Travelin’ On

by Nicholas Johnson, (16 March, 2006) in features > hi, tech

When I first came to Japan from America, everything was new and exciting. Signs were unreadable! Food was raw and fishy! Cars drove on the left side of the road! I was living in a different country for the first time, and it was great.

My enthusiasm lasted for a couple of months, and then reality hit: I was living in the middle of nowhere in a different country. I’d left the breadbasket of America to come to the rice basket of Japan and, once I’d learned to read the signs, things weren’t all that different anymore. It was time for a vacation.

Although at that point I was so accustomed to my Japanese home that I wanted to leave it, I didn’t want to see the rest of the world with a tour group like many Japanese travelers do. Rather than turning to a travel agent to help plan the trip, then, I turned to the internet. (Who am I kidding, I would have turned to the internet even if I came from a family of travel agents who would disown me if I ever booked an airfare online.)

Since most JETs I know get a similar wanderlust while they’re in Japan, I thought I’d share ¹ a few good resources you might be able to use to plan your next getaway (even if it is only a prefecture or two away).

Getting there

Step one of going on any vacation is figuring out how you’re going to get there. Sadly, however you choose to “get there” from Japan, it’s probably going to be expensive. Despite my initial fear that a Japanese travel agent would book me a spot in a tour group with 50 Japanese grandparents and one flag-wielding, sash-wearing guide, I’ve had excellent luck finding reasonably priced plane tickets through travel agents. The travel agencies recommended on SagaJET, for instance, have all been used by JETs before, are generally helpful and usually have at least one agent who speaks English.

If you’re either feeling independent or can’t find a fare that suits your needs through a travel agent, there’s always the web. Any of these sites may help you find the perfect fare.

Kayak

Old standbys like Travelocity and Orbitz are always worth a visit when you’re hunting for cheap tickets, but they suffer from two problems: they’re very America-centric and they’re kind of boring. Kayak is neither. It searches the websites of “hundreds of airlines” directly to find the best deals (as well as “travel agent” sites like the aforementioned Travelocity and Orbitz), so it can turn up fares that others may miss. And since Kayak believes “shopping for travel should be simple, fast, honest and mildly entertaining,” it makes shopping for plane tickets a little more enjoyable.

Flyspy

Fine, so technically Flyspy hasn’t launched yet, but it looks like it could be amazing when it does. When the site does go live, you’ll be able to enter your departure and destination cities and Flyspy will look for fares from many different airlines over a 30-day period and give you a graph showing you exactly when you should leave to get the cheapest flight. Right now all you can do is sign up to get an email when (or if) Flyspy is rolled out, which it hopefully will be soon.

JR Train Timetables in English

If you’re planning to travel in Japan, taking the trains is often the most efficient way to get where you’re going. Jorudan’s strangely named “Japanese Traffic Guide” gives you up-to-date route and price information for all JR trains in gloriously understandable English. It also shows you several options for every route, so you can choose speed over price if you’re in a hurry or vice versa if you’re frugal.

Travel in Japan

Traveling in Japan may be expensive, but that’s no reason not to visit at least a few different areas while you’re here. If you have a car, a tent and time to kill, taking a road trip can be an excellent way to see sights within driving distance. Camping rather than staying in a hostel or hotel will save you a lot of money (most campsites charge under 1000 yen per night) and remind you that not all of Japan is covered in pachinko parlors and conbinis. Buy a good road atlas (like Mapple, available, ironically, at most conbinis) that shows the location of campsites along your route and you’ll be all set.

There are, of course, plenty of websites that can help you decide where to travel in Japan whether you plan on camping or not. Good ones include:

Japan National Tourist Organization

The JNTO website has guides for all 47 Japanese prefectures as well as advice on food, hotels and transportation. The site is all very broad and official, so it doesn’t have reviews of the best local pubs and love hotels, but it is a good place to start if you want to see more than just Tokyo and Kyoto.

Kyushu Connection

Kyushu Connection, on the other hand, is all about the best local bars and love hotels. The site was created by former JETs as a way to bring together expats living on Kyushu. They have a growing travel section with user-submitted reviews of restaurants, bars and attractions. Obviously it only covers the seven prefectures that make up Kyushu, but the information is good enough to convince you that traveling to any of those prefectures could actually be fun.

WWOOF Japan

If Japan’s work culture is slowly killing your inner hippie, revive it with a visit to a Japanese organic farm. The idea is you go to an organic farm somewhere in Japan and work there for a while in exchange for free lodging. You have to sign up for a 4000 yen yearly membership to be eligible to stay on a WWOOF farm, but that’s a small price to pay for the chance to help grow organic daikons.

International travel

Japan is conveniently located a relatively short plane ride away from many vacation spots in Asia, and most JETs take advantage of this proximity. Most popular JET destinations (Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) are also popular backpacker locations, so planning a trip is as easy as buying a guidebook (Lonely Planet and Rough Guide both produce good ones) and going.

The “just go” idea has worked brilliantly in every country I’ve traveled in except one: China. When my wife and I visited China, we were lucky enough to travel with Chinese-speaking friends; I’m pretty sure we would still be lost there if we hadn’t. English-speaking travel agencies, guest houses and restaurants can be hard to find, especially if you travel outside of Beijing. A guidebook can help, or you can look for hotel reservations, plane tickets and advice on Ctrip.com.

Don’t let that deter you from traveling to China or any other destination in either Japan or another country, though. Eating raw fish and driving on the left side of the road are only entertaining for so long, and then it’s time for a vacation.

Notes

1. When I say “I thought I’d share some good travel resources,” what I really mean is “I couldn’t think of an idea to write about this week so my always helpful wife Sarah came up with an idea for me, saving me from horrible, horrible writer’s block.”