On Holiday in Japan
The reason I have not been posting is twofold, one I’m in Japan on holiday and two I’ve had a college assignment due that ate up all spare laptop time. Right off let me say Japan is amazing, anyone thinking of going should. Do not let fear of the language barrier hold you back, we’ve zero Japanese and we’ve managed no problems at all. All the important signs have English and Google Maps takes are of getting around. It knows where you’re going and it know where you are – problem sorted.
I should not understate this though, we would have been lost without Google and internet connectivity. The trains here are very impressive, getting around the city is a matter of getting the right train. I would compare it to getting around London, getting from London City Airport Station to Convent Garden Station is as meaningless to a tourist as getting from Tokyo Station to Ikebukuro Station, you need to Google the directions and find the train. I enjoyed navigating around the city and you do quickly get a handle on the lines near your accommodation.
Well, I enjoyed navigating when there was no time pressure to be somewhere for a flight or specific train, I’m working on my anxiousness. The Japan Rail pass really helped with this, when I realised that if we missed the reserved seats we just reserve more because there all already paid for. I’m not 100% sure we saved much money getting the rail pass, we did take the JR trains as often as possible but 350euro is a lot of travel to make up. I’m writing this post on a bullet train from Kyoto back to Tokyo, we were really flying along for stretches. Yesterday we did Kyoto to Osaka in 30 min, it is no understatement to say rail makes travelling Japan very accessible. Anyway I better sign off, only 7 minutes to go, I’ll loop back around to this post and add pictures. Then the plan is to go back over my photos and retrospectively blog for the various days I missed.
Oh and we did the presentation last Friday and think it went well, we better get an A.
Japan MSc