Traveling to japan this august...

Good good gonna be eating there alot when i go!

 

i can't believe it! for the equivalent of 800 i would strve to death in italy!?

 

That's lunch, not dinner. As before - "lunch specials". Japanese restaurants have to compete with extremely cheapskate Japanese wives, who want their husbands to eat a bento which probably on average costs like 300 yen to make.

You can still eat half-decent food for 1500 yen at night (maybe 1000 if you're really lucky) but that's w/o drinks. Just don't expect it to be really fine dining you'd want to tell people about.

 

It all depends on where you live really. In the heart of Tokyo it will be quite expensive but not as bad as what I experienced when I went to London last year (I hate that place). Where I live however it's not such a big city so I can get a good meal with 1 beer for about 1500 quite easily. In Kokura (Kita Kyushu) where I normally go drinking I can get some really nice food and completely pissed for about 5 to 7 thousand yen. Beers only cost 400 yen down here for the big size

Yakumo

 

a lovely place

 

by the way i'd like some suggestion about things we SHOULDN'T do while in japan....
kinds of impoliteness i can't think of, gaffes, etc, etc....

oh, and any restaurant recomandation?
by the way, thinking about it, do they write food name in romaji, too or just using kanji (yuck!)?

 

Dont stick your chopsticks into rice and leave them standing....

 

おてら (otera) is temple, while おてあらい (otearai) is restroom. Take care to not mix them. :smt042

 

The menus in restaurants are sometimes with English under the katakana or kanji (Depending on if it's a Japanese dish or not). What you'll mostly find is that places such as fast food restaurants will have English as well as familly restaurants such as Gusto, Joyfull (not my spelling mistake by the way), Fracaso, Sundaysun, Jolly Paster, Royal Host or any of the other Sky Lark group or restaurants. Places that sell Japanese only food will most likely not have English menus.

Yakumo

 

Yeah, stay away from the "massaji" chicks ;-)

 

Why? Is that considered rude?

 

Extremely, I've been yelled at for that.

 

something regarding death from what i rember?

 

please fill me in with the details!

please tell me everything related that you think i should know!

by the way in those weird game outlets is it legit to ask for a discount?

 

something to do with dead people or something use google!

 

They're a bit like prostitutes, they offer you a "massage" and "more", if you pay more - from what I've been told, that is. They are often from China and dodgy criminals are involved. Plus, they're like vultures, sneaking up on nauseous helpless drunks like me.

Well, I've only been in Japan for 3 weeks. Plus, I don't know that much about the culture, but one thing I noticed, is that when someone says no (ie a store clerk), arguing with them seemingly makes them feel very incomfortable, so let a no be a no. Oh and don't ask if you can pay 800 yen with a Master Card, as the whole store will laugh you in the face (well that happened to me) :smt1069

I'm not sure, compared to Holland it was so cheap that I didn't bother. Like I said, people shy away when arguing with foreigners (from what I've noticed, I'm not interested in "OMG you don't know shit about japan, stfu"-type comments). I've got a discount once, but that was when I tried to buy a 600 yen teapot with a 10,000 yen bill at a flea market.

 

If you're going to buy many items in the same shop then before you do enquire if trhe shop have a stamp card or discount card. Most games retailers do have these. Normally every 500 yen you spend gets you a stamp. Get about 20 stamps and you can save 1000 yen or something like that. It may not sound much but if you intend to do a lot of shopping it may just get you a free game or two.

Yakumo

 

Are you looked down upon if you use a fork or a spoon?

I could never use chopsticks effectively

 

nice question, tought i don't have any problem with chopsticks my travel companions do...

and i was wondering, i've heard about the custom of giving gift, but i'm not really sure in wich cases you should; i.e. should i give a gift at the owner of the ryokan were we'll be staying?

 

anyone to answer this?