Natalie and Steve’s trip continues into Japan, and Natalies recent post brings back a lot of memories of Frances’ and my trip there, now over two years ago.
Japan is a wonderful country to visit, and whilst there are of course some unique problems when faced with a country using an entirely different alphabet, I’d suggest it’s a very easy country to get about in given the excellent public transport, good double signing, and extraordinarily friendly and helpful people.
We were both certainly nervous before we went, and we had all our accommodation (mainly traditional Japanese Ryokan and Minshuku) booked in advance. Natalie and Steve have taken a braver option of camping and hostels, but sound like they’ve had some interesting experiences in the process!
I know many very experienced travellers baulk at the prospect of visiting Japan, but I can only try and encourage people to put aside their worries and trust that the country really is one of the most fascinating places to visit in the world, for it’s absolutely unique history, people and landscape. There are plenty of companies that offer well structured trips that cater for everybody from the backpacker, to the fully accompanied visit. We used Inside Japan Tours for a custom “see off the beaten track, under our own steam, in traditional hotels” trip that cost about £1,000 each for a two week trip (this excluded flights and lunch/dinner, but included almost all of our rail travel) - which I think is a very reasonable price!
No, I’m not on commission from the Japanese Tourist Board! I’m just keen to encourage folk to put aside their fears and jump in and see this wonderful country. We’re definitely going back, to see more of the country, when we finally come around to organising our next trip!
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June 17th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
It was our last day in Japan today and we went to a great sushi place in Asakusa and ate sushi and drank sake. It certainly beat our attempts at economising by eating junk food from seven elevens!
I would also definately recommend Japan as a travel destination. I was just reading your journal from the last time you were in Japan and you managed to see loads of places in two weeks! It must have been nice to be here at the time of the cherry blossom as well.