I’ve always been immersed in Japanese culture. Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Beyblade, Death Note, Code Geass, Naruto, Kimi no Na wa, Murakami.
But even that could not have prepared me for the whirlwind that Japan is.
Movies, anime and books capture only a sliver of the Japanese experience. The sensory overload of being in the streets of Shinjuku or Shibuyu, listening to the cacophony of the eclectic crowd crossing the crowded streets, under lucid neon lights and drenched in the myriads flavours emanating from the streets is hard to convey.
Japan is everything you hope it to be and more; it’s one of the few places you experience a real culture shock because it is unlike any other place in the planet
Food
My greatest takeaway of Japan and the reason I’ll keep revisiting has to be the food. I’ve had probably 20-30 full meals and countless knick-knacks in the time I spent in Japan, and all of those meals would probably feature in the top 100 meals I’ve every had in my life. From delicious ramen in a ramshackle store, to a Michelin star omakase experience with 12 courses - we had them all and all of them were equally delicious (apart from every Instagram recommendation and even they were great). The variety of cuisines that you can try is dumfounding - sushi, sashimi, teppanyaki, kaiseki, ramen, udon noodles, yakitori, yakiniki, cup noodles to just name a few of the things we tried.
You have to book popular places places way ahead of time.
Most of the places don’t seat more than 20 people at a time, so the ones offering Omakase require reservation. We got lucky by walking into some of the famous places because we were relatively in the off peak season.
Tabelog is much better than Google Maps.
This is a consequence of ratings inflation. The bar of food is very high in Japan and any place you enter would have great food, which makes Google Maps reviews useless because they are always 4+. Hopefully the Gods of Tablecheck show mercy.
Knowing a few Japanese phrases goes a long distance. Google Translate is your friend.
Travel
There is a method to the madness while travelling in Japan.
Their transport system is by far the most advanced I’ve ever seen in any part of the world. For example, we were able to travel from our hotel in Kyoto to our hotel in Osaka in under 43 minutes by using metros and express trains, and we didn’t have to walk more than 5m on either side.
But being the most advanced transport system comes with the challenges of navigating the maze. I hope you never get caught at Shinjuku station at midnight trying to figure out the last train to your hotel.
Again, Google Maps is your friend here. And if you’ve never used Google Maps to navigate directions of metros, exits of underground systems, now would be a good time to learn.
Money
You can get by without cash, but then you would be getting by without the quintessential experience of Japan - street food, fun and random frolic. So I would highly advise against it.
ATMS are a plenty if you’re like me who doesn’t like to carry more than required cash.
The number of payment methods in Japan on most restaurants is mind boggling. Chances are your card - credit/debit/forex/charge/prepaid will work.
But the holy grail of money is the TRAVEL CARD or Suica. It’s a prepaid travel card which works on metros/trains/buses/restaurants/stores.
You should add SUICA to your Apple Wallet. The express travel card works even if your phone battery is dead.
You will have to change the Media Location on your phone to US (don’t change apple store location, change the media location - guide. Once done, you can goto Add Card -> Add Travel Card -> Suica. I had a credit card in Apple Wallet which made life so much easier.
Culture
As mentioned in the beginning, the culture shock of Japan is real.
The streets have all kinds of eclectic people - from salary men and women in suits and ties to kids donning the whackiest street wear clothes possible. The trains will have folks returning from work in a work attire to folks in casual cosplay clothes or gothic appearances and no one batting an eye-lid.
Lawsons and Family Marts - the convenience stores are a treasure trove. They are stocked with delicious take away food, juices that you can prepare at the store, cup-noodles with hot water dispensers for you to eat; and all kinds of potent alcohol with people consuming food and alcohol right outside the stores.
You can spend hours people watching at Shinjuku, Harijuku, Dotonburi in Osaka.
Vending machines abound the streets in the most unlikeliest of places and serving the most bizarre things possible - orange juice, water, CDs, pokemon cards to name a few.
Also, strangely there are no trash cans anywhere. You carry your own trash and dispose it off at your work or your hotel.
The beauty of Japan is that you can experience Zen at a Shinto shrine in Mt. Fuji to the anxiety of traversing Shinjuku station in the same trip.
You can revel at the peace of shrines which are centuries old or marvel at mega structures of the modern metropolises and transport systems that work like.
And this is also probably the reason that a single trip to Japan can hardly capture what this country has to
offer.
And this also probably the reason I’ve already planned my next visit there.