*sigh..as he stares off into space...* my best taxi ride in japan was from the tokyo government building[where we met our friend] to the tomb of the 47 ronin..[not exactly a tourest trap unless you've seen "chushingura" a few times..]the cab driver referred to several maps and got us there straight away[well, sort of...]no foreigners in sight and got to see the place where lord kira's head was washed...as an addendum,when possible,time and money permitting..take a taxi!!it's the best way to just see lots of above ground stuff...often the trains will only show you darkness and sterile station platforms....there are very few visually uninteresting areas in tokyo...see as much as you can!!

 

As a side note, the last time I went, my friend and I joked about visiting temples. You've seen one temple, you've seen them all.

 

Well, this has some awesome information, thanks everyone!


I have a couple direct questions now.

What about traveller's cheques? Wouldn't this be the preferred method of payment while travelling around. I'll stull carry some cash...but I think T cheques are a good idea...do I hear 'yea'?

Also, what do you recommend for the flight? We leave in the midafternoon from Chicago and it's direct to Tokyo. What sleep system should be follow? Do we sack out on the plane? Get sauced and stay up all night? What's the deal? This is important, as I don't want to be anymore of a zombie than I usually am once we actually get there...

Thanks!

 

Greg-

I had the pleasure of living with a Japanese family back in 1992 as an exchange student studying at Tokyo International University. I absolutely loved my time in Japan. Awesome culture and awesome people.

I think that the previous posts have done a very good job covering the basics. When I first arrived in Japan, my Japanese was terrible but I had no problems getting around at all. The people went out of the way to help me. In fact, I remember getting lost in Osaka and asking a little old man for help in my broken Japanese. He simply smiled at me and walked me to where I needed to be. Good luck finding that treatment here in CA.

Anyway, I would advise you to avoid trying to bow. The intricacies take a thorough understanding of the culture to get right. At best you are going to muff it and the Japanese will blow it off, at worst, you might offend. Not likely, but why take the chance.

All Japanese take English through high school. I found that if I spoke slowly and used simple grammar and words, I was almost always understood. Moreover, I found that lots of the young people went out of their way to practice their Enlgish with me. I don't think you'll have any problems. Especially if you can hook up with a local to show you around.

Keep your eyes and ears open and you will really be able to experience something special. I would love to be going with you guys, and even asked the better half if I could. Something about saving for our wedding and getting my priorities straight was the response.

Most importantly, have fun and take lots of pictures for us back home.

 

Greg,

The last time I went to Japan, I took a mixture of yen and traveller's cheques. From my memory, seemed like only the big stores took travellers cheques. Even then, I had to go to the money exchange at the store and exchange it for money before they would let me buy anything. Was a little bit of a hassle, but the safety of taking traveller's cheques outways that.

As for people speaking english to me, not many people did. Guess it's because I'm Japanese-American and I don't look like a foreigner in Japan. Everyone would speak Japanese to me, even if I spoke perfect English back to them. The exception weer the younger people, like Da Hapa mentioned. Since you don't look Japanese though, I wouldn't worry about that happening.

 

Greg,

Don't bother with traveller's cheques. Use your credit card and ATM cards to get cash from banks and machines. If you accidently run out of cash, your hotel will do an advance on them, too.

Most places I have been charge a surcharge for using the cheques or give you a worse exchange rate (same thing).

 

Actually Tanqueray,

I think Greg was talking about using yen traveller's cheques. At least that's what I took when I went to Japan. How can they give you a crappy exchange rate if you have a travellers cheque for 10,000 yen.

 

If you have a credit card who needs travellers' cheques? Waste of time and effort if you ask me. An outdated concept unless you're travelling somewhere where they don't have ATMs. It used to be hard to find ATMs that would take overseas cards in Japan, but not anymore. Even some hotels have them in the lobby. Almost anywhere in Tokyo you can find a Citibank branch that will take your card, and there are others now also. Also, don't worry about carrying large amounts of cash. The Japanese do it all the time, you're extremely unlikely to get robbed.