Hi there!
The goal of this Flashpacking Japan website is to give you confidence in traveling around Japan on your own! Japan has a reputation for being a difficult place to travel for foreigners. I believe that once you know the basics, Japan is actually quite a convenient place for independent travel! All you need to make your life easy when it comes to travel in Japan is google maps and google translate! ðĪŠ
Japan is known for having a good public transportation system, and that’s great for you as an independent traveler!
I’m American, born and raised in the US. I grew up going to Japan every summer to visit my grandparents. My mom was born and raised in Kyoto. I am half Japanese, half white.
As an elementary school child, I went to school 6 days a week. 5 days a week I went to school like a normal American child would go Monday through Friday, and then on Saturday I would go to Japanese school. This type of Japanese school uses the same textbooks that they do in Japan. I hated it! But well, as a result of that (and speaking Japanese at home), I can speak Japanese today… with a vocabulary level of an elementary school student. ðĪĢ
I hope you have a perfect trip to Japan!
Traveling around Japan and can't read Japanese? No problem! Just use the camera on the google translate app!
Is a JR pass worth it?!
- Google maps can make it easy to figure out whether or not you should get a JR pass!
- In google maps, type in your departure and arrival city, and choose the transit icon. The route will come up, and so will the estimated cost at the bottom!
- Here is an example of a train route with cost on google maps.
- So do that for all of your long distance routes to figure out how much it might cost.
- Next, go here to see how much a JR pass costs.
- And compare!
- Not all forms of public transportation are JR, but long distance shinkansen bullet trains are, and that's where the most cost savings will come.
Best of Kyoto (and Japan!)
ð Explore the best places to visit in Japan!
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