The Fifth Trip to Japan: Some Tips for Traveling Free and Easy around the Land of the Rising Sun

Back in December 2012, I wrote a long and detailed post about my fourth holiday in Japan (see here), and ended the post with "Japan will always be one of my favourite countries to visit. Sayonara, for now, I will surely be back again to visit when I can!".

Well, to think that "when I can" turned out to be only about 5 months later! This time, it wasn't just for the purpose of holiday, but for participating in a conference on human development held a week ago in Hiroshima. I was one of the selected poster presenters and my father himself signed up to do a presentation. Much as I'd love to, we couldn't stay very long in Japan as Dad needed to return to work, so we were there for only about 4 days.

The conference turned out to be a memorable and fun experience for me. It was my very first time presenting my academic work (my Honours thesis, actually) to other academics. I was quite nervous initially about how others would receive my work but was pleasantly surprised by the larger-than-expected crowd that gathered at my poster. It was quite fun fielding questions and a few participants even told me that my topic was an interesting one! Not bad at all, for my very first presentation (and an overseas one at that)!

Anyway, having visited Japan five times already (and looking forward to any subsequent visits), I thought I'd share some tips about travelling around Japan. Here, my main focus will be on travelling around Hiroshima prefecture as I just returned from this region so everything is still pretty fresh in my head. Dad and I had 2 full days to unwind and explore Hiroshima prefecture after the conference. Having visited Hiroshima prefecture with Mum last year, I was already fairly familiar with this area so I was able to travel independently with Dad to places I visited before as well as some other new places I did not get to visit last year. One of the things I like about travelling in Japan is that it is not difficult. Also, there is so much to eat, see and explore along the way!

Use Public Transport

The Hiroden arriving at Hakushima station, which is the district our hotel was located in.

In Hiroshima city, a very popular mode of public transport is the Hiroden, the streetcar that has been in use for decades. I like the Hiroden as it is punctual, regular, takes me to many of the main places of interest and inexpensive. Using the Hiroden is also easy to figure out. The streetcar map provides a really good bilingual visual guide of where each place of interest and district is located, as well as which streetcar routes to take to get there. Boarding the streetcar is a simple matter of hopping on and then paying the fare to the driver when you get off (how much you pay is easily worked out by referring to the streetcar map, or you can look at the signboard above the driver's seat which tells you how much you need to pay when alighting at various destinations).

Outside of Hiroshima, I recall that getting around Kyoto was pretty easy too. In Kyoto, the public buses have announcements in English, Japanese, Mandarin and Korean to tell you the current stop and the next one, as well as the current location of the bus displayed on an electronic route map.

Take the Trains

A bento I had on the shinkansen ride to Narita airport. This bento is special because it features specialty food from various towns within Hiroshima prefecture.

The Shinkansen arriving at Hiroshima train station. Dad and I took the Shinkansen to Narita International Airport the day we left.

Japan has an excellent and reliable train network. The trains connect not just the major cities, but a great many smaller cities and towns in the rural areas as well.

For those travelling independently to many Japanese towns and cities, I strongly recommend buying a JR Pass. The JR Pass allows you to bulk buy 7 days or 14 days worth of travel within Japan and therefore saves you a great deal of money if you travel on your own a lot.

Dad and I did not get a JR Pass for this trip as it was only 4 days. Yet, I do feel a little that it would have been good to get one anyway because we travelled by train to several cities within Hiroshima prefecture and a JR Pass might have helped save a bit of travel expenses.

Language and Communication

In Miyajima, where the famous Itsukushima shrine is located, bilingual signs are common as many international visitors come to visit. This Kakigori (Japanese shaved ice dessert) shop offers about 30 different syrups to go with your cup of shaved ice and has bilingual signs to explain each flavour (Tomato, Sea Salt and Hibiscus flavours, anyone?).

Based on my familiarity with travelling around Japan, I do find that it helps to know some Japanese for interacting with the locals. Not speaking Japanese at all is much less of a problem in big cities like Tokyo or popular tourist spots where bilingual signs are more common and more residents can speak English. However, in the smaller towns and in the countryside, people tend to be able to speak only basic English or not at all. Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima prefecture and a fairly big city but in general the locals I've interacted with speak limited English.

My Japanese is basic, in that I am able to recognize and read hiragana, katakana and some kanji. I can also hold a simple conversation in Japanese. Limited though it may be, I found that knowing some Japanese helped a great deal. This is especially so when reading menus. Outside of Tokyo and other major cities, English menus are hard to come by. Being able to understand terms written in hiragana and katakana, coupled with my own ability to read Mandarin and therefore recognize many Kanji characters, was very useful in reading menus written entirely in Japanese and offering no pictures.

Having said that, don't be put off from communicating with the Japanese if you can't speak Japanese. Many Japanese are willing to help in spite of the language barriers. Japanese customer service is truly of a high standard as commonly perceived, so even when there are difficulties in communication, with patience and lots of hand gesturing, things often work out very nicely in the end.


Eat local food!

I've said this in my Japan 2012 post, and I'll say it again: the easiest and most fun way to immerse oneself in local culture is to eat local food. You're in a very enviable position if you find yourself in Japan because different towns and prefectures have their own local specialties, some of them unusual and very delicious! To know what to eat where, one should do some research before visiting. Many towns and prefectures take great pride in their local specialties and emphasize them in order to draw tourists. For example, Hiroshima is famous in Japan for it's Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki, Oysters and its signature candy souvenir is Momiji Manju (a Maple leaf shaped cake that traditionally contains a red bean paste filling but nowadays has all sorts of fillings put into it). When I stayed in Hiroshima last week, I also found out that Hiroshima prefecture is also famous for its Lemons as well, so Dad and I bought some boxes of Lemon candy souvenirs in addition to the Momiji Manju packages.

If you travel by train a lot, then an easy and inexpensive way to sample some local specialties is to buy a bento box from the train station and eat it on the train. In the Hiroshima prefecture-themed bento box featured earlier, there was a good variety of little bites of foods special to the region: jelly made of local Lemons, deep-fried local Oyster, local Octopus cooked in rice, Sushi topped with local Sardines and my favourite Conger Eel Sushi. So. Good. I enjoyed my bento so much that I saved the pretty bento box cover that was still clean and it now hangs proudly in my bedroom.


Inside the gorgeous Hiroshima prefecture-themed bento. It's not just pretty to look at, more importantly, it is delicious too!

Eating Hiroshima Okonomiyaki at Rei-chan, a Hiroshima Okonomiyaki eatery located on the second floor of the ASSE department store near Hiroshima train station. Sorry to all my friends in the Kansai region, but I actually prefer the Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki to the more well-known Osaka one.

Of all the local delicacies I've eaten during my travels to Japan, I think Anago Meshi (broiled Conger Eel on rice), a specialty of Miyajima, is my favourite. I enjoyed it so much while in Miyajima last year that I had to eat it again when I visited Miyajima this year. This bowl of Anago Meshi is from Ueno, a famous restaurant specializing in Conger Eel near Miyajima train station that has been around for decades. One word: heavenly. The perfect end to a visit to Miyajima.

The Most Important Travel Tip: Have an Open Mind!

I'll end this post with what I find is the most important travel tip based on my experiences travelling to many countries around the world: be open-minded and humble enough to learn.

Being open-minded means not having an ethnocentric attitude towards the new culture and society. You will just end up alienating yourself and not enjoy your trip. Instead, take the opportunity of being in a new environment to expand your horizons. It's also fun to do as the locals do! Japan was experiencing a heat wave when Dad and I visited last week but we made the best out of the situation by taking the opportunity to follow some of the popular local ways to beat the heat, such as ordering a cup of kakigori (Japanese shaved ice dessert) and eating it on the go.

Being open-minded also means having a willingness to go off the beaten track and explore by oneself. As I've described in this blog post, Japan is not difficult to explore free and easy, which is good news for someone like me who dislikes tours, as I find that tour guides tend to rush their groups from one destination to other or bring them to random places along the way so they can earn some extra commission. On our own, Dad and I could take our time exploring the places we visit and therefore appreciate them more, as well as discover some hidden gems along the way!

After exploring the beautiful seaside town of Onomichi on foot in the blazing summer heat, stumbling upon a café specializing in cold desserts like Sakura Tea House is like stumbling upon an oasis in a dessert! The desserts are excellent too!

Japan is a country that I've been to 5 times already and I'm keen to visit again and again. When you treat each new visit as an adventure and as a chance to learn (and relearn), then each visit will be memorable and enjoyable in its own unique way.