red-headed woman was right. Maybe this is how movie stars feel.
The Japanese that have spent time outside Japan and learned English are wonderful! They'll often approach you resolutely (it may be out of a sense of duty) and ask if they can help you, particularly if you're standing somewhere looking puzzled by something. They will sometimes stand in ear-shot listening to see if you and the person you're talking with can handle the situation, waiting to help if needed.
Westerners living in Japan are equally wonderful, but more out-going.
Here are some of my favorite places and groups of the trip.
I had chosen Okayama as a base for exploring neighboring cities and attractions, but Okayama has first-class tourist attractions of its own. Okayama has a wonderful park. It has a major castle that was closed for renovation at the time, but should be open by now.
Okayama also has the most beautiful-sounding crickets I've ever heard. At least I think they're crickets. They're something in the bushes that makes a small, beautiful sound. They could be tiny birds.
In general, the English-speaking volunteers are the most likely to be able to answer your hardest questions.
The ones at Kyoto Tower explained the "racoon-dog" (a very cute creature resembling a badger, who, among other things, has large genitals and likes to drink sake). Well, "explained" may be a little too strong, but the volunteers said that displaying a "racoon-dog" (Tanuki-san) outside an establishment is a way of suggesting that here might be a good place to drink sake. The large genitals didn't enter into the conversation.
The volunteers at Kyoto Tower also cleared up my difficulty in buying a yukata, by writing out the phrase for the right kind of yukata (a bath-yukata, not a business yukata). Before that, I had been completely mystified by a department store telling me that, very sorry, they had no yukatas because it was not August. This made no sense to me, but you get used to hearing things that make no sense to you. After all, there are things that a Japanese five-year-old would know but that you don't know. These things are why one travels to Japan.
Anyway, whatever you're curious about, consider asking a volunteer.
The first night, I thought a group of women I heard walking by were striking sticks together in rhythm. It wasn't sticks, just the sound of the wooden shoes they were wearing. One of those sounds you hear once and never forget!
It's also a very quiet and pleasant small town after the tour buses have departed, with a scattering of hotels, inns, and restaurants. It's even more quiet and peaceful than Takayama, once the buses are gone, and there's something very comforting about the attitudes of the people.
All in all, it's a lot more pleasant to spend at least one night there, preferably two nights, than to see Nikko on a hectic day trip. You could even stay three nights, and take a bus to one of the spectacular nearby lakes on one of the days, or spend a day hiking.
In Nikko, I stayed at Turtle-Inn Annex "hotori-an," next to the rushing water of a mountain river. It was delightful. Oddly enough, the Turtle-Inn Annex, with its Japanese-style rooms, had most of the Westerners. The regular Turtle Inn, with Western-style rooms, seemed more popular with Japanese guests.
Well, it's more than two years since I took that trip. Now I really feel the pull to go back again!
It's also more than two years since I put the first version of these notes on the Web. So far as I know, the only part of these notes that has been helpful to anyone was the notes on use of automatic teller machines in Japan. About a year ago, someone telephoned their bank back home for help, and someone at their bank telephoned me for help! Apparently the help was successful. An interesting experience.
The situation on using non-Japanese ATM cards in Japan may have changed in 2 years (if you know, please drop me an e-mail). If I were going again now, I'd probably take some traveler's checks. Also, I'd use the ATM at the airport before leaving the airport, in spite of lack of sleep.
And I'd probably visit the ATM-locator web sites for VISA and MASTERCARD before leaving, and print out some ATM addresses in the cities I was planning on visiting. I might even try looking up some Citibank locations before the trip.
Rick Steves is found of saying that the language barrier is only about knee-high; you can easily climb over it. Rick is talking about Europe. In Japan, language barrier varies from waste-high to shoulders-high, but you can climb over it with a little work and struggle. I practiced in advance with language tapes, which was helpful for the basic greetings. Some phrases came unbidden and correctly, perhaps from watching Japanese movies and television. My worst mistake (so far as I know) was confusing "yoii" (good) with "yasui" (cheap). After a couple of times when I intended to say something was good, I saw that it wasn't going so well, and I looked in the phrase book again!
(Well, I made some worse non-language mistakes. Although I think I did better at being polite by Japanese rules than the average hairy barbarian, especially considering my ineptness at American rules, I made a blunder or two -- that I spotted. Maybe you'd like to read up on Japanese culture and customs before your trip to Japan!)
The spoken Japanese language is much easier to handle than you would expect, at least if you stay with simple phrases. There is even a pleasing logic to the spoken language. For example, "doko" for "where" in "Where is X?" is clearly connected to "koko" for "here." There's also "soko," which is some other kind of "where."
Also, the spoken Japanese language has a lot fewer basic sounds than English does. (English, perhaps because it has absorbed words from so many languages, has an unusually large number of distinct sounds -- many more sounds than French for, example.) Accordingly, except for distinguishing between single and double letters, native English speakers can usually hear the differences between different Japanese words, and can look them up in Japanese-English dictionary.
Unlike Asian languages such as Chinese or Thai, different tones don't change the meaning of the word in Japanese. In fact, Japanese is even less tonal than English or French. You can't convert a statement into a question in Japanese by changing the tone, like in English; instead of changing the tone, convert a statement to a question by just adding "ka" at the end of the sentence. I'm sure there are some finer points of grammar, but "ka" is good enough for normal touristic use. True, numbers are a problem (Japanese uses different kind of numbers for different kinds of things), but you can write the numbers out in Roman numerals.
In addition to the trusty Berlitz phrase book, I carried a Japanese-English dictionary, written in and arranged by the Western characters. Using the dictionary worked amazing well. People could tell me "X desu" (it's X) and I could look X up in the dictionary from hearing what they said.
The written Japanese language is much harder than the spoken language, written in about three different alphabets at once. Still it's not quite as hard as people make it out to be. Right from the beginning, you start noticing patterns. For example, my train reservations for Okayama and Takayama were both two characters; the second character of each was the same character (sort of a trident), obviously a character for "yama." Similarly, the signs for "entrance" and "exit" have a sign for "opening" in common. One of them is the "in opening" and the other is the "out opening." So, even though you certainly won't learn to read Japanese on a 2-week trip (or on 2-month trip), you can learn a few characters here and there that will sometimes help you get on the right train or pull out the right train reservation!
(Some day, I may scan in a picture of those party-loving people in Sendai!)
Two years after the trip, Nobuyuki Komatsu, the volunteer English-language guide at Himeji castle that I praised earlier, sent me e-mail. He had taken on Webmaster duties. Amazingly enough, one of the e-mail addresses on the card I handed out during the trip was still valid! A couple of months later, he even sent a Christmas card by e-mail:
Kristi, who must be a net goddess, has an amazingly good diary of her trip to Japan. She had some of that "movie star" experience.