And we're gonna talk about some tips for travelling in Japan

Because Spring and Summer are coming up

And I know lots of you guys are gonna come visit here

So we thought we would think of some helpful things to tell you

to hopefully improve your trip

So the first one that we both thought was really important was

Get a train card

Let me show you mine so you know what I'm talking about

I have a sticker over top of mine

So you can't really see it

But it's a little card like this

It's an IC card

And you can fill this up with money

And just tap it on the gates at the train station

and you can go through

and it'll automatically take off how much money you need to pay for that trip

off of your balance

So instead of looking up... Oh I'm in Tokyo and I need to go to Shibuya

Ok that's like 170 yen... so I have to buy a 170 yen ticket

You don't have to do that

You can just keep a balance on your card

and just use it without thinking

And when it runs out you can fill it up again at the machines

It saves so much time and stress

It just makes travelling so much easier

There are a lot of different brands for them

Some of them don't work on every train line

Right

So if you get yours in Tokyo, it might not work on every train line in every other city

And same for train cards from other cities as well

And then there are also benefits for some of them

Some of them will let you accumulate points

So you can save money

That's so cool! The ones in Tokyo don't

All around it's just very useful and awesome

You should get one

You can get these at the train machines where you buy tickets

There'll be an English button so just push that

It's pretty straightforward

There are a lot of helpful apps you can get if you're gonna be in Japan

One of them would be a train app

It's kind of like a life saver

Very recommended!

When you're travelling from one place to another

The app will automatically calculate the quickest route, the cheapest route

So you don't have to go look at maps yourself

Maps suck, the train maps suck here

They're really confusing

If you get this app you can be like "I'm in Tokyo right now, and I wanna go here!"

And then you can choose what you want

If you want the cheapest route or the fastest route

There's English ones, and there's Japanese ones

I use the Japanese version

So I say Tokyo at the top, Shibuya at the bottom

So the station in the middle here is the station you need to transfer at

So it tells you you have 4 minutes to get to your transfer spot

Just very helpful!

Something that may not be common sense in a lot of countries these days

Japan is a cash society

So you kinda need to have cash here when you go around

A lot of stores don't take credit cards

Especially if they're smaller or not in a big city

Or if you're paying for admission to something

Like a shrine, it probably won't take a credit card

I would say about 70% of the places I go don't accept credit cards

Even ones that you would really think would

Like a big department store or something

You'll be surprised, so always have cash on you for sure

So Tokyo has 2 main airports

Narita and Haneda airport

Narita airport is actually located in Chiba prefecture

Which is the prefecture beside Tokyo

And it takes quite a while to get into Tokyo from Narita airport

So if possible...

It's kinda rare because most planes do go to Narita

if you're coming from outside of Japan

But if you can get a flight that comes into Haneda, I'd say go with that one

It's a lot easier

You'll be able to get into downtown Tokyo a lot quicker

Always go for Haneda if you can

A cool thing about Japan is that there's basically no tipping here

So you don't have to worry when you go to a restaurant, you don't leave a tip

You don't leave a tip for taxi drivers or... anything

I can't think of any instance where you would be expected to leave a tip

I've never been in a situation where I've had to leave a tip here

So don't worry about it! Hair dressers, taxis, pizza man

Nothing, literally. Just remember no tipping in Japan!

And you'll be fine

Even if you feel like you wanna leave a tip, I don't think you should

Even if you feel like "This person was really awesome, I wanna give them a bonus!"

They'll just feel awkward

And they'll come running outside to give it back to you

So it's probably better not to do it even if you really want to

Because they just don't really understand the tipping culture here

They assume you lost it or something

And I think they feel really weird about trying to keep it

Exactly, even if you try to explain to them

If you just say thank you, you are above most customers

That's so true!

No one says thank you so they'll really appreciate that

I find that really awkward

When you're in the grocery store and they ring in your groceries and hand them to you

or give you your change or something

Most people just take it

And I'm always like ah, thank you!

So seriously, if you just say arigatou gozaimasu everytime something happens

They're happy

They'll know that you appreciate their service

This'll probably be a really helpful one for lots of you guys

I know that it's come in very handy for me

Google Translate!

I know it has a horrible reputation, and you guys are all thinking but it sucks!

and it translates things horribly!

It really does.

But there is one function on it that is very awesome and very accurate

That is the camera function

If you open up Google translate

You will see a little camera picture here

And if you click the camera

It will turn into a camera, and you can find some kanji

Let's find some kanji that we can't read

Oh yeah there we go!

So you're in the toy store, and you're wondering what the heck this is

So what you do is take a picture of the Japanese writing on the box

And it will pick up any kanji that it sees in the picture

and you can just highlight with your finger the ones that you want it to read

And it will give you the English for it! Refridgerator!

Isn't that so cool?

With old school kanji apps you had to write them out with your finger while looking at it

or you had to look through a list of kanji to find the correct one

But with this all you have to do is take a picture

So cool!

Yeah it's very very awesome I use this all the time

Really reccomend that not only for kanji, but if you can't read hiragana or katakana

It will translate that for you as well

So download Google translate and use the camera function

So there are 3 potential problems you could run into with bathrooms here

The most common is that they don't have soap when you're washing your hands

So I always carry a bottle of hand sanitizer around with me

because I get sick really easily

So I always wanna wash my hands

Especially before I eat

#2 is they might not have a way to dry your hands

That's also very common

So some people carry handkerchiefs around with them

Like old times, handkerchiefs

Or like a little face cloth

So you can dry your hands after you use the bathroom

You'll see that facecloths are sold EVERYWHERE

And you're probably wondering WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FACE CLOTHS

It's because people keep them in their bags so they can dry their hands

I don't I'm not that crazy, I just...

That works too

And the third problem, which is quite rare but does happen occasionally

There are some toilets that don't have toilet paper

Oh I've never come across one of those

I've come across 2 so far

Yikes

I think one was in the Nagoya subway station

I think they had a problem with people stealing the toilet paper

So they got rid of it

They might have it now, it was a long time ago

Another one was in Akita prefecture

We were driving around the backroads and found an outhouse at the bus stop, and there was no toilet paper

Not like they ran outta toilet paper, there was no place to put toilet paper

But that's not very common

But just in case, bring tissues or something

But the hand thing is very common

You'll very rarely see paper towels

and sometimes you'll see the hand driers

Okay one thing that is shopping related

If you're going to try on clothes, most likely you will have to take your shoes off

before entering the change room

You'll be able to tell if you need to

because they'll have a little step up to go into the change room

If there's a step, that always means you need to take your shoes off

It's usually carpeted too

Yeah there'll be a carpet

If it looks nice and clean, you probably need to take your shoes off

If they just have a curtain around an area

And it's just the same type of flooring going all the way through

then you might be okay leaving your shoes on

But I'd say most often you need to take them off

So if you're unsure, maybe just look at someone and point at your shoes

They'll probably know what you're asking

I'm sure that lots of people ask that

If you're unsure I would say to take them off to be safe

One other thing about changing rooms

is you'll find this little white face mask thingy inside of your changing room

That is to put over your face if you're going to try a shirt on

so that your makeup doesn't rub off on the shirt

So it's just like a white bag thing that you put over your face

It feels so dumb

I know!! (sometimes I don't do it...)

You put it on your head and then you put your shirt on

So that you don't get the makeup on it

That's pretty cool, it's annoying as hell, but it's cool

So that's what that is!

So I don't actually go to clubs or anything so I haven't experienced this myself

But word on the street! The cool people say!

If you are walking along a street full of host clubs, kyabakura etc

So like Roppongi, or Shinjuku... Kabukicho

If they have people on the street who are trying to pull you into the club

then that is supposed to be like not a good place to go into

It's not the same if a host is out on the street trying to attract customers

But if someone is actually trying to pull you in

Then a lot of those are kinda scammy

Like they will give you a really high cover charge, like $100

And then they'll force you to pay it before you can leave

So be kinda careful if you're gonna go to a place like that

Maybe try to go with friends who have been there before

Try to find a place that has a good reputation

Yeah, good reviews online or something

Don't go randomly into clubs because some of them are pretty pricey

Okay this should probably be #1

Conbinis in Japan are the best thing ever!!!

Conbini is short for convenience store

Because it's convenient!

But like SUPER convenient! Not like convenience stores back in Canada that suck

Japanese convenience stores have everything! Literally everything.

Snacks, clothing...

If you like spilled some food on your shirt and you need a new shirt

they sell tank tops or collared shirts

They even sell hair dye!

Because if Japanese people have coloured hair and they have to run to an interview or something