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Last Topic: 1:37:25am, 03/31/2024
Last Post: 6:05:49am, 05/17/2024
VideoboysaysCube posted...
Is there any trick to not paying a fortune for a flight? From my very brief research, that alone seems like it'll be more than half the cost of the entire trip. Also, how prevalent were English speakers at restaurants and such? Can you really get by on Google Translate for everything?
For flights, fly mid-week instead of on the weekend, and don't fly during peak tourist seasons (year end, summer, Golden Week, etc.). If you really want cheap stuff, be flexible with airlines (just be aware that some are terrible) and timing. I once found a direct round-trip flight from Vancouver to Osaka for $600 CAD on sale, which absolutely wild.
If you're not flying during tourist season, it's quite possible to get a direct flight from one of the west coast airports for around $1200 CAD round trip (assuming you're in North America). Airfare is generally your biggest cost, but that's because travelling Japan is surprisingly affordable - trains are cheap and all but the most remote places have train stations available, and hotels are surprisingly inexpensive given the population density.
English knowledge is pretty good at the tourist hubs (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, the parts of Okinawa that cater to the American base, etc.), but falls off pretty quickly once you get outside of those areas. That said, it's not hard too hard to get by with very little Japanese, so long as you memorize the stock key phrases (excuse me, where is ___, this one, etc.). Also, if you're looking for translators, DeepL (for sentences) and Takoboto (for inspanidual words) are both substantially better than Google Translate (and both are free).
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