I really appreciate it. This looks exactly like the sort of thing I like to do, and I never even knew this show existed. Thanks!!
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easily - smile, learn a few polite words, point at stuff on menus (choose places with menus with pictures) - there are enough signs in English getting around is not hard.
If you want to travel out of Tokyo I highly recommend getting a tourist rail pass, they can only be bought outside the country so plan ahead, you collect them in the airport (have to show your recently stamped passport) - they’re a bit expensive and work almost anywhere (but only on the JR owned Tokyo subways) but well worth it - you just show them when you enter the station, you can either books seats for free or just get on and take free seats
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Point of clarification: The ATMs at 7/11 allow people with overseas bank cards to withdraw cash where most other ATMs dont. This is because of a few things including that the mag stripe is of a different size and also most other Japanese banks are not connected to STAR/CIRUS.
You can use US credit cards (VISA/MC, sometimes AMEX but not Discover) anywhere that accepts credit cards but do not expect to have a cashless trip as not everywhere accepts credit cards.
The JR Rail Pass is indeed awesome for tourists. You can get on all JR operated transit including trains (local and the shinkansen), busses, boats, etc. No need for reservations, you just get on and go. Get a sudden urge to be in Kyoto or Hiroshima? Just use your rail pass.
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Maybe it was because I was mostly hitting up noodle shops and other dives, but not many places seemed to take CCs at all or had purchase limits - 7/11 being a notable exception.
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So cool of you guys to share this. Thanks.
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My wife and I know a little Japanese. I have been teaching myself Kanji for the past 6 months, and was able to understand signs once in a while.
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7/11s are all over the place and they have ATMs with English instructions. The chip on my card is broken so the ATM wouldn’t accept it, but my wife was able to get cash.
Japan is one of the most cash-based nations on the planet. Plan to get cash out from 7/11 ATMs on a regular basis. Japan is also about the least likely place on the planet you’ll get mugged or pickpocketed, so don’t worry about carrying 10’s of thousands of yen.
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Have you used tabelog.com? When we visited Japan, we found some pretty amazing restaurants using tabelog instead of yelp.
Staying in Tokyo isn’t expensive at all -if you book 4-5 months ahead. I’m staying in a hotel in Nihonbashi (10mins on foot from Akihabara) for 45$ a night (that’s the price for a two-bed/double bed room with ensuite bathroom and fridge). If I booked it within a month the price would rise to around 100$ but that’s still cheap.
Eating in Tokyo isn’t also expensive as you can get great food for cheap and decent food for next to nothing -as someone else mentioned here 7-11s and similar convenience stores have huge selection of surprisingly tasty bento boxes.
You’ll spend your money though on stuff you’ll buy, small stuff, cute stuff, awesome stuff.
Oh I love Japan 
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It’s worth pointing out that the post office and Citibank also take foreign cards in their ATMs. Cash is very much the order of the day throughout Japan, even in Tokyo.
Citibank Japan no longer exists (EDIT as a retail bank), their retail banking operation was bought out and now operates under the name SMBC Prestia. Post bank ATMs are no longer the machines of choice as the post office has now limited service hours to postal and banking services, even main branches no longer open 24hrs/day.
You are completely correct that cash is king here. No place will refuse cash.
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a close call, though - first strip in September 2002, SMBC was formed by merger in April 2001 ; )
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I was here for the mergers of each of our three mega-banks (SMBC, MUFJ & Mizuho) but both Sumitomo and Mitsui banks had a long history before 2001 as well.
Mitsui Bank gave me a mortgage when I worked for part of the Mizuho group when Citibank Japan and Mizuho Bank both basically said “there’s the door white boy”. Thats a story for another day.
Thanks for the clarification; I was last there five years ago and it seems things have changed quite a lot. I don’t recall many Post Bank branches being open 24 hours even then though; was that just a Kanto thing?
In some ways yes, in others no. Retail banking is still in a weird state especially with the interbank or even main bank ATMs. There is talk of all the mega banks trying to get access to STAR/CIRUS before the Olypics but thats going to be hard for many reasons, least of which is the difficulty in getting STAR/CIRUS gateways working with the ZENGIN interbank network used here…
According to a friend of mine who used to work at Citi Corporate in Japan, the only real reason SMBC bought out Citi’s retail operations was for a quick fix access to STAR/CIRUS. The few “high value” customers that Citi Japan had retained were just icing on the cake.
All that said, the ATM card I get from a Japanese bank will not work overseas anywhere. grumble grumble rassin frassin shmikin bickin grumble grumble
Small ones might stay open “late” but never 24hr but big neighborhood or regional ones had 24hr service for ATMs and a postal service window even outside Kanto. I dont use the post bank for anything but losing the 24hr postal service window is a PITA for me.
I don’t travel a lot, though I’d like to. And Japan is definitely one of the places I’d like to visit. One of the things I’m anxious about, though, is the language. When you go to a restaurant and you see a menu, like the one in the article (https://i0.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/IMG_4002.jpg?w=1200), and you don’t speak or read Japanese, how do you handle it? I’d really like to know your thoughts and tips on this.
Most places will have display models of the food in the window. You can point to what you want if you cant deal with the menu at all.
