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I recently got accepted to a program to work with social entrepreneurs in the Fuskushima region this summer, so will be traveling to Japan for the first time. My father is from Tokyo, but he never taught me to speak Japanese, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I’m very happy to have found TextFugu!!! Thanks to Tofugu, In the past week, I have a very good grasp of Hiragana.My goal is to be able to read a little bit, and have some basic phrases by the time I get to Japan. I will have interpreters with me most of the time, but I want to show that I have made some effort to get to know the language. Thanks, and I look forward to learning here!
Welcome! Congrats! Certainly the various aisatsu (greetings and farewells) and other niceties would be a good place to start. =)
ありがとうございます, Joel! Yes, I hope to have all of those mastered by then!
Have you been to Japan? I will be spending time in both Tokyo and Tohoku. Any tips are greatly appreciated!
I went for two weeks way back in 2010. Never went north of Tokyo (but there’s several things up there on my Things To Do When I Finally Visit Japan Again list). What sort of tips were you after? Language or signtseeing?
That sounds like a good amount of time for a visit. I am looking for tips on getting around Japan. For example, I have heard that it’s important to get a Rail Pass ahead of time, but I’ve also heard you can easily get one there, so you don’t really have to worry about it. If anything stood out for you in terms of things you wished you had known before you went, or things you learned while you were there that you feel are important to pass along, I’d love to hear about them!
No, if you’re after a JR Pass, you have to get it before you leave your home country – it’s not sold in Japan. You CAN get Suica cards and similar over there, though.
There’s many things I wish I’d known before I went, though mostly they’re the locations of interesting tourist attractions that I’d passed within ten metres of without knowing they even existed. =) It also would have been useful to have known about Hyperdia too – could have saved us a whole lot of stress (and money) on our first night there. Um… wear slip-on shoes?
Thank you for clarifying about the train tickets. And thank you for the tip about Hyperdia. I hadn’t see that in my research. I just downloaded it!
Hopefully on your next trip you will be able to see all the interesting attractions given the time/stress you save from having Hyperdia!
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