Sunday Travel Shot: Osaka, Japan

Osaka Castle in Osaka, Japan (Image courtesy of flickr JoopDorresteijn)

Tags: japan, osaka, osaka castle

Guest Nomad: Do Not Fear Visiting the Land of the Rising Sun

Stone Buddhas in Nikko

This week’s “Guest Nomad” is Anna Ikeda. Anna is a mostly Pole, married to a mostly Japanese, currently residing with her husband and two cats mostly in Japan, where she does a little bit of this and a little bit of that while preparing for her next journey. She blogs about her travels at Budget Trouble (yeah, she’s mostly broke, most of the time).

It always surprises me how many people dream of visiting Japan, yet due to certain misconceptions about the country, are afraid to get on the plane.

So, let’s debunk the top three reasons why you might be hesitant to visit the Land of the Rising Sun.

1. I don’t speak a word of Japanese. Can I get by using only English?

This seems to be the number one concern people have when thinking about a trip to Japan. True, most natives don’t speak English. Even if they can read it and vaguely, sort of, kinda, maybe understand what is being said (if it’s being said clearly and very slowly), they won’t speak it. Yet, surprisingly, if you stick to the well-trodden tourist drag of Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara and Hiroshima or Nagasaki, you shouldn’t experience any major language problems. There will always be someone who can, if not speak, then at the very least utter some English words. Tourist information and hotel staff normally can (or, in theory – should be able to) communicate in English.

When eating out, more and more restaurants offer menus with English translations. Granted, they’re sometimes quite bizarre, but you can more or less figure out what to expect on your plate. And when all else fails, there are plastic models of food to point at when making your selection.

Nervous about going to the bank to exchange money? Pull out your debit card instead and head to the nearest post office. Japan Post Bank ATMs accept foreign cards (not all ATMs in this country do) and provide English language step-by-step instructions.

So yes, it is entirely possible to have a great vacation in Japan without speaking a word of Japanese.

Kyoto, Japan

2. But Japan is so expensive! Everybody says so, especially now, with the yen being so strong.

Well, everybody is wrong. Transportation will be your biggest expense, but that can kept in check by purchasing the very handy Japan Rail Pass before you leave your home country.

Accommodation? Yes, that can be pricey, especially if all you know and read about are the ridiculously posh and swanky 5-star hotels (and somehow, travel mags would make you believe such hotels were the only option available, especially in Tokyo).

If you’re worried about budget and at the same time want to see how average people in Japan live, I have one word for you – couch-surfing. There are couch-surfers of all ages, shapes and sizes in just about every place in Japan you can think of. And the best part? Most, if not all of them, speak some sort of English.

Food? Here, you don’t need to worry about prices. Food is cheap (the Matsuya fast food chain just reduced the price of their meat-and-rice bowl to 280 yen, about US $3.15 at today’s exchange rate), plentiful and yummy.

3. And speaking of food, what am I going to eat there? I hate raw fish!

Then maybe you shouldn’t go? Just kidding. To most foreigners the ubiquitous sushi and sashimi are indeed synonymous with Japanese cuisine, but you can spend your entire life in this country and never even taste a piece of raw fish. There is everything here, from McDonald’s to KFC to Yoshinoya to Michelin star-rated restaurants so fancy you’d have to mortgage your house to be able to afford to eat in one of them. For a closer look at Japanese food in all its varied glory, read this blog post.

See? Japan is not as scary as some people would make you believe. You can have a good time here speaking only English, it’s not a budget breaker, and there’s plenty to eat even if you can’t stomach raw fish.

So, what are you waiting for?

Tags: asia, japan, kyoto, nikko, tokyo

Who Visits America The Most?

Canadians still visit the United States way more than any other foreign country around the world.

Last week I wrote about how America was voted the “most liked” country in the world. So with so much love for the U.S. going around, one question must be asked. Has the world’s crush on Uncle Sam helped with the country’s tourism? In a word…kinda.

Year after year when the U.S. Commerce Department’s Office of Travel & Tourism (OTTI) releases their data of which countries have visited America the most, two destinations continuously top the list – #1 Canada and #2 Mexico. That really should not come as a surprise since both countries sandwich the U.S. and are more easily accessible than any other locations on the planet.

So who else is checking out the streets of New York, the Hollywood hills, and all points in between? Well coming in at #3 is the United Kingdom. Even with a decline of 16.9% in tourism through July 2009, the U.K. is still the most popular visitors from overseas.

Another country that visits often is #4 Japan, which also saw a major decline of 17.6% for year-to-year tourism traffic. Coming in at #5 was Germany, and yes just like the rest of the countries listed, Deutschland saw a 7.5% drop in tourists between July 2008 and 2009.

Now if you are wondering why so many people have halted hauling themselves to the U.S., it is quite simple – the economy. Due to a worldwide economic meltdown over the last year and a half, international tourism is down across the board sharply. Just like many Americans have skipped taking worldwide jaunts in favor of more domestic trips, so has the rest of the world apparently.

To help remedy the continuous decline of foreign visitors, Congress is considering a Travel Promotion Act. In it, anyone that shows up to the United States must pay an additional $10 fee. The money collected would be used to start a travel campaign in various countries around the world to boost interest in visiting the United States.

Currently the Commerce Department is not funding any ad campaigns to promote travel to the States. Yes you read that correctly…no marketing at all! The last time the U.S. was promoted was back in 2007, and even then it only received a measly $4-$9 million dollars. What a joke.

On a positive note, with the economy getting slightly…and I stress slightly better, tourism has picked up a bit and that is always a good thing for any country. Below is a list of the top 20 countries that visited the United States between January and July 2009, the amount of visitors, and how much tourism has decreased from the same time the previous year.

1. Canada (10, 108, 302 visitors) – 9% decline

2. Mexico (3,308,779) – 9.9% decline
   

3. United Kingdom (2,149,149) – 16.9% decline
   

4. Japan (1,564,441) – 17.6% decline
   

5. Germany (921,874) – 7.5% decline

6. France (694,340) – 1.1% decline

7. Brazil (469, 985) – a slight increase

8. South Korea (415,509) – 12% decline

9. Italy (379, 641) – 4% decline

10. Australia (376, 614) – 2.7% decline

The remaining 11-20 include: India, People’s Republic of China, Netherlands, Spain, Venezuela, Ireland, Colombia, Argentina, Switzerland, and Sweden.

Courtesy of Forbes Traveler.

Tags: argentina, australia, brazil, canada, colombia, france, germany, india, ireland, italy, japan, mexico, netherlands, People's Republic of China, south korea, spain, sweden, switzerland, united kingdom, united states of america, Venezuela

A Japanese Burger Banzai: The Windows 7 Whopper

Move aside you fast food loving Americans. Japan is truly the real Home of the Whopper! Feast your eyes on this five inch tall seven-patty burger. In honor of Microsoft ’s new Windows 7 operating system, Burger King is offering this massive meaty concoction for the next seven days in BKs all over Japan.

Each day the first 30 customers will be able to order up this over sized snack for 777 Yen (roughly $8.50 USD). After that the price of this 2,100 calorie bad boy will cost you 1558 Yen (or about $17 USD).

Tags: BURGER KING, japan, WHOPPER, WINDOWS 7

USA Is The World’s “Most Liked” Country…No, Really It Is

Nein, nein, nein! Warum!!! Yup it’s true. Germany has indeed been dethroned as the “most liked” country in the world. No longer is the land of giant pretzels and beers the most beloved according to a new survey. So what country is “most liked” right now?

The United States of America.

Yeah I was shocked too. But the results from a summer 2009 survey of 20,000 people in 20 geographically and economically diverse countries revealed that the world is seeing the US of A in a whole new light.

According to Forbes, which released the results, “The survey asked respondents to rank 50 countries in six categories: governance, culture, products and services, people, tourism and immigration/investment.” Many are saying that the jump to 1st is solely based on the popularity that President Barack Obama has right now around the world.  “The Obama Effect” has truly been phenomenal for the global image of the United States.

So just how much has the world changed its opinion on the USA? Well according to Simon Anholt, an independent policy advisor which conducted the survey, British approval jumped from 53% the previous year to 69% today. Love among the French rose to 75% over the last 12 months, up from 42% in 2008. Tres bien!

This was the first time that the United States came in first place since this survey started back in 2005. Last year USA was ranked seventh in the world. What’s not to love about us? We started two wars, currently suffer from the worst job market in nearly 100 years, lack affordable health care to millions of citizens, fail to provide a decent education to our youth, suffer from an obesity epidemic, refuse to use the metric system, and have “news” stations show balloon boy coverage 24/7 instead of actual world events.

Oh yeah Americans will sleep soundly tonight knowing that people around the world like us…they really, really like us. Take that the rest of the world! By the way the previous paragraph was not some “Anti-American” soap box speech. I love my country, but it does have a few flaws right now.

Here are the results of the survey’s top 10 “Most Liked Countries” around the world with their ranking from last year in parenthesis:

1. United States (7)

2. France (2)

3. Germany (1)

4. United Kingdom (3)

5. Japan (5)

6. Italy (6)

7. Canada (4)

8. Switzerland (8)

9. Australia (9)

10. Spain (tie) (11)

10. Sweden (tie) (10)

Tags: australia, canada, france, germany, italy, japan, president barack obama, spain, switzerland, united kingdom, united states of america, usa