Just on my way to the airport for a one month solo trip to Japan without knowing the language, feels kinda scary and exciting at the same time. No expectations, I sometimes just love the feeling of hurling yourself out of your comfort zone and having to adapt I find that those situations are a really good place to grow.
There’s actually a lot of people that know some English there, and if they don’t know it then they frequently use hand signs or gestures to convey to tourists like you what they mean
I was surprised when I travelled, but it makes sense considering America’s massive influence on Japanese culture. It shows when you see places like MOS Burger (like American fast food but Japanese-made, has things like sweet potato milkshakes and shrimp burgers. Super good and cheap btw!) or things like Disney in every toy store
As long as there is significant tourism there will always be some level of english knowledge, but you still get the expirience of being functionally illiterate while roaming the city, and that is a wierd place to be when you get used to it. Even when going to places with a different language that still use the same alphabet this change is not nearly of the same magnitude.
Staying in Osaka for now, I have a couple of days in Kyoto for buisness later and am planning on visiting Tokiyo, but did not reserve anything in advance. The rest of the time I the plan is to ve rock climbing and hiking outside as much as the weather allows.
The trip from the airport to the city centre was already a fun experience, I met a bunch of other clueless tourists and we managed to get the right train together. Now time for my first time dealing with jet lag!
Just on my way to the airport for a one month solo trip to Japan without knowing the language, feels kinda scary and exciting at the same time. No expectations, I sometimes just love the feeling of hurling yourself out of your comfort zone and having to adapt I find that those situations are a really good place to grow.
There’s actually a lot of people that know some English there, and if they don’t know it then they frequently use hand signs or gestures to convey to tourists like you what they mean
I was surprised when I travelled, but it makes sense considering America’s massive influence on Japanese culture. It shows when you see places like MOS Burger (like American fast food but Japanese-made, has things like sweet potato milkshakes and shrimp burgers. Super good and cheap btw!) or things like Disney in every toy store
As long as there is significant tourism there will always be some level of english knowledge, but you still get the expirience of being functionally illiterate while roaming the city, and that is a wierd place to be when you get used to it. Even when going to places with a different language that still use the same alphabet this change is not nearly of the same magnitude.
That’s very cool! Welcome to Japan. Where all you going?
Staying in Osaka for now, I have a couple of days in Kyoto for buisness later and am planning on visiting Tokiyo, but did not reserve anything in advance. The rest of the time I the plan is to ve rock climbing and hiking outside as much as the weather allows. The trip from the airport to the city centre was already a fun experience, I met a bunch of other clueless tourists and we managed to get the right train together. Now time for my first time dealing with jet lag!