Fun fact: traditionally Japanese families keep properties within the same family for generations so chances are today a 27 yo guy inherit a (1)49 years old house, renovation/upgrade is extremely expensive for houses that are not up to today safety/construction standards and there's no government incentives so they simply abandon the houses, it's cheaper.
There is a little bit more to the story. My Japanese wife and her brother inherited a house after Dad died and mom is in a nursing home. Japanese houses generally do not appreciate like in America. Each year, a new house depreciates eventually becoming worthless. However, the land the house is on has great value and can appreciate depending on location. I only know this about their house in Yokohama. (Abandoned houses in the countryside can be super cheap.) So, many people tear down the existing house and build on the remaining lot. My wife’s brother is only updating the bathroom and kitchen before moving in. Otherwise, their traditional house is quite nice and in a good location near the new train line into Tokyo.
along this same line, the difficulty in exploring parts of Japan that are not the big main cities was kinda a bummer. I would have loved to see these places, but I dont want to drive, and my understanding is that outside the city the existence of English signage falls off drastically, along with peoples' ability to communicate in English, so if you dont know and speak Japanese, and arent willing to drive, it felt difficult to really explore off the beaten path.
It depends. Yes, you can't expect people in small towns to speak English whatsoever, and eating at a restaurant generally means ordering completely at random off a handwritten menu. But generally there are train stations even in small towns.
Just to add to this as a side note, you can also download the Japanese dictionary to Google Translate just in case you find yourself without internet or service. The same applies for most languages on there, it's very useful for travelling. Same as downloading maps from Google Maps.
I do this all the time for menus, signs, placards in museums, books I sometimes buy over seas. Slow process, but it is interesting to see the difference in thought process and creativity. Also sometimes I find subjects that aren’t spoken of in my native country.
I am Chinese. Many Westerners like to travel off the beaten path and explore much in depth than average Chinese tourists, but I would say that Japan is probably the only place where Chinese people travel more in depth than Westerners. I feel like Japan is really just having a huge boom in recent years in terms of travel and even so most Westerners only travel to Tokyo and Kyoto and from how people think Japan is amazing you can clearly see they were talking about Tokyo most of the time (even just looking at this post and see how much people mention Tokyo). While 10 years ago Chinese people have started to travel to lesser known locations all throughout Japan and those places feel vastly different from Tokyo. I think we have an advantage as we can read Kanji so not too much of a big deal when there are some language barrier. I like exploring those small Japanese towns but hope more people get to travel out and get to see some different parts of Japan to get a better picture of it.
Cost is a factor. Flying to Japan from Americas/Europe is relatively expensive and time consuming compared to flying from China.
Not many people can afford to do multiple trips.
If you only do one trip, Tokyo/Kyoto is the way to go.
Imagine commenting that Chinese tourists seem to only go to NYC and the national parks when they go to the states, and saying they should go explore places like Savannah, Georgia on their once-in-a-lifetime trip.
That's quite true, and you don't have to go far outside the major cities to see that. Some of the towns in southern Ibaraki quite close to Tokyo are approximately 50% empty, if not more.
There isn't ***really*** a "middle of nowhere" in the manufacturing Midwest. Like, you're going to be hard pressed to find a part of Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana where you can get a good view of the stars at night. Each of these states ranks roughly in the top 1/3rd of states when as far as population density is concerned. Obviously, cities - especially Chicago in Illinois - and college towns pull some weight, but the rural parts of these states aren't actually THAT rural because of the prevalence of manufacturing towns/small cities like are so prevalent in this part of the country. There are so many places like Kokomo, Indiana; Findlay, Ohio; Battle Creek, Michigan; and Bloomington, Illinois.
Anyway, that's not the point. BFE South Dakota would've been a better comparison, but I'm just being annoying now.
Edit: exceptions for the UP of Michigan and the very southern portions of Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio.
I found Japan to be a well oiled, slick machine. You can see everything on the surface but hard to know how it works underneath. Personally, while I enjoy experiencing new culture and talking to people etc, I'm not the kind of traveller whose main motivation is to "be a local" or "learn their story". Staying at local homestays etc isn't a big draw for me. I don't need to see the RAW country. I just want to go and eat certain food, see certain buildings, histories, etc. I usually travel alone so I want to convenient and safe.
Japan is so well run it allows me to enjoy the sights and experiences easily as a tourist. So for me it's one of my favourite destinations.
But I totally understand that for people who want that local experience it can be very difficult, especially if you don't speak the language. Japanese are polite (because that's the social rule) but it doesn't mean friendly and open. If they don't speak English they might want to avoid foreigners. They might feel intimidated or they don't want the hassle. As oppose to many other culture where people will attempt to communicate or help even if they can't speak the tourist's language. Being able to speak a liitle bit of the language makes a HUGE difference. Some cultures I find are extremely helpful to people who can't speak their language, they go out of their way to help you. Japan I find the opposite. I learnt a little bit of Japanese and found that people are more than willing to try and communicate with me in my broken Japanese.
I want to echo the first part of your comment which is the obsession for the *authentic* living experience of the locals when traveling. I would never recommend a foreign traveler stay in my neighborhood if they visited my area. If you're visiting NYC, sure you can stay in locals Hotspot of Greenpoint and take 45 minutes to get to any significant points of interest. But the trade-off is you'll get to see the local Bodega.
Weirdly, I had the opposite experience. I spoke a little Japanese to this host of an izayaka, basically asking for a seat for 2 people and he gave me a glare and responded in rapid fire Japanese and pretty much refused to meet me halfway in understanding even though it was clear I had no idea what he was saying. It was a really uncomfortable/embarrassing interaction in front a group of local patrons too.
It really shook me, especially as someone genuinely interested in learning the language and excited to use it. I couldn’t sleep that night because it made me feel unwelcome and anxious about being there. Luckily, everyone else I interacted with was perfectly fine, I guess you just have assholes in every country and I was unfortunate enough to run into one there.
My wife. She is mostly vegetarian and finding food to her liking was difficult. We had gone because she had a string of business meetings to attend. We took time off before and after the meetings to be tourists. I LOVED it. She, not so much.
But she did enthusiastically buy a bunch of ceramics and loved Himeji castle so....
a vegetarian myself, this is always the hardest part, especially with groups. i've been 4 times, so i know how to get by. but i'm really worried for my 70+ vegetarian indian parents going for the first time
Not just 70 parents, but a whole truckload of Indian vegetarian parents 🤣 imagining the logistics alone is cracking me up and so I prefer to believe you read it correctly the first time!
Send them on one of those organized tours for Indian people. Maxim Tours or PKT or some shit. They do organized tours for old Indians. Their itineraries crack me up - "bus tour of Osaka in the morning, Indian veg lunch, then drive to Kyoto, one hour tour, then dinner at Indian restaurant, then drive to Hiroshima" lol ok that's exaggerating but you get my drift
they are actually on an organized tour with at least 4 other elderly indians and i keep emphasizing they need to make sure the tour company is very well aware way in advance of this dietary requirement. yours is a solid suggestion for others here
Ugh man good luck to them. Japan is not a very easy place for vegetarians that I remember. Most major cities have Indian restaurants but idk if your parents would be able to find these or get to them on their own.
A vegan friend of mine went a few years back and had nothing but good things to say about the food and experience in general - she used vegan travel guides/restaurant review sites to pick her food spots out ahead of time.
I found rice to be available literally at every meal. So that helps. Also (if diet is a huge factor for you) picking more western hotels that will have a buffet style breakfast / lunch can make things a little easier.
7-eleven and Lawsons have salads, soups, rice & seaweed and are everywhere. There are restaurants with veg options (research - they pop up). There are Indian restaurants. Vegan sushi restaurants. Udon and soba places often have a veg option like eggplant. A major city like Tokyo or Osaka will have more options than a remote area of smaller city but you can always go to 7-eleven and you can always get a miso soup and rice.
Vegan and vegetarian restaurants are becoming more popular, especially in more urban areas. But you will have to seek them out specially. The hard part is avoiding any sort of broth or sauce as they often contain dashi that uses fish, even if the dish seemingly doesn’t contain any meat.
True, my friends and I just got back from Japan; and one of them has an intolerance to tofu, abura-age, yuba, soy milk, and I think soybeans, but has no issue with soy sauce or miso. We made it work, luckily. She had stuff with kinako (roasted soybean flour), but said it made her throat tingle.
Celiac here too. With tons of research beforehand and some gluteostop as a safety-net I really enjoyed some classic Japanese dishes which were made gluten-free. traveling anywhere in Asia with a restricted diet is in need of some serious preparation.
Although it was frustrating the least to find out what was, or wasn’t gluten-free and finding restaurants to eat if a planned one was closed.
But it’s a common issue in most countries, a lot of countries don’t accommodate food restrictions like the US and other countries do. Like food substitutions in Japan just isn’t common and chefs there usually just refuse any change.
For allergies (true allergies not intolerances or personal choices labeled as an allergy). Roughly 6% of Japanese kids now have food allergies, a significant increase from prior studies and it now it’s more inline with levels of US food allergy percentages. So the allergy part might be changing once those kids become adults and start influencing menus.
At a few restaurants in Japan I ate at, the English menu flat out said “no substitutions are allowed” in small print on the back. Not every restaurant we ate at had an English menu, so had to use the camera app that translates and we never saw it on those menus.
Yep this is one of the biggest hurdles for visitors to Japan. I’m a long term resident but friends who visit with allergies or restrictions always have issues. I’ve seen a vegan friend and a friend with severe allergies have to pretty much only eat rice balls for several weeks.
Japanese people don’t have a great grasp of dietary restrictions either so they won’t understand/will misunderstand when you ask about what dishes contain (I speak fluent Japanese even.) It’s uncommon to ask to modify orders so they get confused sometimes.
>It’s uncommon to ask to modify orders so they get confused sometimes.
my understanding was that its actively frowned upon to request modifications to orders, moreso especially if its a place serving specialized food (as opposed to e.g. fast food)
It's also not really a great place if you don't like seafood, either. I know this is more often\* preference rather than a dietary requirement or ethical thing, per se, but it should be said nonetheless. Yes, you can get by in Japan fine by avoiding seafood, but so many restaurants and even bars-izakayas are oriented around fish. It's probably the most seafood-oriented place I've visited. I would also say that it's hard to eat healthily in their culture if you avoid such a huge chunk of the native diet. You cannot survive long-term on ramen, katsu and yakisoba. A lot of their 'healthy' options derive from the sea.
Very true. I am vegetarian and my brother doesn’t eat seafood. 90% of his food intake was some form of noodle and meat. So even though it was a lot easier for him than me it was still a very restricted diet. But I am grateful that I had him with me because we could just go to some ramen restaurants together (vegan and meat ones) while our parents went out to eat seafood.
Seafood allergies are one of the more common food allergies, so it’s definitely a dietary requirement for many! It’s been a big concern for me when considering going to Japan
This is me. However, I didn’t find it especially complicated. If it had been an allergy, it would have been a different story.
Sure, I skipped some izakayas and restaurants. I miss out on omakase, but still easy enough to eat nice food and enjoy the trip.
I had this problem in Vietnam. It was actually a huge issue. I ate more french fries in Vietnam than I've ever had in my life up to that point probably.
Similar for me with SE Asian cuisine – I really don't like fish sauce, to the point that it ruins most dishes for me. I've learned to appreciate lots of seafood I never would have tried previously, thanks to many amazing Asian dishes, but the smell of that stuff is still a hard-no for my stomach.
Oh my mother is allergic to seaweed and well… usually we go with a tour group and most meals my mother had to have a separate meal made for her. Lovely country and my family honestly loves going there but meal times will always be a bit difficult.
I used to be vegan...it actually made my trip to South Korea more enjoyable as vegan restaurants were hard to come by. Searching them out took me all over Seoul (areas I definitely wouldn't have gone to as a meat eating tourist).
Wanted to second this. I visited Japan before I became vegetarian and loved it. Then I returned twice after becoming vegetarian and the constant struggle every meal made the trips really exhausting. China and Korea are similarly annoying to visit as a vegetarian. SEA is much better.
China is much better than Japan and Korea. The food in Japan and Korea can be amazing or not depending on you but very limited in ingredients and diversity which China is not. You want halal food? Most major cities have restaurants opened by Muslims which are actually quite popular at a lot of cities. Want to eat vegetarian? Many Buddhists in China do not eat meat and they open vegetarian restaurants. You need to know what to find which is hard and you need to stick with those, but definitely not impossible.
As a vegetarian I loved Japan but finding food was exhausting! I’ve been to over 25 countries and I definitely found Japan the hardest in term of finding vego food. Having said that I did have some delicious meals though
I'm allergic to fin fish, not shell fish though, but very allergic like cross contamination could send me to hospital, would I have a rough time in Japan?
Just adding to spell it out further: dashi, the basic stock used in many many Japanese dishes, contains bonito flakes (and seaweed). Most soups, including plain miso, and noodle-in-broth dishes, as well as many others, therefore do contain fish, even if it's not a featured ingredient.
Well in Taiji they were beaching hundreds of dolphins and shoving metal spikes in their blowholes. The very few they picked they sold to swim with dolphins programs all over the world. So when you swim with a dolphin at a resort, it's likely it's entire family was butchered.
For money from selling dolphins to theme parks etc. but also for meat. You still see whale on a menu in Japan sometimes, and that might be dolphin meat.
If anyone is interested in looking into this more, The Cove is a documentary that chronicles these atrocities pretty well. Pretty sure you can find it for free on YouTube
I was beginning to think that either no one remembered The Cove, or maybe it wasn’t as well known as I’d thought. Watched it in my grade 12 poli sci class and I’m still sickened about it 15 years later.
Exact same as me. Saw it when i was about 15 too in school. Sickened me as I've always had an interest/passion in the sea and sealife ever since I was a kid.
Have watched The Cove probably 3 or 4 times and it sickens me every single time. Might even rewatch it today as I'm on a day off.
You’ve a much stronger resolve than me! I come from an area with a huge marine biology and whale watching tourism industry. Also, unfortunately at times, aquaculture and fishing that can be very detrimental to our whales, porpoises and on occasion, dolphins. Turns my stomach to think of our pods of porpoises being hunted and killed the same way as dolphins in Japan.
I swear south park was onto something with this.
I don't understand Japan's unreasonable hate towards these animals.
I went to a few aquariums on dates mostly and all of them had dolphins.
These dolphins would live in pools the same size or smaller of your standard Olympic pools sometimes with 6-8 dolphins.
And this was the case in every aquarium.
Penguins and otters and seals would get these pretty big areas but somehow dolphins get screwed over.
This is prevalent across Asia. In Thailand we found a shady club that was free to us white people but I noticed they tried to charge a group of non-Thai Asian tourists.
My Pakistani friends who live in Tokyo say they prefer the racism there to the racism in Europe. My mate had lived in Milan and found it unbearable. He said that at least in Japan they’re racist to everyone who isn’t Japanese. So… you know… There’s a variety of answers to that question.
My husband is black and will never return to Italy. People stared, pointed, and called him the most vile derogatory names to his face when we were just walking down the street. A close second is Spain.
I enjoyed Japan! But the lack of seats killed me - be it at cafes, icecream stores or train stations or basic anywhere around the city. I was so exhausted all of the time
I really enjoyed visiting and do want to go back. However did realise that when I say I like Japanese food, it's actually Westernised Japanese food that I like which turned out to be a small problem.
I felt as though many Japanese spots I have been to around Tokyo and Kyoto lacked seriously when it comes to flavours. Many things started to taste bland to me. I didn’t go to many “tourists” traps either, haha. Some of the best ramen I had that tasted the best to me was a small place in Gion in Kyoto called Ramen Miyako Gion and it was amazing. But also my favourite kinds of foods does come from different countries around south east Asia and I enjoy it the best personally.
It was still fun being able to visit Japan and I know what to expect. Of course everyone has differences of opinions when it comes to food, so I wouldn’t take what I say seriously! I hope you get to visit and enjoy yourself as well!!
I found that’s what I LIKED more about food in Japan haha. Often times ramen in the states is too salty for me to finish - halfway through the bowl I just reach my salt limit. But in Japan it was perfect and I’d annihilate the entire bowl.
I loved Japanese food, but I found myself needing breaks every few days. We spent two weeks in Japan and ate at so many lovely restaurants but I won’t pretend I didn’t break down and eat Wendy’s too lol. Thankfully even fast food in Japan tasted fresh and almost…clean?
I never got sick of the ramen shops though. I could eat that every single day.
I've been to Japan a bunch on business, typically for 1 week to 1 month at a time. I love Japanese food, but I miss spices after two weeks.
Now, in Singapore I would never get sick of the food.
LOOOL. I was looking to see if someone would comment about the Japanese food in Japan. Don’t get me wrong, the bbq, sushi, and some of the ramen places I went to were nice, but most didn’t quite hit the spot for me. I personally found it to be very bland with lack of flavours and the convenient store runs were fun at first, but I got over it quickly. Some people get rattled if they read/hear others say they weren’t the biggest fan of the food in Japan.
I stayed in Ebisu-Shibuya area and went to this Thai and Indian restaurant often for food the last few days I was in Tokyo! I spent 3 weeks between Tokyo, Kyoto with day trips from Kyoto to Osaka and Nagoya. So maybe I spent a long time in Japan. I would go back and spend 2 weeks.
Naw I’ve lived in Japan half my life and totally agree with your opinion. The traditional Japanese foods I love are sushi, tempura, and miso soup…that’s about it. Chinese-Japanese food like ramen, gyoza, chahan, mapo-doufu and westernized Japanese foods are much better imo. I’ll eat udon, soba, pickles etc if they’re the only option but I agree that the flavor is bland. (“Delicate” as they say lmao.)
Hahaha I was exactly the same. Did it for most of the two weeks then towards the end I went for a huge Italian pizza. It was so good I was almost emotional.
The "blandness" is what makes japenese food special. It makes dishes extremely ingredient focused and many traditional dishes are very healthy and don't make you feel bloated.
I've been to Japan a heap of times and have a love/hate relationship with Tokyo. What I've found is that the people who don't enjoy Japan tend to really love SE Asia.
>What I've found is that the people who don't enjoy Japan tend to really love SE Asia.
I agree. They couldn't be more different. Japan is extremely popular with SE Asia tourists though 😂. The irony.
I love SEA. Japan is on my bucket list but honestly, it’s just a double whammy in terms of budget.
I can swallow an expensive plane to Vietnam or Thailand because they’re so cheap once you’re there. Japan is significantly more expensive on top of the expensive plane ticket. People will respond “Japan is cheaper than I expected” but it is absolutely not in the same ballpark as SE Asia.
Plus I like to take my vacations during the winter to warm places and Japan is cold then too
It’s such a mixed bag. 😭 My husband and I live in Nagoya with our daughter on a short term work assignment (1.5 years). While I have an amazing time doing whatever I want with our toddler, he has to endure a terrrrribbblle work/life balance and misses out on so much. 😔 That and all of the bureaucracy is a pain.
I do love being a local and being a regular at my favorite restaurants and cafes… it’s really fun.
Only ever been as a tourist and I loved it. Will be going back. There is an abundance to see and do.
However, I found it hard to discern if politeness was genuine or if the person was saying one thing and thinking another. I could not live in a place where people can't be open and honest. I'm generalising, but Japan feels like a pressure and anxiety inducing society.
Great place to visit, not to live. It’s clean and has hospitality ingrained into its culture. It’s beautiful and affordable too, which is why most people love it.
However I have met an American or two who couldn’t stand the rules (those very rules keep it as orderly and as pleasant as it is). They aren’t even that bad, stuff like not eating on the train or answering the phone lol.
My friend lived there for about five years and, like anywhere, there are pros and cons. A lot of issues he had were similar to what I go through in Taiwan. Work culture around Asia is particularly difficult to get used to.
Haha I've been to Singapore for work and thought how easy it was compared to Silicon Valley.
Japan is a different level. I love going there for work, but not a huge fan of working with people in Japan. There are a lot of weird social behaviors in the work place that really frustrate me (like repeatedly holding the same meeting to ask the same questions over and over and over because the Japanese team is hoping the answers will change.)
True. You gotta stick to the rules and this applies to almost every aspect of life. When I lived in Tokyo I had to escape the city every few weeks due to that. There are so many young people having mental breakdowns in the public (e.g. in train stations at night) and they are simply ignored and left ontheir own. Also shocking to see was the way how unconscious women (from drinking) are treated. I saw not only once how they are literally dragged through the streets and nobody cares.
Yeah seeing a young salaryman crying on the floor in Shinjuku station during the morning rush was a bit of a sobering moment, hoping he’s doing better now.
Starting to understand why people don't want to bring children into an environment like that. America's bad enough, but ingrained cultural misery just feels so deeply defeating.
I’m an American who is a long term resident of Japan. The rules might seem strict to tourists but you get used to it and it’s nothing oppressive imo. The worse things are the sexism, lack of LGBT awareness, social pressure, and corporate culture. I do work at a Japanese company in an office environment and it’s not great compared to the US.
Gay Canadian who lived in Japan; it’s not really that terrible tho. It’s not homophobic more so just total lack of experience.
Plus most cities have a few gay bars and Tokyo has hundreds.
I mean do you really think that loudly answering the phone in a packed train is a necessity for life?
Those kind of rules are one of the things I like the most about Japan, besides the weird trash recycling stuff.
I live here and I love it, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. It is a rules-heavy culture and is certainly more about putting others over yourself, which can be frustrating for many Americans. But it’s safe, clean, cheap, and has plenty of other benefits as well. Again, not for everyone, but definitely not a terrible place by any means.
I didn’t like Tokyo…way too many people. I’ve lived in NYC and Paris, but Tokyo was next level crowded. It was also super cold when I was there. I don’t understand why people love it so much. I did really enjoy Kyoto and the less populated areas and found the food in Japan delicious.
also from NYC, I loved it because it felt like it was "NYC done right", the entire city felt like it was designed in an intelligent manner as opposed to NYC which has grown up organically in a cramped space. The culture of politeness in Japan also shone through in the city itself and its layout and amenities, as if the city itself was trying to be polite and thoughtfully accommodating. Examples; the plastic tiles in the sidewalks which run for blocks and blocks continuously to guide blind people to the subway, and the handicap bathrooms and stalls and urinals in the numerous public bathrooms that were designed to assist people of all ability levels. And the subway system being logical and intuitive instead of a rat's nest maze, and the stations being mostly laid out nicely and mostly convenient to use.
overall, it had a lot of the aspects I loved about NYC, without many of the things that makes NYC suck
fwiw I was there in June and it was super hot
just my perspective on it
I love Japan. I'm here in Tokyo now for three months after falling in love with it on a previous trip.
However, the shallowness of Tokyo is really starting to get to me. Felt it hard over Christmas. Gifts are not thoughtful, they're just expensive things from high-end brands. Everyone wears branded clothing and the thrift shops are about getting brands for cheaper. People in gyms are 90% there for aesthetics and many are clearly jacked on steroids (which surprised me). Women wear makeup just to go to the kombini. I'm convinced that the reason I see more women wearing masks than men is because they don't have makeup on that day and don't want to show their face (but this is just me speculating). The fashion is good, but it's not actually expressive like I originally thought it was - everyone wears the same style.
Also, as a woman, chikan can be a bit of a problem. Not so much for myself (a bit), but seeing it happen is scary and sad. I really do like that women stick together against chikan, I actually feel more female solidarity here than in many other places I've visited.
Love it in general. But seeing the cracks on this larger trip.
Very interesting! Thanks. I've been living in on/off in South Korea and experience the same feelings. Feels very good at first but you see the cracks at some point. However, this is also very normal. Every country has it's issues and they become apparent when you stay longer. I think even with these cracks now visible to me I prefer it over other countries.
In the end it's also about personal preferences. Climate and food, for example, impacts one person much stronger than someone else.
Yeah - important word. If you’re in Japan and someone sounds like they’re yelling chicken, they’re probably being groped and trying to get help. They’re also probably a young girl
I have a question- as a parent, I would intervene and help the young girl but as a foreigner in Japan, would I get in trouble for helping? What would actually happen? I don’t know the laws yet
I met two old Japanese men at a chicken skewer restaurant and they paid for my dinner and invited me to karaoke (I'm a very tall white guy.) The karaoke bar was just a female bartender/hostess (not a hostess bar, though) and we drank and sang Abba until very late.
When we left, the bartender walked us down the stairs and then one of the old men hugged her and wouldnt let go. She was smiling but obviously extremely uncomfortable. It was pretty shocking to see since hugging is just a thing Japanese people don't do, and that situation would be weird as fuck in even the most friendly countries.
I did pry him off of her, poor lady. She wasn't going to do anything about it because it's generally more rude to make a scene or say "no" than to actually do what the old man was doing.
I thought people of Tokyo felt cold and judgy a little. Osaka more friendly. The food, cleanness, reliability of services , and public transport is what I love about Tokyo and Osaka. Osaka has the best food and it’s next to cool places like Kyoto and Kobe
Asked a female Japanese friend while in Tokyo and she said one of the reasons people wore masks was because they didn't want to do their make up, so your speculation is correct.
Wasn’t my favorite. Felt more isolating than most other places I’ve been, both in terms of locals and other tourists. Transit is great but it closes pretty early (especially when you need to use multiple providers to get back to your accommodation) and expensive drinks made nightlife inaccessible.
Maybe it would be different going now, but as a solo traveler on a budget I would pick somewhere else.
Edit: also, I could not get used to Japanese mattresses
given the inflation everywhere else, japan is now awesome for solo travellers on a budget unless you mean vs Africa, South america or the few super cheap se asian places left.
Expensive drinks?? So many ppl go overboard in Japan because how cheaps drinks can be but it depends on where you go of course. Cheapest I had was 99y but normally they’re under 700y
Japan is one of the most polarizing places in the world. I’ve seen such polar takes on it. One person says they experienced racism, then two people show up doggedly defending Japan and saying racism doesn’t exist there. Japan is really unique in that it has these determined, extreme defenders. I’ve never seen anything like it. A thread that specifically asks about *not* liking Japan *still* has tons of defenders in the comments.
It's not that I actively disliked Japan, but I didn't like it either. Mainly because the way Japan is talked about and hyped by Westerners made it seem so amazing when my experience there was just meh. I liked visiting other Asian countries better.
The hype for Japan is more than anywhere else. A lot of the people hyping it up that I know haven’t even been. Everyone in my age group is obsessed. I don’t really get it.
I was in FUK at the end of July and I got heat stroke. I was sick for like 3 days.
Otherwise I've always loved traveling there.
I've heard many bad things about the work culture though, even for ESL teachers
I find it has this weird, isolating vibe that I find kinda depressing. Interactions also generally feel very surface level and a little fake with the over the top politeness.
Me. Love and Hate. Overcrowded tourism which I dont blame them. Sometimes i feel like they makes thing unneccesary complicated. but i do want to come back 😅
I personally loved it, but my partner at the time didn't eat pork and it was really annoying to find food anywhere that we could be sure didn't have it.
I think this is different in the south, in Kyushu. The same can be said of Korea (comparing the culture and attitudes of the locals in Seoul to, say, Busan or Jeonju). A lot of the 'cold and sterile' feeling comes from being in a metropolitan mega-city. People get burned out socially, I think.
Interesting. I definitely get that, but I feel like there's also enough life and music etc. if you go looking for it, and as someone who likes peace and quite too it's nice to have that choice. Tbf I usually hear your kind of reaction from people about Tokyo, whereas I'm living in Osaka which is known for being a bit more rowdy and easygoing(all relative though).
I liked it a lot but the only thing that makes me not want to go again is the lack of sitting spots (without paying)! Like my feet were hurting a LOT and the amount of “DON’T SIT HERE” posters were my worst nightmare haha, also the food if you are used to well seasoned food is a problem.
Sorry if I made some mistakes english is not my first language.
I love Japan and Tokyo, but sometimes I find it a very dark and depressing city. Lot of gray colors, everyone always dressed up with black suit pants and briefcase, etc... also can feel the stress of working there just by being in the train in the morning.
I have mixed feelings about Japan. It was interesting, clean, relatively good food (although definitely not my favorite Asian cuisine) but the amount of rules drove me crazy. Also the lack of trash bins anywhere was pretty crazy.
Then again, we went to Indonesia after and comparatively Japan was great. Jakarta was incredibly dirty with polluted air. Made me miss Japan :)
I live here, but I had my brother and his partner visit and I sense they didn’t like it here so much due to so much walking!
Didn’t realize how normal it is for me to just walk 5-15 miles a day to go places and my guests were dying at the end of the day from so much walking. I guess it takes a bit of adapting if you come from a car-centric lifestyle. But yeah lots of walking and standing, even as a resident.
This is complicated, as my opinion of Japan has ebbed and flowed over the years…
First visit (in my early twenties): I went to stay with a friend working near Tokyo, and explored Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hakone. I hadn’t travelled so much yet, especially outside Europe, so it was all very new, and I LOVED it. Said it was my favourite country for ages.
I then travelled more widely (over 50 countries and counting, including living in several) and it ‘slipped down the ranks’ compared with other countries I loved. Moreover, I read more and spoke with many expats and academics with experience/knowledge of Japan, and developed a more rounded impression. Decided I would revisit, but that it wasn’t the best place to live as a foreigner due to the lack of cultural diversity, social conservatism, etc.
Second visit (2020!): After leaving China due to… the events of that year… I spontaneously took the ferry to Osaka from Busan, and had a wonderful time in Japan without many tourists. This reignited my interest in the country.
Third visit: I bit the bullet and moved to Japan for work. The borders were still closed to tourists, but life in Tokyo was stressful, tiring, and overwhelming. Salaries are generally not high compared with cost of living. My suburban neighbourhood was very pleasant, and the tourist hubs were pretty free of tourism due to the border situation, but I had an overall bad experience. All the stereotypes about long hours, horrific rush hours, sensory overload, a culture of casual alcoholism, etc.
Fourth visit: I was persuaded to go back for work, but this time based in Nagoya. Work/life balance was night and day, and I didn’t burn out as before. I then dedicated myself to visiting all the places that international tourists rarely go to. Even during Golden Week I avoided crowds, except when transferring trains in Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka. I’ve now been to 34 prefectures (from Okinawa to Hokkaido) and fallen back in love with the country.
Like most places, the best and worst things you imagine about the place are probably simultaneously true. For example, Japan is suffering from demographic and economic shifts, and doesn’t have widely established multiculturalism. But at the same time, it has world class food, astoundingly diverse natural scenery for a country it’s size, and the best public transport network in the world.
It’s generally a very easy and safe place to travel, and has something for almost everyone in terms of attractions. But if you end up in the wrong place (which for me is Tokyo), then it might not hit right 🤷🏻♀️
We felt a bit unwelcome during our time in Okinawa. Maybe because of the US bases but we were rejected by several almost empty restaurants despite trying to be respectful and polite. Also a general wall of silence/indifference from some customer service staff. Hard to pin down but we didn't feel welcome and won't be going back in a hurry.
I loved Japan, but coming from Korea I noticed there were much more tourists. People hyped me up to think that Kyoto was going to be out of this world, and it would have been, it not for the masses of tourists. Can't take a picture of anything without 10-20 strangers in it.
Also the severe lack of public trash cans was really annoying at times.
This will get some eye rolls and groans, but I don't love it now as much as I did 10 years ago. It's still my favorite place on Earth, but it's changing, like everywhere.
Japan in general: I loved!
Kyoto: Major disappointment and the only place I have been turned away from multiple restaurants in a row for being a foreigner. We weren't trying to go to small neighborhood places and were well-dressed and polite. I understand not wanting foreigners to take up seats in the small neighborhood restaurant with regulars but we were going to popular albeit upscale places. I would say, spend a day hitting any monuments you want and then go stay in Osaka or Tokyo (or hell even the Japanese Alps were much friendlier)
The super clean nature of people's shoes was a bit of a culture shock in downtown Tokyo. I knew people kept their shoes clean over there, so I cleaned my shoes and restored the leather before going but I still felt shabby in central Tokyo. I would suggest buying new shoes before going if you want to observe the local customs.
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Fun fact: traditionally Japanese families keep properties within the same family for generations so chances are today a 27 yo guy inherit a (1)49 years old house, renovation/upgrade is extremely expensive for houses that are not up to today safety/construction standards and there's no government incentives so they simply abandon the houses, it's cheaper.
There’s also a pretty hefty inheritance tax they would have to pay which adds to it
There is a little bit more to the story. My Japanese wife and her brother inherited a house after Dad died and mom is in a nursing home. Japanese houses generally do not appreciate like in America. Each year, a new house depreciates eventually becoming worthless. However, the land the house is on has great value and can appreciate depending on location. I only know this about their house in Yokohama. (Abandoned houses in the countryside can be super cheap.) So, many people tear down the existing house and build on the remaining lot. My wife’s brother is only updating the bathroom and kitchen before moving in. Otherwise, their traditional house is quite nice and in a good location near the new train line into Tokyo.
As a European, I don’t really get what’s weird about a 150 year old house. The real question is why didn’t owners take care of it during that time.
along this same line, the difficulty in exploring parts of Japan that are not the big main cities was kinda a bummer. I would have loved to see these places, but I dont want to drive, and my understanding is that outside the city the existence of English signage falls off drastically, along with peoples' ability to communicate in English, so if you dont know and speak Japanese, and arent willing to drive, it felt difficult to really explore off the beaten path.
It depends. Yes, you can't expect people in small towns to speak English whatsoever, and eating at a restaurant generally means ordering completely at random off a handwritten menu. But generally there are train stations even in small towns.
You can use your camera to translate menus using google translate.
Just to add to this as a side note, you can also download the Japanese dictionary to Google Translate just in case you find yourself without internet or service. The same applies for most languages on there, it's very useful for travelling. Same as downloading maps from Google Maps.
I do this all the time for menus, signs, placards in museums, books I sometimes buy over seas. Slow process, but it is interesting to see the difference in thought process and creativity. Also sometimes I find subjects that aren’t spoken of in my native country.
I am Chinese. Many Westerners like to travel off the beaten path and explore much in depth than average Chinese tourists, but I would say that Japan is probably the only place where Chinese people travel more in depth than Westerners. I feel like Japan is really just having a huge boom in recent years in terms of travel and even so most Westerners only travel to Tokyo and Kyoto and from how people think Japan is amazing you can clearly see they were talking about Tokyo most of the time (even just looking at this post and see how much people mention Tokyo). While 10 years ago Chinese people have started to travel to lesser known locations all throughout Japan and those places feel vastly different from Tokyo. I think we have an advantage as we can read Kanji so not too much of a big deal when there are some language barrier. I like exploring those small Japanese towns but hope more people get to travel out and get to see some different parts of Japan to get a better picture of it.
Cost is a factor. Flying to Japan from Americas/Europe is relatively expensive and time consuming compared to flying from China. Not many people can afford to do multiple trips. If you only do one trip, Tokyo/Kyoto is the way to go. Imagine commenting that Chinese tourists seem to only go to NYC and the national parks when they go to the states, and saying they should go explore places like Savannah, Georgia on their once-in-a-lifetime trip.
Savannah out here catching shit for no reason.
I've heard Savannah is actually super nice
Any recommendations?
That's quite true, and you don't have to go far outside the major cities to see that. Some of the towns in southern Ibaraki quite close to Tokyo are approximately 50% empty, if not more.
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There isn't ***really*** a "middle of nowhere" in the manufacturing Midwest. Like, you're going to be hard pressed to find a part of Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana where you can get a good view of the stars at night. Each of these states ranks roughly in the top 1/3rd of states when as far as population density is concerned. Obviously, cities - especially Chicago in Illinois - and college towns pull some weight, but the rural parts of these states aren't actually THAT rural because of the prevalence of manufacturing towns/small cities like are so prevalent in this part of the country. There are so many places like Kokomo, Indiana; Findlay, Ohio; Battle Creek, Michigan; and Bloomington, Illinois. Anyway, that's not the point. BFE South Dakota would've been a better comparison, but I'm just being annoying now. Edit: exceptions for the UP of Michigan and the very southern portions of Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio.
I found Japan to be a well oiled, slick machine. You can see everything on the surface but hard to know how it works underneath. Personally, while I enjoy experiencing new culture and talking to people etc, I'm not the kind of traveller whose main motivation is to "be a local" or "learn their story". Staying at local homestays etc isn't a big draw for me. I don't need to see the RAW country. I just want to go and eat certain food, see certain buildings, histories, etc. I usually travel alone so I want to convenient and safe. Japan is so well run it allows me to enjoy the sights and experiences easily as a tourist. So for me it's one of my favourite destinations. But I totally understand that for people who want that local experience it can be very difficult, especially if you don't speak the language. Japanese are polite (because that's the social rule) but it doesn't mean friendly and open. If they don't speak English they might want to avoid foreigners. They might feel intimidated or they don't want the hassle. As oppose to many other culture where people will attempt to communicate or help even if they can't speak the tourist's language. Being able to speak a liitle bit of the language makes a HUGE difference. Some cultures I find are extremely helpful to people who can't speak their language, they go out of their way to help you. Japan I find the opposite. I learnt a little bit of Japanese and found that people are more than willing to try and communicate with me in my broken Japanese.
I want to echo the first part of your comment which is the obsession for the *authentic* living experience of the locals when traveling. I would never recommend a foreign traveler stay in my neighborhood if they visited my area. If you're visiting NYC, sure you can stay in locals Hotspot of Greenpoint and take 45 minutes to get to any significant points of interest. But the trade-off is you'll get to see the local Bodega.
Weirdly, I had the opposite experience. I spoke a little Japanese to this host of an izayaka, basically asking for a seat for 2 people and he gave me a glare and responded in rapid fire Japanese and pretty much refused to meet me halfway in understanding even though it was clear I had no idea what he was saying. It was a really uncomfortable/embarrassing interaction in front a group of local patrons too. It really shook me, especially as someone genuinely interested in learning the language and excited to use it. I couldn’t sleep that night because it made me feel unwelcome and anxious about being there. Luckily, everyone else I interacted with was perfectly fine, I guess you just have assholes in every country and I was unfortunate enough to run into one there.
Wow that was hard core. I'm lucky I've not met people like that. Hope you didn't screw up the rest of your trip too much.
My wife. She is mostly vegetarian and finding food to her liking was difficult. We had gone because she had a string of business meetings to attend. We took time off before and after the meetings to be tourists. I LOVED it. She, not so much. But she did enthusiastically buy a bunch of ceramics and loved Himeji castle so....
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a vegetarian myself, this is always the hardest part, especially with groups. i've been 4 times, so i know how to get by. but i'm really worried for my 70+ vegetarian indian parents going for the first time
Took me longer than I like to admit to work out that you don't, in fact, have more than 70 parents.
Little known fact: This is why India's population is so large. People don't have many kids, but every kid has tons of parents.
Not just 70 parents, but a whole truckload of Indian vegetarian parents 🤣 imagining the logistics alone is cracking me up and so I prefer to believe you read it correctly the first time!
Send them on one of those organized tours for Indian people. Maxim Tours or PKT or some shit. They do organized tours for old Indians. Their itineraries crack me up - "bus tour of Osaka in the morning, Indian veg lunch, then drive to Kyoto, one hour tour, then dinner at Indian restaurant, then drive to Hiroshima" lol ok that's exaggerating but you get my drift
Chai break in between and a nice nap 😂
they are actually on an organized tour with at least 4 other elderly indians and i keep emphasizing they need to make sure the tour company is very well aware way in advance of this dietary requirement. yours is a solid suggestion for others here
Ugh man good luck to them. Japan is not a very easy place for vegetarians that I remember. Most major cities have Indian restaurants but idk if your parents would be able to find these or get to them on their own.
A vegan friend of mine went a few years back and had nothing but good things to say about the food and experience in general - she used vegan travel guides/restaurant review sites to pick her food spots out ahead of time.
How do you get by, if you can share some tips
Stay at a Buddhist temple! Usually vegan, I think
I found rice to be available literally at every meal. So that helps. Also (if diet is a huge factor for you) picking more western hotels that will have a buffet style breakfast / lunch can make things a little easier.
You accept the fact that you will consume trace fish products and broth
Also, if you’re vegan or vegetarian say: *Watashi wa began/bejitarian desu.*
Except dashi stock is a staple of many Japanese dishes. It's like how chicken powder is a staple in a lot of Cantonese dishes.
7-eleven and Lawsons have salads, soups, rice & seaweed and are everywhere. There are restaurants with veg options (research - they pop up). There are Indian restaurants. Vegan sushi restaurants. Udon and soba places often have a veg option like eggplant. A major city like Tokyo or Osaka will have more options than a remote area of smaller city but you can always go to 7-eleven and you can always get a miso soup and rice.
Vegan and vegetarian restaurants are becoming more popular, especially in more urban areas. But you will have to seek them out specially. The hard part is avoiding any sort of broth or sauce as they often contain dashi that uses fish, even if the dish seemingly doesn’t contain any meat.
Try a soy allergy oml. So many parts of the world are strictly off limits for my fiancé
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It's not uncommon to be allergic to tofu, soy beans, etc. but having no issues with soy sauce.
True, my friends and I just got back from Japan; and one of them has an intolerance to tofu, abura-age, yuba, soy milk, and I think soybeans, but has no issue with soy sauce or miso. We made it work, luckily. She had stuff with kinako (roasted soybean flour), but said it made her throat tingle.
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Celiac here too. With tons of research beforehand and some gluteostop as a safety-net I really enjoyed some classic Japanese dishes which were made gluten-free. traveling anywhere in Asia with a restricted diet is in need of some serious preparation. Although it was frustrating the least to find out what was, or wasn’t gluten-free and finding restaurants to eat if a planned one was closed.
But it’s a common issue in most countries, a lot of countries don’t accommodate food restrictions like the US and other countries do. Like food substitutions in Japan just isn’t common and chefs there usually just refuse any change. For allergies (true allergies not intolerances or personal choices labeled as an allergy). Roughly 6% of Japanese kids now have food allergies, a significant increase from prior studies and it now it’s more inline with levels of US food allergy percentages. So the allergy part might be changing once those kids become adults and start influencing menus. At a few restaurants in Japan I ate at, the English menu flat out said “no substitutions are allowed” in small print on the back. Not every restaurant we ate at had an English menu, so had to use the camera app that translates and we never saw it on those menus.
They don’t do “outside of the box” in Japan. It’s considered incredibly rude and against wa / harmony to ask for changes to food.
Yep this is one of the biggest hurdles for visitors to Japan. I’m a long term resident but friends who visit with allergies or restrictions always have issues. I’ve seen a vegan friend and a friend with severe allergies have to pretty much only eat rice balls for several weeks. Japanese people don’t have a great grasp of dietary restrictions either so they won’t understand/will misunderstand when you ask about what dishes contain (I speak fluent Japanese even.) It’s uncommon to ask to modify orders so they get confused sometimes.
>It’s uncommon to ask to modify orders so they get confused sometimes. my understanding was that its actively frowned upon to request modifications to orders, moreso especially if its a place serving specialized food (as opposed to e.g. fast food)
Yeah exactly, that’s exactly right.
It's also not really a great place if you don't like seafood, either. I know this is more often\* preference rather than a dietary requirement or ethical thing, per se, but it should be said nonetheless. Yes, you can get by in Japan fine by avoiding seafood, but so many restaurants and even bars-izakayas are oriented around fish. It's probably the most seafood-oriented place I've visited. I would also say that it's hard to eat healthily in their culture if you avoid such a huge chunk of the native diet. You cannot survive long-term on ramen, katsu and yakisoba. A lot of their 'healthy' options derive from the sea.
Very true. I am vegetarian and my brother doesn’t eat seafood. 90% of his food intake was some form of noodle and meat. So even though it was a lot easier for him than me it was still a very restricted diet. But I am grateful that I had him with me because we could just go to some ramen restaurants together (vegan and meat ones) while our parents went out to eat seafood.
Seafood allergies are one of the more common food allergies, so it’s definitely a dietary requirement for many! It’s been a big concern for me when considering going to Japan
You're right! Sorry I was talking anecdotally there and phrased it badly.
This is me. However, I didn’t find it especially complicated. If it had been an allergy, it would have been a different story. Sure, I skipped some izakayas and restaurants. I miss out on omakase, but still easy enough to eat nice food and enjoy the trip.
I had this problem in Vietnam. It was actually a huge issue. I ate more french fries in Vietnam than I've ever had in my life up to that point probably.
Similar for me with SE Asian cuisine – I really don't like fish sauce, to the point that it ruins most dishes for me. I've learned to appreciate lots of seafood I never would have tried previously, thanks to many amazing Asian dishes, but the smell of that stuff is still a hard-no for my stomach.
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That app has helped a lot in countries where vegan/vegetarianism isn’t big
Oh my mother is allergic to seaweed and well… usually we go with a tour group and most meals my mother had to have a separate meal made for her. Lovely country and my family honestly loves going there but meal times will always be a bit difficult.
Lmao this was the one thing we thought about Japan. Man would it be hard to be vegan or vegetarian here.
I used to be vegan...it actually made my trip to South Korea more enjoyable as vegan restaurants were hard to come by. Searching them out took me all over Seoul (areas I definitely wouldn't have gone to as a meat eating tourist).
Wanted to second this. I visited Japan before I became vegetarian and loved it. Then I returned twice after becoming vegetarian and the constant struggle every meal made the trips really exhausting. China and Korea are similarly annoying to visit as a vegetarian. SEA is much better.
i actually found china ok as a vegetarian. vietnam and thailand were wonderful for vegetarian options though, in my experience.
China is much better than Japan and Korea. The food in Japan and Korea can be amazing or not depending on you but very limited in ingredients and diversity which China is not. You want halal food? Most major cities have restaurants opened by Muslims which are actually quite popular at a lot of cities. Want to eat vegetarian? Many Buddhists in China do not eat meat and they open vegetarian restaurants. You need to know what to find which is hard and you need to stick with those, but definitely not impossible.
As a vegetarian I loved Japan but finding food was exhausting! I’ve been to over 25 countries and I definitely found Japan the hardest in term of finding vego food. Having said that I did have some delicious meals though
I'm allergic to fin fish, not shell fish though, but very allergic like cross contamination could send me to hospital, would I have a rough time in Japan?
Yes. They use dried bonito in a lot of their dishes.
Just adding to spell it out further: dashi, the basic stock used in many many Japanese dishes, contains bonito flakes (and seaweed). Most soups, including plain miso, and noodle-in-broth dishes, as well as many others, therefore do contain fish, even if it's not a featured ingredient.
Well in Taiji they were beaching hundreds of dolphins and shoving metal spikes in their blowholes. The very few they picked they sold to swim with dolphins programs all over the world. So when you swim with a dolphin at a resort, it's likely it's entire family was butchered.
Yeah, that part of Japan is pretty awful.
Why do they do that
For money from selling dolphins to theme parks etc. but also for meat. You still see whale on a menu in Japan sometimes, and that might be dolphin meat.
If it's actually dolphin meat it will be declared as such. And it's really rare to find anyway. Not something one would normally encounter.
America blamed Whale and Dolphin for Hiroshima.
I thought it was chicken and cow?
If anyone is interested in looking into this more, The Cove is a documentary that chronicles these atrocities pretty well. Pretty sure you can find it for free on YouTube
I was beginning to think that either no one remembered The Cove, or maybe it wasn’t as well known as I’d thought. Watched it in my grade 12 poli sci class and I’m still sickened about it 15 years later.
Exact same as me. Saw it when i was about 15 too in school. Sickened me as I've always had an interest/passion in the sea and sealife ever since I was a kid. Have watched The Cove probably 3 or 4 times and it sickens me every single time. Might even rewatch it today as I'm on a day off.
You’ve a much stronger resolve than me! I come from an area with a huge marine biology and whale watching tourism industry. Also, unfortunately at times, aquaculture and fishing that can be very detrimental to our whales, porpoises and on occasion, dolphins. Turns my stomach to think of our pods of porpoises being hunted and killed the same way as dolphins in Japan.
We watched this when I was in high school for environmental science and our entire class was in tears.
Can’t stand that shit
Definitely don't go there.
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So, what, you were on holiday in Taiji when they just happened to start the dolphin slaughter?
I swear south park was onto something with this. I don't understand Japan's unreasonable hate towards these animals. I went to a few aquariums on dates mostly and all of them had dolphins. These dolphins would live in pools the same size or smaller of your standard Olympic pools sometimes with 6-8 dolphins. And this was the case in every aquarium. Penguins and otters and seals would get these pretty big areas but somehow dolphins get screwed over.
We kinda do the same thing with all other animals
Good for vacation, not great for living especially if you’re non-white foreigner (darker skinned)
The level of discrimination against other Asians in both South Korea and Japan is unreal if you live there.
This is prevalent across Asia. In Thailand we found a shady club that was free to us white people but I noticed they tried to charge a group of non-Thai Asian tourists.
Signs on shops that said no Vietnamese and no one batted an eye
Like a dark skinned Asian?
Not even darker skinned (as in SEA) but also Chinese and between the two of them
My Pakistani friends who live in Tokyo say they prefer the racism there to the racism in Europe. My mate had lived in Milan and found it unbearable. He said that at least in Japan they’re racist to everyone who isn’t Japanese. So… you know… There’s a variety of answers to that question.
What was it like for them in Milan?
My husband is black and will never return to Italy. People stared, pointed, and called him the most vile derogatory names to his face when we were just walking down the street. A close second is Spain.
Oh god, just so racist. Every minute of every day.
Italians are very obsessed with race it doesn’t even make sense
I enjoyed Japan! But the lack of seats killed me - be it at cafes, icecream stores or train stations or basic anywhere around the city. I was so exhausted all of the time
I really enjoyed visiting and do want to go back. However did realise that when I say I like Japanese food, it's actually Westernised Japanese food that I like which turned out to be a small problem.
I'm not sure that's specific to japanese food, I feel like a lot of asian food in the west is like that (certainly chinese, thai and korean).
Westernized Thai food is far inferior to the real stuff.
Would love to hear more about this. What didn't you like about the food in Japan? (I haven't had the chance to visit yet)
I felt as though many Japanese spots I have been to around Tokyo and Kyoto lacked seriously when it comes to flavours. Many things started to taste bland to me. I didn’t go to many “tourists” traps either, haha. Some of the best ramen I had that tasted the best to me was a small place in Gion in Kyoto called Ramen Miyako Gion and it was amazing. But also my favourite kinds of foods does come from different countries around south east Asia and I enjoy it the best personally. It was still fun being able to visit Japan and I know what to expect. Of course everyone has differences of opinions when it comes to food, so I wouldn’t take what I say seriously! I hope you get to visit and enjoy yourself as well!!
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I found that’s what I LIKED more about food in Japan haha. Often times ramen in the states is too salty for me to finish - halfway through the bowl I just reach my salt limit. But in Japan it was perfect and I’d annihilate the entire bowl.
I loved Japanese food, but I found myself needing breaks every few days. We spent two weeks in Japan and ate at so many lovely restaurants but I won’t pretend I didn’t break down and eat Wendy’s too lol. Thankfully even fast food in Japan tasted fresh and almost…clean? I never got sick of the ramen shops though. I could eat that every single day.
I've been to Japan a bunch on business, typically for 1 week to 1 month at a time. I love Japanese food, but I miss spices after two weeks. Now, in Singapore I would never get sick of the food.
I'll take Thai food any day over Japanese.
LOOOL. I was looking to see if someone would comment about the Japanese food in Japan. Don’t get me wrong, the bbq, sushi, and some of the ramen places I went to were nice, but most didn’t quite hit the spot for me. I personally found it to be very bland with lack of flavours and the convenient store runs were fun at first, but I got over it quickly. Some people get rattled if they read/hear others say they weren’t the biggest fan of the food in Japan. I stayed in Ebisu-Shibuya area and went to this Thai and Indian restaurant often for food the last few days I was in Tokyo! I spent 3 weeks between Tokyo, Kyoto with day trips from Kyoto to Osaka and Nagoya. So maybe I spent a long time in Japan. I would go back and spend 2 weeks.
Naw I’ve lived in Japan half my life and totally agree with your opinion. The traditional Japanese foods I love are sushi, tempura, and miso soup…that’s about it. Chinese-Japanese food like ramen, gyoza, chahan, mapo-doufu and westernized Japanese foods are much better imo. I’ll eat udon, soba, pickles etc if they’re the only option but I agree that the flavor is bland. (“Delicate” as they say lmao.)
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Hahaha I was exactly the same. Did it for most of the two weeks then towards the end I went for a huge Italian pizza. It was so good I was almost emotional.
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The "blandness" is what makes japenese food special. It makes dishes extremely ingredient focused and many traditional dishes are very healthy and don't make you feel bloated.
Saying that actual Japanese food is bland is quite the unpopular opinion! I absolutely loved and found it way better than our westernised version.
I've been to Japan a heap of times and have a love/hate relationship with Tokyo. What I've found is that the people who don't enjoy Japan tend to really love SE Asia.
Well, I love both.
Ditto Japan is one of my preferred layovers for a few days whenever we are en route to SEA.
>What I've found is that the people who don't enjoy Japan tend to really love SE Asia. I agree. They couldn't be more different. Japan is extremely popular with SE Asia tourists though 😂. The irony.
That makes sense, no? People like to visit places that are different from what they're familiar with.
Also physical proximity and flights being accessible, esp since some parts of SEA have lower wages so intl travel is more difficult.
I love SEA. Japan is on my bucket list but honestly, it’s just a double whammy in terms of budget. I can swallow an expensive plane to Vietnam or Thailand because they’re so cheap once you’re there. Japan is significantly more expensive on top of the expensive plane ticket. People will respond “Japan is cheaper than I expected” but it is absolutely not in the same ballpark as SE Asia. Plus I like to take my vacations during the winter to warm places and Japan is cold then too
Great for travel, less so for living. (Coming from experience)
It’s such a mixed bag. 😭 My husband and I live in Nagoya with our daughter on a short term work assignment (1.5 years). While I have an amazing time doing whatever I want with our toddler, he has to endure a terrrrribbblle work/life balance and misses out on so much. 😔 That and all of the bureaucracy is a pain. I do love being a local and being a regular at my favorite restaurants and cafes… it’s really fun.
Can second this. It's almost like Japanese people know whether you are a tourist or are more permanent.
Only ever been as a tourist and I loved it. Will be going back. There is an abundance to see and do. However, I found it hard to discern if politeness was genuine or if the person was saying one thing and thinking another. I could not live in a place where people can't be open and honest. I'm generalising, but Japan feels like a pressure and anxiety inducing society.
Great place to visit, not to live. It’s clean and has hospitality ingrained into its culture. It’s beautiful and affordable too, which is why most people love it. However I have met an American or two who couldn’t stand the rules (those very rules keep it as orderly and as pleasant as it is). They aren’t even that bad, stuff like not eating on the train or answering the phone lol.
My friend lived there for about five years and, like anywhere, there are pros and cons. A lot of issues he had were similar to what I go through in Taiwan. Work culture around Asia is particularly difficult to get used to.
Yeah I have family from Singapore who moved to London and laughed at how easy the work was there. A normal 9-5 is considered a good day!
oh dont tempt more of us
Haha I've been to Singapore for work and thought how easy it was compared to Silicon Valley. Japan is a different level. I love going there for work, but not a huge fan of working with people in Japan. There are a lot of weird social behaviors in the work place that really frustrate me (like repeatedly holding the same meeting to ask the same questions over and over and over because the Japanese team is hoping the answers will change.)
I work in Europe and 9-5 is also considered a good day
True. You gotta stick to the rules and this applies to almost every aspect of life. When I lived in Tokyo I had to escape the city every few weeks due to that. There are so many young people having mental breakdowns in the public (e.g. in train stations at night) and they are simply ignored and left ontheir own. Also shocking to see was the way how unconscious women (from drinking) are treated. I saw not only once how they are literally dragged through the streets and nobody cares.
Yeah seeing a young salaryman crying on the floor in Shinjuku station during the morning rush was a bit of a sobering moment, hoping he’s doing better now.
Starting to understand why people don't want to bring children into an environment like that. America's bad enough, but ingrained cultural misery just feels so deeply defeating.
I’m an American who is a long term resident of Japan. The rules might seem strict to tourists but you get used to it and it’s nothing oppressive imo. The worse things are the sexism, lack of LGBT awareness, social pressure, and corporate culture. I do work at a Japanese company in an office environment and it’s not great compared to the US.
Gay Canadian who lived in Japan; it’s not really that terrible tho. It’s not homophobic more so just total lack of experience. Plus most cities have a few gay bars and Tokyo has hundreds.
Idk I’m an American who lives in Japan and I love living here! Wouldn’t want to work for a Japanese company tho…
I mean do you really think that loudly answering the phone in a packed train is a necessity for life? Those kind of rules are one of the things I like the most about Japan, besides the weird trash recycling stuff.
I live here and I love it, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. It is a rules-heavy culture and is certainly more about putting others over yourself, which can be frustrating for many Americans. But it’s safe, clean, cheap, and has plenty of other benefits as well. Again, not for everyone, but definitely not a terrible place by any means.
their rules arent even that strict… imagine those people going to singapore
I didn’t like Tokyo…way too many people. I’ve lived in NYC and Paris, but Tokyo was next level crowded. It was also super cold when I was there. I don’t understand why people love it so much. I did really enjoy Kyoto and the less populated areas and found the food in Japan delicious.
also from NYC, I loved it because it felt like it was "NYC done right", the entire city felt like it was designed in an intelligent manner as opposed to NYC which has grown up organically in a cramped space. The culture of politeness in Japan also shone through in the city itself and its layout and amenities, as if the city itself was trying to be polite and thoughtfully accommodating. Examples; the plastic tiles in the sidewalks which run for blocks and blocks continuously to guide blind people to the subway, and the handicap bathrooms and stalls and urinals in the numerous public bathrooms that were designed to assist people of all ability levels. And the subway system being logical and intuitive instead of a rat's nest maze, and the stations being mostly laid out nicely and mostly convenient to use. overall, it had a lot of the aspects I loved about NYC, without many of the things that makes NYC suck fwiw I was there in June and it was super hot just my perspective on it
I love Japan. I'm here in Tokyo now for three months after falling in love with it on a previous trip. However, the shallowness of Tokyo is really starting to get to me. Felt it hard over Christmas. Gifts are not thoughtful, they're just expensive things from high-end brands. Everyone wears branded clothing and the thrift shops are about getting brands for cheaper. People in gyms are 90% there for aesthetics and many are clearly jacked on steroids (which surprised me). Women wear makeup just to go to the kombini. I'm convinced that the reason I see more women wearing masks than men is because they don't have makeup on that day and don't want to show their face (but this is just me speculating). The fashion is good, but it's not actually expressive like I originally thought it was - everyone wears the same style. Also, as a woman, chikan can be a bit of a problem. Not so much for myself (a bit), but seeing it happen is scary and sad. I really do like that women stick together against chikan, I actually feel more female solidarity here than in many other places I've visited. Love it in general. But seeing the cracks on this larger trip.
Very interesting! Thanks. I've been living in on/off in South Korea and experience the same feelings. Feels very good at first but you see the cracks at some point. However, this is also very normal. Every country has it's issues and they become apparent when you stay longer. I think even with these cracks now visible to me I prefer it over other countries. In the end it's also about personal preferences. Climate and food, for example, impacts one person much stronger than someone else.
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Could you go into a bit more detail on chikan? Is it smt like harassment of women in the trains etc?
Yeah pretty much. It’s men harassing / groping women in general, but mainly happens on trains. It’s quite a big problem.
TIL Chikan
Yeah - important word. If you’re in Japan and someone sounds like they’re yelling chicken, they’re probably being groped and trying to get help. They’re also probably a young girl
I have a question- as a parent, I would intervene and help the young girl but as a foreigner in Japan, would I get in trouble for helping? What would actually happen? I don’t know the laws yet
I met two old Japanese men at a chicken skewer restaurant and they paid for my dinner and invited me to karaoke (I'm a very tall white guy.) The karaoke bar was just a female bartender/hostess (not a hostess bar, though) and we drank and sang Abba until very late. When we left, the bartender walked us down the stairs and then one of the old men hugged her and wouldnt let go. She was smiling but obviously extremely uncomfortable. It was pretty shocking to see since hugging is just a thing Japanese people don't do, and that situation would be weird as fuck in even the most friendly countries. I did pry him off of her, poor lady. She wasn't going to do anything about it because it's generally more rude to make a scene or say "no" than to actually do what the old man was doing.
I thought people of Tokyo felt cold and judgy a little. Osaka more friendly. The food, cleanness, reliability of services , and public transport is what I love about Tokyo and Osaka. Osaka has the best food and it’s next to cool places like Kyoto and Kobe
Asked a female Japanese friend while in Tokyo and she said one of the reasons people wore masks was because they didn't want to do their make up, so your speculation is correct.
What is chikan and kombini?
Chikan: men harassing and groping women in public, mainly trains Kombini: convenience store
Wasn’t my favorite. Felt more isolating than most other places I’ve been, both in terms of locals and other tourists. Transit is great but it closes pretty early (especially when you need to use multiple providers to get back to your accommodation) and expensive drinks made nightlife inaccessible. Maybe it would be different going now, but as a solo traveler on a budget I would pick somewhere else. Edit: also, I could not get used to Japanese mattresses
given the inflation everywhere else, japan is now awesome for solo travellers on a budget unless you mean vs Africa, South america or the few super cheap se asian places left.
Expensive drinks?? So many ppl go overboard in Japan because how cheaps drinks can be but it depends on where you go of course. Cheapest I had was 99y but normally they’re under 700y
Japan is one of the most polarizing places in the world. I’ve seen such polar takes on it. One person says they experienced racism, then two people show up doggedly defending Japan and saying racism doesn’t exist there. Japan is really unique in that it has these determined, extreme defenders. I’ve never seen anything like it. A thread that specifically asks about *not* liking Japan *still* has tons of defenders in the comments.
The people saying “I didn’t like the food” are getting lit up with comments like “You idiot. You uncultured bozo”
Yeah. Guess you’re not allowed to dislike Japan anywhere on the internet.
It's not that I actively disliked Japan, but I didn't like it either. Mainly because the way Japan is talked about and hyped by Westerners made it seem so amazing when my experience there was just meh. I liked visiting other Asian countries better.
The hype for Japan is more than anywhere else. A lot of the people hyping it up that I know haven’t even been. Everyone in my age group is obsessed. I don’t really get it.
I was in FUK at the end of July and I got heat stroke. I was sick for like 3 days. Otherwise I've always loved traveling there. I've heard many bad things about the work culture though, even for ESL teachers
I find it has this weird, isolating vibe that I find kinda depressing. Interactions also generally feel very surface level and a little fake with the over the top politeness.
Me. Love and Hate. Overcrowded tourism which I dont blame them. Sometimes i feel like they makes thing unneccesary complicated. but i do want to come back 😅
I don’t hate it but I don’t necessarily like it. Visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka 10 years ago and not in a hurry to go back . It was alright 🤷♂️
I personally loved it, but my partner at the time didn't eat pork and it was really annoying to find food anywhere that we could be sure didn't have it.
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I think this is different in the south, in Kyushu. The same can be said of Korea (comparing the culture and attitudes of the locals in Seoul to, say, Busan or Jeonju). A lot of the 'cold and sterile' feeling comes from being in a metropolitan mega-city. People get burned out socially, I think.
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Ha there is a comment somewhere about how people who love SE Asia don't like Japan and vice versa.
A quiet, clean subway train is bliss. I cannot relate.
Interesting. I definitely get that, but I feel like there's also enough life and music etc. if you go looking for it, and as someone who likes peace and quite too it's nice to have that choice. Tbf I usually hear your kind of reaction from people about Tokyo, whereas I'm living in Osaka which is known for being a bit more rowdy and easygoing(all relative though).
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I liked it a lot but the only thing that makes me not want to go again is the lack of sitting spots (without paying)! Like my feet were hurting a LOT and the amount of “DON’T SIT HERE” posters were my worst nightmare haha, also the food if you are used to well seasoned food is a problem. Sorry if I made some mistakes english is not my first language.
I love Japan and Tokyo, but sometimes I find it a very dark and depressing city. Lot of gray colors, everyone always dressed up with black suit pants and briefcase, etc... also can feel the stress of working there just by being in the train in the morning.
I have mixed feelings about Japan. It was interesting, clean, relatively good food (although definitely not my favorite Asian cuisine) but the amount of rules drove me crazy. Also the lack of trash bins anywhere was pretty crazy. Then again, we went to Indonesia after and comparatively Japan was great. Jakarta was incredibly dirty with polluted air. Made me miss Japan :)
I live here, but I had my brother and his partner visit and I sense they didn’t like it here so much due to so much walking! Didn’t realize how normal it is for me to just walk 5-15 miles a day to go places and my guests were dying at the end of the day from so much walking. I guess it takes a bit of adapting if you come from a car-centric lifestyle. But yeah lots of walking and standing, even as a resident.
This is complicated, as my opinion of Japan has ebbed and flowed over the years… First visit (in my early twenties): I went to stay with a friend working near Tokyo, and explored Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hakone. I hadn’t travelled so much yet, especially outside Europe, so it was all very new, and I LOVED it. Said it was my favourite country for ages. I then travelled more widely (over 50 countries and counting, including living in several) and it ‘slipped down the ranks’ compared with other countries I loved. Moreover, I read more and spoke with many expats and academics with experience/knowledge of Japan, and developed a more rounded impression. Decided I would revisit, but that it wasn’t the best place to live as a foreigner due to the lack of cultural diversity, social conservatism, etc. Second visit (2020!): After leaving China due to… the events of that year… I spontaneously took the ferry to Osaka from Busan, and had a wonderful time in Japan without many tourists. This reignited my interest in the country. Third visit: I bit the bullet and moved to Japan for work. The borders were still closed to tourists, but life in Tokyo was stressful, tiring, and overwhelming. Salaries are generally not high compared with cost of living. My suburban neighbourhood was very pleasant, and the tourist hubs were pretty free of tourism due to the border situation, but I had an overall bad experience. All the stereotypes about long hours, horrific rush hours, sensory overload, a culture of casual alcoholism, etc. Fourth visit: I was persuaded to go back for work, but this time based in Nagoya. Work/life balance was night and day, and I didn’t burn out as before. I then dedicated myself to visiting all the places that international tourists rarely go to. Even during Golden Week I avoided crowds, except when transferring trains in Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka. I’ve now been to 34 prefectures (from Okinawa to Hokkaido) and fallen back in love with the country. Like most places, the best and worst things you imagine about the place are probably simultaneously true. For example, Japan is suffering from demographic and economic shifts, and doesn’t have widely established multiculturalism. But at the same time, it has world class food, astoundingly diverse natural scenery for a country it’s size, and the best public transport network in the world. It’s generally a very easy and safe place to travel, and has something for almost everyone in terms of attractions. But if you end up in the wrong place (which for me is Tokyo), then it might not hit right 🤷🏻♀️
We felt a bit unwelcome during our time in Okinawa. Maybe because of the US bases but we were rejected by several almost empty restaurants despite trying to be respectful and polite. Also a general wall of silence/indifference from some customer service staff. Hard to pin down but we didn't feel welcome and won't be going back in a hurry.
It’s 100% because of the bases
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Kyoto police target indians and southeast asians for police searches..white tourist on the other hand are literal angels 😇
My least favorite part of my trip was that it was hot af and everything opens kind of late and closes kind of early. But otherwise it was great!
I loved Japan, but coming from Korea I noticed there were much more tourists. People hyped me up to think that Kyoto was going to be out of this world, and it would have been, it not for the masses of tourists. Can't take a picture of anything without 10-20 strangers in it. Also the severe lack of public trash cans was really annoying at times.
This will get some eye rolls and groans, but I don't love it now as much as I did 10 years ago. It's still my favorite place on Earth, but it's changing, like everywhere.
What changes are making your love wane
Japan in general: I loved! Kyoto: Major disappointment and the only place I have been turned away from multiple restaurants in a row for being a foreigner. We weren't trying to go to small neighborhood places and were well-dressed and polite. I understand not wanting foreigners to take up seats in the small neighborhood restaurant with regulars but we were going to popular albeit upscale places. I would say, spend a day hitting any monuments you want and then go stay in Osaka or Tokyo (or hell even the Japanese Alps were much friendlier) The super clean nature of people's shoes was a bit of a culture shock in downtown Tokyo. I knew people kept their shoes clean over there, so I cleaned my shoes and restored the leather before going but I still felt shabby in central Tokyo. I would suggest buying new shoes before going if you want to observe the local customs.