Comment by impendia | Hacker News Reader

Comment by impendia | Hacker News Reader

Having lived in Japan for two years, what I'd add to this is to spend a lot of time walking, if physically able.

For example, in my opinion the best way to explore Tokyo is to simply leave your hotel in the morning, wander around all day, and stop anywhere and everywhere that looks interesting. The excellent mass transit system means that it won't be a problem to get back.

In more rural parts of Japan, there are signposted walking trails. Here are three which I highly recommend, in whole or in part.

Yamanobe Road: https://www.japan.travel/en/destinations/kansai/nara/the-yam...

Kyoto Trail: https://kyoto-trail.net/trail_course_e.html

Shikoku Henro-Michi: https://www.henro.org/shikoku-pilgrimage/map

These places are wondrous for their natural and human-made beauty, and have tons of temples, shrines, and historic sights along the way. I strongly second Patrick's advice to get out of the big cities, and virtually anywhere you go you will find much that is beautiful.

Tokyo is absurdly gigantic, I would not suggest randomly walking it. Also the subway system can be challenging, and the staff don't speak English, so if you get stuck they likely won't be able to help.

Another random thing about the train system: there are women-only cars. I didn't realize this until I had already boarded and (as a man) I was absolutely mortified.

I feel like if you followed the advice and kept inside yamanote this is totally feasible

The subway system is sprawling but, as someone who doesn't know any Japanese, I've never had any real trouble navigating it. Didn't know about woman-only cars but I assume most Japanese would take it as just another clueless foreigner and wouldn't think much else about it.

> The subway system is sprawling but, as someone who doesn't know any Japanese, I've never had any real trouble navigating it.

The Tokyo subway was never difficult to navigate. But as someone who has recently returned from a trip to Japan for the first time since COVID I can tell you they've made substantial improvements since (mostly as a result of the run up to the Olympics).

There is now substantially more English signage on the subway than ever before. The ticket machines even now have extensive English language menus.

You really can't "get stuck" though. Carry a phone with Google Maps and get a Pasmo/Suica fare card, and it's easy to get back to your hotel from anywhere at all in the city.

Google Maps + Suica worked wonders in 2019!

Yep, Google Maps (and if I recall even Apple Maps) will route you through the transit system just fine. Those of us who can’t read Japanese might need to pattern match on Kanji for station names (maps app will show both original and romanized names) but I don’t think that’s too much of a challenge.

Suica is great with how you can reload it from your US credit card, and works in many places besides just transit stations. It saved me several ATM runs last time I was there.

If you don't have good or any phone service, organicmaps works well.

When was the last time you were there? I went in 2019 and 2020 and it was really easy to get around. All stations have signage in English almost everywhere. Google maps says which exit / entrance to come in or leave from, even which car of the train you're on is closest to the path you need to get off.

As for walking, you don't need to walk _everywhere_ but it really is cool to spend a few hours like OP said and just walk around your hotels neighborhood or other places.

I usually stay in Higashi Shinjuku when I visit, and if I hadn't done that I wouldn't have known about this really quiet residential area that leads to a nice quiet park. Or the little Korea town neighborhood that's about a twenty minute walk away.

Pre-Google Maps, finding specific addresses could be a bit challenging--because of the addressing scheme that I've not totally grokked to this day--but even then I don't recall the subway system being a particular challenge relative to other big systems like New York or London.

>because of the addressing scheme that I've not totally grokked to this day

The buildings are numbered in the order they were built :P

Don't worry. You're not the only one. Natives are often lost. Couple of times already I've been asked where the given address is by Japanese person and I am definitely not of Asian descent :) On the contrary, in 2008, before the mobile Internet I was looking for an address and couple of natives couldn't find it despite the fact I got address and a picture printed at hand. Turned out we've standing next to the building and all I had to do is to turn back to find it. Today I just follow uncle Google advice.

At least as of a few years ago, a lot of the Google Maps UI/feature work was done out of the Google Tokyo office, so it tends to be really useful there.

Highly disagree.

A few years ago, I was lost in Ikebukuro trying to find the Metro station. I had already walked over half an hour but only found the JR stations. I asked one of the security guards “Tokyo metro eki…. Doko??” And even with my absurdly broken Japanese, I not only got directions in Japanese back to me, but the guard walked with me until the station was in sight to make sure I understood and could get to it.

You 100% don’t need English to get around, and, yeah, it’s going to be awkward to talk to someone in a language you don’t speak, but Japanese people will go extremely out of their way to help you if you make even the smallest gesture of trying. The little exchange above is only one of several I had throughout the country, and every time I made a small bit of effort, I got the world moved for me.

> but Japanese people will go extremely out of their way to help you

> I got the world moved for me

I'm somewhat uncomfortable with these characterisations of Japan and the Japanese people. Yes, Japanese people can be helpful to (obvious) visitors but with more and more people visiting Japan visitors shouldn't expect this to keep being the case, nor do visitors necessarily deserve this treatment. It probably will hold true but I don't think we should encourage an entitled attitude of "I'm a visitor, therefore the always helpful Japanese people will help me out of any tricky situations I get into while visiting their country".

I don’t even know how to respond to this take.

Sorry that the Japanese people are generally far more courteous than anyone else I’ve met when tourists are in need of help and make an effort to get help in their language. Apparently, pointing out that every person I’ve encountered has been great to visitors is a bad thing or something.

If someone is going to be a tourist in a foreign place, would you prefer they have a breakdown in the middle of the city because they should expect the locals to be assholes that never help people who don’t speak Japanese out? God forbid someone try and interact with a local, that’s apparently entitled behavior now. What even is this take?

No, visitors should not rely on locals to help them out, but you also have no proof that the kindness shown will go away anytime soon. It’s not like tourism hasn’t been booming for the past few decades and nothing has happened. What makes you think something will suddenly change?

> but Japanese people will go extremely out of their way to help you

You are setting an expectation.

I am anecdotally pointing out my experiences, which explicitly go against the comment I replied to which makes it seem like you will die on the streets in Japan if you wander too much.

Sorry not sorry that my experiences irritate you so much.

And, once again: What, exactly, would you prefer? A gaijin in the middle of Kyoto wailing about not being able to get back to their hostel because they’re too scared to approach a local? That person never even experiencing Japan because they’re too scared they’re going to get lost and be beaten to death by the horrible locals?

By this reasoning, if anyone asks you how you feel about someone you love/respect/admire/etc, you should refuse to speak of any significant qualities they posses.

“Hey, I haven’t met your wife/husband yet, but if they’re anything like you, they must be a quality person, and can’t wait for you to introduce me to them!” — “Oh, yeah. I mean, they’re definitely a human being, just like me, if that’s what you mean. And they, like… eat, drink, sleep — all the usual human being things, you know.”

Sounds like a bleak way to relate to others, downplaying your feelings out of fear that someone will irrationally believe they are entitled to similar experiences with said person.

Maybe we should expect people to not feel entitled, instead of desiring that people would bottle up how they feel.

That is what you have a backup for. When I was in Tokyo google maps and it’s transit info was all I needed.

I have no clue how anybody could navigate that city without something like Google Maps.

If you stay contained to one system you can get nearly everywhere on the map using one transfer. Know where you're starting, know where you're going and then just look for an intersection between the lines. It probably won't be the fastest route, but since you're staying in one system it won't be that expensive. In an emergency where your phone is dead, you'll always be able to get home.

Tokyo's trains have some of the best signage in the world. Nearly all the ones in Tokyo and other major cities have English directions. All the stations have color coded numbers like G12 or N13 if Japanese names are hard for you.

Signs on the tracks tell you what station you're at, what the previous station was and what the next station will be.

Every exit has a number and signs on the walls and ceilings tell you which way you need to walk to get to your destination or transfer.

At the gates there are always maps of the area on the walls to lookup where to go if you don't have a smartphone.

I've been all over the world and I can't think of another transit system that has all of those features. Others are always missing one or more.

As for the person below that mentioned they got help in Ikebukuro station, it's great they got help, but I suspect in their panic they didn't notice all the signs. There is no exit from the JR lines that does not have clear signage to every other line (tobu, seibu Ikebukuro, fukutoshinsen, Marunouchi, Yurakucho, ...)

Taipei is up there.

>There is no exit from the JR lines that does not have clear signage to every other line

Several times I have come across a station (like Shinjuku) where I can see the same sign for the same train line placed in 4 or 5 different areas (all visible at once) all pointing in different directions.

that's because both directions will get you to the train you're trying to get to. Example: From JR either west exit (then turn right) or the east exit (then turn left) will lead to the Marunouchi line. Pick one and follow the signs. That's no different than a subway with multiple exits on to the same street at both ends of the station

Similarly there's at least 3 perpendicular corridors connecting the JR tracks themselves so the exit to each corridor (of which there are 2 each so 6 exits) will all be labeled as leading to the other tracks because all of them actually do lead to the other tracks.

Except when there's multiple of these as you follow the signs, it ends up just leading you in circles.

> Tokyo is absurdly gigantic, I would not suggest randomly walking it.

Tokyo is not really a big city like London, New York or Paris. It is like a bunch of smaller cities clumped together. In fact administratively, Tokyo is a prefecture, not a city.

So sure, it is huge, but you can random walk one of the "wards" like you would a smaller city. You can also walk between wards, but expect to walk a lot, and you are unlikely to make it your primary way of moving around, but I still recommend you do it at least once. Biking is also common (note: biking is done on the sidewalk there).

The women-only cars are only during certain times of day. Read the sign and it'll tell you: basically it's only during rush hour. Also, the women-only cars are at the ends of the trainset.

Only in Tokyo/Osaka/(IIRC Kyoto?)

There are certain cities that have made their women-only cars 24/7. More or less because the level of traffic they experience doesn't really make the loss of 1 car to 50% of the population any real detriment.

Sorry, should have specified: what I wrote above is for Tokyo.

I have a different view.

The Tokyo subway system is massive but not challenging. Everything is surprisingly systematic and consistent (unlike NYC's MTA which is legacy with express/non-express trains and cars with doors that don't open in certain stations) and with Google Maps, I had no problems getting anywhere with no backtracking. Announcements and notices are bilingual Japanese/English. Staff don't speak English but I've never had to speak to anyone -- the system is just so intuitive. In most subway systems around the world, you really almost never have to speak to anyone. Don't have Google Maps? Look at the subway map. It's big, but all you have to do is locate your destination and know where you are -- easy. The Japanese are great at creating intuitive visuals.

The female-only cars are common around the world (Rio has them too), not sure why it is a cause for mortification. There's a reason why they exist, and that reason exists in North America too.

Tokyo is big but extremely navigable for a foreigner.

I went to Japan last in 2015 with my aging dad. Subway was hard since no escalators/elevators at most stations and that marble they use for stairs becomes slippery really quickly during a rain. I wouldn’t have noticed either of these problems if my dad wasn’t mobility impaired (I didn’t know he degraded so much before the trip, so it was a bit of a surprise).

Trains stations were mostly fine in comparison.

Don't worry, any places foreigners are forbidden from entering, are clearly marked.

Where would that be?

I knew an Airforce guy stationed on Japan, he said the Japanese straight up made whole villages and districts off limits to foreigners. Not just to soldiers. He said it's to dissuade land flight of women.

Excuse my French, but bullshit. This is probably some game-of-telephone story of some bars near American military bases plastering "Japanese Only" signs on their doors so they don't have to deal with drunk GIs.

As a rule of thumb, the only places in Japan that do not welcome foreigners by default are in the sex industry.

Makes sense. Also probably private property, which is obvious for Japanese.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com