Japan remains to be the best place that I have ever travelled to in my whole life. I have an infinite amount of reasons why Japan is a fantastic place for everyone to visit, but I will go into eight main reasons why you should travel to Japan.
1. It is easy to get around.
It is very easy to travel to Japan. Public transportation is easy, and it is easy to use Japan rail. The hardest part is to figure out where to line up on the platforms, but once you do that, it is pretty straightforward.
Another thing that makes travelling around Japan easy is by having a wifi pack. If you have a wifi pack or cell service in Japan, you can use Google maps. Google maps make everything extremely easy. You might be saying “duh,” but it isn’t easy with Google maps in other countries. This is because other countries don’t have sophisticated public transportation systems in almost every city.
In Japan, the most prominent cities have great public transportation systems. Additionally, everything runs on time in Japan, so if Google says the train will arrive at 5:15, the train will be there at 5:15.
2. The language barrier doesn’t matter.
In many countries, the language barrier is a huge problem. Especially when the writing is not anything close to English, this is a real struggle in countries like India and Egypt, but it is never a problem in Japan.
Signs usually have an English translation. Even if they don’t, people are generally willing to help. Japan is trying to promote tourism, so many places have tourist information centres. For example, Shinjuku Tokyo has a vast information centre for tourists, and I highly recommend using them.
3. It is so quiet.
As soon as you get on a train in Tokyo, everything is tranquil. No bums are sleeping on the subway cars. There are no kids doing flips and screaming for spare change. No bums are patrolling the subway cars yelling at you for change. There is no one blasting music on their phones. Everyone knows their place.
4. It is so clean in Japan.
Everything is so clean in Japan. Japan is the most hygienic place I’ve ever been to. They are so clean that they don’t even have trash cans there.
I’ll tell one story about my Japanese trip to describe their level of precision and cleanliness. As I was leaving Japan, I was sitting in their airport, exhausted from buying souvenirs at the airport souvenir stores. As I was sitting relaxing, an attendant came around to the tiny plants growing in the airport. He inspected every single plant. If there was a stray leaf or a dead portion of the plant, he just plucked it off and put it in his little pouch.
He also inspected the area around the plants and cleaned up any mess or dust. He did not miss anything in his review of the plants. That was astonishing to me, and I loved it. I also love hard work and commitment to a single task. You see this throughout their culture, and it is just mind-blowing.
5. There is so much to learn in the Japanese culture.
Japan is so different from any other country I’ve been to. Every country has its monuments, right? In India, it’s the Taj Mahal, Egypt has the pyramids, France has the Eiffel Tower. The problem is, what do you do when you get there. You usually buy souvenirs, or you have to pay an admission fee.
That’s what’s so crazy good about traveling to Japan. There is tons of free stuff to do, and it is all fun. I was only in Japan for ten days, but while I was there, I saw:
- A Japanese rock band
- An American Idol music contest for elderly Japanese people
- The Eissa Festival
- Inari Shrine light festival
Everywhere you go in Japan, there is culture. I’ve been all over the world to places like Egypt, India, and Italy. I’ve never seen so much culture all the time. There is music and art everywhere. Japan is that awesome.
6. The people are friendly.
Another reason you should go to Japan is that the people are all amicable. No one tries to hustle you. Even at the major tourist attractions, you still don’t have people approaching you to upsell you on additional services. This means that you can sightsee in peace.
You can also take pictures in peace. People won’t be rushing you to take your photographs or charging you extra for taking a photo you shouldn’t have taken. You also aren’t run out of places. For example, you can sit as long as you want in a restaurant. Nobody ever rushes you to get out of the restaurant. You pay whenever you are ready.
I felt like the people in Japan were so lovely. Their sense of pride is unparalleled across the globe. I appreciated it.
7. Traveling to Japan is cheap because you don’t have to tip.
If you are traveling to Japan, the trip will be insanely cheap. This is because it is not customary to provide anyone with a tip. This means that you can slice off 15% off of your total food bill for the whole trip.
You can eat in a restaurant without tipping. This means you can eat something other than just street food to avoid tipping. I found it a relief to not have to tip, and I don’t tell just from a minimalist lifestyle viewpoint. I mean that it felt amazing not analyzing your waiter’s performance to figure out whether you were going to tip 10-20%. You could sit there and enjoy your Japanese food. Doesn’t that sound great?
8. There are so many foods to try.
Another great thing about traveling to Japan is that there is a wide variety of food and you can eat it cheaply. Japan has the most Michelin star restaurants in the world. You think it would be insanely expensive, right? Well, it definitely can be, but you don’t have to make it that way.
You can try all different kinds of foods for low prices. Wide varieties are ranging from sushi, sashimi, noodles, tempura, mochi, ramen and barbecue. There is such a variety of food in Japan it is genuinely astonishing. But, of course, you can eat very cheaply too.
For example, you can eat at 7-eleven the whole time you are in Japan if you want. This is because 7-eleven has a massive selection of food, and the prices are excellent if you are traveling on a budget. Also, you can get sandwiches for cheap if you want.
Additionally, some ramen places and other noodle restaurants where you can order your food on a vending machine for under $10. It is delicious ramen too. There are also sushi restaurants with high-quality sushi on a conveyor plate, and you pay by the plate. So you can literally eat a few plates and be satisfied and eat for under $10 as well.
