A lot of the interesting and weird details from the trip are missing from my blog posts, plus a few travellers tips we’ve learnt, so thought I would collate them here while on a train to Hakone.

Cleanliness and Politeness

For a city of 13+ million, Tokyo is remarkably clean. Almost impossibly so. Add to this the politeness and friendliness of pretty much every Japanese person we met, and it rates as one of the most pleasant cities I’ve ever visited.

Outstanding Transport

If we ever had to wait more than 3 minutes for a train or subway somewhere within the city, we were shocked. While Tokyo is a bit of a maze of multiple train lines and separate transport providers, they are all extremely well signposted and insanely efficient. Having said that, Google Maps’ transport suggestions helped us navigate the train and metro lines with much more ease.

Portable Wifi came with our apartment

Our accommodation was in a highly convenient spot in Shibuya, quiet but central, but the highlight might have just been that it came with a portable wifi hotspot we could take with us, meaning we were never without internet. This made travelling infinitely easier, and made last minute decisions achievable. I’ll be seeking out this sort of service wherever I travel from now on, would be totally worth the cost.

Begetarian?

As we’ve noted elsewhere in the blog, finding decent vegetarian food could be a bit of a struggle. We got better at it as the trip went on, relying on the Happy Cow app that helps vegetarian and vegan travellers find places to eat. Having an apartment where Marthese could make her own meals a few times also really helped.

Burger Quest

When I visited Japan back in 2009, my quest was to try every burger joint this country had to offer. I tried to do the same this trip, but lost momentum. Either the burgers have lost their shine, or I’m getting older and mildly more health conscious. I wish neither were true.

The International Credit Card Blues

There are a few problems with credit cards and ATMs here. While most places accept Credit Cards, we found that only specific cards would work in certain places. Everyone mostly swipes, so if your credit card strip is a bit worn, you’ll have problems. Thankfully we had 3 credit cards between us so could usually get at least one of them to work.
So we thought maybe the best strategy would be to carry more cash around. Well good luck with that, you foreign scum. The majority of ATMs do not accept Visa cards issued outside of Japan nor Maestro cards. Specific ones do (Post Office ones I believe) and a handful of bank ones, but they are hard to find outside of major centres. Shimokitazawa had no international ATMs and shops that were often too small to accept credit cards. Not a great combination.

Finding friends on my 3DS

StreetPass is a facility on your Nintendo 3DS that adds strangers to your device as you pass them, if they have their own 3DS active, and you can have limited interactions and play small mini-games with their profiles. I’ve had a 3DS for around 5 years, and in that time in Australia and travels around Europe, I met around 80 people. In less than 10 days in Japan, I’ve met another 90!! Carrying around my 3DS in my backpack then checking to see how many friends I’d met in a day (10 is unfortunately the maximum) was one of my trip highlights. I’m a huge child.

We saw a man walking with a monkey

Yes. A man walking his monkey down the street in busy Shibuya. This was the same day we saw a man riding his bike around with 6 poodles in the front trolley. JAPAN!

The Japanese do advertising correctly

On out first day in Tokyo we went to the cinema to kill some time. We were laughing at the insane animated advertisements that screened before the film, already totally in love with the culture. There is a real emphasis on cartoonish characters to communicate ideas and advertise products here, and between the huge billboards and posters adorning all manner of transport, the bombardment is ceaseless yet never overbearing. Except sometimes in Shibuya, where a women’s voice seemed to emanate from every corner, telling us something mysterious.