5 tips for travelling to Japan for the first time

So you want to go to Japan for the first

time ever and you're a bit worried,

you're a bit anxious. Do I need to speak

Japanese? Do I need to learn how to use

chopsticks? Well, the answer would be no

and no. Okay, so in this video I'm going

to try and give you a few tips for your

first time in Japan. Okay, what do we need

to do first? We need to book your

accommodation. Well, that depends. Are you

going for 1 week, 1 month, or a whole

year? If you're going for a week, you can

just go to a hotel. Just go on Booking.com

and there are lots of hotels on there. Or

you can go to Airbnb. But I wouldn't

really trust Airbnb because I feel a bit

nervous going to a stranger's house. I

mean, what if he's like a serial rapist

and he kidnaps you and ties you up in his

basement? So if you're feeling courageous,

you can try out an Airbnb. Just remember

to bring your taser and your pepper spray.

Now, if you're going for a longer time,

maybe 4 weeks or a few months or 90 days

like I usually did, you can go to a guest

house. Now guest houses are pretty good

because, well, they're the cheapest option

you're gonna find. They're even cheaper

than dormitories because even if you stay

at a dormitory for months and months,

it's gonna start costing a lot of money.

So if you want a cheap place to stay,

just stay in a guest house. And yeah,

it depends how much you spend. The cheap

guest houses are gonna be really dirty and

run-down, but the more expensive ones are

going to be cleaner and more modern. The

advantages of staying at a guesthouse is

you can meet people. If you stay at a

hotel, it's going to be very difficult to

meet people unless you go to like a bar

and then just start randomly chatting to

strangers, which I guess is fine if you're

comfortable, comfortable with doing that

kind of thing. Or you could just go and

stay at— you could rent an apartment, a

single-person apartment, but I'm not

really sure how you do that. It sounds

kind of confusing. You need like a

guarantor and you need to give them key

money and they need to give you like an

interview to see if you're the right kind

of person for the place. A lot of the

Taiwanese people that were going to my

Japanese language school at the time,

they were in single-person rented

apartments and I found this really strange

because they're usually a lot more

expensive to rent an apartment and you

have to pay for things like electricity

and heating separately. If it's cold and

you use the heater a lot, then you're

gonna have to pay a lot of extra money

just to keep the heating on. But in a

guest house, all the, all the bills are

included in the rent. The water, the

electricity, the heating, it's all

included. I guess it depends on what's

more important to you. Is privacy more

important to you, or is a lower price and

being able to meet people easily more

important? I don't really feel like being

able to speak Japanese is that helpful.

Sure, it's It's relatively helpful if you

need to ask a specific thing, but in

general it's very easy to get around

Japan, Tokyo especially, just knowing

English because there is English signage

everywhere. Everything's in English. All

the ticket machines, the machines that

you're going to use, are— they have

English options. And there's Wi-Fi

everywhere. Go to any convenience store,

go to any shopping mall, they'll have

Wi-Fi. So just create a Wi-Fi account.

Just— you just have to enter your email

address and create a password, and you can

just go onto Google Maps if you get lost.

You don't even have to talk to anyone. I

never had to talk to anyone ever if I got

lost. I went into 7-Eleven, logged onto

the Wi-Fi, went onto Google Maps, found my

way. It was easy peasy. If you do end up

in a situation where you have to ask a

Japanese person something and they don't

understand English, which is going to be

most of the time, Then you can download

Google Translate and you can actually

download the languages so you can use it

offline. You just select Japanese on

Google Translate for the app— on the app,

and then you click download and it

downloads the language right onto your

phone. You don't need internet connection

and you can use Google Translate. It's

amazing. It's like magic. Or you can get

one of the bazillion English to Japanese,

Japanese to English offline dictionaries

that are on the App Store. They're really

good. You don't need internet connection

because they're offline. Offline

dictionaries. The only problem is if

you're going to go to a convenience store

and you buy food, they're going to ask you

a lot of questions, especially if you buy

something like a burger or a hot dog.

They're going to ask you if you want it

heated up. Now the first thing they're

going to ask you is, do you have a points

card? And it will sound like this: Pointo

card o mochi desu ka? And if you have one,

which you probably won't, just say hai and

then give it to them. If you don't have

one, just sayないです orありません. And then if

you have food that's reheatable, like a

bento dinner box, like spaghetti or

something, they'll ask you if you want it

heated up, and it will sound like this:

atatame masu ka? If you want it heated up,

you can just sayはい. はい is just yes. And if

you don't want it heated up, just shake

your head and go いや大丈夫です. Actually, you

probably don't even have to say anything.

You can just shake your head and they

would Understand that as no, and you can

just nod your head, and that can then

they'll understand that as yes. They'll

probably ask you if you want a plastic bag

as well, and it will sound like something

like "レジ袋いりますか?" And then if you want one,

just say "はい." If you don't want one,

just say "いりません" or "いらないです" or "大丈夫です."

There's actually so many more things that

they could potentially ask you. For

example, if you buy a cold drink. And you

have hot food as well, they'll ask you if

you want to separate them. They'll give

you 2 bags, one for the hot food and one

for the cold food. I can't remember how

they ask you that. It's something like,

fukuro wa o wake shimasu ka? Something

like that. And then you just say, yeah,

nod, say hai if you want to say yes. And

you want to say no, just say daijoubu

desu. That's just like, it's okay. Oh,

and sometimes they'll ask you if you need

chopsticks or if you want a fork. Yeah,

they can ask you a lot of questions and it

gets very irritating. So all you want to

do is buy a bloody burger and you have to

answer the Spanish Inquisition in Japanese

because they won't understand English.

The first time I went to Japan and I

bought some food from— why is my voice

going like this? The first time I went to

Japan, I went to the konbini. I don't know

what's happening to my voice. The first

time I went to Japan, I went to the

konbini to buy food and they asked me so

many questions and I wasn't prepared for

it. Really— I didn't know what to expect

when they were going to ask me all these

different things, and I kind of panicked,

and I just said I didn't understand what

you're saying. And it was really awkward.

And then the staff behind the, um,

register, she just like pointed at the

microwave like really awkwardly. It was so

funny. I was so embarrassed. After that,

I went back home to the, um, guest— to my

room, went on to Google, and I Googled

like What do— what will they ask you in

Japan when you go to a shop? And there

were so many things you had to learn just

to buy a bloody burger. I guess if you

look really Western, like you look white

or you look black, or— well, if you don't

look Japanese, then they'll probably just

assume that you don't know how to speak

Japanese and they won't ask you anything.

They'll just do it— what— they'll do what

they feel is right, or they might just

point at the microwave. My problem is I

kind of look Japanese, or I look Asian.

So Japanese people kind of expect that I

can speak fluent Japanese, which I'm okay

now, but when I first went to Japan, I

wasn't very good and everything was new.

I guess you could just avoid buying hot

food. You could just buy like a sandwich

or rice ball. That way they won't ask you

if you want to heat it up. It's not that

difficult to learn. Um, what else is

there? Buying tickets. Oh, you need a

Suica card. Wait, let me find it. Look, I

found it. Here it is. I still have my

Suica card. It looks like this. You need

one of these. You definitely need one of

these. Look, I even got— I even have my

name printed on it. Can you see? It's,

um, it makes life so much easier. You just

put on like ¥5,000 and you can use it for

days and days. You just scan it when you

get on the train by the ticket barrier and

it goes beep and you get on. You don't

have to keep buying tickets every time you

want to go on the train. And you can even

use it in the konbini, in the convenience

store, to buy stuff. They'll all accept

this, and you can even buy drinks at the

vending machine. You can use this for so

many things, and it just makes life so

much easier. Just— there's ticket machines

everywhere. You have to look for the green

one that says Suica on it, and then you

just tap on the English one if you don't

understand Japanese, and then you do

choose purchase, um, Suica card,

and then you put some money on it, put

some cash, and you're ready to go. You

just have to make sure it's— there's money

on it when you're getting off the train,

because if you try— if you go into the

ticket barrier and pay but you don't have

enough money to get out of the ticket

barrier, then it's not going to work.

It's going to go— it's going to like make

a warning sign. If there's going to be a

red flashing light by the ticket barrier,

and it's kind of embarrassing, then you

just go to the train station person who

works by the ticket barrier, and then

he'll take your card, he'll scan it, and

then he'll say you need to pay this much

money, and then he'll let you out. It's

not a big deal. There's this one time I

did that, and I went to the ticket office

and there was no person— there was no

people there, so I just walked out without

paying. I had to go back the next day

because I couldn't get back in because

they hadn't scanned this to reset it, so I

had to pay anyway. Or you can do what this

American guy that I knew did. He just

walked really closely behind the person in

front of him and he got out

of the ticket barrier before the gate shut

and he didn't have to pay. It was kind of

funny. He was always doing stuff like

that. He said, oh, if you get caught,

then you can just say, oh, sorry, I

dropped my ticket, and then they'll be

like, oh, that's fine, and then you just

pay. They won't accuse you of, um, being

up to no good. Uh, what else do you need

to know? Oh, what about karaoke? So maybe

you want to go to karaoke but you don't

have friends like me. Um, it's okay, it's

not too difficult. It was a bit

intimidating for me at first because if

you go with a Japanese person, they'll ask

you loads of questions. They'll give you

like a menu of different prices and

different courses. For example, there's

the all-you-can-eat course,

all-you-can-drink course, and then there's

like Happy hour, which means you can sing

as long as you want for a set amount of

money. I don't understand what the big

deal about food is. I mean, you're going

there to sing, not to eat. If you want to

eat, go to a restaurant. So what you do

when you go to karaoke is just go up to

the counter and they'll have a piece of

paper. You have to write your name, your

age, and the amount of hours that you're

gonna sing for. Now the problem with this

is it's all in Japanese, but this kind of

It's easy, but don't worry, it's easy to

figure out because it's easy to tell where

you have to write your name. And then the

next box, you write your age. You just

look at what other people have written

above you. So if it says 27 above you,

obviously that's going to be the age.

It's not going to be 27 hours. And then

next to that, you write how many hours you

want to stay. Usually what they do is

they'll call out your name when there's a

room ready for you to go into, but If you

have a foreign name, they won't actually

call out your name because they're kind of

embarrassed to shout out a foreigner's

name, and they probably don't even know

how to pronounce it properly. So they'll

find you and they'll walk up to you and

they'll tell you face to face that your

room is ready. I'm not sure if they would

do that in English. For me, they did it in

Japanese, but it was kind of nice because

usually to the Japanese customers,

they'll just shout out Blah blah blah,

your room's ready. But for me, they walked

up to me and came and told me, um,

personally, which is kind of nice. I guess

it's because I wrote Daniel on the sheet

and they weren't sure how to pronounce it,

or maybe they were embarrassed to say it.

I don't know. I really enjoy going to

karaoke by myself because you don't have

to feel embarrassed or anxious about

singing in front of other people. Also,

you don't have to wait for other people.

You can just sing as much as you want,

whenever you want. If you go with like a

group of people, 5 to 10 people, you never

get to sing. You get to sing like twice in

an hour, and then the rest of the time

you're just sitting there waiting for

everyone else to finish. And when you're

singing, no one's listening.

Battery's running out. When you're

singing, no one's listening. They're all

talking. I went to karaoke once with a

group of Taiwanese people, and And they

just— they were talking the whole time I

was singing, and it was really irritating.

I just wanted to say, shut up, I'm

singing! And then no one's paying

attention anyway because they're just

figuring out what song they're gonna sing

for their turn, and it just gets really

irritating. So I prefer going alone,

or at least just with 2 people.

Wait, I just need to do my thumbnail. How

about— how about this? I'll title it 5

Tips for Japan— Going to Japan for the

First Time, so I need 5. Okay,

thumbnail's done. Um, I'm not really sure

what else is there. Yeah, don't worry if

you don't know how to speak Japanese,

it's not necessary. Everything's in

English. Uh, if you get lost, just go to a

convenience store, go on the Wi-Fi, and,

um, look on Google Maps.

Uh, hai means yes, daijoubu desu means

it's okay. So that's like yes and no, or

just shake your head or nod your head like

this or like this. I'm pretty sure they'll

understand what yes and no is. I know that

your average Japanese person, they can't

speak English, but I'm pretty sure they'll

understand what yes and no means. Oh, we

can talk about seasons. Definitely don't

go from June. June until

September is probably the worst time to go

because it's so hot. It gets really humid

and sticky, and you just feel drained and

exhausted all the time. And it's boiling

hot, and the mosquitoes are everywhere.

You'll get bitten so many times. You'll

get— I even got bit on my feet, even when

I was wearing socks. They bite through

your socks, and it really hurts when they

bite on your toe because it all swells up,

and when you walk, it's painful. And I get

really bad reactions when I get bitten by

a mosquito. My whole hand swells up. Look

at my hand. Can you see how veiny and bony

it is. When I get bitten by a mosquito in

my hand, you— all those veins and bones

and cartilage, you can't see any of it.

It puffs up and it looks like I have a fat

person's hand. It's really weird. And if

you get bitten on your fingers, it swells

up so much you can't even bend your

finger. That's what happened to me. So

you're gonna need a lot of mosquito

repellent and mosquito balm.

I'd just say don't go in summer because

it's horrible, and summer is usually when

the, the plane tickets are the most

expensive. I usually went in November to

January, in the coldest time, because the

airplane tickets are really cheap. It's

really cold, which I like. All the insects

are dead, and usually it snows, and Tokyo

looks really nice when it snows because

The snow just blankets all the

filth and the shit, and it makes it look

really pretty. No, Japan is very clean.

Tokyo is a very clean place in general,

but you go to some places early in the

morning or late in the evening,

everyone's been drinking and there's just

puke and vomit and rubbish lying around

all over the place. It usually gets

cleaned up pretty quickly though. It is

funny though, this doesn't really happen

in the UK, but you walk around Tokyo at

night and there's just like people that

passed out on the street, just sleeping

on the street in the city, and they don't

give a shit. They're not, they're not

worried about being mugged or being

murdered or being robbed. In London, you

would get robbed so quickly you would have

nothing left. You'd just be lying, end up

lying there naked. You wouldn't— you might

not even be alive. But that's one of the

great things about Japan. You can just

sleep on the street and you'll be fine.

No one will even steal your stuff. So

yeah, those are my 5 tips. I don't

actually know if I said 5 things, but who

cares. So those are my tips on going to

Japan for the first time ever. I don't

know if it was very helpful. I don't know

if you could tell, but this wasn't really

a serious video. And if you liked the

video, leave a like. And subscribe and—

ugh, I hate saying that stuff. This is so

irritating. I was just editing my video

and I realized half of it, the audio is

out of sync. This is the problem with this

phone, the LG G5. It does this if you make

a really long video, like 10 minutes, 15

minutes long. After about 5 minutes, the

audio starts going out of sync and I

don't really know how to fix it.

I mean, I could go into my video editor,

detach the audio, and then slide the audio

a bit to the left or the right, but it's

such a pain and it's really difficult

because even if I do that, the audio still

doesn't match up to the video properly.

So I found sort of a solution to this

problem. What I do is, um, I should not

make a really long video. I should make

each video 4 minutes long, and then after

about 4 minutes, I'll just stitch the

4-minute videos all together into one long

video instead of just recording one 10 to

15 minute video all at once. I don't know

why this phone does this. This never

happened on the Samsung. It didn't happen

on the HTC. It's like some, some kind of,

um, problem with the software. It must be

the software, right? Because the hardware

is fine. So that's

why half of this video the audio is out of

sync. Sorry about that. I'm gonna try not

to let that happen next time because I've

come up with this solution. I don't know

if it's gonna work or not. It's really

frustrating. Yeah, I could just use this

camera, but I don't feel comfortable using

this camera. I don't know why. There's

something about it, like a psychological

thing about it, that it makes me feel

really nervous when I use this camera,

and I can't make a video properly relaxed.

I feel so relaxed, so relaxed using my

phone as a camera. I don't know what it is

about it, but there's something

psychological about my phone that makes me

feel very comfortable about using it.

Oh, and I forgot one last tip. So if

you're on the train and you find yourself

surrounded by women, that's because you're

on the women's carriage. For every train,

about 1 or 2 of the carriages are

women-only carriages, and that's because

Japan has this huge problem where men get

on the train and they start touching up

women, and the women don't have the guts

to say anything about it, like they're

ashamed about it, so they just let it

happen. So they have to have women-only

carriages to prevent this from happening.

It's okay if you get on it by accident,

you're not going to get sent to jail or

told off. Usually there are a few men on

there anyway, even Japanese men, because

maybe they didn't realize that it was a

women's carriage. But I just found it kind

of embarrassing because I looked up And

I couldn't see any men. It was only women.

And I'm like, oh shit, I'm on the women's

carriage again. And it's a bit awkward.

So that's the end of the video. Um, yeah,

I'll see you in the next one real soon.

Okay, I know I said it was the end of the

video, but I have one last thing to add.

You people in 2016 with your smartphones,

you don't know how lucky you are. The

first time I went to Japan was in 2010.

And no one had smartphones. Like, they

were just becoming— well, not many people

had them. There was like the iPhone 3,

but they weren't very good and it wasn't

really developed. And most people didn't

even have a smartphone. I didn't have a

smartphone. I had this shitty little flip

phone and I had a Japanese and English

dictionary, um, one of those electronic

ones that looks like a Nintendo DS. And

there was nothing like Google Translate or

Google Maps. You couldn't just go into the

convenience store and log on to the Wi-Fi.

Log on to the Wi-Fi with what? With your

laptop? So yeah, if you're going in 2016,

you're gonna have so— and you have a

smartphone, you're gonna have so much of

an easier time than I did when I was in

Japan in 2010 with no smartphone. You

didn't have Google Maps, didn't have

Google Translate. You have so many apps

you can download now, stuff like English

to Japanese offline dictionary or Tokyo

offline map or Tokyo underground subway

map. Yeah, we had none of those in 2010.

It was so difficult. You, you

whippersnappers wouldn't understand how

difficult life was before smartphones were