Hello.
Its been a while. Here a few tips for all who wants to go to Japan. Many said its hard since Japanese cant speak English. It is true, but let me teach you bit by bit of a Japanese touring. You must always be confident and know who to ask and how to ask. Broken Japanese is acceptable. My japanese is no good but at least they can understand.
Tips one : must know the basic words of some things. For Muslim, buta niku means pork. So if you want to eat at the restaurant you shall say this
Q) sumimasen, dochira no ryori wa buta niku ga haitenai desuka?
Sorry, which of the food does not contain any pork meat?
A) kochira ya, kochira ya.
Over here, over here.
They definitely will ask why you cant eat. Here are the question
Q) nande buta niku wo tabemasen ka?
Why you cant eat pork meat?
A) watashi tachi wa isuram (Islam) kyo desune. Buta niku wa dame desu ne.
We cant take pork as we are a Muslim.
If you only want to eat fish or vegetable, you can ask this
Q) dochira no tabemono wa sakana /yasai dake haite masu ka?
Which of the food contains only fish/vegetable?
For Muslim, dont even try Ramen cuz the soup contain pork stock. Udon/soba is safe. You dont have to worry. But if you really particular, then eat Sushi everyday which you can be broke almost by a day. Hamburger is a burger but some is pure beef some are not.
Okay. Enough of the food. Now the road. Please remember the name of the place you get off from d train or taxi or bus. They usually will mention the place or the name.
To ride a taxi, print d map/address. It does help you to get to the place.
Attach also is the picture of Tokyo Metro Subway. To buy ticket, they do have English machine so you dont worry. Only thing is, they dont have like KTM which we put destination and price. They only show price and you need to know which is which. So to ask the guard as per below
Q) watashi wa aKihabara (change according to the location) ni ikitai desu kedo, ikura desuka?
I want to go to Akihabara, how much would it cost?
A) hyaku roku jyu yen, (160), hyaku kyu jyu yen (190), ni hyaku san jyu yen (230) , san pyaku ni jyu yen (320). (sometimes, they will just show you the price. Beside the machine also have the chart. Depends on d place, some place they only have Japanese., some they have both.
In the subway, there are many exit. Seriously pay attention to the exit and coming in, you may get lost if you couldnt remember.
Ichi ban me - no 1
Ni ban me - no 2
San ban me - no 3
Shi ban me - 4
Go ban me - 5
Roku ban me-6
Nana ban me-7
Hachi ban me-8
Kyu ban me-9
Jyu ban me- 10
If you stay in hotel, just print or take a pic name of the hotel. If you get lost, you can show the taxi driver the picture. They can help you with GPS.
Let just say you totally lost. Cant find any taxi stand or train station, police station is always there. Ask the young ones. They may know English rather than the older police. But the best part, see the map nearby you. Its quite accurate.
Migi - kanan
Hidari - kiri
Ushiro - behind
Mae - infront
Massugu - straight
Shingo - traffic light
Kado - corner
I would try to see if i can get you more tips. Mata ne (catch up later!)
