Many people are less interested to go backpacking in Japan, except for the more adventurous type, mainly due to two reasons: the high commodity prices and costs of living (travelling), and the presence of a language barrier.

Japan is indeed an expensive country to live in, or to travel in. Transportation, food and especially accommodation costs are high. However, there are ways around this. And I don’t mean cheating on your train fare, sleeping in parks or anything close to that. Simply put, with adequate planning and adequate strategies, you will be able to cut down some costs on each of transportation, food and accommodation, which can add up to quite a bit. For example, for travelling on trains, keep a lookout for posters at stations for ongoing promotions on special tickets and concession tickets to certain popular destinations. More of this will be discussed in later posts.

Another problem that backpackers and tourists meet is the language barrier. Although English is studied in schools from junior high school all the way to university, the fact is that not many Japanese are able to hold a conversation in English comfortably, except for a handful who have either lived overseas in English speaking countries due to parents’ work commitments, or have went on exchange programmes in such countries. The trend is slightly changing in recent years, and more and more Japanese are able to converse better in English, especially the younger generation. Even if they are unable to speak, chances are they understand what you are trying to say, but might only have the ability to reply using a combination of short phrases and body language.

For bigger cities such as Tokyo and Osaka, almost all main tourist spots have English signs in train stations and streets. Many people there are also more adept at conversing in English due to the increasingly cosmopolitan population. Travelling and finding your way around should not be a big problem in such destinations. However, note that this is in bigger cities. Once you step out of the main city area and are thinking of going to more remote places on the outskirts or to neighbouring prefectures, the story will be totally different.

Related posts:

  1. Backpacking Japan – Transportation
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  3. Backpacking Japan – Transport – Tokyo free ticket
  4. Backpacking Japan
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