Hey guys!
Hi!
So we've been traveling in Japan most of this year and
We've been to 19 prefectures so far?
And since we've been traveling so much we thought we should make a video about
some kind of travel tips video, and that's what we're doing today
We've been to 22 prefectures total in the past few years
And we're going to Okinawa soon so it'll make 23
Which is still not even half. They're 47 prefectures
But- its still a lot of travel
yeah!
And there are a lot of really awesome things about traveling in Japan
And there are a couple of frustrating things as well
So! if you're planning on traveling to Japan
maybe this will help give you some ideas of what to expect when you get here
So lets get into it!
Japan is a really safe country!
If you're traveling here, you can travel by yourself, you can travel by yourself if you're a woman
I personally would not feel uncomfortable walking anywhere in Japan
in a mini skirt by myself, at night down an alleyway
I wouldn't expect anything to happen
You might have some drunk guys hit on you
If it's like, late at night. But uh..
And I haven't really heard of them getting very pushy
or anything
like they've never gotten pushy with me.
they're just.. drunk
We've met
quite a few drunken [salary men]. But that is about it.
Right?
- Yeah, yeah
- Hello
- Merry Christmas
It was not even Christmas - No, it was not Christmas
..that was hilarious I like that dude. That was funny
The safety things ...
I don't really go abroad. Actually..
I don't really know how..
that can be..
..you know pro's..
but, for you guys, I think it's really great.
Right
You sweet summer child
growing up in a country like Japan that is so safe.
you were with me in America though when we were in..
..the appartment that we rented. Where like..
our neighbour got broken into..
..in the middle of the night. Where you awake at all for that?
Well, yeah. I get up first.
Okay, yeah, so.. um..
You've experienced scary things in other countries.
Yeah. That was pretty unusual.
Yeah
There aren't really scams here..
I mean.. there are.
All of this..these are things that do happen in Japan still. But not often.
Have you ever felt uncomfortable and, like, slightly unsafe?
I'm sure there are [moments], but.. I haven't been to any of those places..
Have you ever thought about, like, oh I shouldn't take out my wallet..
..and show people how much money I have. Because someone might steal it?
You mean open my wallet and show it to people? Yeah
Yeah, yeah, like.. just open it.
Um, not really.
I mean I see signs that say: "be careful about.." um,
so, purse snatching.
Yeah. Um but..
But that happens at night. ..I never heard of that happening to someone actually.
I know, I know. it has to because they have signs for it.
We have never really been concerned about it.
I'm naturally kind of cautious..with my purse and everything.
If we are walking around I'll have like a hand on it.
in any country. Or I usually wear my, like, over-the-shoulders-purse.
so its not something someone can easily grab.
This is not me, but some people leave their stuff to keep their seat.
Oh yeah, yeah.
I don't because I feel uncomfortable. But I see some people do.
Yeah, if you are at some cafe somewhere..or, like, at a mall where there are a lot of tables..
people just put their stuff on the tables. People will leave their purse or their phone on the table sometimes
and just walk away so they can reserve a table while they go stand in line.
yeah
There aren't many scams here really.
There aren't a lot of cases.. Like some countries, if you go there
there will be someone who will do, like, "a favor" for you.
but then when its done they'll request "a tip".
Really, that doesn't happen here. We don't have "tips" at all really.
Again, this might happen somewhere. But it is not common.
Tipping is not common in Japan You are really going to be fine..
There are 3 things I can think of as far as scams go
- Scams, okay. - Kind of..uhm..
So one is..if you have a phone here, it used to have a phone email address
and you would have random people adding you as a friend.
But uh..now it's Line. Everybody uses the app Line.
And you'll have random people adding you saying..
"Hey. It's been a long time. Remember me?". And it's like a girl with a really sexy avatar or something.
You know what that is. Don't add them.
Like, Come on !
You don't have sexy girl friends.
Yeah you don't have sexy girlfriends, you know you don't
Just don't add those random people
We have a friend who actually had her Line hacked into
So, you know, be careful about your passwords.
If you're shopping online
And especially if you're shopping auction websites like (Yahoo auction or Rakuten auction)
which are really popular here,
be careful if it's really cheap items
and it's suspicious like the pictures all look different or something
It's usually not what you're actually going to receive if you paid for that
So make sure you ... Auctions ?
Yeah, auctions
Does it happen on email and stuff too ?
Yeah yeah this is all over America too
So take it, all over the world, just be careful in general. It's not just exclusive to Japan, this is probably everywhere.
But that's just like a general internet thing and they do have that here in Japan as well
Personally, I've done auctions, I mean, a lot, more than a dozen
i've never experienced anything like that so..
Right but, you shop different things
Like he shops expensive knives
Wait wait wait wait
That was just one time, I don't really bought things like I use for .. home stuff
Oh yeah, our home stuff or vegetables or things Furniture because it was a lot cheaper
It happens a lot with clothes, if you look at clothes on the internet
Yeah I was gonna say like clothes, they're a little cheap crap
Yeah just be careful, those.
And the 3rd thing I heard that you probably won't come accross is
people calling up elderly
ore ore?
people saying like "Hey I need money remember me I'm your family"
And this again, this happens everywhere, like it's not a Japan thing
it's just a worldwide scam thing
We have a ATM at convenience stores
At the, right in front the ATM
it's says, "when you transfer money
be careful. Are you sure you're not scam?"
There are signs like that. Really?
Oh I never saw that.
So, be careful.
Yeah It happens
Right Yeah be careful
Okay , also at stations I've seen signs for like "Be careful chikan"
Which is like 'pervert' or molester
Like, Japan if infamous for having this reputation of like
creepy guys touching girls on trains or taking pictures up skirts
which is why they have the sound on the cameras here
So you take a picture with your camera like with our phone camera it always makes noise.
I still haven't had this happen to me
But these is something that happens to some people sometimes
So if you are a girl and you're like wearing a short skirt I *pic sound*
So subtle Jun
Yeah it makes noise
if you're wearing a short skirt, I always wear shorts underneath but
that's also because it's really windy here
and I've had some accidents with the wind and not wearing shorts
so um just be careful
about things like that as well so
I would recommend if you were a woman to wear like
like thin shorts or something underneath your skirt or dress
the most likely things that would happen to you in japan
is someone would steal your umbrella
if you put it in one of the things outside of konbini
while you go inside Jun: that happens everyday
or if someone might steal your bicycle
if you leave it unlocked
unless you are going to like certain kinds of bars
or like Kyabakura clubs
in like Roppongi
I've heard there are some that will drag you in
and then charge you a really high cover fee
but we don't go to those kind of places
so we're not super knowledgeable about that
Con number one
Japan is very crowded especially in cities so
when i was in college
to go to school
and every morning i was squashed like this with him
oh the salary men and everyone it was so packed
and i hated it
yeah um Japan's not actually a very small island
it's a decent size but
most of it is mountains and most people just live on the small coastal plain areas so
even though there's a lot of space everyone's
packed into like a couple areas
and that's why these areas are so crowded
especially Tokyo if you're there like during the holiday's
and you're at one of the big stations like Shinjuku
I would literally get picked up by the crowd on the train
and like carried off the train at the stop
and you can't really.. There's nothing you can do about it
you're just.. You're going with them
and you know this is one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world
for people to travel to
so there are people all over the world coming here
there are people in Japan traveling to other parts of Japan
um, Kyoto was probably one of the worst places we went
for traveling
it was so beautiful
it was still beautiful and i still love going there
but it was also one of the most disappointing initially
because when you look at pictures of Kyoto
or like those really artsy videos that people take
They wait until like people part so that they can get a nice shot
Jun: Or wake up super early
Rachel: Or they wake up like super early
and they go at special times where there aren't people there
But that's not how it looks like in real life
when you go there, there are thousands of other people there
Just like you
Yeah, Just like you just like us we're one of them
and so even though these places are like
they should be amazing and magical
you go there and then there's like
thousands of other people and hundreds of them have their cameras out taking pictures
and videos
um, exactly like us
we are 100% part of the problem
but then it just doesn't feel as magical anymore so
I grew up here so like I have also been to Kyoto
before and
I don't know normal to me
i was familiar with it
but if you're from not so crowded areas
then you might be a little bit disappointed
but if not then you might be okay
like my wife she's from not so crowded areas so
and i just personally prefer like non touristy areas
so there are still a lot of really awesome areas in Japan
that aren't crowded yet especially if they're not as
accessible by train
so we've made videos on some of those places before
that you can go and it still feels like incredibly
beautiful and magical
and you can have like a fantastic time
without the huge crowds
and it's kind of weird because
by showing you these places we're going to make them
more crowded so they will end up becoming more touristy
so we're still contributing to the problem
but at the same time I don't wanna like keep these places to ourselves
they're so awesome and I think you guys deserve to know
about them and the people who live there deserve
to have like more visitors
to get like the more tourist money
and everything so
Jun: i think a lot of the places we've been to
I think they're still worth going
Rachel: Yeah
Kiyomizu-dera was probably my favorite place in Kyoto
is this giant temple built on a mountain
and you can see the entire city of Kyoto from there
and even though there are so many other people there
it still feels like.. You can put yourself back in time
and imagine just how amazing this place was before
but if you don't like the huge touristy crowds
there are also other places you can go
um that won't be quite as crowded
which we shared before like
Geibikei gorge, and um Gujō Hachiman still isn't super crowded
except during like the festival season
and another tip would be like I said earlier
wake up super early in the morning or
go there right before they close
and you can get to enjoy
like the whole Kiyomizu-dera for example just by yourself
Rachel: without as many people there Jun: yeah
and actually my friend whose living in Kyoto told me this
and she enjoyed Kiyomizu-dera by herself
several times before and she loved it so
Rachel: yeah yeah yeah Jun: you should try that
and you can also try to travel during off seasons so
just in general in Japan most people travel during spring
especially around cherry blossom season
which is like um early April um
early August is Obon season
which is one of Japan's biggest holidays
everyone's traveling to go see their families
so places will be really crowded then as well
New years is really crowded
lots of people especially go to like Temples and Shrines
during that time
and um Koyo season
in the fall when the leaves are changing color
that's also a really popular time to travel
the problem is if you go in the winter when it's really cold
some places aren't open
especially if you're going to really rural areas
so there won't be a lot of shops for you to shop at um
the big places like Kiyomizu-dera they're still gonna be open
but they're still gonna be maybe somewhat crowded
just not quite as crowded
Summer is really hot and humid so humid
it's not the best for walking outside
for long periods of time
um but some places might not be quite as crowded
as Spring or Fall
but honestly i would still recommend people travel
during Spring or Fall even though it's more crowded then
just because the weather is just much more permitting
and everything is gonna be open right
also depending on the prices
uh if you go off season then you might not really enjoy anything
So yeah just do some research before going there
Yeah there's so many people giving awesome tips
about Japan, like so many blog websites
so many YouTube channels
so if there's one place in particular you wanna go you can just google it and I'm sure
you'll be able to find lots of research
and advice on when's the best time to go is
yeah so another tip we could give you guys would be
just do some research and find the best timing
or season to go
Rachel: yeah Jun: yeah
Alright so we have a whole list of pros and cons
but we already have been talking so long
for this first pro and con
so i think we're gonna end this first video here
and then we'll do a part two
a little bit later on
Jun: Okay Rachel: Otherwise this video
is gonna be really long
as we get older I can just like talk forever now
which is.. I used to be like I couldn't talk at all and
I would've been so happy to be me now
but now like i"m just like what am I supposed to do
I just went on forever about this
Jun: you're becoming grandma
So I'm becoming one of those old people
"back in my day" I'm just gonna be able to talk forever
we're gonna have grandkids and they're gonna be like shutup grandma stop
well I hope this was a little bit helpful for you
if you have any other tips
on traveling in Japan then leave them down in the comments for other people
otherwise we'll see you in part two!
Rachel: Bye! Jun: okay bye!