Trip Report - Japan
 

I won't be able to post everything in one sitting, but I thought I'd share some experiences on a recent trip to Japan. The outline of our days:

1 night: Osaka Airport - Nikko Kansei Hotel (we arrived inthe evening, from a business trip in Seoul.)

3 nights: Nara: Nikko Hotel
4 nights: Kyoto: Hotel Granvia
3 nights: Okayama: Hotel Granvia
3 nights: Kanazawa: Nikko Hotel
5 nights: Tokyo: Conrad Hotel (with frequent stay points.)

Admittedly, our choice of hotels was governed by (1) assuring a good, western-style bed; (2) location to easy transportation connections (every hotel shown is right at the train station, although we would not have minded walking a few blocks;) (3) a hotel that would probably have some English-speaking staff, which often meant focusing on business-class-type hotels near major transport areas. None of these were the cheapest options, but we were comfortable and got a good night's sleep for the day's activities.

Also: all of these hotels were quite modern and had comfortable, quiet rooms, even though they were right at the train station. If you want more detail, please see my posts on tripadvisor.com as I get around to them.

For now, I will focus on overall tips for the trip.

(1) You probably can use your ATM card to get cash, but they are much less available for "foreign" cards in Japan than anywhere else I have ever traveled in the world.* However, we found that the concierge or hotel desk staff could advise you to where the closet ones are (another reason to go to hotels where they get a lot of foreign visitors.) If this fails, head to the main post office in small towns, but larger cities might have usable ATM's in branch post offices.

*I study international business issues as a profession. The Japanese government has been notably restrictive in allowing foreign service providers to establish signifcant presences in Japan. It shows in the lack of competition in such things like ATM availability for foreign cards. If you want to to a cash loan from your credit card, that is more available, but this incurs extra fees on most credit cards. Also: you will be lucky if your cell phone works in Japan.

(2) Be aware that more and more hotels have prohibitions against visible tattos in their pools, Japanese baths, and some gyms. Many Asian cultures see tattoos as desecrations of the body. Japan has the added social issue of their being associated with yakuza, or organized criminal gangs (although my hotel in Korea also banned visible tattos in the pool and gym.) Given the Asian focus on social harmony, visible tattos are often prohinited. You can usually get around the problem if you wear a T-shirt to cover up arms or backs; do as you need for legs. (By the way: notice that you will see almost no one with a tattoo in Japan.)

(3) Admittedly, I am not fond of much Japanese cuisine. One of the problems is that there is an inclination to put a poached, fried, or raw egg on many dishes, which I detest. If you have a simimlar problem, ask your hotel to write a note in Japanese for you if you do not speak the language, asking the server/kitchen to omit said item. Believe me -- you never know where they will turn up. I found a pached egg at the BOTTOM of my salad of greens and fish fillet -- like a land mine.

(4) Of course, you already know to keep cards from the hotel, in case you need to give one to the taxi to get back.

(5) The air-conditioning throughtout Japan seemed excellent, even in this very warm, steamy, and sultry season. Japan is the most energy-efficient country of the developed economies, and should be applauded for managing this and still being very comfortable in many places we went, including 300-year-old shops in back streets. This is in contrast to when I've been to Italy at the same time of year, similar climate. Unfortunately, the standard for AC in ITaly seems to be bringing the temperature down from insufferable to uncomfortable. Believe me -- I don't like super-cooled rooms, but the Japanese have managed to keep many hotels, shops, restaurants, and sites as comfortable as can be expected.

(6) But on that note, almost every hotel where we stayed used duvets on the bed that were much too warm, without really cranking up the air-conditioning. Do as we did, and ask for a lighter blanket (which they will subsitute in the duvet cover.) These heavy blankets seem like such a waste of evergy when you have to really turn up the AC to be comfortable. Unlike some US brands that have gone to this style of bedding, the hotels did not include top sheets (which would have been satisfactory.)

(7) We only used one "volunteer" guide (in Nara,) but given our excellent experience, should have booked more in our travels. We were a little cautious as we heard the language skills could be uneven, but we were very pleased. We booked tours in other cities (more later in the details,) but I'd really consider this option.

These are volunteers that go under various names like "Goodwill Volunteers," or "Tour Volunteers," so it may be tricky to find them online. However, it is worth a try. We gave a donation to their organization as they will absolutely refuse a tip or payment other than their travel expenses with you (our volunteer did the tours as a volutaray obligation to her local YMCA, where she took English langiage lessons. Our donation was to support that program, or Y programs.)

You need to reserve a guide at least a day in advance, which we did at the Nara Train STation's Tourist Information Booth. Try this type of option if you did not book ahead online.

(8) We decided that given our needs, it was best to book our train travel in Japan on an as-you-go basis, NOT the rail pass. We have a wonderful travel agent friend who we use for things that get complicated, which figuring out the best train option, and schedules, is. It helps that he's been to Japan many times. He advised booking as-we-go, but given our days of inter-city travel, suggested train schedules he knew would be best for our prefernces, i.e. NOT up at the crack of dawn unless it was absolutely necessary, which it never was.

If you plan to do a lot of train travel and book in Japan, you may want to ask the help of the station people in larger cities. Then again, you may luck out and have the nice people from the NAra Tourist Office go with you to the train reservations desk, and walk you through the process. (It helped that they were not that busy that day.) My impression is that they are very willing to help, but some locations may be better equipped in English than others.

(9) One thing that might drive you a little nuts: there are many menus that have the top line in English, e.g. "Drinks" or "Main Courses," but all the items will only be in Japanese. This is where we like the places with pictures, fake food samples in the window, etc. Although, we liked the kaiseki dinner, that was a multi-course "set" menu, which made ordering a moot issue except for drinks.

Yes, some menus will have more English, but this is in direct relationship with te nubmer of toursits in an area, and/or the size of the city.

Of course, we found it useful to learn a few words as best we could (Thank you; beer;...) and use sign language and hand signals. We also found it useful to bring along a Japanese/English, and ask the waiter to point to what was in the dish, or we would point if we thought an item was part of the dish.

...and then there was my "no egg, please..." sign.

That's about it for now. I will fill in more details over the weekend, but please ask any questions that you think I could answer.

What an interesting report thus far, madameX. Looking forward to subsequent segments.

5 nights at the Conrad must have been pleasant enough. Although I'm not crazy about the Conrad's location for exploring nearby places on foot, I did find it to be a very comfortable and welcoming place to stay.

We were warned ahead of time by many people about the lack of "visitor" ATMs in Japan, which turned out to be very true. We used credit cards in most cases, but arrived with yen that we saved for small purchases. (1,000 yen notes flew out of the money belt like pocket change) Found a great bank of ATMs with visitor machines on the ground floor of the post office at the plaza outside the main station in Kyoto. This was super safe and convenient to where we stayed, the beautiful Granvia.

A quick check-in:

(1) Yes, probably the best place to be certain to find a foreign-friendly ATM is in the main post office in any town. Also: if there is a Citibank office in town.

(2) There is another thread that asks about learning Japanese. I've added to that thread, and provide the hotlink here if you are interested:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/editrep...17&start=0

Frankly, most of my comments centered on the fact that I believe in learning languages, but if your time is limited in any area, there is only so much you can learn in a short time. 'Best to focus on the pleasantries and basic communication(thank you; please; yes/no...) and what makes you comfortable (in my husband's case, knowing the word for beer, and specific preferred brands, i.e. Kirin in the case of Japan; in my case, avoiding eggs and asking if there were scallops on the menu.)

It's best if you can ask a question in some way that results in a yes or no answer. Otherwise, it means that you need to learn enough about the language to understand a more complicated response.

This is why it is often useful to have a map, written note, or blank notepad at hand. Pointing and hand signals can go a long way, but the notepad was sometimes handy. If we weren't certain about a dish in the window in a restaurant, we might ask "Fish?", but the waiteress might draw the picture of a crab or eggplant.

We are usually pretty adventurous in the world of food, but we find things that we really don't like and avoid them. In the Far East, we've found that we don't particularly like cuttlefish. 'Best to ask specifically, or keep a small pocket size dictionary handy in case you'd like to point to (or remember) a word.

I should say that I speak French reasonably well, and am usually more certain of my language abiliites when I can look up words. In many Asian lanuages, I haven't a clue of even how to begin. That is why I am a little more conservative in exploring menus, etc. in this part of the world, especially since Japanese isn't my favorite cuisine. I can easily eat Chinese, Thai, Indian, Indonesian multiple times a day and week, but not Japanese.

(3) Re: beer: probably the brand you will most frequently find is Asahi. This is a very "dry" beer, which isn't my husband's favorite style. If you are looking more for a lager beer, his favorite is Kirin, with Sapporo and others following.

I don't drink beer -- strictly wine or water at dinner. I could often (not always) find reasonably-priced house wines by the glass. Be aware that many serving sizes are smaller in Japan. Sometimes one glass of wine would do it, but sometimes I'd want two to equal what I think of as a more standard size (without being gigantic.) There were times when we preferred to order a bottle of wine. Some places had more reasonable prices than others.

(4) You will find very good iced coffee and tea in many places, including vending machines (everyhwere.) However, I recommend the small cafe chain Doutor, which had excellent tall iced coffees and iced lattes in often very pleasant surroundings for a cafe, e.g. interesting floral arrangements or people-watching locations. We found at least one in every city where we stopped. However, given the popularity of iced coffee, and cafes in general, I'm sure you'll find other good spots for this type of take-a-break place.

(5) Agreed -- the Conrad is a nice stay,* but probably there are places in better locations, depending on your interests. Still, we liked the fact that it was only one subway stop away from the fish market, and near subway lines that zipped us to many parts of the city. And frankly, in an expensive city like Tokyo, we liked that we could cash in frequent-stay hotel points.

I don't know that we'd want to be near some of the really happening districts, e.g. Roppongi. We may be gliding into the "old fart" (or "grande dame?") life stage that prefers a little less nightlife right outside the door, although that was a place where we'd go for dinner. I'd have to study districts more, but I might gravitate toward areas near the Hibya area -- yuppie-ish cafes, near enough to subway lines, etc. But I'd have to study the various areas more. Again, the idea of free hotel nights was the driving factor in our choice of hotels, and the "regular" Hilton cashed in at the same number of points per nice, so we thought we'd go for the high-life Conrad hotel.

I've jsut begun to post reviews on TRipadvisor, and am waiting for confirmation that my review has been posted for the Conrad. Again, it was a nice stay, but there are some issues (e.g. it is one of those modern hotels with a glass wall between the bathroom and bedroom. Unfortunately, the slatted blind that could be drawn does not sufficiently block out the bathroom light, i.e. you'd wake your partner in the bedroom if you flicked on the bathroom light. The blackout curtains on the exterior window work fabulously well, making the bedroom pitch dark.) But given how wordy I can be in reviews (another aspect related to my profession in evaluating products and customer service,) I'll leave the detailed reviews there.

Time to move on...

Nice report...looking forward to more.

Just a note about ATMs that accept foreign issued cards for future visitors.

EVERY post office ATM machine does, and there are machines in every branch of the post office, in supermarkets, shopping centers...many, many, many...I am sitting at home at this moment, within a 10 minute walk of 4 of them. They are not difficult to find at all. http://www.jp-bank.japanpost.jp/en/i...ias_index.html

Seven Bank ATMs, in 7-Eleven convenience stores, also accept foreign cards. http://www.sevenbank.co.jp/intlcard/index2.html

Other bank machines, with the exception of Citibank (which has very few machines in the country, most in big cities only), will not take foreign ATM cards.

About ATM, surprisingly I found a few local ATM that accepted my Cirrus card. I believe it was Shinsei Bank in Tokyo.

More surprisingly, I had absolutely no success withdrawing cash from postal office ATM near Kyoto Station.

I found 7-11 ATMs are the most reliable, with no hidden charges. Strangely, I had no such luck with other convenience store ATMs at Lawson and the others.

I didn't think the ATMs at the post office in Kyoto worked for visitors untill I was told that I was trying to get the maximum out (20,000 yen I think it was). I tried 10,000 yen and got it right way.