Hey guys! Rachel is joining me today!
And we're gonna talk about some tips for travelling in Japan
Because Spring and Summer are coming up
And I know lots of you guys are gonna come visit here
So we thought we would think of some helpful things to tell you
to hopefully improve your trip
So the first one that we both thought was really important was
Get a train card
Let me show you mine so you know what I'm talking about
I have a sticker over top of mine
So you can't really see it
But it's a little card like this
It's an IC card
And you can fill this up with money
And just tap it on the gates at the train station
and you can go through
and it'll automatically take off how much money you need to pay for that trip
off of your balance
So instead of looking up... Oh I'm in Tokyo and I need to go to Shibuya
Ok that's like 170 yen... so I have to buy a 170 yen ticket
You don't have to do that
You can just keep a balance on your card
and just use it without thinking
And when it runs out you can fill it up again at the machines
It saves so much time and stress
It just makes travelling so much easier
There are a lot of different brands for them
Some of them don't work on every train line
Right
So if you get yours in Tokyo, it might not work on every train line in every other city
And same for train cards from other cities as well
And then there are also benefits for some of them
Some of them will let you accumulate points
So you can save money
That's so cool! The ones in Tokyo don't
All around it's just very useful and awesome
You should get one
You can get these at the train machines where you buy tickets
There'll be an English button so just push that
It's pretty straightforward
There are a lot of helpful apps you can get if you're gonna be in Japan
One of them would be a train app
It's kind of like a life saver
Very recommended!
When you're travelling from one place to another
The app will automatically calculate the quickest route, the cheapest route
So you don't have to go look at maps yourself
Maps suck, the train maps suck here
They're really confusing
If you get this app you can be like "I'm in Tokyo right now, and I wanna go here!"
And then you can choose what you want
If you want the cheapest route or the fastest route
There's English ones, and there's Japanese ones
I use the Japanese version
So I say Tokyo at the top, Shibuya at the bottom
So the station in the middle here is the station you need to transfer at
So it tells you you have 4 minutes to get to your transfer spot
Just very helpful!
Something that may not be common sense in a lot of countries these days
Japan is a cash society
So you kinda need to have cash here when you go around
A lot of stores don't take credit cards
Especially if they're smaller or not in a big city
Or if you're paying for admission to something
Like a shrine, it probably won't take a credit card
I would say about 70% of the places I go don't accept credit cards
Even ones that you would really think would
Like a big department store or something
You'll be surprised, so always have cash on you for sure
So Tokyo has 2 main airports
Narita and Haneda airport
Narita airport is actually located in Chiba prefecture
Which is the prefecture beside Tokyo
And it takes quite a while to get into Tokyo from Narita airport
So if possible...
It's kinda rare because most planes do go to Narita
if you're coming from outside of Japan
But if you can get a flight that comes into Haneda, I'd say go with that one
It's a lot easier
You'll be able to get into downtown Tokyo a lot quicker
Always go for Haneda if you can
A cool thing about Japan is that there's basically no tipping here
So you don't have to worry when you go to a restaurant, you don't leave a tip
You don't leave a tip for taxi drivers or... anything
I can't think of any instance where you would be expected to leave a tip
I've never been in a situation where I've had to leave a tip here
So don't worry about it! Hair dressers, taxis, pizza man
Nothing, literally. Just remember no tipping in Japan!
And you'll be fine
Even if you feel like you wanna leave a tip, I don't think you should
Even if you feel like "This person was really awesome, I wanna give them a bonus!"
They'll just feel awkward
And they'll come running outside to give it back to you
So it's probably better not to do it even if you really want to
Because they just don't really understand the tipping culture here
They assume you lost it or something
And I think they feel really weird about trying to keep it
Exactly, even if you try to explain to them
If you just say thank you, you are above most customers
That's so true!
No one says thank you so they'll really appreciate that
I find that really awkward
When you're in the grocery store and they ring in your groceries and hand them to you
or give you your change or something
Most people just take it
And I'm always like ah, thank you!
So seriously, if you just say arigatou gozaimasu everytime something happens
They're happy
They'll know that you appreciate their service
This'll probably be a really helpful one for lots of you guys
I know that it's come in very handy for me
Google Translate!
I know it has a horrible reputation, and you guys are all thinking but it sucks!
and it translates things horribly!
It really does.
But there is one function on it that is very awesome and very accurate
That is the camera function
If you open up Google translate
You will see a little camera picture here
And if you click the camera
It will turn into a camera, and you can find some kanji
Let's find some kanji that we can't read
Oh yeah there we go!
So you're in the toy store, and you're wondering what the heck this is
So what you do is take a picture of the Japanese writing on the box
And it will pick up any kanji that it sees in the picture
and you can just highlight with your finger the ones that you want it to read
And it will give you the English for it! Refridgerator!
Isn't that so cool?
With old school kanji apps you had to write them out with your finger while looking at it
or you had to look through a list of kanji to find the correct one
But with this all you have to do is take a picture
So cool!
Yeah it's very very awesome I use this all the time
Really reccomend that not only for kanji, but if you can't read hiragana or katakana
It will translate that for you as well
So download Google translate and use the camera function
So there are 3 potential problems you could run into with bathrooms here
The most common is that they don't have soap when you're washing your hands
So I always carry a bottle of hand sanitizer around with me
because I get sick really easily
So I always wanna wash my hands
Especially before I eat
#2 is they might not have a way to dry your hands
That's also very common
So some people carry handkerchiefs around with them
Like old times, handkerchiefs
Or like a little face cloth
So you can dry your hands after you use the bathroom
You'll see that facecloths are sold EVERYWHERE
And you're probably wondering WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FACE CLOTHS
It's because people keep them in their bags so they can dry their hands
I don't I'm not that crazy, I just...
That works too
And the third problem, which is quite rare but does happen occasionally
There are some toilets that don't have toilet paper
Oh I've never come across one of those
I've come across 2 so far
Yikes
I think one was in the Nagoya subway station
I think they had a problem with people stealing the toilet paper
So they got rid of it
They might have it now, it was a long time ago
Another one was in Akita prefecture
We were driving around the backroads and found an outhouse at the bus stop, and there was no toilet paper
Not like they ran outta toilet paper, there was no place to put toilet paper
But that's not very common
But just in case, bring tissues or something
But the hand thing is very common
You'll very rarely see paper towels
and sometimes you'll see the hand driers
Okay one thing that is shopping related
If you're going to try on clothes, most likely you will have to take your shoes off
before entering the change room
You'll be able to tell if you need to
because they'll have a little step up to go into the change room
If there's a step, that always means you need to take your shoes off
It's usually carpeted too
Yeah there'll be a carpet
If it looks nice and clean, you probably need to take your shoes off
If they just have a curtain around an area
And it's just the same type of flooring going all the way through
then you might be okay leaving your shoes on
But I'd say most often you need to take them off
So if you're unsure, maybe just look at someone and point at your shoes
They'll probably know what you're asking
I'm sure that lots of people ask that
If you're unsure I would say to take them off to be safe
One other thing about changing rooms
is you'll find this little white face mask thingy inside of your changing room
That is to put over your face if you're going to try a shirt on
so that your makeup doesn't rub off on the shirt
So it's just like a white bag thing that you put over your face
It feels so dumb
I know!! (sometimes I don't do it...)
You put it on your head and then you put your shirt on
So that you don't get the makeup on it
That's pretty cool, it's annoying as hell, but it's cool
So that's what that is!
So I don't actually go to clubs or anything so I haven't experienced this myself
But word on the street! The cool people say!
If you are walking along a street full of host clubs, kyabakura etc
So like Roppongi, or Shinjuku... Kabukicho
If they have people on the street who are trying to pull you into the club
then that is supposed to be like not a good place to go into
It's not the same if a host is out on the street trying to attract customers
But if someone is actually trying to pull you in
Then a lot of those are kinda scammy
Like they will give you a really high cover charge, like $100
And then they'll force you to pay it before you can leave
So be kinda careful if you're gonna go to a place like that
Maybe try to go with friends who have been there before
Try to find a place that has a good reputation
Yeah, good reviews online or something
Don't go randomly into clubs because some of them are pretty pricey
Okay this should probably be #1
Conbinis in Japan are the best thing ever!!!
Conbini is short for convenience store
Because it's convenient!
But like SUPER convenient! Not like convenience stores back in Canada that suck
Japanese convenience stores have everything! Literally everything.
Snacks, clothing...
If you like spilled some food on your shirt and you need a new shirt
they sell tank tops or collared shirts
They even sell hair dye!
Because if Japanese people have coloured hair and they have to run to an interview or something
or a business meeting that popped up and they need to colour their hair back to the original colour
they'll sell black hair dye in the convenience store
You can mail packages!
Yeah! They have a post service
You can buy concert tickets
You can pay your bills at convenience stores
It's ridiculous, you can do anything
Honestly just think of something you need to do, you can probably do it there
7-11, Sunkus, Family Mart... Lawson
They're all good! Everybody has their favourite conbini
LIke 7-11 has the best desserts, or Lawson has the best fried food
Family Mart fried chicken~~
Each one kinda has it's own specialty
but they're all really good
If you're in need or something, just look for a convenience store
and they are everywhere, literally everywhere so you'll be able to find one
Alright if you have a foreign bank card, debit card
And you're looking to withdraw money
You can do that from a 7-11 ATM, a Citibank ATM or the post office ATMs
Those are the 3 places that often accept foreign cards
I'm not saying that they will accept all of them, but they will accept many of them
Many convenience stores will not accept foreign cards whatsoever
They only accept a few types of Japanese cards even
But 7-11 is a lifesaver
They'll accept everything they're really awesome
So look for a 7-11, a Citibank or a post office and you should be okay
I hope those were some useful tips for you!
I wish you the best on your trip to Japan, I hope you have an awesome time!
If there's anything else that you're really curious about leave a comment down below
and I will try to answer them
If you have any other tips you would like to leave, please do that in the comments
Thanks for watching guys!
And make sure to go check out Rachel's channel if you are not already subscribed to her
Lots of very useful videos about Japan over there as well
So definitely do that
Bye guys!