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Originally Posted by Zero Shinohara
And I actually didn't think Hokkaido would be that far away from the mainland, but guess I was wrong. If I have the chance to go, flying would probably be out of the question for money reasons ( and you bet losing 8 hours of your day is more acceptable than losing quality merchandise! ), so I'd be taking the train like you said. And perhaps it's more enjoyable for the scenery? I've never been on a train, so if you can't even see crap because it's going too fast, then let me know.
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Hokkaido isn't far from the mainland.
Simply, the mainland is very long, and both major areas Kanto and Kansai (Where Tokyo and Osaka are) are in the middle of the island. So to get to Hokkaido, you have to basically travel halfway across Japan to get to the northern edge of the mainland, then to the Hokkaido island.
As for the scenery, yes, you can see the whole thing as you travel.
There are some very nice spots for scenery, but like I said, most of Japan looks pretty much the same, so hours after hours of it can get pretty darn boring.
Bring a PSP or a Nintendo DS. There are plenty of great games to purchase over there.. and as for DS, I don't believe there's a regional protection, so you can kill your boredome effectively. I usually download some anime on a PSP to watch for a long train ride... god, I can't wait till I get my paws on those new iPod touch!
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How about english? Can you >survive< without knowing how to speak or read japanese or you're better off bringing some knowledge of it with you? I'm aware that most places nowadays have tourist guides in many languages, but I'm not 100% sure if your average otaku will survive without being able to say "One Akano daimakura purizu" to the store clerk. Hopefully that won't be the case - I'm learning the basics little by little and hope to get there with a rough understanding of the language. Reading or writing will probably be a problem, since I'm not focusing on those.
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Depends on where you go.
There are thousands... no, tens perhaps hundreds of thousands of foreigners in Tokyo that don't speak a lick of Japanese. Every major train stations have directions in english, as well as annoucements. So if you're traveling inside Tokyo, language bar shouldn't be too much of an issue. You'll see cocasian turists from both the Americas and Europe pretty much everwhere you go in Tokyo.
Even outside of major cities, the train stations are named with english writings, so as long as you have a good railroad guide, you can always find yourself back without too much issues. However, unfortunately asking for directions without knowing Japanese is gonna be pretty rough outside of major cities.
As for shopping... well, if you can't speak Japanese, don't expect to be able to ask specifics. Just bring the item to the counter, and pay for it.
If the clerk asks something you don't understand, just express that you don't understand him, and he wouldn't try to pursue the question. (usually stuff like "do you want a book cover with that?" or "would you like me to heat that food for you?" yadayada.)
Even though Japan is a very homogenious nation, turism are pretty large industry, so you usually won't come across merchants that haven't had any experience with foreigners without knowledge of Japanese. Most people have very little fluency in English, so don't expect to be able to have much of a conversation with them.
But the transaction should be fine in most cases.
One thing to keep in mind when ordering things...
Japanese fast food restaurants, unlike the ones in US, aren't usually "make it the way you like it".
They come with whatever is on it, so if you have stuff you don't like on a sandwich for example... simply don't order it.
They most likely won't understand american accented "plain, no onions, just lettuce and cheese" anyways.
That being said, food is generally very good in Japan, compared to majority of US. At least, that's my opinion.