When I got into my study abroad program, we had multiple meetings with staff from the Osaka University Study Abroad Program and previous students that studied in the other Japan programs from our university. Whether you’re travelling for leisure or going to be living in Japan, I feel like it’ll be useful to have some of these things which helped me and my friends and classmates when we went to Japan ourselves.
- Download the Instant Japanese: How to Express 1,000 Different Ideas with Just 1000 Key Words and Phrases from Amazon for as little as $5 (or for free if you have the Kindle App)
Since you’re traveling to Japan, it’s good to immerse yourself in the culture and learn the language. Or at least to the best of your ability, even if it’s just a few phrases. Besides you’re taking the time to travel there, you might as well embrace the language and culture. This is handy to have downloaded as the book is made for English speaking tourists with useful phrases such as “…wa doko desu ka?” (where is….?) or “Ikura desu ka?” (how much is this?).Even with the small phrases and words like can make a huge difference when communicating with Japanese people. Being able to point at a picture on a menu and say “kore” (this) and “kudasai” (please) is very polite. It’ll make you obvious that you’re a foreigner, but that’s okay. Heck you can even say “Ano, sumimasen eigo kudasai?” (Um, excuse me English please) was another way for me and my friends to ask for an English menu when we didn’t know much Japanese. Our Japanese wasn’t the best, but Japanese staff helped us as much as possible.Going on my solo adventures there were Japanese people who will help you out as much as possible. some may know English or will give your English directions/directions. Make an effort to learn a few Japanese phrases for when you travel. - Google TranslateNo, I’m serious, having Google Translate is also helpful when you are connected to Wi-Fi, which is widely available in Japan (this will also depend on your cellular plan. I highly suggest calling your provider to find out about international data plans for this. Cause’ I sucked with mine). I had AT&T and Google translate was helpful for translating words I couldn’t find in the Instant Japanese phrasebook.
- Your country’s lotion, moisturizers, and other beauty/skin productsOne thing I learned from one of the student alums that studied abroad in Japan, is that Japanese people put whiteners in their beauty and skin products (because of colorism, like with a lot of other Asian countries. Which I can say since I am part Japanese, but also Filipino and part Chinese, I can attest that colorism issues run deep with Asians). I don’t want to discourage y’all from buying the Japanese beauty products, especially since theirs are good quality (plus they have really fun face masks), but want to let y’all be aware of what you’re buying. If you don’t want whiteners in your beauty and skin products, I highly recommend buying a big value size of it from your country and just bring it there (just remember to keep it in your check-in luggage).
- Japanese YenJapan is mainly a cash-based society. I did see advertisements for credit cards in Japan and Japanese people using them, but most people use cash. I highly recommend exchanging as much money as you can while you’re in your home country and do it at least a month before you leave so the bank has enough time to process it. You can withdraw money from ATMs in Japan, but there will be a fee every time you do it. To exchange money, call your bank and try to find the option to do exchange currency. And be prepared to be going in a phone call run around, because that happened to me (and took me 2 hours just to find a person who knows how to initiate a currency exchange).As for how much money to withdraw, it depends on your situation. For me, I withdrew about $700 US dollars worth of yen. But didn’t last me a week when I arrived (mainly because I had to buy textbooks, deposit money for the Golden Week field trip, hotel, food, and etc.). So Exchange as much money as you can before you leave.
Kitsune's Musings 