{"id":592,"date":"2006-09-13T11:33:50","date_gmt":"2006-09-13T11:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/2006\/09\/13\/visiting-japan-on-the-cheap\/"},"modified":"2006-09-13T11:33:50","modified_gmt":"2006-09-13T11:33:50","slug":"visiting-japan-on-the-cheap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2006\/09\/13\/visiting-japan-on-the-cheap\/","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Japan on the Cheap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next year’s World Science Fiction Convention is being held in Yokohama, Japan<\/a>, the first time a Worldcon has ever been held in Japan. With this year’s Worldcon out of the way, we’re starting to see some discussion of who’s going, and whether various US-based fans will make the trip or not.<\/p>\n

If I pass my tenure review, Kate and I are planning to go, and probably spend a couple of weeks doing touristy stuff before the convention as well (as a Worldcon in Japan is probably about the only way I’ll get her to go…). A lot of people are, understandably, somewhat concerned about the whole idea– it’s a long way to go, and a very<\/strong> different place than the usual run of Worldcon sites. (The sushi is a whole lot better, though…)<\/p>\n

Over in LiveJournal land, Rachel Manija Brown has an excellent guide titled “How to visit Japan without losing your shirt<\/a>. As she points out, it’s not actually that scary a place to visit– I was there for three months in 1998, speaking nothing more than phrasebook Japanese (“Eigo ga hanashimasu ka?”), and not exactly blending in with the locals, and I had a terrific time. I’ve got a somewhat idiosyncratic set of stories from Japan<\/a> posted on steelypips (these were originally sent as emails to a bunch of friends and family), and I’m definitely hoping to get back there. I would encourage any SF fans who are wobbling about whether to go to make the trip– you won’t forget it.<\/p>\n

Some specific comments on Rachel’s points below the fold.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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1. People I’ve spoken to who have never actually been there tend to obsess over two things: $200 melons, and unsuspectingly ordering a meal, only to find that it cost $1000. Let me explain those phenomenon. <\/p>\n

a. The $200 melon. Yes, this is for real. No, it is not representative of the cost of groceries. That is a status symbol, used when you need to give someone a gift of a certain value. Kind of like giving your boss a Prada purse. You can’t buy one by accident, because 1) they are clearly labeled, 2) the seller will see that you are a confused tourist and warn you.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is not to say that fresh produce isn’t<\/strong> ridiculously expensive. Every now and then, when I went shopping, I’d wander through the vegetable department, just to laugh at some of the prices– they had midsize canteloupe for something like $40. Fruits and vegetables cost a lot more than they do here– they’re just not outlandishly expensive.<\/p>\n

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b. “I walked into a bar and had two drinks, and now I owe the yakuza one meeelion dollars!”<\/p>\n

This urban legend is all over the place, and also appeared in a Lewis Shiner story in Wild Cards. This is not going to happen to you. Do you accidentally walk into exclusive gourmet restaurants where an appetizer costs $50 in your own country and eat an entire meal, thinking all the while that you’re in a neighborhood joint? Well, you’re not going to do that in Japan either. Excruciatingly expensive places look excruciatingly expensive; neighborhood joints look like neighborhood joints. Also, prices are typically listed on menus outside, and if not, they’ll be listed inside. If you’re really worried, ask.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is also dead-on. You’re not going to mistake a gourmet restaurant for anything but a gourmet restaurant. Outside of the really high-end places, the prices for food and drink aren’t usually outlandish, at least on a per-portion basis. You get less food in a portion than you do in the US, but we eat too damn much as it is.<\/p>\n

I did have a couple of really expensive evenings in Tokyo, of the sort where I had to reconstruct my spending based on the tattered handful of banknotes left in my wallet the next morning. That had more to do with the number of drinks than the price of the drinks, though…<\/p>\n

I never stayed overnight outside of my apartment in Komae, so I have nothing to offer on the lodgings front. We’re hoping for a good travel agent here…<\/p>\n

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3. Food. <\/p>\n

Many restaurants do “set lunches.” These will be posted outside, probably with plastic models. They are complete meals with a drink and several dishes, usually with two or three choices of meal, for about six to ten dollars. These are excellent value. <\/p>\n

Otherwise, look around. Go to neighborhood joints. Try new things. Places that look inexpensive will be inexpensive. If you don’t know how to order something, point to the thing you want out of the plastic food in the window.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The plastic food thing really is a lifesaver. It’s also worth learning the names of a few basic dishes that you can get almost anywhere (“katsudon” is pork cutlet with fried eggs over rice, and better than it sounds).<\/p>\n

I also heartily agree with the recommendation to try new things. If you don’t have food allergies, or religious or cultural dietary restrictions, just try whatever looks interesting. Authentic Japanese cuisine is really excellent.<\/p>\n

(Their efforts at Western food are sometimes a little… off, though. As a woman I met there pointed out, when they’re not sure what a Western dish is really supposed to be like, they tend to just add cheese indiscriminately…)<\/p>\n

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4. Drink. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A lot of places only serve one brand of beer. Just say, “biiru.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The beer is all pretty similar, too– Sapporo and Asahi and Kirin are all light lagers, and all very drinkable. <\/p>\n

Trying to order sake is a little more dangerous– it’s sort of like getting a bottle of wine in a fancy restaurant, only you don’t have any idea what the rules are for matching it with food. There are an amazing variety of different types of sake, some served hot, some served cold, many served in overflowing highball glasses placed in little wooden boxes, for no discernible reason. I never learned much about sake, but I drank a fair bit, because people kept buying it for me.<\/p>\n

The beverage to really be wary of is a thing called shochu, which comes in several varieties. Sometimes, it was served mixed with tea, which was ok, but I also had it straight up a few times, and it was pretty harsh. It tasted sort of like really cheap tequila. I don’t really recommend it.<\/p>\n

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5. Transportation.<\/p>\n

If you’re not going to leave the Tokyo\/Yokohama area, don’t bother with a rail pass. If you’re going to city-skip, you’ll need one. They are expensive but necessary if you’re planning to travel long distances.<\/p>\n

The subways and trains are confusing, no way around it. Stops are announced, but it’s still confusing. Get a subway and train map, and frequently ask for help.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I didn’t find the trains all that hard to deal with, but they do seem intimidating the first time you enter a station. In Tokyo, the stations all have signs in Roman letters, and most of the trains have labelled maps as well. The Tokyo subways also provide really excellent tourist maps, though I forget exactly where I got mine.<\/p>\n

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6. Getting lost in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Tokyo is the most confusing city in the world. The streets have neither names nor numbers. The numbers on buildings are not sequential. You will get lost. Don’t worry about it. It’s part of the experience. Ask for directions frequently. Draw yourself maps.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you’re interested in seeing major tourist attractions, Japan is actually remarkably easy to get around in. The foolproof method for tourism: Take the train to the stop closest to whatever you want to see, and when the doors open, just follow everybody. The vast majority of the people getting off the train are probably there to see exactly the same thing you are, and they can read the signs.<\/p>\n

If you want to see off-the-beaten-path stuff, that’s a little trickier, as you don’t have to get very far off the path before it’s not beaten at all any more, but if you want to see major sights– the Meiji Shrine, the big temple in Asakusa, the Imperial Palace– there’ll be ten thousand people headed that way, and you can just go with the flow.<\/p>\n

The single most important item on the list, though, is this:<\/p>\n

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7. People. <\/p>\n

I found that people were kinder to strangers in Japan than any other place I’ve ever been. If I merely stood on a corner and looked lost and hapless, someone would often stop to help out. This will work better if you are not Asian, as you are more obviously a tourist. Some Asian-American friends have mentioned that this didn’t work as well for them, as people apparently thought they were Japanese and merely upset for personal reasons. If you want to make sure people understand the problem, take out a map and regard it in a frantic manner. That works even if you’re Japanese-American.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

People were really remarkable nice to me when I was there, especially considering that I was a gigantic, blundering foreigner with basically no Japanese. When I got lost, total strangers were happy to help out. When my Japanese and their English weren’t up to the task, they would resort to sign language, walk with me to wherever I was headed, or even flag down other random strangers in hopes of finding someone with a better command of English.<\/p>\n

That was the one thing I really didn’t like about Lost in Translation<\/cite>— the scene where Scarlet Johansen goes to the hospital, and the doctors babble away at her in Japanese with her not understanding a word just didn’t ring true– with the exception of a couple of drunk guys in bars, nobody I met in Japan approached that level of rudeness. If they couldn’t make themselves understood, they found somebody to translate for them.<\/p>\n

If you’re lost, just stop somebody and ask them for help.<\/p>\n

All in all, I highly recommend visiting Japan, and if you’re a fannish sort of person, Worldcon is a great excuse. Yokohama has some attractions of its own, and it’s a short train ride from Tokyo, which is one of the world’s great cities. And if you go in the other direction, you’re a short ride from Kamakura, one of the ancient capitals of Japan, and home to some spectacular temples. And, of course, there’s the con if you just want to retreat into fandom.<\/p>\n

(When it gets closer to the time for such things, I’m planning to suggest a “How to Survive in Japan” panel for next year’s Boskone…)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next year’s World Science Fiction Convention is being held in Yokohama, Japan, the first time a Worldcon has ever been held in Japan. With this year’s Worldcon out of the way, we’re starting to see some discussion of who’s going, and whether various US-based fans will make the trip or not. If I pass my… Continue reading Visiting Japan on the Cheap<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sf","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}