This is a concluding post about Japan, both as a holiday destination and as a country, society and culture.
As a holiday destination, well I haven’t been to many other places, but I’d imagine it’s pretty damn fantastic. I liked that the culture is quite different to ours, little things like the bows and the manners and the constant thank you’s as you are served at the checkout or at Starbucks. There are many sights to see.
The Japanese people are very friendly and polite to foreigners, which is wonderful, unlike the way Australians are toward Japanese. Staff everywhere are willing to go an extra mile to make your meal or stay more welcoming, even though there is an incredibly huge communication barrier.
Unfortunately for us, the Japanese economy is quite strong and is by no means cheap in terms of spending money. I took roughly $1.5k and used it all without trying hard with just ‘spending money’ – meals, souvenirs, cigarettes and the like. Accommodation is another story and is not cheap. Nothing is really cheap. Food isn’t, massages aren’t, transport isn’t, parking isn’t, gifts aren’t, clothes aren’t.. yep, so be prepared to pay Australian prices are higher for everything except cigarettes and alcohol – they are cheap lol. A pack of cigarettes is roughly $5 and a cocktail at a night club is roughly $9.
The Japan Rail Pass was a godsend, firstly for the economic benefit and secondly for the ease of use! The trains in Japan run about every 3-5 minutes and each of them are full! There are so many lines and it gets quite confusing so the JR Pass meant we didn’t have to buy tickets for each journey. If you intended to stay in the one city for the duration of your holiday I would guess it’s not worth it at all for the cost saving, but if you intend to visit the other major tourist cities across the country such as Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima, then the bullet train is pretty much necessary and our fares on the bullet trains alone would have totalled around $300 if not for the rail pass.
There are endless vending machines in every locality across Japan. These are fantastic, addictive, and the expense can add up quite quickly. 
There is a severely limited amount of rubbish bins in Japan! Oh my god, we would find ourselves carrying our rubbish for half an hour or more until we found a bin.. they aren’t along the streets or anything.
Japan is an incredibly safe country to visit, at no time in the 3 weeks we stayed did I feel unsafe or uneasy. Even when we were clubbing and went to buy drinks, we asked some people to watch our cigarettes and cocktails, and we were told that ‘that sorta stuff doesn’t happen here’ and that we have ‘nothing to worry about’. Try leaving a pack of cigarettes unattended at The Beat for 30 seconds!
Hiroshima Peace Park is obviously a must-see destination. Definitely pay a visit to a few temples and shrines and castles 
I couldn’t really recommend one over the others – if anything the Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto was quite exciting, it’s more targeted toward tourism and there were humungous crowds which added to the buzz. The Tijo Markets are held once a month in Kyoto and are worth going to.. not necessarily for buying cheap stuff but for browsing what is for sale and for the experience.
Learning the language is certainly not necessary, not if you plan to stick to the major cities. We didn’t really get stuck anywhere or get lost because of language barrier – a lot of Japanese know very basic English words, some restaurants have English Menu’s and this is helpful for not having to rely on picutres alone. At McDonalds, KFC and Burger King you can just point We survived the entire journey with just yes, no, excuse me, sorry, hello, goodbye, and thank you. Although the characters/scripts were impossible for us to read, almost all the important stuff has English written beneath or in small print like at train stations and the like.
A good thing is, if I had the chance to re-plan our adventure in Japan knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t change any of it.
