Japan Survival Guide
For Travelers
IMPORTANT: If You're Not In Japan Yet...
Your foreign ATM cards will not give you money at Japanese ATMs!
Also, credit cards and traveler's checks are fine for most large stores, hotels, and bigger restaurants, but if you plan to buy anything at temples, corner markets, and smaller stores owned by single families -- in short, the majority of shops in Japan -- then you're going to need to have cash.
Read more by Clicking Here.
Lots of little things you should know...
- People, like cars, travel on the left. On crowded sidewalks, stay to the left and you'll find the crowd moving forward... go to the right, and you'll be facing oncoming traffic.
- If an escalator is wide enough for two or more people, then there is also a left-hand rule. People who want to walk up/down the escalator will be walking on the right-hand side, and people who want to just ride will be on the left-hand side. Try not to block the right-hand side if you're standing still.
- Be polite... don't wear your backpack on crowded trains. Either put them under a seat, on a shelf, or at your feet.
- This one is for me: if you're at a park, temple, or shrine, and see garbage on the ground, pretty please transfer it to a garbage can (if it's not too gross to touch). Thank you.
- There is no such thing as a "no smoking" area in Japan. You've been warned.
- If you are trying to find a toilet in Japan, remember to ask for the toi [literally a short form of the English "toilet"] and not a "bathroom". A bathroom in Japan is just that... a room with a bath in it. The toilet will commonly be in it's own separate room.
- There is rarely toilet paper in outdoor public toilets. That's one reason there are so many people handing out packets of tissue paper with ads in them in downtown Tokyo...
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All illustrations in these pages are copyright (c)2002 Garth Haslam, and shouldn't be used without his permission. To contact him Click Here!
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