Although travelling around Japan is expensive when compared to other Missav – Housewife Asian countries, there are a variety of passes that can be used to limit the damage. There are a number of international ferries to Japan from South Korea, China, and Russia. These are not always price competitive with air tickets, and also often have long travel times. Japan’s two major airlines are flag carrier Japan Airlinesdead link (JAL, 日本航空 nihon kōkū) and All Nippon Airways (ANA, 全日本空輸 zen nippon kūyu, or just 全日空 zennikkū).
Shokudō (食堂 “cafeteria” or “dining hall”) serve up simple, popular dishes and teishoku sets at affordable prices (¥500-1,000). When in doubt, go for the daily special or kyō no teishoku (今日の定食), which nearly always consists of a main course, rice, soup and pickles. A staple of the shokudō is the donburi (丼), meaning a bowl of rice with a topping.
If you do become ill with a cold or other sickness, purchase a mouth-covering, cloth surgical mask. You will find that people frequently wear these out on trains and on the job. This filters your sneezing and coughing so you do not transmit to others.
Tickets for such buses can be purchased online (probably the cheapest option), at the point of departure (at a surcharge), or, with a command of some Japanese, at convenience stores. Most companies offer online reservations in English and several other languages. ANA, JAL, and their subsidiaries offer a special standby card, the Skymate Card, to young passengers (up to the age of 22). With the card, passengers can fly standby at half of the full published fare, which is usually less than the equivalent express train fare. The card can be obtained from any JAL or ANA ticket counter with a passport-sized photo and a one-time fee of ¥1,000.
Although English is taught in Japanese schools, the focus is entirely on formal writing and grammar. Outside of major tourist attractions and large international hotels, it is rare to find people who are conversant in English. When you travel beyond the large international cities like Tokyo, Kyoto or Osaka, you may find that even hotel reception staff are unable to converse in English. Reading and writing tends to come a lot better though, and quite a number of locals are able to understand written English well despite not being able to speak English. If lost, it can be practical to write out a question on paper in simple words and someone will likely be able to point you in the right direction. It can also be helpful to carry a hotel business card or matchbook with you, to show a taxi driver or someone if you lose your way.
Modern era
During that period, Prince Shotoku, the regent of Japan, sent envoys to Tang China to learn more about Chinese culture and practices and introduce them to Japan. The popular board game of Go is also believed to have been introduced to Japan during this period. But the Japanese people’s hard work and clever innovation turned it around, making it the second largest economy in the world. Japan’s high-tech industry makes some of the most popular electronic products in the world. With little fat or dairy, this diet is very healthy, which helps Japanese people live, on average, longer than any other people in the world.
Japan is one of the safest countries in the world, with crime rates significantly lower than that of most countries. Policing in Japan is the responsibility of the 47 prefectural governments, but all police officers have nationwide jurisdiction. Japan is a country obsessed with cleanliness and health hazards are few and far between. There are no communicable diseases of significance, and despite the name, Japanese encephalitis has been almost eradicated.
The most prominent joshi promotion, World Wonder Ring Stardom, shares ownership with New Japan. The biggest single event in puroresu is New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom show on January 4 at the Tokyo Dome. In the city, you can hail a taxi just about anywhere, but outside train stations and other transfer points you should board at a taxi stand. (The taxi stand will usually either have a long line of patient passengers, or a long line of idle taxis.) If the destination is a well-known location, such as a hotel, train station, or public facility, the name alone should be enough. Even in the major cities, you are very unlikely to encounter a taxi driver who can speak English, so carrying a pamphlet or card of your hotel or destination with the address on it can be very helpful. Likewise, have staff at your hotel write down the names and addresses of places you want to visit in Japanese to show your taxi driver.
Understanding the Concept of “Kanji”
- This is because many of these objects were hidden in temples and shrines back when Christianity was forbidden.
- For now, let your kanji studies give you most of your vocabulary.
- They were closer related to Europeans or Mongols.19 They were later conquered and replaced by the Yayoi people (early Japanese and Ryukyuans).
- In Shimabara, you can visit the ruins of Hara Castle, where the Christians gathered and were attacked.
If you are 28 years old and still live at home, do you really want to bring your date back to your folks’ house? If you are a married couple in a 40-square-metre (430 sq ft) apartment with two grade school children, do you really want to get down to it at home? They can be seedy, but mainly they are just practical and fulfil a social need. The only choices for diet soda will be Diet Coke, Coke Zero, or Diet Pepsi.
Sakana Omakase Sushi
There are also a number of Japanese family restaurants (ファミレス famiresu or ファミリーレストラン famirii resutoran), serving a wide variety of dishes, including steak, pasta, Chinese style dishes, sandwiches, and other foods. Though their food is relatively uninteresting, these restaurants usually have illustrated menus, so travellers who cannot read Japanese can use the photos to choose and communicate their orders. Department store basements are often huge spaces filled with expansive amounts of fresh food from throughout the country and local dishes. You can get bento boxes, take out food on a stick, bowls of soup, and often find samples of treats to try. You can also find restaurants in department stores, often on the top floors.
Come here if you have something to celebrate, but heads up—sometimes we leave hungry. Often, ga implies distinction of the subject within the topic, so the previous example comment would make the most sense within a topic where not all of the relevant subjects were animals. For example, in Kono ganbutsu wa zou ga doubutsu da (この贋物は象が動物だ), the particle wa indicates the topic is kono ganbutsu (“this toy” or “these toys”). The equivalent sentence, “As for the Japanese language, grammar is easy,” might be a general statement that Japanese grammar is easy or a statement that grammar is an especially easy feature of the Japanese language.
