Exploring Japan: Day 1 of Our 2019 Adventure Begins
- fotaquest
- Nov 23, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Feb 3
Opening message: Hi folks! I hope you all are doing well. I am creating a multi-part blog on my Japan 2019 trip that my brother and I went to. Disclaimer: Everything is based on my experiences at the time and that this is by no means everyone’s experience. This is an article based on my experiences at the time of my Japan 2019 trip.
See this link below for more information in Japan 2023. Link: https://fotaquest.wixsite.com/lgjinsei/post/japan-trip
Favorite Restaurant in Japan: https://fotaquest.wixsite.com/lgjinsei/post/favorite-restaurant-in-japan
Japanese Studies: https://fotaquest.wixsite.com/lgjinsei/post/japanese-studies
Background: I was learning and am still learning Japanese. At the time, I completed 4 Japanese classes at a community college close to home. I started years ago and before I was self studying and I learned a little. However, it was nowhere as good as when I completed all 4 courses at my community college. I honestly thought it was pretty good, but I realized how much I had to learn after going to Japan and seeing how little my Japanese got me during my 2019 trip. Originally, my friend and I were planning to go together but we had some unforeseen issues at the time and could not go together and had to switch things up. The airplane ride was great and we had great food and drinks all the way to Japan which we landed in Tokyo. Everything was smooth sailing and I got to watch some Japanese anime while traveling. When we arrived we were jetlagged and went to the Best Western in Akihabara district in Tokyo Japan. I was hungry and went to a ramen place for dinner after placing our belongings in our room. After doing some writing, which I did every night of the trip, I went to sleep and the story of this blog starts on July 11th.
Morning: While it should be obvious that everything pertaining to the shower is in the shower, outside the shower there are buttons and other devices outside the shower. I thought were meant for the shower because it said something about showers and toilets. Shampoo, conditioner, razors, tooth brushes, tooth paste, towels, bathrobes, and soap were given in the hotel. There was no need to get those. You do still need your own deodorant. Beds are weird because they felt hard and soft at the same time and it was hard to explain. They are small and anyone taller than my brother practically would struggle to fit on the bed. Lights weren't that simple as in you still need to keep indefinitely in a slot near the door until you leave the room and grab it to go. I had some bad allergies this morning and part way through the day, I wore one. This is because when other Japanese people are sneezing and/or sick do it, they put a mask on to prevent the spread of germs. To respect the culture, you should do it so you are not want to be that awkward foreigner who doesn't do it. To go to breakfast in the hotel, sneakers are fine. I used my own flip flops so I didn't have to use something called socks. The hotel requests that the slippers given to use within your room to not wear them outside the room.
Breakfast in the hotel: The food had things like your stereotypical American food, fried noodles, chicken steak, miso soup, caramel pudding, cereal, coffee, juices, rice, and so forth. Plates and glasses were beneath the food on shelves that weren't discovered until after we sat down to eat. We were supposed to give our breakfast ticket to the attendant which was not strictly enforced and we did it afterwards. At the tables where you eat, there is a plastic slip that states when you are finished or still eating and you flip the slip accordingly because the hotel clears it for you. Not all of the food could be used for eating with the usage of chopsticks. Coffee is stronger in taste in Japan. Cream existed, but I didn't see any sugar. Although it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Portion plates and glasses are on the smaller side. Refills do exist. There are American utensils at the ready for us American foreigners.
Akihabara: While there are people who know a very limited amount of English, I would recommend that you still have a dictionary (app or physical) and/or a phrase book. I mainly used Japanese myself. There were a limited amount of times I used English and they didn't understand me except the curry restaurant we went to for lunch that day. It is important to know "yes" and "no" in Japanese. I also would recommend knowing "Can I use a credit card", which is "Credit card ga tsukaemasuka?". At least that was good enough for them to understand me. Physical maps are smart to have. Not all places accept credit cards so have some cash with you. Capsule toys machines do not as well as arcades, and so forth do not accept credit cards. Some have categories with stores beneath it to get the lay of the land. Pay attention to how much yen vs a dollar is worth because things could be perceived as bargains versus overpriced. Food for us have been bargains and some stores had overpriced key chains, etc. Try new foods. My brother and I tried dango for one dollar or rather 100 yen. For me it tasted like rice bean paste mochi. I liked it anyway. For arcades, credit cards or debit cards cannot be used to get 100 yen coins to play games. On the first floor, the games try to use a crane-like thing to grab your prize which is also seen also in America. Higher up in the floors of the buildings have two player games such as Mario Kart, DDR, Time Crist 5, and so forth. You can do these as single player games, but it is more fun with other people. Capsule toy dispensers are almost everywhere in Akihabara. They are incredibly hard to miss. Like I said, coins are required. Some stores have places where you can change paper yen and convert it to coins. Like I said, a lot of people have a very limited amount of English and a few of them have a converter where the person can speak the native language and convert it into Japanese and/or any other language that is necessary. Honestly, just count on speaking Japanese. There are very few places where a restaurant owner or someone perfectly understands your English with little to no difficulty such as CocoiCHI, which is a curry restaurant in Akihabara. In that restaurant, portions are reasonably true side size and not huge like America's food portions. Beverage sizes are consistently smaller in Japan in comparison to America. Walking is your friend. It is great exercise and there are more places to walk than to go by means of car transportation and it is better for your health. You hardly see anyone j walking and crossing the street while the walking sign is red and the lights for cars are red. Just don't walk while the walk signal is red. Always keep all of your valuables together. For people who like souvenir shopping or not, keeping a backpack is not a bad idea since you'll have to carry your passport and so forth with you.
Dinner: We went to McDonald's. My brother didn't notice the difference, but the chicken seemed like the quality was better and the French fries life has a significantly longer life than 7 seconds and stayed warmer for longer. As mentioned in a different section, beverage portions are true to its sizes as a small soda is far less in size in comparison to an American small size soda in a movie theater. A medium soda is about half of an American small size soda in Japan. For me at least, the Mc Donald store literally had no scent to it, which was much to my delight.
At night: I am not going to go into detail for every night, but the gist was listening to videos and watching anime. I also mentioned earlier that I took notes and made journal entries in Japanese. I had a journal that covered Japanese and English.
Conclusion: This concludes day 1 of my Japan trip in 2019. I think some of the information that was mentioned is still relevant to this day. It was a lot of fun taking notes about my trip! I hope you enjoyed this blog post on day 1! Stay tuned for day 2.
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