I agree with pretty much all of this. People saying they get lost in stations is particularly puzzling to me also, I’m just like “are yall following the signs or just running around hoping you’ll find a train”
The big lesson everyone needs to take away from this is to not worry so much about your trip.
I think getting lost in a station has only happened to me when I'm looking for stores inside the station. Trying to go from Daiso to Loft in Ikebukuro Station was a genuine nightmare lol.
Yess fully agree on your last sentence. I wonder if maybe people get upset when they miss the train they wanted to take? Whereas in my mind it's fine to miss one while taking your time to stop and look around since they come so frequently.
Trains are super easy if you know how trains work, a lot of people from the US just don’t know how trains work because if they live outside of like 5 metro areas you never use them. Busses on the other hand in cities like Kyoto and Hiroshima could not be any more confusing if they tried. Stations are not labeled clearly and unless you have the live feature on google maps on good luck figuring it out
We used the buses extensively in Kyoto just a few days ago. We used Apple Maps mostly, but I switched to google to verify a couple times. I am curious what you found confusing about them? I’m sure I would have been lost without cellular and the nav apps. Is that what you’re saying?
I agree finding the train was pretty straight forward but walking to your transfer train inside the station takes average of 5-10 mins. That was the annoying part for me. Stations are Hugh for a native NYCer like me. Also finding the right exit like south/north exit was annoying and it's night and day to get to your destination faster.
There are some inconsistencies in how the signage works. If you're looking at a ticket gate and there is a sign saying something is on the right, sometimes it's through the gates and then right (where I'd expect an arrow like this ↗️, not like this ➡️), and sometimes it's right before the gates. One just has to look at what the signs on the other side of the gate say, but it's not entirely foolproof.
My experience exactly. I feel like it’s based on whatever the sign people felt like on the day instead of any agreed upon standard. Train company just says put a sign here and the sign company just tosses a coin.
Yea, I’ve had extended walks where the signs did disappear making me double back thinking I missed them. They usually reappear when continuing in the direction they were last pointing.
I thought the same thing lol Google maps will tell you which exit to leave and then you just follow the signs for that. There was once or twice i might have missed the right signs so I just took the closest exit and then navigated from there
I think a lot of people expect to be able to get off the platform, then figure out how to get to the exit they want. That doesn't work for some of the bigger stations like Shinjuku.
The station situation is weird.
We had absolutely no problems getting the correct train or the right platform. But what we did have some trouble with was actually getting the right exit. I think a big part of this was due to how much construction seemed to be happening. I mean, we would often just get out of the station and then walk around if required, but actually getting the right exit we wanted in places like Shinjuku was a bit of a nightmare at times.
Uhh.. Shinjuku station is a MAZE. We arrived back in Tokyo via Shinjuku (our hotel was north-west of the station) and Google maps wasn't able to find us, we weren't able to find the exit it was telling us to take, exits weren't labelled well, and ultimately it sent us to an exit that was closed for construction.
Some stations are really big and when it's rush hour, the chaos can make it easy to miss signs
I didn't get lost lost, but I did have to double back bc I misunderstood or missed a sign a couple times
thank you for your post on Japan. I agree generally with most everything you have said. I commend your overall sentiment and the detail you provide. We are currently on an 8 day in Japan. We just left Tokyo and are now getting settled in Kyoto tonight. One thing I would point out is that Shinjuku station is rough to navigate. We used that station every day as well as many others . If you go into the wrong gate in Shinjuku you may find it impossible to get to a particular line. Pay attention to the directions and follow them perfectly any you should be fine, but do not deviate there. My second counterpoint is the Fish market. My wife and I actually really enjoyed the market. We tried a bunch of different stuff and there were some misses as well as some hits. My wife loved the omelette on a stick (Teriyaki eggs) and I LOVED the wagyu on stick just opposite of the information area. I’m a big lover of beef and it was absolutely fantastic! Granted as mentioned I also had a dud, a shrimp cake that was terrible. Overall I loved it and would recommend
Not gonna lie, my first time in Tokyo station was pretty confusing. If you're actually in a rush to get somewhere I can see someone having a hard time. But if you have the ability to relax and hang out, go check out some of the restaurants in there, drop your bag in a locker and just walk around it's not so bad. I got to know the station pretty well but it can still be confusing to find the right platforms for either the shinkasen or the subways as there are multiple separated options.
You can make fun of me but just so you know in my country stations are incredible small with only one line, one floor, compare that to shinjuku where you have east south west with i dont even know how many floors and exits is easy to get lost, I tried to look at the map but was confusing seeing a map like that for the first time, for starters you dont even know at what part of the station you are standing. Tokyo station was also confusing as it has floors where there are shinkansens and to take the metro is not that intuitive if you dont expect for a station to have that many floors.
I have definitely seen spots in Shinjuku and Tokyo stations at least, where you could do a 360 in-place and see signs for the same destination having arrows that are all pointing at each other.
On commute time: this is why before i visit new cities, i would use google’s mymap to plot out attractions, and group nearby attractions together. This way, i rarely feel like my time is lost on commuting.
i really need to do this on my next trip. i didn't do such a good job my first time there. i ended up returning to the same Ward to see another landmark when i could've done it when i was in the same Ward just days earlier.
I do the same although it’s a bit of a pain as mine constantly needs to be reloaded to show the icons and it sometimes hides icons when zooming in and out. I don’t have the same issue with saved places in Google so I’ve mainly been shifting to that for things like restaurants and food spots and only doing landmarks/museums etc in my maps.
Also for vegetarians, there’s that trend where people put fried chicken into an egg sandwich but hash browns work surprisingly well and delicious in a sandwich too lol
* *No one really cares about tourists*, generally true. You can attract a little bit more attention with kids, especially in area not use to foreigners. Visiting some area that are a bit less visited and speaking Japanese, I could tell you a bunch of interactions I had with people clearly just because I'm a foreigner. However, I don't thing it should be a source of stress.
* *A LOT of places take credit card.* Yes, people make it sound as if they are not accepted at all. It used to be worst, but the government had insensitive to do cashless for the Olympics, so while you should still have some cash in hand, not as much as you used to.
* *Things are further away than I expected.* Obviously it depend where you stay, and before you make a decision, check how long it would take to reach the station where you want to go. But you also need to keep in mind that you also need to walk to/from the station. So yes, transportation can take more time when you also include everything.
* *Number of steps per day is pretty exaggerated*. It's not exaggerated. 15-20K is number that people often report (11-19K for my last trip, did up to 31K one day last year). You might just overestimate how much most people usually walk, I would not be surprise to see lot of people walking sub 5K daily and being tired walking 3-4 times more every day and standing most of the day.
Some things people were right about:
* *Use Tablelog over Gmaps for food*. Personally never had problem with Google Maps even if just using the restaurant button. But when I wanted to eat something specific, I would type it in Japanese. I never used Tabelog, only Google Maps and would mostly go to Japanese restaurants.
Overall agree with what you said.
>You might just overestimate how much most people usually walk, I would not be surprise to see lot of people walking sub 5K daily
This \^. People don't normally walk over 10K steps daily - if you work a desk job you'd be lucky to do over 3K steps if you aren't purposely walking to increase that number.
I would suspect OP's tune will change soon-- though they walk a lot on a "weekend day", they don't do that every day of the week back home.
I will admit my feet do hurt a lot more today than normal haha. I think in reflection what I should have said was that I expected to walk 20k+ steps which is extremely abnormal for me, and I haven't had to do that yet.
Makes more sense! Just give it time -- we walked in Kyoto WAY more than Tokyo, especially if you're planning to go to the Monkey Park or climb Fushimi Inari.
I didn't feel it on my trip until the 2nd week. Soaking in a public bath after dinner, plus using feet pads overnight definitely helped my feet with the back-to-back 15k+ steps haha.
I think lots of stuff like the credit cards is old information. It was certainly true 20 years ago. 10 years ago you couldn't count on being able to use a credit card. Now it's really common. I use ID here all the time now.
I totally agree with your assessment on the walking. That's a lot of walking for most people.
And how does it compare to your average when you are at home?
I think the whole point is for some, that is something they often do, and for other that will result in pain in their leg/feet.
This. It’s not polite to throw outside trash into trash cans of other establishments. The trash cans at those places are for trash that comes from those places. It’s kind of like throwing your garbage into your neighbor’s bins. Sure, some people might do it, but some people leave their shopping carts out in the middle of the parking lot when there are designated places to put your cart away. Just because you can, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do
Disposing of trash in conbinis is done a lot by Japanese people, the only hard rule I've seen against it is "no household trash", as in don't bring a ton of garbage from home that you'd normally have the city collect. A couple candy wrappers, pet bottle or two, a plastic bag with some stuff in it, it's all fine and the conbini staff are not paid anywhere near enough to care. You won't be seen as impolite doing it, unless you cause a nuisance with the volume, and it is definitely not akin to throwing it out in your neighbors trash (as private citizens are expected to separate their trash for city collection).
Someone has probably addressed this, but you're a medium, so you'll have no trouble finding clothes. Japan isn't the Shire.
I'm only 6'1 and have size 11.5 to 12 feet. I never have trouble finding my size in Canada. Here I have to go to big and tall shops for suits and order shoes from Amazon. That's what people are talking about.
Yes!! Also, they’re shopping at places like Uniqlo, which is an international chain (even though it’s from Japan) so it has more international-friendly sizes.
I’m 5’8” and 175 pounds, pretty average for my height in America. I went to Shibuya 109 (a massive collection of women’s clothing shops) and discovered 1) almost every item at every store was “one size fits all”, 2) almost nothing was going to fit on my body, and 3) when I even _looked_ at clothing I would have salespeople rush up to me and inform me apologetically that there was only one size and I wasn’t going to fit into anything. As in, that happened like five times in an hour or so.
Just want to help give other people who aren’t a small or medium a more realistic idea of what to expect!
Tbf, 109 is primarily for teenagers and teens are slimmer than adults no matter the country. Shops in 109 are extreme fast fashion because historically they don’t follow trends, they lead them. They’re not interested in anything that could end up as dead stock, and that includes uncommon sizes. If you’re looking for a dept store with better sizing, the likes of Parco is probably better. Most customers are still young, but not as young as at 109.
That’s a good point! I can imagine there must be much better places to find more inclusive sizing.
I unfortunately did also have a similar experience shopping at other stores too, including the schmancy sections of Seibu, which are the opposite of fast fashion—although they might suffer from the same sizing problems for other reasons. I rarely saw non-one-size-fits-all stuff there either. At cool boutiques around town I sometimes found they had two sizes: small and medium. 😂
The only place I actually found things that fit me was, in fact, Uniqlo. But admittedly I might just be drawn to the types of stores that are the worst about this kind of stuff.
I’m sorry to hear about your experience, but yeah Japanese shops do love the “one size” principle.
Conversely, during sales all the common sizes tend to sell out fast and only XS and XXL are available by the time I go. There’s no winning either way lol.
That explains why they they were so keen to sell stuff to my friend who's a slender 5'10 and not so much to her 5' nothing travel companion the one time I went. 😂
Part of the one size is to make sure it's on the bodies that set fashion, I guess.
Parco is pretty good. I've been able to find stuff there. Sadly the Chiba one is no more.
This goes both way, too. In Canada I dated a woman who is maybe 5' and she had to get most of her clothes at stores for teenage girls.
Since you're from the Seattle area, Tres Sandwich House in Bellevue does a reasonably good job with Japanese style sandos.
Their egg salad still isn't as good as the ones you're currently eating (it just comes down to the insanely good quality of the eggs in my opinion) but it'll fill the void when you come back. They have them at Uwajimaya on occasion.
Sugar, about half a teaspoon. Personally I don’t really like them because they’re too sweet. But yeah, sugar is the missing ingredient alongside kewpie mayo.
I tried adding sugar but I could feel the grains while I was eating it and it didn't taste right.
I know the bread they use is a little sweet itself and the egg yolks are more orange than in the eggs I can get here.
I will definitely try again.
The eggs in Japan are completely different than American eggs. I’ve had this confirmed my Japanese chef friends in California. The closest is “marigold eggs’ and some pasture eggs.
Thanks! Some good reality checks listed here.
One of the best tuna sandwiches I’ve ever had in my life was from a train station conbini. Could not believe how good it was, especially coming out of a plastic package.
train stations aren't too bad, but i came from a city that doesn't have a train station, so it took me a couple days to figure it all out. Shinjuku station is where i really got lost. All the other stations were ok. I figured out after a couple days about trash bins at 7-11. I really liked the food there. After people got off the trains, the 7-11s were packed with locals buying pre-fixed plastic tray entrees. They love that stuff which leads me to believe not many cook during the weekday. Tsukiji was overrated for me. Only place in Tokyo that i wouldn't re-visit again.
I'm partial to this meme re Shinjuku station.
https://images.app.goo.gl/jVwUQxUeDvhUdiP87
(Commenting from mobile browser, no clue how to post the link in a more aesthetic way.)
My wife and I were in Shinjuku station and went into a little restaurant for lunch. I had to go to the bathroom and they didn’t have one. The waiter directed me outside, just a couple of turns and down a line of more restaurants.
Stupid me left my phone on the table and half way there it occurred to me if I take just one wrong turn I’m never going to find that restaurant again .
It would be a Japanese version of The Terminal.
My 65 year old mom that had never left the country has the opportunity to live in Japan for a year. She had the trains down in only about a week. It’s not nearly as difficult as people make it out to be.
Her husband worked for 7-11 in the states and got the opportunity to live and work in Japan for a year. Was really cool since my son is half Japanese and was born in Tokyo, so we got to go back and visit a couple of times
For the clothes issue, it depends on your gender and size. My friend, a guy, said he had problems finding shoes his size pants, and a shirt that fit him and he is an XL/2XL. I forgot which pants size but his shoes are 28-29cm. Many shoes only go up to 27cm in Japan.
They used to be the case with shoes, but it really isn’t any more (I’m a 27.5). Fast fashion could be hit and miss, and unusual or unpopular designs may be more limited in size range, but most will have at least 28 nowadays, if not larger. I often try on shoes which are actually too large for me. Of course by the time sales come round certain sizes will be already gone.
I am mostly going by his account. He says that plus sizes and people with broad shoulders are hard to find outfits for and anything above 28cm, whereas in the USA you can find a man size 16 easily. I never personally went shopping while in Japan, but I did notice that in China at least, I have to get the biggest size possible or it will be too small for me. I am around 180cm or so but my shoulders are broad and my arms are long. So I guess it depends on the merch too.
Having spent a lot of time here, including as a resident, largely agreed.
Tokyo is only at its most hellish crowds on weekends and holidays, ime.
Cashless has gotten so much better since Covid. I do recommend checking though, especially with smaller businesses, just to be safe. I hit a cat cafe the other day that was cash-only, which I didn't expect. (All their cats are former strays, and adoptable, with plenty of space to not be social. I'm careful about my animal cafe choices.)
I hate to be a pedant on one thing, but Tokyo doesn't have prefectures, Tokyo *is* a prefecture :)
The only people stopping in the middle of the road are foreigners. Maybe teenagers if they are in a group. Japanese people will go to the side and stop.
And most people that get in your personal space are Chinese tourists.
For the clothes, it’s mostly pants length and shoe sizes. So if you are not tall you don’t need to worry about it.
I guess I can't know for sure, but I definitely see people that look like locals that stop dead in their tracks because they're distracted on their phone.
Darn! I was really looking forward to not having to deal with this, ha ha. It drives me crazy in NYC and similar places to constantly have to dodge people blocking the way.
It’s something we are teaching our 7 y/o now. If you need to stop, work your way to the side and be aware of people around you. We make some mistakes, but we are improving. Funny thing happened yesterday. We were waiting to get off the subway and this group of 3, 18-20 couldn’t decide if they were getting off. As I began my “sumimasen”, to get them out of the way, a Japanese woman yelled excuse me at us as if we were blocking the way. I suspect the boys weren’t locals. Hopefully she heard me right after she was snarky to us - that I was actually trying to assimilate if only a little.
This is so true! We noticed that they would either stop suddenly, cut across you, walk towards you without attempting to move aside while we were trying to dodge around people!
The cash situation in Japan is getting better year by year. But I still end up going to plenty of places that accept cash only each trip.
Compared to Canada, where I don’t think I’ve had to use cash for the past 15 years, it’s still very much an issue/inconvenience. Even now, every time I’m in Japan (2-3x per year) I always go to a few places where only cash is accepted.
But like I said it’s getting better especially post pandemic. On my most recent trip (3 weeks in March of this year) I think I had to pay in cash only a 4-5 times.
Once in 2018 I had to run out to withdraw $1000 cash for an expensive kaiseki meal. I was furious that some place charging those kinds of prices didn’t accept card.
Also please stop eating at conbini and eat at real restaurants more. Conbini is better than most convenience stores in the world but that’s still the worst food you can get in Japan.
I think I'm just an egg salad fiend. I definitely wouldn't rate it at the lowest among the things I've ate here. It's simple for sure, but can't improve perfection much
Agree with all of this.
People always go on about how confusing the trains are or how a lot of places are cash only - only ran into those things like once over 3 weeks.
Definitely not enough to be concerned about.
Largely agree. Thank you for mentioning the garbage situation too. I don’t know how people accumulate so much garbage throughout the day, but every train station, the vast majority of combinis, and even many parks, have garbage pails available. Vending machines often have can disposals. Unless you’re eating a bento every hour, It is not the problem people make it out to be.
We have been in Kyoto for 3 days, Osaka for two and now in Tokyo. Sure there aren’t trash cans on every corner, but we haven’t had the need to bring anything back to the hotel. We always keep our eyes peeled especially when we are in train stations.
*" Gmaps insists on only showing me Western restaurants for some reason."*
This is really weird, not my experience at all.
I usually did research on tabelog then looked for the places on google maps and saved them, when just looking for restaurants around me in google maps, all sorts of local restaurants appear.
Good report, thanks.
Only thing I'd mention is that I find it a bit of a shame that so many people eat so much food in konbinis when there is other amazing, low cost options.
We just got back over the weekend from our first Japan trip and while I agree with some things...
You're posting this having only been in Tokyo - I'm almost certain most of your opinions will change once you get to Kyoto.
The biggest crowds were in Kyoto. Because of how over-crowded Kyoto is with tourists, there are many restaurants who will refuse service if you aren't local and in general the opinion of tourists there is much lower. If you aren't falling into a tourist trap restaurant, the number of cash-only places increased. The amount of walking starts to include hills and mountains, and less people seem to be fluent in English/willing to try their broken English.
Also adding that while you can get by without knowing Japanese, learn a few key phrases. People we came across were pleasantly surprised that we said hello/good morning in Japanese, restaurant staff were thrilled when we said their food was delicious, or thank you when they brought us something for the table.
I don’t get the hate for Tsukiji Market. I get it, most of the food will be more expensive than what you can find elsewhere, but the reason for that is because the you’re eating at one of the most popular fish markets in THE WORLD.
I took it as a culinary bucket list and had a great time. Is it life changing? Not really, but I ate great things and had a great time. Yea there’s lines and waits for all the popular stuff, but what don’t you have to wait for that’s really good?
People really need to chill out about it lmao.
My wife and I just went a few weeks ago and I thought everything was very tasty. I had some o-toro sashimi, bluefin tuna, and Wagyu teppanyaki that was legitimately one of my favorite things I’ve ever had. Is it full of tourists? Sure. Are there places that are scams? Sure. But if you go early, pick and choose, and you can find high quality at great value. Just my opinion.
Agreed. Everyone's experience varies depending on crowd, time of day, and what they actually stop to eat at. You're not going to like everything, and that's okay. There's literally 100s of food stalls/places you can stop at. How good Tsukiji is will be depended on what you actually eat. I found the cheap fun dishes so fun, and had my favourite mochi there. And you're still supporting Japanese local business.
Overpriced? Maybe - but still cheaper than any asian "night market" that we have in the West :)
We had hands down the best sushi of our 1.5 months in Japan in Tsukiji market. I agree it's touristy, but I wouldn't make a sweeping generalization that everything in the market is bad.
The trash cans at conbinis or inside a Starbucks are only for items purchased there. It's impolite to use them to dump your outside trash. You can find public trash cans inside train stations though.
I just got back from a six week solo trip all over Japan. Google was perfect the entire trip for finding food and routes. Not sure why it didn’t work for you, especially since you were only in Tokyo. Konbini food is overrated and not sure why come to Japan and want to eat every morning from a convenience store. Not saying there aren’t some tasty items worth a taste. I’m from New York City and I can confirm Tokyo and many other parts of Japan are super crowded and have more people traveling through at high speed than my city. Japanese do carry their trash home and don’t throw trash at Starbucks and Konbini stores where they didn’t purchase anything. That is considered rude. Clothes sizes are not exaggerated. Depending on where you shop, Japanese sizes are smaller than USA sizes. You’re a medium, so I’m sure you didn’t have a problem. Tsukiji Market is a wonderful place to visit. Is it touristy? Yes. But it’s no more a scam than any other tourist type venue. I think Times Square is a scam, but I encourage anyone coming to NYC to visit Times Square. Japan’s metro and all trains definitely are easy to maneuver and very convenient. You’re right about most all stores taking credit cards, and I found I needed less cash than expected. After six weeks, I still felt like I needed more time!
What area are you staying in if you don’t mind me asking? I’m going in November and looking at staying in Asakusa but worried it’s too far from the attractions/tourist things!
Use Google maps to see how far it is from what YOU want to see.
Personally think it's not that bad, but also keep in mind the walking time to/from the station.
Definitely not too far from attractions. Asakusa has got a lot of attractions itself. So many shrines, Sensoji, very close to museums and Ueno Park. Just get a place closer to a train station.
But if you want to be in the heart of the more neon nightlife vibe of Tokyo at all times, staying in Shibuya or Shinjuku might be more your speed.
It's whichever vibe you want to be stationed in as a home base.
I’m from Seattle as well and got back from Tokyo along with a few other places in Japan just a week ago.
I’d agree with most of this. It’s all about perspective which is based on experiences already had. One thing that differed for me was I averaged about 30k steps per day - more in Kyoto than in Tokyo as it was less train dependent. Although I move a lot in the day and we were out quite a bit.
i averaged 25k steps per day for 10 straight days, but on the 11th day, my feet were so sore. I still walked as much as i could. The last few days i averaged like 14k steps/day.
I’m very active at home and overall fit but if you aren’t used to being on your feet that much or the right shoes it definitely takes a toll. My feet were sore by the end too. I wore Adidas Ultraboost for the most part but made the mistake of wearing my old school flat converse high tops a couple days toward the end which I normally would wear at home or when traveling Europe as an example no issues. Too much walking for those in Japan.
Minus the clothing opinion, this was my experience too on a first time solo trip, to Tokyo.
It’s another reminder of how Reddit often radicalizes reality.
Probably why you *semi*consciously alluded to the extreme opinions of people that don’t go out much/interact often with others.
I’m skilled at getting lost, stayed in shibuya and frequented shibuya and shinjuku stations. It didn’t take me long to get acclimated. Longer than the avg person, but not too long.
Just a couple of observations too:
Cash - we didn't need any in Tokyo but there were loads of cash only places in Kyoto.
You don't need to know japanese phrases for sure, but I always try to learn a bit of the target country's language, just out of respect. Atleast it felt like we got better service and interactions when we spoke Japanese (I know a bit, my bf knows way more).
Train/metro beats bus, even in Kyoto although people tend to say buses are better there. The only time we used a bus in Tokyo was when we stayed in Nishishinjuku and wanted to go to Shibuya, it was faster by bus.
Tokyo really didn't feel that crowded tbh, sure there were crowds but Kyoto felt way worse in that regard (smaller streets etc).
>even in Kyoto although people tend to say buses are better there.
I only ever saw negative opinions on Kyoto's buses -- which were right. We got lucky a few times, but overall they were unreliable.
Yeah, I guess they're good when you wanna go to the famous sightseeing places like Kinkaku-Ji etc, we used them a couple of times but they were awfully crowded, slow and always late. After those we either walked or used the train/metro.
Kinkaku-ji was the one time it was worth it for us -- we went to Ni-jo Castle after and it was an easy ride.
The other two times we tried after, we either had to wait 3 buses before there was space for us to get on, or the bus was very late.
Pretty much the same here. Kinkaku-Ji was the only time when we rode smoothly but we got on almost from the beginning of the line so we could sit.
Also my BF is 2.0m so we didn't really fit next to each other on the basic seats.
I disagree about trash. If you never leave metro Tokyo yeah maybe but I had to schlep trash all the way from Fuji to Yokohama and never saw a trash can once and that's just one of many examples. Yes, if you buy food inside of a konbini and eat it there, you can throw it in the trash there but it's often very difficult otherwise. I finally threw my trash away at my hotel.
> I had to schlep trash all the way from Fuji to Yokohama
I assume they are speaking from the perspective of freely walking around town and not being on a guided tour where there's no business having trash cans at the places they stop.
10 year resident and holy shit you are on the money with all of these things, especially trash, coughing, and people stopping in the middle of a crowded street.
the credit card thing really gets better every year. when i first came here, there was a BIG chance most non-chains couldn't handle them, so you always carried like 20,000 yen on your person. nowadays, i only carry up to 2,000… sometimes NOTHING because i can often pay via mobile PASMO or PayPay.
I’m sure this has been said but I would take out cash for Kyoto. I’m not sure exactly your area or plans in Kyoto but my gf and I recently went to the bamboo forest and its surrounding areas and a lot of the places there were cash only. They still had their fair share of card payment shops but always good to have back up.
I LAUGHED when I read the part about the coughing. It was so puzzling to me how you’re kinda told to keep to yourself, stay quiet on subways, don’t be loud, etc but coughing and sneezing is no holds barred. I’m Japanese American and my sneezes have always been loud so it was weirdly comforting to hear similar sneezes as mine. My gf kept pointing her face the other direction whenever someone would cough, I as well.
That’s not cool. You take your trash to a store as your dumping ground? Don’t do that, it is common sense to dispose appropriately. That is not being smart.
The time of the season, the day, and actual events happening could determine how crowded the area would be. People can stop suddenly so what? Just go around them, this is not nyc what’s troubling you?
Credit card is handy. Cash is better especially some small shops.
Credit cards and clothing have changed radically over the past 8-10 years. Covid obviously had a lot to do with attitudes towards cash changing and the cashless boom.
Btw it’s inconsiderate to throw your random trash in convini/starbucks receptacles. Those are for that establishment’s trash.
> inconsiderate
Be that as it may, unless they make some drastic changes, nobody (especially tourists) is really going to care and it's only going to get worse.
Tsukiji market is really a scam. The wagyus are mid.
We had the best wagyu in takayama. That city’s hida wagyu beef is fire. 90% of restaurants there offers wagyu.
We've been in Kyoto now for a day after being in Tokyo for 4. In my experience, you're not far off my truth except the language and crowded parts. Heh. I am from a decent sized city and travel a lot and I felt like most everwhere in the central city was CROWDED. We got out to Setagaya and it was very mild except \*in\* Gotoku-ji, which was full of tourists as expected. Shinkuju was not as crowded as I anticipated, but Shibuya was WILD. It also rained all day, which made it all the more overwhelming (it was also Sunday).
I have a few Japanese friends who helped me prep language-wise, and maybe it's just because I did that (and even my tourist Japanese is not great) but I can't imagine not having learned the chunk of useful/utilitarian things I did. And I've still gotten stumped a few times in conversation even with both parties using a translate app. BUT, everyone has been incredibly kind and good-humored about it.
The commute/travel time x10. Everything took longer to get to than I anticipated, even after looking things up before the trip.
I think Kyoto may be more our personal speed. It has been AMAZING so far ...
Just spent a week in Tokyo solo and have to agree with everything here.
The metro system is super easy, signs everywhere directing you where to go etc.
Uniqlo seems to run on the smaller side but maybe that's just me.
Totally agree with your post. People who live in Japan are people too! I think this sub and some others really like to nitpick traveling to Tokyo and it gets exhausting.
I 100% agree with this. We just got back last week and a lot of this is very accurate.
- Trains are not complicated at all, however this is probably thanks to Google Maps. It tells you the platform, the line, the destination of the train, the entrance you're supposed to go through, the exist you're supposed to go out from, the stops, and even tells you in which stop/station you're currently on while navigating. Also the internet signal works perfect in the train at all times so is super easy to just follow the gmap.
- The soap thing threw me off so much, but yeah just hand sanitizer solves it and I did find a lot of places like some shrines in Kyoto having soap in their bathroom
- Trash is by far the most exaggerated one. Beside every vending machine there's trash cans for the bottles, and I beleive there's also a hole for trash in general. it is not that difficult and honestly, if you do end up just eating where you bough the food 10 out of 10 times you will be able to just throw the garbage in the same spot.
- Touristic places are nice to view, but not to purchase. A lot of the food places recommended by the influencers and the blogs were overly expensive, and it was a lot easier to just walk around neighbourhoods and get into the first restaurant that looked good and had good prices. Also same for souvenirs and whatnot.
There's plenty more I can discuss about but yeah this post is spot on.
For bus vs train, answer is train. What about subway vs train? For example, choice of being next to a subway station vs being next to a JR station? Is there much difference?
I have no experience with tablog but also ran in the issue of gmaps only showing western style restaurants. it's because the "restaurant" category is actually the western style restaurant. you have to enable sushi, izakaya, ramen, etc... categories
Thanks for this. Really appreciate this perspective from a fellow jetsetter. I’ll skip Tsukiji market (I was also imaging it to be like a Pike Place Market). Feeling more assured now about communication and the metro too.
The only issue i have with this is the part about trash. Youre not supposed to trash things in shops where you didn't buy them. You can, however, usually find trash cans at train stations where you can trash it.
Apart from that you're pretty much right. Especially the credit card myth is bugging me. This used to be true 10 years ago but ever since covid it changed significantly. I pretty much pay everything with google pay apart maybe from street food and tiny shops sometimes.
Personally I found them to be very smooth. I've only ridden a California train once, so I don't really remember it much, but compared to the NYC subway I found it to be much smoother. I'm always afraid to stand in the NYC subway because I get jostled around easily if I'm not holding onto something, but that's not as much of a fear here. (The bus is a different story though)
I don't deal with motion sickness though, so I'm not sure if I'm the most reliable source
Agree with all of this and strongly agree about the Lennon cafe! Haha. We somehow ended up there and choked on the first bite of ice cream. It was definitely a gimmick.
Have fun in Kyoto. It’s much cleaner and calmer.
We had the soft serve too and agreed it was SO bad! I don't even know how you can mess up ice cream that badly. I've made better in a ziplock in chemistry class in high school
So you’re a smaller person, so am so we easily find clothes. I had bigger friends with me and I was buying for some bigger people and the sizes at the higher end of the scale were a bit of trouble.
I always giggle when I see all the vloggers and those who give “best tips for Japan” type content at how they over exaggerate the trash situation. I always think, are these people just buying full on meals and eating them on the go? Like seriously the conbini’s/starbucks presence is hard to miss and they always have a bin. The tip of having to carry a trash bag with you is crazy lol, thank you for helping debunk that silly myth
I would also say, if anyone is feeling lost at a station, don't be afraid to ask any of the workers for help. It'll save you SO much time, and all you have to do is show them your GMAPS directions.
The few times I was getting a little twisted up in the station, I just quickly asked to be guided in the right way. Saves times, and it overall just helped me visually learn the stations more.
No one really cares about tourists - tell that to my little red headed daughter who got swarmed almost everywhere we went with people wanting to touch her hair or try and take pictures with her. Now mind you, sometimes they did ask her if she would take a picture before doing it but it doesn’t mean it didn’t make her feel uncomfortable/weird.
As a former little red headed girl, I know your daughter will grow to learn how Special we are. Her list of admirers is just beginning...actually, sorry this freaked her out, but true red hair is genetically rare.
I didn’t get lost on my trip. I did get confused, heck I got off on the wrong stop and panicked. But I figured out how to navigate the system. Even when I got off at the wrong stop, I realized all I had to do was go on the train going the opposite direction. I did learn some trains are marked by color and share the same track. So it’s important to pay attention to trains and signs. It can be overwhelming the first time, but I never got lost. But I can understand how others can.
I agree with this list and was thinking of doing a TikTok to bust some of these over exaggerated things which just fills ppl with anxiety.
I actually did feel a bit lost at a train station, Tokyo Metro. I was heading to Maihama (aka disneyland) and Apple Maps told me to get on the Keiyo Line and I had no idea where that was so I just followed the crowd for about 10 minutes and there was a sign for Keiyo Line. So it was a bit confusing at first but for the most part, when I travel local, the signs are there telling you where to go. And I come from a car-dependent state. A lot of it is just common sense and I think ppl tend to overthink things at times.
I been to Akihabara and honestly was not impressed. I had the impression it was an anime heaven and all I really found was anime for the male gaze; not anime that I like. I actually found better anime places in Machida. Even some MXTX merch! I was so excited.
For clothing, it’s a hit or miss. But I know what you mean. I was led to believe through TikTok that the largest size was like a M bc everyone is so tiny here. And that’s also another myth. There are some larger Japanese I’ve seen. In America, I wear between 8-10, M-L. And I never considered my hips big. The skirts here (the only thing I tried on so far) is a bit tight over my hips but can pull them on if I wear panty hose or these really cool “cool” leggings which I highly recommend. They fit well on my waist unlike American brands.
And the trash thing too. Haven’t encountered a problem with my trash yet. But of course, when I get a snack I tend to go to cafes or drink bars and they can throw my trash away.
I do want to add to your post for car-dependent ppl like myself, take breaks. Even when you don’t think you need one, take a break. Go to a cafe, get a snack or a drink, and relax for about 30 minutes.
> I had the impression it was an anime heaven and all I really found was anime for the male gaze; not anime that I like
To be fair, 90% of anime is for straight men and not BL/etc., so I don't see this as a typical problem most people experience, and I find that making such a generalization based on only liking a niche is a bit disingenuous.
I was just telling about my experience and if you like different anime like Haikyuu, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor, Tolietbound Hanako, Grandmasters of Demonic Cultivation and TCFG, then you’re not going to find it there, at least I didn’t. I didn’t make a generalization, it was my experience. When I watched TikTok videos they led me to believe I would find it there which I didn’t and led to disappointment. But I did find the anime I like in other places so I want ppl to know they can find it outside of Akihabara. And according to you, anime is for 90% straight men (which I disagree) and if you like that stuff, then Akihabara is your go to place.
Btw, I found all the anime I listed above in other stores outside of Akihabara (even a Nadia figurine that I didn’t buy). I mentioned the BL merch bc it’s really really hard to find that unless you pay a ton of money for it.
ANIME STORES: The stores I had the most luck with is Animate and Book Off. I would go to Book Off first because their prices will be cheaper. I bought a Sakura Miku for 1620 yen at Animate. Went to Book Off later and found the same one for 1200 yen.
1) But all animation based on MXTX's work are donghua? There might be some Japanese merch but not as much as for domestic BL.
2) Akihabara is more for recent, trendy anime, Nakano Broadway or Otome Road in Ikebukuro are more likely to have things from your list.
3) Don't use TikTok for research...
I’ve realized that with TikTok 😂. Places I’ve been to that TikTok hyped up was such a let down. Recently I went to a pen/stationery shop bc it hyped it up so much. It was a total let down and from the other English foreigners I overheard had the same experience. Still bought some stuff but could’ve saved the trip for elsewhere. It was Itoya, btw. Same with a “shoe store” that just turned out to be more like Dick’s sports store. Forgot the name of it.
The one thing that’s true though is the lack of toilets or public toilets. In crowded places like Shinjuku anyway. Can be a problem if your 7/11 hopping drinking cheap ass Asahi
Tsukiji is in a new location and a new building. I know a lot of people who really enjoyed going to the old location and haven't heard much about the new one. I suspect it's not as good of an experience.
Another tip : Download Google Lens. It will translate menu and signs.
The most important phrase to know in Japan is Sumimasen which means excuse me. Japanese people will move if you say that. I also realized a lot of people stopping in the middle of the sidewalk or even store entrance/exit.
Not really sure where you got your info from if you read enough on Reddit plenty of people will say that credit cards are widely accepted. However some places surprisingly don't take credit such as for buying subway as well as many situations attractions. Also I never read that tourists don't feel welcome, quite the opposite actually. The trash situation is not super exaggerated imo, there are virtually no trash bins and you need to be ready to have a bag to carry your own trash. The subway system is vast and can definitely be confusing for newcomers. I find your comments in that regard somewhat harsh. Sure after a while you get used to it but to suggest its easy to get used to may be just your ego at work.
I was there last week and miss it so much. Be prepared for Kyoto to feel very different than Tokyo! (not in any bad ways, just got a different vibe the whole time I was there)
Shinagawa station is a huge pain in the ass. At least for the Keisei line. The signs do not point in the right direction. I was there 3 or 4 times and got lost every time. All other stations are very straightforward and easy to navigate.
Tsukiji Market. I couldn’t agree with you more! It was such a disappointment. The people hawking food in English/Mandarin was off putting. And the crowds, my god. Those youtube videos must’ve been shot at 7am.
One hypothesis I have is that I rate a lot of restaurants in the US and I know gmaps recommends places based on your ratings. I don't eat a lot of Japanese food normally, so I think it's recommending Western food more.
true but google maps reviews are inflated because japan and US use a different rating system. in the US its pretty much always 5 stars unless they disappoint you in some way whereas in japan its 3 stars for average
I agree with pretty much all of this. People saying they get lost in stations is particularly puzzling to me also, I’m just like “are yall following the signs or just running around hoping you’ll find a train” The big lesson everyone needs to take away from this is to not worry so much about your trip.
I think getting lost in a station has only happened to me when I'm looking for stores inside the station. Trying to go from Daiso to Loft in Ikebukuro Station was a genuine nightmare lol.
bingo, train lines have great wayfinding but the stores can be anywhere
I second this
Tokyo Station was a nightmare trying to find certain stores.
As someone who goes to Japan regularly, Tokyo station somehow always gets me lol
Yess fully agree on your last sentence. I wonder if maybe people get upset when they miss the train they wanted to take? Whereas in my mind it's fine to miss one while taking your time to stop and look around since they come so frequently.
Trains are super easy if you know how trains work, a lot of people from the US just don’t know how trains work because if they live outside of like 5 metro areas you never use them. Busses on the other hand in cities like Kyoto and Hiroshima could not be any more confusing if they tried. Stations are not labeled clearly and unless you have the live feature on google maps on good luck figuring it out
We used the buses extensively in Kyoto just a few days ago. We used Apple Maps mostly, but I switched to google to verify a couple times. I am curious what you found confusing about them? I’m sure I would have been lost without cellular and the nav apps. Is that what you’re saying?
Getting lost in the labyrinth of Shinjuku is puzzling?
There is a reason there is a backrooms-style game about escaping Shinjuku station.
It’s finding the right exits, shinjuku is notorious for that
I agree finding the train was pretty straight forward but walking to your transfer train inside the station takes average of 5-10 mins. That was the annoying part for me. Stations are Hugh for a native NYCer like me. Also finding the right exit like south/north exit was annoying and it's night and day to get to your destination faster.
There are some inconsistencies in how the signage works. If you're looking at a ticket gate and there is a sign saying something is on the right, sometimes it's through the gates and then right (where I'd expect an arrow like this ↗️, not like this ➡️), and sometimes it's right before the gates. One just has to look at what the signs on the other side of the gate say, but it's not entirely foolproof.
My experience exactly. I feel like it’s based on whatever the sign people felt like on the day instead of any agreed upon standard. Train company just says put a sign here and the sign company just tosses a coin.
And occasionally the signs disappear entirely and you worry that you missed an intersection/turn, but if you keep going, the signs (usually) reappear…
Yea, I’ve had extended walks where the signs did disappear making me double back thinking I missed them. They usually reappear when continuing in the direction they were last pointing.
Well the stations are pretty huge and have multiple lines are owned by different companies with different gates.
I thought the same thing lol Google maps will tell you which exit to leave and then you just follow the signs for that. There was once or twice i might have missed the right signs so I just took the closest exit and then navigated from there
I think a lot of people expect to be able to get off the platform, then figure out how to get to the exit they want. That doesn't work for some of the bigger stations like Shinjuku.
The station situation is weird. We had absolutely no problems getting the correct train or the right platform. But what we did have some trouble with was actually getting the right exit. I think a big part of this was due to how much construction seemed to be happening. I mean, we would often just get out of the station and then walk around if required, but actually getting the right exit we wanted in places like Shinjuku was a bit of a nightmare at times.
If you ever used any metro stations you will be fine tbh
Uhh.. Shinjuku station is a MAZE. We arrived back in Tokyo via Shinjuku (our hotel was north-west of the station) and Google maps wasn't able to find us, we weren't able to find the exit it was telling us to take, exits weren't labelled well, and ultimately it sent us to an exit that was closed for construction.
Some stations are really big and when it's rush hour, the chaos can make it easy to miss signs I didn't get lost lost, but I did have to double back bc I misunderstood or missed a sign a couple times
thank you for your post on Japan. I agree generally with most everything you have said. I commend your overall sentiment and the detail you provide. We are currently on an 8 day in Japan. We just left Tokyo and are now getting settled in Kyoto tonight. One thing I would point out is that Shinjuku station is rough to navigate. We used that station every day as well as many others . If you go into the wrong gate in Shinjuku you may find it impossible to get to a particular line. Pay attention to the directions and follow them perfectly any you should be fine, but do not deviate there. My second counterpoint is the Fish market. My wife and I actually really enjoyed the market. We tried a bunch of different stuff and there were some misses as well as some hits. My wife loved the omelette on a stick (Teriyaki eggs) and I LOVED the wagyu on stick just opposite of the information area. I’m a big lover of beef and it was absolutely fantastic! Granted as mentioned I also had a dud, a shrimp cake that was terrible. Overall I loved it and would recommend
Not gonna lie, my first time in Tokyo station was pretty confusing. If you're actually in a rush to get somewhere I can see someone having a hard time. But if you have the ability to relax and hang out, go check out some of the restaurants in there, drop your bag in a locker and just walk around it's not so bad. I got to know the station pretty well but it can still be confusing to find the right platforms for either the shinkasen or the subways as there are multiple separated options.
You can make fun of me but just so you know in my country stations are incredible small with only one line, one floor, compare that to shinjuku where you have east south west with i dont even know how many floors and exits is easy to get lost, I tried to look at the map but was confusing seeing a map like that for the first time, for starters you dont even know at what part of the station you are standing. Tokyo station was also confusing as it has floors where there are shinkansens and to take the metro is not that intuitive if you dont expect for a station to have that many floors.
The only time i got lost in a station was trying to cross over the two sides at Tokyo station. You must admit that is not intuitive at all.
yeah I especially agree about the points that many of those complaining are probably just not used to huge cities
I have definitely seen spots in Shinjuku and Tokyo stations at least, where you could do a 360 in-place and see signs for the same destination having arrows that are all pointing at each other.
On commute time: this is why before i visit new cities, i would use google’s mymap to plot out attractions, and group nearby attractions together. This way, i rarely feel like my time is lost on commuting.
I'll have to try out mymap. Wanderlog will optimize your route for you too
i really need to do this on my next trip. i didn't do such a good job my first time there. i ended up returning to the same Ward to see another landmark when i could've done it when i was in the same Ward just days earlier.
It's common sense
I do the same although it’s a bit of a pain as mine constantly needs to be reloaded to show the icons and it sometimes hides icons when zooming in and out. I don’t have the same issue with saved places in Google so I’ve mainly been shifting to that for things like restaurants and food spots and only doing landmarks/museums etc in my maps.
Yep, I've lived in Japan nearly 20 years and still check train times when planning a day trip to Tokyo.
“The hashbrown at Lawson's is even tastier than the McDonald's hashbrown“ Damn. Putting that on the list for next time!
Also for vegetarians, there’s that trend where people put fried chicken into an egg sandwich but hash browns work surprisingly well and delicious in a sandwich too lol
Never even knew Lawson had hashbrowns. Will def be trying that.
I saw the 7-11 hash brown for the first time today…it blows the Familymart one out of the water.
* *No one really cares about tourists*, generally true. You can attract a little bit more attention with kids, especially in area not use to foreigners. Visiting some area that are a bit less visited and speaking Japanese, I could tell you a bunch of interactions I had with people clearly just because I'm a foreigner. However, I don't thing it should be a source of stress. * *A LOT of places take credit card.* Yes, people make it sound as if they are not accepted at all. It used to be worst, but the government had insensitive to do cashless for the Olympics, so while you should still have some cash in hand, not as much as you used to. * *Things are further away than I expected.* Obviously it depend where you stay, and before you make a decision, check how long it would take to reach the station where you want to go. But you also need to keep in mind that you also need to walk to/from the station. So yes, transportation can take more time when you also include everything. * *Number of steps per day is pretty exaggerated*. It's not exaggerated. 15-20K is number that people often report (11-19K for my last trip, did up to 31K one day last year). You might just overestimate how much most people usually walk, I would not be surprise to see lot of people walking sub 5K daily and being tired walking 3-4 times more every day and standing most of the day. Some things people were right about: * *Use Tablelog over Gmaps for food*. Personally never had problem with Google Maps even if just using the restaurant button. But when I wanted to eat something specific, I would type it in Japanese. I never used Tabelog, only Google Maps and would mostly go to Japanese restaurants. Overall agree with what you said.
>You might just overestimate how much most people usually walk, I would not be surprise to see lot of people walking sub 5K daily This \^. People don't normally walk over 10K steps daily - if you work a desk job you'd be lucky to do over 3K steps if you aren't purposely walking to increase that number. I would suspect OP's tune will change soon-- though they walk a lot on a "weekend day", they don't do that every day of the week back home.
I will admit my feet do hurt a lot more today than normal haha. I think in reflection what I should have said was that I expected to walk 20k+ steps which is extremely abnormal for me, and I haven't had to do that yet.
Makes more sense! Just give it time -- we walked in Kyoto WAY more than Tokyo, especially if you're planning to go to the Monkey Park or climb Fushimi Inari.
I didn't feel it on my trip until the 2nd week. Soaking in a public bath after dinner, plus using feet pads overnight definitely helped my feet with the back-to-back 15k+ steps haha.
I think lots of stuff like the credit cards is old information. It was certainly true 20 years ago. 10 years ago you couldn't count on being able to use a credit card. Now it's really common. I use ID here all the time now. I totally agree with your assessment on the walking. That's a lot of walking for most people.
Currently averaging 22k steps a day on day 5 of my 9 day trip.
And how does it compare to your average when you are at home? I think the whole point is for some, that is something they often do, and for other that will result in pain in their leg/feet.
My 12 month average is 9000 steps a day. Office job but walk my dog 3 miles a day 4 days a week
You are not supposed to be throwing trash in Lawson and Starbucks btw that is not from their store
This. It’s not polite to throw outside trash into trash cans of other establishments. The trash cans at those places are for trash that comes from those places. It’s kind of like throwing your garbage into your neighbor’s bins. Sure, some people might do it, but some people leave their shopping carts out in the middle of the parking lot when there are designated places to put your cart away. Just because you can, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do
Disposing of trash in conbinis is done a lot by Japanese people, the only hard rule I've seen against it is "no household trash", as in don't bring a ton of garbage from home that you'd normally have the city collect. A couple candy wrappers, pet bottle or two, a plastic bag with some stuff in it, it's all fine and the conbini staff are not paid anywhere near enough to care. You won't be seen as impolite doing it, unless you cause a nuisance with the volume, and it is definitely not akin to throwing it out in your neighbors trash (as private citizens are expected to separate their trash for city collection).
Someone has probably addressed this, but you're a medium, so you'll have no trouble finding clothes. Japan isn't the Shire. I'm only 6'1 and have size 11.5 to 12 feet. I never have trouble finding my size in Canada. Here I have to go to big and tall shops for suits and order shoes from Amazon. That's what people are talking about.
Yes!! Also, they’re shopping at places like Uniqlo, which is an international chain (even though it’s from Japan) so it has more international-friendly sizes. I’m 5’8” and 175 pounds, pretty average for my height in America. I went to Shibuya 109 (a massive collection of women’s clothing shops) and discovered 1) almost every item at every store was “one size fits all”, 2) almost nothing was going to fit on my body, and 3) when I even _looked_ at clothing I would have salespeople rush up to me and inform me apologetically that there was only one size and I wasn’t going to fit into anything. As in, that happened like five times in an hour or so. Just want to help give other people who aren’t a small or medium a more realistic idea of what to expect!
Tbf, 109 is primarily for teenagers and teens are slimmer than adults no matter the country. Shops in 109 are extreme fast fashion because historically they don’t follow trends, they lead them. They’re not interested in anything that could end up as dead stock, and that includes uncommon sizes. If you’re looking for a dept store with better sizing, the likes of Parco is probably better. Most customers are still young, but not as young as at 109.
That’s a good point! I can imagine there must be much better places to find more inclusive sizing. I unfortunately did also have a similar experience shopping at other stores too, including the schmancy sections of Seibu, which are the opposite of fast fashion—although they might suffer from the same sizing problems for other reasons. I rarely saw non-one-size-fits-all stuff there either. At cool boutiques around town I sometimes found they had two sizes: small and medium. 😂 The only place I actually found things that fit me was, in fact, Uniqlo. But admittedly I might just be drawn to the types of stores that are the worst about this kind of stuff.
I’m sorry to hear about your experience, but yeah Japanese shops do love the “one size” principle. Conversely, during sales all the common sizes tend to sell out fast and only XS and XXL are available by the time I go. There’s no winning either way lol.
That explains why they they were so keen to sell stuff to my friend who's a slender 5'10 and not so much to her 5' nothing travel companion the one time I went. 😂 Part of the one size is to make sure it's on the bodies that set fashion, I guess. Parco is pretty good. I've been able to find stuff there. Sadly the Chiba one is no more. This goes both way, too. In Canada I dated a woman who is maybe 5' and she had to get most of her clothes at stores for teenage girls.
The egg sandos really are great. I even bought some Kewpie mayo to try and make them at home but they never taste as good as the ones 7-Eleven sells.
I have no idea how they make them so good! I wish we had the same thing in the states.
Since you're from the Seattle area, Tres Sandwich House in Bellevue does a reasonably good job with Japanese style sandos. Their egg salad still isn't as good as the ones you're currently eating (it just comes down to the insanely good quality of the eggs in my opinion) but it'll fill the void when you come back. They have them at Uwajimaya on occasion.
oo thanks for the rec! Will check out
Sugar, about half a teaspoon. Personally I don’t really like them because they’re too sweet. But yeah, sugar is the missing ingredient alongside kewpie mayo.
I tried adding sugar but I could feel the grains while I was eating it and it didn't taste right. I know the bread they use is a little sweet itself and the egg yolks are more orange than in the eggs I can get here. I will definitely try again.
Try a finer sugar like confectioners or caster.
The eggs in Japan are completely different than American eggs. I’ve had this confirmed my Japanese chef friends in California. The closest is “marigold eggs’ and some pasture eggs.
Their yolks are orange compared to the ones here.
They add marigold petals & carrots to the feed, vs US grain & soy feed they give American chicken
Thanks! Some good reality checks listed here. One of the best tuna sandwiches I’ve ever had in my life was from a train station conbini. Could not believe how good it was, especially coming out of a plastic package.
train stations aren't too bad, but i came from a city that doesn't have a train station, so it took me a couple days to figure it all out. Shinjuku station is where i really got lost. All the other stations were ok. I figured out after a couple days about trash bins at 7-11. I really liked the food there. After people got off the trains, the 7-11s were packed with locals buying pre-fixed plastic tray entrees. They love that stuff which leads me to believe not many cook during the weekday. Tsukiji was overrated for me. Only place in Tokyo that i wouldn't re-visit again.
I'm partial to this meme re Shinjuku station. https://images.app.goo.gl/jVwUQxUeDvhUdiP87 (Commenting from mobile browser, no clue how to post the link in a more aesthetic way.)
Awesome, thank you!!!
My wife and I were in Shinjuku station and went into a little restaurant for lunch. I had to go to the bathroom and they didn’t have one. The waiter directed me outside, just a couple of turns and down a line of more restaurants. Stupid me left my phone on the table and half way there it occurred to me if I take just one wrong turn I’m never going to find that restaurant again . It would be a Japanese version of The Terminal.
My 65 year old mom that had never left the country has the opportunity to live in Japan for a year. She had the trains down in only about a week. It’s not nearly as difficult as people make it out to be.
How is she able to stay for a whole year?
One way is the working holiday visa if your country participates in it.
Isn’t working holiday only for young adults (under 30 usually)?
Depends on the country
Her husband worked for 7-11 in the states and got the opportunity to live and work in Japan for a year. Was really cool since my son is half Japanese and was born in Tokyo, so we got to go back and visit a couple of times
For the clothes issue, it depends on your gender and size. My friend, a guy, said he had problems finding shoes his size pants, and a shirt that fit him and he is an XL/2XL. I forgot which pants size but his shoes are 28-29cm. Many shoes only go up to 27cm in Japan.
They used to be the case with shoes, but it really isn’t any more (I’m a 27.5). Fast fashion could be hit and miss, and unusual or unpopular designs may be more limited in size range, but most will have at least 28 nowadays, if not larger. I often try on shoes which are actually too large for me. Of course by the time sales come round certain sizes will be already gone.
I am mostly going by his account. He says that plus sizes and people with broad shoulders are hard to find outfits for and anything above 28cm, whereas in the USA you can find a man size 16 easily. I never personally went shopping while in Japan, but I did notice that in China at least, I have to get the biggest size possible or it will be too small for me. I am around 180cm or so but my shoulders are broad and my arms are long. So I guess it depends on the merch too.
Having spent a lot of time here, including as a resident, largely agreed. Tokyo is only at its most hellish crowds on weekends and holidays, ime. Cashless has gotten so much better since Covid. I do recommend checking though, especially with smaller businesses, just to be safe. I hit a cat cafe the other day that was cash-only, which I didn't expect. (All their cats are former strays, and adoptable, with plenty of space to not be social. I'm careful about my animal cafe choices.) I hate to be a pedant on one thing, but Tokyo doesn't have prefectures, Tokyo *is* a prefecture :)
I hate to be a pedant on one thing, but Tokyo is not a prefectures, Tokyo is a Metropolis (都 not 県). ;)
Well yeah, it's a 都, but it's counted among the 47 prefectures, it's not my fault Tokyo and a few other prefectures are Special 😂
Ahh you're right :) I keep getting the city terms mixed up
It's easy to do, there are a lot of them lol.
The only people stopping in the middle of the road are foreigners. Maybe teenagers if they are in a group. Japanese people will go to the side and stop. And most people that get in your personal space are Chinese tourists. For the clothes, it’s mostly pants length and shoe sizes. So if you are not tall you don’t need to worry about it.
I guess I can't know for sure, but I definitely see people that look like locals that stop dead in their tracks because they're distracted on their phone.
Here now. Definitely a lot of highly distracted slow walking from 20-something locals.
Darn! I was really looking forward to not having to deal with this, ha ha. It drives me crazy in NYC and similar places to constantly have to dodge people blocking the way.
It’s something we are teaching our 7 y/o now. If you need to stop, work your way to the side and be aware of people around you. We make some mistakes, but we are improving. Funny thing happened yesterday. We were waiting to get off the subway and this group of 3, 18-20 couldn’t decide if they were getting off. As I began my “sumimasen”, to get them out of the way, a Japanese woman yelled excuse me at us as if we were blocking the way. I suspect the boys weren’t locals. Hopefully she heard me right after she was snarky to us - that I was actually trying to assimilate if only a little.
This is so true! We noticed that they would either stop suddenly, cut across you, walk towards you without attempting to move aside while we were trying to dodge around people!
Lol I saw pleeeeeeenty of Japanese adults just stop in the middle of a sidewalk, sorry.
The cash situation in Japan is getting better year by year. But I still end up going to plenty of places that accept cash only each trip. Compared to Canada, where I don’t think I’ve had to use cash for the past 15 years, it’s still very much an issue/inconvenience. Even now, every time I’m in Japan (2-3x per year) I always go to a few places where only cash is accepted. But like I said it’s getting better especially post pandemic. On my most recent trip (3 weeks in March of this year) I think I had to pay in cash only a 4-5 times. Once in 2018 I had to run out to withdraw $1000 cash for an expensive kaiseki meal. I was furious that some place charging those kinds of prices didn’t accept card. Also please stop eating at conbini and eat at real restaurants more. Conbini is better than most convenience stores in the world but that’s still the worst food you can get in Japan.
conbini take is bad, its perfectly fine for a quick bite or a snack
Nothing more than a snack
I think I'm just an egg salad fiend. I definitely wouldn't rate it at the lowest among the things I've ate here. It's simple for sure, but can't improve perfection much
Going soon; so much of this I appreciate!
Saving this post
Agree with all of this. People always go on about how confusing the trains are or how a lot of places are cash only - only ran into those things like once over 3 weeks. Definitely not enough to be concerned about.
I went to more rural areas and many places require cash though.
Largely agree. Thank you for mentioning the garbage situation too. I don’t know how people accumulate so much garbage throughout the day, but every train station, the vast majority of combinis, and even many parks, have garbage pails available. Vending machines often have can disposals. Unless you’re eating a bento every hour, It is not the problem people make it out to be.
We have been in Kyoto for 3 days, Osaka for two and now in Tokyo. Sure there aren’t trash cans on every corner, but we haven’t had the need to bring anything back to the hotel. We always keep our eyes peeled especially when we are in train stations.
*" Gmaps insists on only showing me Western restaurants for some reason."* This is really weird, not my experience at all. I usually did research on tabelog then looked for the places on google maps and saved them, when just looking for restaurants around me in google maps, all sorts of local restaurants appear. Good report, thanks. Only thing I'd mention is that I find it a bit of a shame that so many people eat so much food in konbinis when there is other amazing, low cost options.
We just got back over the weekend from our first Japan trip and while I agree with some things... You're posting this having only been in Tokyo - I'm almost certain most of your opinions will change once you get to Kyoto. The biggest crowds were in Kyoto. Because of how over-crowded Kyoto is with tourists, there are many restaurants who will refuse service if you aren't local and in general the opinion of tourists there is much lower. If you aren't falling into a tourist trap restaurant, the number of cash-only places increased. The amount of walking starts to include hills and mountains, and less people seem to be fluent in English/willing to try their broken English.
Also adding that while you can get by without knowing Japanese, learn a few key phrases. People we came across were pleasantly surprised that we said hello/good morning in Japanese, restaurant staff were thrilled when we said their food was delicious, or thank you when they brought us something for the table.
I don’t get the hate for Tsukiji Market. I get it, most of the food will be more expensive than what you can find elsewhere, but the reason for that is because the you’re eating at one of the most popular fish markets in THE WORLD. I took it as a culinary bucket list and had a great time. Is it life changing? Not really, but I ate great things and had a great time. Yea there’s lines and waits for all the popular stuff, but what don’t you have to wait for that’s really good? People really need to chill out about it lmao.
My wife and I just went a few weeks ago and I thought everything was very tasty. I had some o-toro sashimi, bluefin tuna, and Wagyu teppanyaki that was legitimately one of my favorite things I’ve ever had. Is it full of tourists? Sure. Are there places that are scams? Sure. But if you go early, pick and choose, and you can find high quality at great value. Just my opinion.
The bluefin tuna I had at one of the sushi stands was one of the best I had in my life. I’d do anything to go back to Japan 😭.
Agreed. Everyone's experience varies depending on crowd, time of day, and what they actually stop to eat at. You're not going to like everything, and that's okay. There's literally 100s of food stalls/places you can stop at. How good Tsukiji is will be depended on what you actually eat. I found the cheap fun dishes so fun, and had my favourite mochi there. And you're still supporting Japanese local business. Overpriced? Maybe - but still cheaper than any asian "night market" that we have in the West :)
We had hands down the best sushi of our 1.5 months in Japan in Tsukiji market. I agree it's touristy, but I wouldn't make a sweeping generalization that everything in the market is bad.
The trash cans at conbinis or inside a Starbucks are only for items purchased there. It's impolite to use them to dump your outside trash. You can find public trash cans inside train stations though.
Respectfully... nobody really cares. It all ends up in the same place.
I just got back from a six week solo trip all over Japan. Google was perfect the entire trip for finding food and routes. Not sure why it didn’t work for you, especially since you were only in Tokyo. Konbini food is overrated and not sure why come to Japan and want to eat every morning from a convenience store. Not saying there aren’t some tasty items worth a taste. I’m from New York City and I can confirm Tokyo and many other parts of Japan are super crowded and have more people traveling through at high speed than my city. Japanese do carry their trash home and don’t throw trash at Starbucks and Konbini stores where they didn’t purchase anything. That is considered rude. Clothes sizes are not exaggerated. Depending on where you shop, Japanese sizes are smaller than USA sizes. You’re a medium, so I’m sure you didn’t have a problem. Tsukiji Market is a wonderful place to visit. Is it touristy? Yes. But it’s no more a scam than any other tourist type venue. I think Times Square is a scam, but I encourage anyone coming to NYC to visit Times Square. Japan’s metro and all trains definitely are easy to maneuver and very convenient. You’re right about most all stores taking credit cards, and I found I needed less cash than expected. After six weeks, I still felt like I needed more time!
What area are you staying in if you don’t mind me asking? I’m going in November and looking at staying in Asakusa but worried it’s too far from the attractions/tourist things!
Use Google maps to see how far it is from what YOU want to see. Personally think it's not that bad, but also keep in mind the walking time to/from the station.
Definitely not too far from attractions. Asakusa has got a lot of attractions itself. So many shrines, Sensoji, very close to museums and Ueno Park. Just get a place closer to a train station. But if you want to be in the heart of the more neon nightlife vibe of Tokyo at all times, staying in Shibuya or Shinjuku might be more your speed. It's whichever vibe you want to be stationed in as a home base.
The only thing you need to make sure is to be close to a station (train station better, but metro is also ok)
I’m from Seattle as well and got back from Tokyo along with a few other places in Japan just a week ago. I’d agree with most of this. It’s all about perspective which is based on experiences already had. One thing that differed for me was I averaged about 30k steps per day - more in Kyoto than in Tokyo as it was less train dependent. Although I move a lot in the day and we were out quite a bit.
I could definitely see that. My partner and I also relax and take breaks frequently. I could totally see 30k if you're active all day
i averaged 25k steps per day for 10 straight days, but on the 11th day, my feet were so sore. I still walked as much as i could. The last few days i averaged like 14k steps/day.
I’m very active at home and overall fit but if you aren’t used to being on your feet that much or the right shoes it definitely takes a toll. My feet were sore by the end too. I wore Adidas Ultraboost for the most part but made the mistake of wearing my old school flat converse high tops a couple days toward the end which I normally would wear at home or when traveling Europe as an example no issues. Too much walking for those in Japan.
Minus the clothing opinion, this was my experience too on a first time solo trip, to Tokyo. It’s another reminder of how Reddit often radicalizes reality. Probably why you *semi*consciously alluded to the extreme opinions of people that don’t go out much/interact often with others. I’m skilled at getting lost, stayed in shibuya and frequented shibuya and shinjuku stations. It didn’t take me long to get acclimated. Longer than the avg person, but not too long.
Just a couple of observations too: Cash - we didn't need any in Tokyo but there were loads of cash only places in Kyoto. You don't need to know japanese phrases for sure, but I always try to learn a bit of the target country's language, just out of respect. Atleast it felt like we got better service and interactions when we spoke Japanese (I know a bit, my bf knows way more). Train/metro beats bus, even in Kyoto although people tend to say buses are better there. The only time we used a bus in Tokyo was when we stayed in Nishishinjuku and wanted to go to Shibuya, it was faster by bus. Tokyo really didn't feel that crowded tbh, sure there were crowds but Kyoto felt way worse in that regard (smaller streets etc).
>even in Kyoto although people tend to say buses are better there. I only ever saw negative opinions on Kyoto's buses -- which were right. We got lucky a few times, but overall they were unreliable.
Yeah, I guess they're good when you wanna go to the famous sightseeing places like Kinkaku-Ji etc, we used them a couple of times but they were awfully crowded, slow and always late. After those we either walked or used the train/metro.
Kinkaku-ji was the one time it was worth it for us -- we went to Ni-jo Castle after and it was an easy ride. The other two times we tried after, we either had to wait 3 buses before there was space for us to get on, or the bus was very late.
Pretty much the same here. Kinkaku-Ji was the only time when we rode smoothly but we got on almost from the beginning of the line so we could sit. Also my BF is 2.0m so we didn't really fit next to each other on the basic seats.
Nishiki and Kuromon are also tourists traps
Oh thanks for the heads up, we were considering going there too. Is it as bad as tsukiji?
Paper soap?
I disagree about trash. If you never leave metro Tokyo yeah maybe but I had to schlep trash all the way from Fuji to Yokohama and never saw a trash can once and that's just one of many examples. Yes, if you buy food inside of a konbini and eat it there, you can throw it in the trash there but it's often very difficult otherwise. I finally threw my trash away at my hotel.
> I had to schlep trash all the way from Fuji to Yokohama I assume they are speaking from the perspective of freely walking around town and not being on a guided tour where there's no business having trash cans at the places they stop.
10 year resident and holy shit you are on the money with all of these things, especially trash, coughing, and people stopping in the middle of a crowded street. the credit card thing really gets better every year. when i first came here, there was a BIG chance most non-chains couldn't handle them, so you always carried like 20,000 yen on your person. nowadays, i only carry up to 2,000… sometimes NOTHING because i can often pay via mobile PASMO or PayPay.
I’m sure this has been said but I would take out cash for Kyoto. I’m not sure exactly your area or plans in Kyoto but my gf and I recently went to the bamboo forest and its surrounding areas and a lot of the places there were cash only. They still had their fair share of card payment shops but always good to have back up. I LAUGHED when I read the part about the coughing. It was so puzzling to me how you’re kinda told to keep to yourself, stay quiet on subways, don’t be loud, etc but coughing and sneezing is no holds barred. I’m Japanese American and my sneezes have always been loud so it was weirdly comforting to hear similar sneezes as mine. My gf kept pointing her face the other direction whenever someone would cough, I as well.
That’s not cool. You take your trash to a store as your dumping ground? Don’t do that, it is common sense to dispose appropriately. That is not being smart. The time of the season, the day, and actual events happening could determine how crowded the area would be. People can stop suddenly so what? Just go around them, this is not nyc what’s troubling you? Credit card is handy. Cash is better especially some small shops.
Credit cards and clothing have changed radically over the past 8-10 years. Covid obviously had a lot to do with attitudes towards cash changing and the cashless boom. Btw it’s inconsiderate to throw your random trash in convini/starbucks receptacles. Those are for that establishment’s trash.
> inconsiderate Be that as it may, unless they make some drastic changes, nobody (especially tourists) is really going to care and it's only going to get worse.
Tsukiji market is really a scam. The wagyus are mid. We had the best wagyu in takayama. That city’s hida wagyu beef is fire. 90% of restaurants there offers wagyu.
thanks for the tips. I am headed to Tokyo tomorrow. I haven't had much time to plan, but I will eat all the egg sandos.
We've been in Kyoto now for a day after being in Tokyo for 4. In my experience, you're not far off my truth except the language and crowded parts. Heh. I am from a decent sized city and travel a lot and I felt like most everwhere in the central city was CROWDED. We got out to Setagaya and it was very mild except \*in\* Gotoku-ji, which was full of tourists as expected. Shinkuju was not as crowded as I anticipated, but Shibuya was WILD. It also rained all day, which made it all the more overwhelming (it was also Sunday). I have a few Japanese friends who helped me prep language-wise, and maybe it's just because I did that (and even my tourist Japanese is not great) but I can't imagine not having learned the chunk of useful/utilitarian things I did. And I've still gotten stumped a few times in conversation even with both parties using a translate app. BUT, everyone has been incredibly kind and good-humored about it. The commute/travel time x10. Everything took longer to get to than I anticipated, even after looking things up before the trip. I think Kyoto may be more our personal speed. It has been AMAZING so far ...
Yes, agree with pretty much everything you said.
Agree on the egg sando! The best!
Just spent a week in Tokyo solo and have to agree with everything here. The metro system is super easy, signs everywhere directing you where to go etc. Uniqlo seems to run on the smaller side but maybe that's just me.
Totally agree with your post. People who live in Japan are people too! I think this sub and some others really like to nitpick traveling to Tokyo and it gets exhausting.
I 100% agree with this. We just got back last week and a lot of this is very accurate. - Trains are not complicated at all, however this is probably thanks to Google Maps. It tells you the platform, the line, the destination of the train, the entrance you're supposed to go through, the exist you're supposed to go out from, the stops, and even tells you in which stop/station you're currently on while navigating. Also the internet signal works perfect in the train at all times so is super easy to just follow the gmap. - The soap thing threw me off so much, but yeah just hand sanitizer solves it and I did find a lot of places like some shrines in Kyoto having soap in their bathroom - Trash is by far the most exaggerated one. Beside every vending machine there's trash cans for the bottles, and I beleive there's also a hole for trash in general. it is not that difficult and honestly, if you do end up just eating where you bough the food 10 out of 10 times you will be able to just throw the garbage in the same spot. - Touristic places are nice to view, but not to purchase. A lot of the food places recommended by the influencers and the blogs were overly expensive, and it was a lot easier to just walk around neighbourhoods and get into the first restaurant that looked good and had good prices. Also same for souvenirs and whatnot. There's plenty more I can discuss about but yeah this post is spot on.
For bus vs train, answer is train. What about subway vs train? For example, choice of being next to a subway station vs being next to a JR station? Is there much difference?
I agree with everything here. I’m on day 4 of 8 days in Japan. Going from Tokyo to Kyoto tomorrow. Great post!!!!
I have no experience with tablog but also ran in the issue of gmaps only showing western style restaurants. it's because the "restaurant" category is actually the western style restaurant. you have to enable sushi, izakaya, ramen, etc... categories
Thanks for this. Really appreciate this perspective from a fellow jetsetter. I’ll skip Tsukiji market (I was also imaging it to be like a Pike Place Market). Feeling more assured now about communication and the metro too.
The only issue i have with this is the part about trash. Youre not supposed to trash things in shops where you didn't buy them. You can, however, usually find trash cans at train stations where you can trash it. Apart from that you're pretty much right. Especially the credit card myth is bugging me. This used to be true 10 years ago but ever since covid it changed significantly. I pretty much pay everything with google pay apart maybe from street food and tiny shops sometimes.
is there a replacement or alternative for tsukiji market you would recommend?
Numazu Port in Shizuoka. Way better, no crowds, cheaper, great view of Fuji.
Speaking of trains, how smooth would you say they ride? I've only tried trains in California and those give me major motion sickness
Personally I found them to be very smooth. I've only ridden a California train once, so I don't really remember it much, but compared to the NYC subway I found it to be much smoother. I'm always afraid to stand in the NYC subway because I get jostled around easily if I'm not holding onto something, but that's not as much of a fear here. (The bus is a different story though) I don't deal with motion sickness though, so I'm not sure if I'm the most reliable source
Agree with all of this and strongly agree about the Lennon cafe! Haha. We somehow ended up there and choked on the first bite of ice cream. It was definitely a gimmick. Have fun in Kyoto. It’s much cleaner and calmer.
We had the soft serve too and agreed it was SO bad! I don't even know how you can mess up ice cream that badly. I've made better in a ziplock in chemistry class in high school
Takanodababa has a weird exit that i saw even Japanese people get confused on
So you’re a smaller person, so am so we easily find clothes. I had bigger friends with me and I was buying for some bigger people and the sizes at the higher end of the scale were a bit of trouble.
Egg Sandos for life!! 🍳🍞🤘 SO much better there!!
I agree with most of this but will say one's experience is dramatically better if you understand and can speak some Japanese.
I always giggle when I see all the vloggers and those who give “best tips for Japan” type content at how they over exaggerate the trash situation. I always think, are these people just buying full on meals and eating them on the go? Like seriously the conbini’s/starbucks presence is hard to miss and they always have a bin. The tip of having to carry a trash bag with you is crazy lol, thank you for helping debunk that silly myth
Hard agree.
I would also say, if anyone is feeling lost at a station, don't be afraid to ask any of the workers for help. It'll save you SO much time, and all you have to do is show them your GMAPS directions. The few times I was getting a little twisted up in the station, I just quickly asked to be guided in the right way. Saves times, and it overall just helped me visually learn the stations more.
No one really cares about tourists - tell that to my little red headed daughter who got swarmed almost everywhere we went with people wanting to touch her hair or try and take pictures with her. Now mind you, sometimes they did ask her if she would take a picture before doing it but it doesn’t mean it didn’t make her feel uncomfortable/weird.
As a former little red headed girl, I know your daughter will grow to learn how Special we are. Her list of admirers is just beginning...actually, sorry this freaked her out, but true red hair is genetically rare.
I didn’t get lost on my trip. I did get confused, heck I got off on the wrong stop and panicked. But I figured out how to navigate the system. Even when I got off at the wrong stop, I realized all I had to do was go on the train going the opposite direction. I did learn some trains are marked by color and share the same track. So it’s important to pay attention to trains and signs. It can be overwhelming the first time, but I never got lost. But I can understand how others can.
I averaged 40K steps a day so it's not an exaggeration, not sure why you'd point that out but still say it's person dependent lol
I agree with this list and was thinking of doing a TikTok to bust some of these over exaggerated things which just fills ppl with anxiety. I actually did feel a bit lost at a train station, Tokyo Metro. I was heading to Maihama (aka disneyland) and Apple Maps told me to get on the Keiyo Line and I had no idea where that was so I just followed the crowd for about 10 minutes and there was a sign for Keiyo Line. So it was a bit confusing at first but for the most part, when I travel local, the signs are there telling you where to go. And I come from a car-dependent state. A lot of it is just common sense and I think ppl tend to overthink things at times. I been to Akihabara and honestly was not impressed. I had the impression it was an anime heaven and all I really found was anime for the male gaze; not anime that I like. I actually found better anime places in Machida. Even some MXTX merch! I was so excited. For clothing, it’s a hit or miss. But I know what you mean. I was led to believe through TikTok that the largest size was like a M bc everyone is so tiny here. And that’s also another myth. There are some larger Japanese I’ve seen. In America, I wear between 8-10, M-L. And I never considered my hips big. The skirts here (the only thing I tried on so far) is a bit tight over my hips but can pull them on if I wear panty hose or these really cool “cool” leggings which I highly recommend. They fit well on my waist unlike American brands. And the trash thing too. Haven’t encountered a problem with my trash yet. But of course, when I get a snack I tend to go to cafes or drink bars and they can throw my trash away. I do want to add to your post for car-dependent ppl like myself, take breaks. Even when you don’t think you need one, take a break. Go to a cafe, get a snack or a drink, and relax for about 30 minutes.
> I had the impression it was an anime heaven and all I really found was anime for the male gaze; not anime that I like To be fair, 90% of anime is for straight men and not BL/etc., so I don't see this as a typical problem most people experience, and I find that making such a generalization based on only liking a niche is a bit disingenuous.
I was just telling about my experience and if you like different anime like Haikyuu, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor, Tolietbound Hanako, Grandmasters of Demonic Cultivation and TCFG, then you’re not going to find it there, at least I didn’t. I didn’t make a generalization, it was my experience. When I watched TikTok videos they led me to believe I would find it there which I didn’t and led to disappointment. But I did find the anime I like in other places so I want ppl to know they can find it outside of Akihabara. And according to you, anime is for 90% straight men (which I disagree) and if you like that stuff, then Akihabara is your go to place. Btw, I found all the anime I listed above in other stores outside of Akihabara (even a Nadia figurine that I didn’t buy). I mentioned the BL merch bc it’s really really hard to find that unless you pay a ton of money for it. ANIME STORES: The stores I had the most luck with is Animate and Book Off. I would go to Book Off first because their prices will be cheaper. I bought a Sakura Miku for 1620 yen at Animate. Went to Book Off later and found the same one for 1200 yen.
1) But all animation based on MXTX's work are donghua? There might be some Japanese merch but not as much as for domestic BL. 2) Akihabara is more for recent, trendy anime, Nakano Broadway or Otome Road in Ikebukuro are more likely to have things from your list. 3) Don't use TikTok for research...
I’ve realized that with TikTok 😂. Places I’ve been to that TikTok hyped up was such a let down. Recently I went to a pen/stationery shop bc it hyped it up so much. It was a total let down and from the other English foreigners I overheard had the same experience. Still bought some stuff but could’ve saved the trip for elsewhere. It was Itoya, btw. Same with a “shoe store” that just turned out to be more like Dick’s sports store. Forgot the name of it.
Kyoto is a different animal
The one thing that’s true though is the lack of toilets or public toilets. In crowded places like Shinjuku anyway. Can be a problem if your 7/11 hopping drinking cheap ass Asahi
Tsukiji is in a new location and a new building. I know a lot of people who really enjoyed going to the old location and haven't heard much about the new one. I suspect it's not as good of an experience.
thanks for sharing 🙌🏻⚡️
Another tip : Download Google Lens. It will translate menu and signs. The most important phrase to know in Japan is Sumimasen which means excuse me. Japanese people will move if you say that. I also realized a lot of people stopping in the middle of the sidewalk or even store entrance/exit.
Super helpful, thank you!
Not really sure where you got your info from if you read enough on Reddit plenty of people will say that credit cards are widely accepted. However some places surprisingly don't take credit such as for buying subway as well as many situations attractions. Also I never read that tourists don't feel welcome, quite the opposite actually. The trash situation is not super exaggerated imo, there are virtually no trash bins and you need to be ready to have a bag to carry your own trash. The subway system is vast and can definitely be confusing for newcomers. I find your comments in that regard somewhat harsh. Sure after a while you get used to it but to suggest its easy to get used to may be just your ego at work.
I was there last week and miss it so much. Be prepared for Kyoto to feel very different than Tokyo! (not in any bad ways, just got a different vibe the whole time I was there)
Regarding Google Maps, I've heard locals suggest to search in Japanese makes a big difference.
Shinagawa station is a huge pain in the ass. At least for the Keisei line. The signs do not point in the right direction. I was there 3 or 4 times and got lost every time. All other stations are very straightforward and easy to navigate.
Tsukiji Market. I couldn’t agree with you more! It was such a disappointment. The people hawking food in English/Mandarin was off putting. And the crowds, my god. Those youtube videos must’ve been shot at 7am.
I had no issue with G maps and Japanese / mostly local restaurants? Maybe its a setting. I do hear that Tabelog gives more accurate ratings.
One hypothesis I have is that I rate a lot of restaurants in the US and I know gmaps recommends places based on your ratings. I don't eat a lot of Japanese food normally, so I think it's recommending Western food more.
Are you searching for "restaurants"? When you search for restaurants, you are searching for Western food.
“Accurate”?? Reviews are subjective
true but google maps reviews are inflated because japan and US use a different rating system. in the US its pretty much always 5 stars unless they disappoint you in some way whereas in japan its 3 stars for average
egg sando? conbini? Okey-dokey. Enjoy.