During our three-week journey in Japan, we traveled by public transportation, using Apple Maps and Google Translate to help navigate our way.
As we were traveling independently, we were constantly amazed by how easy this was due to the efficiency and orderliness of the culture. This ease of navigation was so different from our first visit to Japan in 1982 when we also traveled independently.
Trains Are On Time
The amazing Japanese rail system works like clockwork, as do the buses and subways. The blisteringly-fast Shinkansen (bullet train) arrives and leaves each station quickly and efficiently. Subway trains arrive as scheduled.
The ticketing system is just as efficient. Sometimes you need three paper tickets for a multi-stage journey. At each ticket gate, you place all three tickets into the reader, and as you proceed through the turnstile, the system reads the tickets, keeps what is relevant to that portion of the journey, and returns whatever tickets you’ll need to continue your journey. All without a glitch!
The train and subway stations are large and clean with abundant storefronts with attractive food and merchandise and thousands of people flowing through all day long. Each of these many stations rival the new $2.5 Billion San Francisco Transit Center in scale and modernity, the principal difference being that each Japanese station has dozens of trains and buses leaving every hour.
People line up on the platform at the sides of each door, patiently waiting for people to disembark before boarding. Whereas years ago, there were “pushers” in the subway to cram as many people as possible onto each subway car, there now seems to be a spirit of calm and deference.
Subway Maps Look Intimidating
Our first glance at the subway system map of Tokyo made our eyes roll. “Yikes! How are we going to figure this out?” But, upon further study, we realized we didn’t need to understand the map. Instead, we had a personal guide in our pockets and every train car.
Stops Have Names and Numbers
Each train and subway stop in Tokyo has a Japanese name (Kanji), phonetic spelling (Hiragana) and unique line initial and station number. All three are broadcast over the system speaker in Japanese and English and shown on the monitors over each car door before arriving at the station. We found this very helpful in navigating the system.
The last time we visited Japan (in 1982), only the Kanji names were represented on the maps, and we had difficulty figuring out the system. The new system was an incredible improvement.
Apple Maps to the Rescue
When we were navigating to a new location, we relied on Apple Maps to help us find our way. The maps were usually in Kanji but we could navigate based on the dotted line marking the route. The maps are incredibly accurate and precise. On the street, people of all nationalities were staring at Maps on their mobile phones as it appears that this is how both locals and tourists navigate the cities.
This was also helpful on the train and bus, where we received guidance on where to get off!
What3Words Place Names
What3Words is a very helpful app, where every 3-meter square of the world has been given a unique combination of three words. Our helpful guidebook includes a What3Words link for many top sights and restaurants. We looked up these three words in the app, and it automatically pulled up an Apple Map to the location, providing accurate directions from wherever we were standing.
(Hopefully, this now works in Africa! When we lived in Ghana in 2013, we were surprised to learn that no street addresses existed. This made navigation quite tricky. The addition of What3Words would be a terrific boost!)
Luggage Forwarding
Japan has a pervasive, efficient, and reliable delivery service known as takuhaibin. The Japanese never travel with their luggage unless they drive to their destination, so we didn’t either! Instead, we dropped our carry-on-sized luggage at the front desk of our hotel when we were leaving and paid around $20 to have both bags delivered to a hotel in another city. Usually, we sent the bags to where we were heading in two days and traveled with only a backpack to the next location. This made walking up and down the stairways of train stations and getting on and off trains and buses very easy.
When we arrived at the following hotel, the bags were in a secure lobby spot or waiting in our room. We wish that everywhere in this world had this type of service! As we watched other tourists wrestle their large, heavy suitcases through transit stations, we must admit that we felt somewhat superior because we had observed the advice regarding small suitcases and takuhaibin.
Behavioral Norms
Japanese culture has strong cultural norms regarding decorum and behavior. Signs describing expected decorum were ever-present. We noticed that you were not supposed to walk on the right. Or run in the subway station.
Or eat while walking.
Heaven forbid that you might start a new TP roll before finishing the current one.
Or chew too quickly!
There were even tips on how to use the toilet.
Kanji Signage
Often when we were navigating to a new location, we weren’t sure that we were at the right place when we arrived. We had been heading to a spot using the Hiragana notation, only to find locations with only a Kanji sign.
In Takamatsu, a fellow traveler recommended a local restaurant, where the specialty is chicken on the bone. We typed this name into Apple maps, and when we arrived, we this Kanji sign greeted us. Luckily, the web showed a photo of the restaurant so we could confirm it was the right place when we arrived.
This local spot did not disappoint, and we enjoyed cutting the tasty chicken off the bone with scissors.
We had the same issue in Tokyo when we made a reservation at the Sumiyaki Unafuji Yūrakuchō Restaurant, only to find this sign when directed to the location. Luckily, they had our reservation and all was well!
We enjoyed the many different preparations of their special eel.
We found excellent food in unexpected places. Several recommended restaurants looked questionable until we were inside, and places we just wandered into often were superb.
Friendly Locals
Whenever we encountered a problem with navigation, the locals were extremely helpful. Bus drivers, who didn’t speak English, listened patiently to our descriptions of where we wanted to go and then gestured calmly at the right stop. Locals on the street would also stop and help us when we were puzzled by looking at our phones.
Wonderful Outdoor and Museum Spaces
The public gardens and outdoor museums we visited were expansive, breathtaking and impeccably maintained. We loved the extensive Picasso ceramics collection at the Hakone Open Air Museum surrounded by a vast expanse of modern sculptures by renowned artists from around the world.
At Naoshima, one of the Art Islands in Japan’s Inland Sea, there were amazing visual experiences inside the breathtaking museum buildings designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando and outdoors. It is very highly recommended, but make sure to make reservations well in advance as tickets are often sold out.
Apple to the Rescue
Ed reclined his seat on the 9-hour flight to Tokyo and took a nap. When he woke up, he couldn’t find his iPad. We looked everywhere, but it seemed to have disappeared. Alas, we found the iPad wedged and smashed under the seat when we landed. This was quite disheartening. How would Internet-addicted Ed communicate with the rest of the world for the next three weeks?
Solution: An Apple store was two blocks from our hotel. After checking in, we walked over and made an appointment at the Genius Bar later that evening. The Apple store employee listened to our saga, saying, “I’ll speak with my manager. Usually, AppleCare doesn’t cover breakage due to user abuse, but in this case, I think the seat was at fault, so I’ll get it covered.” He returned with a big smile, and Ed paid a $30 deductible and received a brand-new iPad. Customer service at its finest! What company other than Apple has walk-in global support?
InsideJapan to the Rescue
Toward the end of our trip on a Sunday when we were in Kanazawa, a smaller city, Ed realized that he had misplaced his bag of pharma including some critical potions, not a good thing. Joshua, a Japan-based agent of our travel company, checked out the local possibilities and quickly determined that we would need to go to Tokyo to resolve the situation that day. He guided us to a clinic and pharmacy in Tokyo, where the problem was resolved in 45 minutes at low cost.
Joshua was resourceful and reassuring, just the level of support we needed. We did have to miss our last stop, but we just heard from Berkshire Hathaway Travel Insurance that we will be reimbursed for the payments for the lost nights and trip disruption costs. As an unexpected bonus, we enjoyed the extra days in Tokyo. A similar situation in the US would have been quite difficult and costly to resolve.
Expert Planning
Our friend Jerrol Golden helped us plan our trip and she coordinated with InsideJapan. They provided just the level of planning and facilitation we needed–in-depth guidebooks, train tickets, a few local guides and hotel reservations–leaving us the freedom to explore Japan independently. Please let us know if you’re interested in more details on how we planned this trip.
Easy Travels
Our 3-week journey was relatively glitch-free and easy. We were constantly impressed by Japan’s culture’s orderliness and its systems’ efficiency. Traveling as a non-Japanese speaker is much easier than 40 years ago. Although we did not see many Americans traveling independently, we ran into several European and Brazilian tourists who were also alone. Sayonara and Arigato Japan! We loved our trip and hope to return.
