Japan - October 2003
This was our first trip to Japan. We were always curious about visiting
Japan, but scared off by all those stories of ridiculous prices and
language barrier issues. With that in mind, we were pretty much set on
going to Singapore this year since it's cheaper and basically everybody
there speaks English or Mandarin. Until one day we started flipping
through some old Japan tour brochures we picked up when booking last
year's trip to Thailand. Gee, that looks fun and doesn't seem
outrageously expensive. On top of that we figured the Japanese food
in Japan must be really good. I'm a big fan of noodles and wanted to
sample the Big Three noodle groups (soba, ramen, udon) in their native
land. That settled it, this year we decided to head for Japan.
To add a bit of adventure, we opted against joining a tour and decided
to explore Tokyo on our own even though neither one of us speaks or
reads Japanese. Japan seemed so much safer (in terms of food safety
and stolen luggage) compared to Thailand that we felt confident we
could survive on our own even without knowing the local language.
Sophie can, of course, read the Chinese-based kanji characters and
this was helpful at times. As for advance planning, we booked
round trip tickets from Taipei to Tokyo and booked a hotel room
at the Keio Plaza in Shinjuku.
Shinjuku is one of the commercial centers of Tokyo and Keio Plaza
is a pretty nice business hotel. The rooms are reasonably large
(by US standards) and comfy. We picked Shinjuku mostly because there
is a fair amount of stuff to do in the area and it seems as though
just about every train and subway in the world passes through Shinjuku
station. As usual, we planned on winging the rest of the itinerary
once we got there.
This trip turned out to be a lot of fun and we look forward to
returning to Japan in the future. The biggest concerns over
language barriers and cost never really materialized. At hotel
front desks, train station ticket counters, and touristy areas we
had no problems. In restaurants we would just point at menu items.
The people we encountered were all very friendly, polite, and
helpful. Dealing with the locals in general was a very pleasant
experience. The stories of outstanding customer service do seem
to be true. In terms of cost, our visit to Tokyo was nothing like
the horror stories of $500 dinners and $20 cups of coffee. The
cost was roughly in line with visiting San Francisco or Manhattan.
Not cheap, but not outrageous by any stretch. The restaurants were
slightly cheaper than Japanese restaurants in San Francisco.
Considering how good even the cheap noodle shops are, it's a
fantastic bargain compared to anything I've seen in the US.
Breakfasts were usually in the whopping US$3 range. We would
buy buns from bakeries the night before. They are delicious and
it saved us the hassle of foraging for breakfast the next morning.
The only real annoyance to visiting Tokyo is the crowds.
Tokyo can be amazingly crowded, even
compared to places like Taipei and Hong Kong. Taipei felt
refreshingly uncrowded when we returned from Tokyo! Rush hour
trains are ludicrously crowded. "Packed like sardines" is not
an exaggeration when describing rush hour trains, you really
are literally squeezed in there pushing against everybody else.
The crowds in many popular places can also be overwhelming if
you are not used to it.
One thing that is amazingly convenient is the train and subway
system throughout Tokyo. The first time you look at the
Tokyo subway map
it looks like some kind of joke -- more like the schematics for
a nuclear reactor. It's very intimidating at first, but after
a few trips you realize how great it is. The combination
of above ground trains and subways seem to go everywhere.
The major train stations themselves are also quite a sight.
Not really just a train station, they are a combination of
station and giant mall/food court.
Overall it was a very fun trip. Not only do we look forward
to our next trip to Japan, we recommend it highly to others.
It's a modern, clean, and safe country but at the same time it
is also a very different country and very interesting.
More details and pictures on the places we visited...
Japan 2003 /
www.tofurama.com /
send email (it's a real address)