Latest / The Japan Travel Pros Podcast / Listener Q&A: Rice, Cash, Underrated Japan & More

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Listener Q&A: Rice, Cash, Underrated Japan & More · The Japan Travel Pros Podcast

0:03
Yokoso, welcome back. In the previous episode, we
0:06
talked about food and some bigger ideas.
0:09
Hey, if you haven't heard that one yet, you might want to check
0:11
it out. This time we're doing something
0:13
a little bit different. It's AQ and a episode.
0:16
We're talking underrated Japan, why rice in Japan tastes so
0:20
good, eating vegetarian in Japan, cash, and well, a few
0:24
other things that come up all the time.
0:27
Just a housekeeping note, we've got some guest episodes coming
0:30
up real soon. In fact, we're recording those
0:32
and editing those as we speak. So keep an eye out for those in
0:34
your podcast player. Meanwhile, grab a beverage,
0:38
settle in, and enjoy this episode of the Japan Travel Pros
0:42
Podcast. Let's get started.
0:55
Hey, it's Ari at Japan Travel Pros Thanks for checking in.
0:58
We've got producer Aki in studio today.
1:00
Say hi to everyone, Aki. Hi, Konichiwa.
1:03
Konichiwa. So as I mentioned the cold open,
1:06
we're doing AQ and a episode today and I want to jump right
1:08
into it because we got some great questions from listeners
1:12
already. In fact, one of them took the
1:14
time to record a message. We really appreciate that, by
1:17
the way. So again, these are real
1:18
questions from real people, and we'll come back on the other
1:21
side and jump right in. Hi Harry, this is Laurent from
1:25
France. First off, love the first
1:27
episode. And yes, food in Paris can
1:29
really be hit or miss. As someone living a few miles
1:32
from Paris, I'm completely with you on that.
1:34
Funny enough, I just come back from London and I was much more
1:38
impressed by the food over there.
1:40
So now that I have probably lost all my French credibility,
1:43
here's my question in Japan and I've got a two-part of you.
1:47
First, you talked about what's overrated in your first episode.
1:50
So what are underrated? Things that most people
1:53
completely miss when they travel in Japan.
1:56
Speaking of underrated, on my second trip to Japan last year,
2:00
I was completely blown away by the rice.
2:02
Plain white rice. And mind you, I wasn't a rice
2:06
person before. A bowl of wood on absolutely
2:09
rice. It wasn't my thing.
2:12
And the same thing happened to the rest of the family.
2:14
Now we're the kind of people who buy Japanese rice in 10K bags.
2:19
So what do you think this is? Why does rice in Japan taste so
2:23
much better than rice in most of the places?
2:26
Do you even agree with this? And while we add it, what
2:30
varieties do you eat at home on a regular basis?
2:33
Thanks for taking my questions and keep up the great work.
2:37
Wow, Laura, what a question. Mercy Boku, we really appreciate
2:40
that. Taking the time to put a voice
2:43
clip together. Actually going to jump into the
2:44
rice part of it. The second thing that you asked
2:46
about first, interesting we're seeing in Japan these days less
2:51
consumption of rice and that is driven by by price really more
2:56
than anything else. The cost of rice has gone way
2:58
up. There is inflation in Japan, but
3:00
rice is even outpacing inflation.
3:04
It's doubled. I think the price right, more
3:06
than doubled in just in the in the last few years, it's just
3:08
started to come down a little bit.
3:09
But this has forced Japanese people, a lot of Japanese
3:12
people, to change their habits, and probably ourselves included.
3:17
We love rice, but we don't eat rice every day, not in, not in
3:20
our house. And that's probably typical now,
3:23
or at least not too atypical for a lot of people in Japan.
3:27
But we make a choice. When we eat rice, we want to
3:30
have it good. And so you asked what kind of
3:32
rice do you buy? Sometimes we'll we'll get
3:34
something in the supermarket, but we'll typically buy it from
3:38
a farmers market or something local.
3:40
If we happen to be in a rice producing area, then we'll we'll
3:43
buy rice there. We also know an organic market
3:46
nearby that that sells rice. It's good quality rice.
3:48
It's locally produced. We've opted for quality, not
3:53
quantity, and we might have that rice two or three times a week,
3:56
something like that. And maybe we're having rice as
3:58
part of a meal somewhere else. If we're eating out, if we're
4:01
having yakiniku, for example, Yakiniku is, is Korean barbecue
4:04
in Japan and it goes great with rice.
4:07
Ramen, even people enjoy. That's like that's a double carb
4:10
thing going on right there. But rice, it turns out to be
4:12
really good with, with ramen ourselves, we probably have rice
4:16
maybe 5 or 6 * a week somewhere in in the mix.
4:19
And it's not only rice in, in rice form.
4:22
For example, when we travel to different regions of Japan,
4:25
we'll notice the rice that's being served in the meal.
4:27
Maybe we're in Akita Prefecture, for example, they have Akita
4:31
Comachi rice, which is really good stuff, not only in a bowl
4:35
of rice, but you can taste it in mulchi, You can have it in rice
4:39
crackers. And of course you can have it in
4:42
Nihongshu, Japanese sake. And you can really taste the two
4:45
things that if you drink sake over time, that the things that
4:49
you start to taste the most are the local rice that regions rice
4:53
and the water, because those are the two basic ingredients in in
4:57
sake. And it really, it really comes
4:59
out. Why does it taste so good in
5:03
Japan and never quite taste the same outside Japan?
5:07
Now, I had a professor many, many years ago, and I hope
5:10
you're listening to this podcast, Doctor Nosco.
5:11
I said, what's what's the deal with what?
5:13
Why even in LA, even in Little Tokyo, even in Japan town, San
5:16
Francisco, food that is cooked by Japanese people in Japanese
5:20
restaurants and eaten by at least some Japanese customers.
5:23
Why doesn't it taste the same and it starts with the rice?
5:26
Why doesn't it taste the same as the food in Japan?
5:29
He said, Ari, there's something about Japanese food.
5:31
It just doesn't travel well. I remember that all these years
5:35
later, because it's, it's absolutely true.
5:37
And I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the water, maybe it's
5:40
the process, maybe it's the ambience.
5:42
It, it could be a combination of things.
5:44
Even the same bowl of rice, the same kind of rice cooked exactly
5:46
the same way will taste different depending on what else
5:50
you're having it with, what else is on the table, what else
5:52
you're eating it with. I think we can, we can boil it
5:54
down, pun intended. We can boil it all down to say
5:58
Japanese food doesn't travel very well and thus rice doesn't
6:02
travel very well. So Laurent, if you're buying 10K
6:04
bags of Japanese rice and eating that in, in France, fantastic.
6:09
We appreciate you supporting Japanese rice production and let
6:12
us know how it's turning out. And yeah, there's a whole
6:16
philosophical debate to be had there as to would it taste the
6:19
same versus if you cooked it in Japan or if Aki came to your
6:23
home in France and cooked that rice, would it taste different?
6:26
Yeah, we can. We can go down a whole
6:27
philosophical rabbit hole about this.
6:30
Laura, thank you for asking about rice.
6:31
It's a great segue to the other part of your question, which is
6:35
about underrated. And I'm going to begin with rice
6:37
because I think rice is one of those things that is highly
6:40
underrated by many visitors to Japan.
6:43
It's ironic because Japan is almost synonymous with rice and
6:47
and vice versa, but yet somehow people focus on a lot of the
6:50
other things that they're eating.
6:51
But Laurent, as you mentioned and others, you may have noticed
6:55
this as well. When you come back to Japan for
6:57
your second trip or your third trip, etcetera, all of a sudden
7:01
it might be that first meal that you have when you when you jump
7:03
off the plane and maybe you're eating it in Haneda airport or
7:07
maybe you're having it in the city in Tokyo or somewhere in
7:09
Osaka for that matter. That first bowl of rice that you
7:12
have with that meal. And this is also true for
7:14
Japanese who've been away from Japan for a little while and
7:17
come back to Japan. That first bowl of rice you have
7:21
is absolutely amazing. There's no doubt about it.
7:24
And I could see where as a visitor to Japan, you begin to
7:27
appreciate that more and more. I'd say that's one of the
7:31
underrated things. If you're a first time visitor
7:32
in Japan and you want to focus on the rice a bit and think
7:35
about where it was grown and what kind of rice it is, that's
7:39
great. And as you travel around Japan,
7:41
as you go into different regions, you might notice that
7:43
the rice tastes a little bit different.
7:45
And that's because of the water. That's because of the the type
7:48
of rice itself and the soil conditions and all these things.
7:51
While we're on the subject of food, let's talk about a food
7:53
category and A food type. We're kind of picking up where
7:56
we left off in the last episode, which was all about food.
7:59
And I'm going to give you a food category 1st, and it might be
8:03
something that you've heard of or maybe not.
8:05
And that's called yoshoku. Now yoshoku in Japanese
8:09
literally means Western food, but it does not mean McDonald's.
8:14
It doesn't mean AT bone steak. It means a particular type of
8:18
food that was essentially invented in Japan, but using the
8:22
influence of Western foods. So it might be fried food, for
8:27
example, fried shrimp or Tong katsu, which is pork cutlet.
8:31
You probably had that. Yoshoka has all kinds of things
8:34
in, in that category. What's another good one?
8:37
Aki hambagu hot, which is a hamburger steak.
8:40
And, and those are those are fantastic.
8:42
We have that at home quite a bit.
8:44
Oh, beef cut. So yeah, beef, beef cutlets.
8:46
Absolutely. Many people go if you're in, if
8:47
you're in Kyoto, for example, there are, there are some famous
8:49
places there. What's another one?
8:52
Honey cream Koroke. Oh, Koroke in general is the
8:54
other the croquettes and then a creamy croquette with, with crab
8:58
in it. Now there's a crossover.
9:00
I see where you're jumping into here because one of the places
9:02
we eat honey cream Koroke a lot is that Koko Ichibanya which is
9:07
a Curry place. Curry kare in fact is a kind of
9:09
yoshhoku. It's a Japanese food that has
9:11
had western influence that you might be thinking Curry.
9:14
Isn't that from India. Japanese Curry actually came
9:17
from the UK. Yoshhoku is a great category and
9:20
highly recommend you try some yoshhoku while you're in Japan.
9:24
And then a food type. Well I've already mentioned it,
9:27
which is Curry. So it is not Indian Curry,
9:30
although there are great Indian restaurants and Nepali
9:34
restaurants in Japan as well. But Japanese Curry is a totally
9:38
different beast. It really was reinvented in
9:41
Japan and is very much become a kokumin shoku, which is a
9:46
national Japanese dish. There are dishes like Damen, for
9:49
example, or Kade that clearly had origins outside of Japan but
9:54
also became reinvented to become Japanese over time.
9:58
It's something that we have at home once or twice a month, and
10:01
we probably eat it out as well once or twice a month.
10:04
And depending on who you talk to, there are some people who
10:07
eat it even weekly, for example. And there are some great
10:09
restaurants to try it out. There are chain restaurants like
10:13
Coco Ichi. We mentioned that if you're in
10:15
the Kanazawa area, they have Kanazawa Curry.
10:18
And then in Tokyo, there isn't a neighborhood called Kanda
10:22
Jimbocho, and they have a lot of Curry restaurants there, so
10:25
you'll smell it when you're walking down the street.
10:27
And again, I know what you might be thinking because we hear this
10:29
from clients from time to time. Hey, I don't want to go to Japan
10:32
and eat Indian food. No worries.
10:34
You don't have to. You're definitely eating
10:36
Japanese food when you have Japanese Curry.
10:39
I want to shift our focus a little bit away from food for a
10:43
bit and talk about places. Places I think are at this
10:46
point, by the way, we're recording this in June 2026.
10:50
So a place that I say is underrated right now might no
10:54
longer be underrated in a year from now.
10:56
That's how much tourism and and travel in Japan is changing so
11:00
quickly. Let's talk about a region, a
11:03
city and a town that I think are underrated.
11:07
An underrated region is the Setochi region.
11:11
An underrated city is the city of Sendai in northern Japan, the
11:15
Tohoka region, and an underrated town is Hikone.
11:20
So let's talk a little bit about these.
11:21
And again, we could do a whole episode on this on any one of
11:24
these places. So I mentioned the region of
11:26
Setochi. It is basically the Inland Sea
11:29
region. It has bordered by Honshu on one
11:33
side, which is the main island of Japan on the north, and then
11:36
on the South it is the island of Shikoku and then West and E, it
11:41
basically narrows down. It has Hiroshima on one side and
11:45
just West of Kobe on the other side.
11:48
Lots of natural beauty in this region.
11:51
Cities and towns that you can visit.
11:52
Okama is 1 and an Okama prefecture.
11:54
There's a town called Kurashiki which itself is probably not
11:58
underrated anymore, but it's a great place to go.
12:00
But smaller towns and natural beauty.
12:04
Onomichi Onomichi is a is a great town a little bit east of
12:08
the city of Hiroshima. It's in Hiroshima Prefecture and
12:12
from Onomichi, that's actually where the Shimanami Kaido is the
12:16
the cycling routes that take you across these series of islands
12:20
eventually out to Imabadi and, and across into Shikoku.
12:23
So yeah, all kinds of natural beauty and the place that we can
12:26
do a full episode on at some point.
12:28
So in terms of cities, I mentioned Sendai.
12:30
Sendai is one of our favorite cities.
12:32
It is just outside the top ten in terms of population in Japan
12:37
and it's only a little bit smaller than Kyoto.
12:39
Well, everybody's heard of Kyoto.
12:41
Not that many people have have heard of Sendai, and that's OK.
12:44
Relatively speaking, there aren't that many international
12:47
visitors. There are some and it's well set
12:49
up and you can find great hotels and staff who speak English in
12:52
those hotels and in restaurants. But relatively speaking, it
12:56
doesn't experience over tourism. It doesn't experience mass
12:59
tourism and it's a great gateway to the Tohoku region.
13:03
Now I mentioned a town as well. It's the town of Hikone.
13:07
Perhaps the highlight for you is Hikone Castle.
13:10
There are only 12 original castles left in Japan.
13:14
If you go to Nijo Castle in Kyoto, that's not an original.
13:18
If you go to Osaka Castle in guess where Osaka, that's not an
13:22
original. So in this Kansai region, for
13:24
example, we have two original castles.
13:26
Himanji Castle is beautiful. It may be our favorite castle in
13:29
Japan. It is.
13:30
It is the favorite among many people in Japan, and it gets a
13:33
lot of crowds. It gets a lot of people there.
13:35
If you don't visit first thing in the morning, you'll notice
13:37
that it does get pretty crowded. On the other hand, if you go to
13:41
Hikone, it's just an hour north of Kyoto by local train and you
13:45
realize right away you're in you're in a different place.
13:47
You're not in Kyoto anymore. You're not in Osaka anymore.
13:50
And I say that in the best possible way.
13:53
Beautiful little castle built up on a hill and it has a Joe
13:57
kamachi below that, a town beneath the castle, a nice
14:01
little garden there as well. And then you can, you can have
14:03
lunch. It is also close to the only
14:07
region, which means Olmi beef. So you can have Olmi beef for
14:10
lunch in different forms at a steakhouse or as Yakinika.
14:13
We had Olmi Koroke croquettes which were really good.
14:17
Very close to the castle town, there is a Main Street
14:20
absolutely frozen in time. It looks like a relic from the
14:24
60s or 70s. And that is in Japan what's
14:28
called Showa. Anything from that Showa period,
14:31
which is, which is the peak of Japanese prosperity.
14:33
It's actually undergoing quite a Showa retro, as they call it a a
14:38
rejuvenation, if you will, And you can walk down this, this
14:41
Main St. in Hikone, these older buildings and extremely
14:46
atmospheric. Did how many tourists We saw a
14:49
few, but really not, not too many visitors.
14:52
It was it was a pretty quiet and it was a lovely day.
14:54
It was a beautiful day that we were there, great weather and it
14:56
was a Saturday. So you'd think a lot of people
14:57
would have would have been around, but no, not so much.
14:59
No, we can't guarantee what it's going to be like when when
15:01
you're there. But as far as an underrated
15:04
town, Hikone would be our choice for that.
15:07
So those are just a few things in terms of foods and places and
15:11
experiences off the top of our heads that we'd say are
15:14
underrated. Laurent, thank you for the
15:15
question. Thank you for the inspiration.
15:17
We probably will do multiple episodes and going in different
15:20
directions on these. And you're coming back to Japan
15:22
soon. So we look forward to seeing you
15:24
again, Mercy Boku, and we'll move on.
15:28
This episode of the Japan Travel Pros podcast is brought to you
15:31
by Japan Travel Pros. Because, yeah, who else would it
15:34
be brought to you by? Here at Japan Travel Pros, we
15:36
help you plan your trip to Japan so it feels right for you once
15:40
you're actually here. Because that's the part that
15:42
gets kind of lost sometimes, doesn't it?
15:46
You know, it's easy enough to make a list of places.
15:49
Tokyo, Kyoto, Hakone, Hiroshima, Hanazawa, Those are all great.
15:53
But then the questions come like, where do you stay?
15:57
What order should you go in? What's worth the extra train
16:00
ride? Well, it looks easy enough on a
16:02
map, but then takes up too much time.
16:05
And what did AI call a hidden gem that is absolutely not a
16:08
secret anymore? Well, that's where we come in.
16:12
If you're planning a trip to Japan and you want some help
16:14
sorting out the good ideas from the noise, head on over to
16:17
japantravelpros.com/plan and schedule a consultation.
16:24
Welcome back to the Q&A episode. And our next question is from
16:27
Puja in California. Pooja wants to know how is Japan
16:31
for vegetarians? Thanks for the question, Pooja.
16:33
So the short answer that we always give on that one is Japan
16:36
is absolutely possible if you're a vegetarian.
16:39
That's the short answer. Now, the longer answer is more
16:42
complicated and more nuanced. And I'll start broadly.
16:45
So there is a perception that many people around the world
16:49
have of Japanese food being very healthy.
16:52
And in many people's minds, healthy food means a lot of
16:55
vegetables. Now this is all true so far.
16:58
Japanese food is healthy because it's balanced.
17:02
This is where we get into a little bit of a sticky situation
17:04
is that although Japanese food has a lot of vegetables,
17:08
Japanese people eat some form of non plant based protein every
17:15
day. That's a very broad and vague
17:17
way to say they're eating meat or fish essentially every day.
17:22
And that makes it a little bit difficult to go to a local
17:25
restaurant and have Japanese food that is actually
17:29
vegetarian. The reason why it comes down to
17:32
one thing, one ingredient called dashi.
17:37
Dashi is the big one because dashi generally traditionally
17:40
is, it's a stock and it is, it's actually a fish stock.
17:43
It is bonito stock. Now you might see kombu dashi in
17:46
some places. It's a little bit more common
17:49
these days in Tokyo and in Kyoto, where there are a lot of
17:51
international visitors who want vegetarian food, but it's still
17:54
not that common. Most dashi is fish stock.
17:59
And dashi appears in all kinds of Japanese food that you never
18:02
thought would have fish involved.
18:04
You thought you might think, oh, this is, this is purely
18:06
vegetable. It could be a boiled or steamed
18:09
or simmered or stewed vegetable dish, but it has dashi at the
18:13
base of it. So now you've got you've got
18:15
fish going on. It could be something like miso
18:18
soup. You look at the bowl, you say,
18:19
well, it's got, it's got tofu in there that's vegetarian.
18:21
It has seaweed in there, that's vegetarian.
18:23
It has miso in there that's vegetarian.
18:25
What's wrong with this bowl of soup?
18:27
The answer is dashi, right? It's going to have fish stock at
18:32
its base in, in Washaku in Japanese cuisine.
18:35
How a lot of different vegetable dishes have dashi essentially
18:39
seasoning or flavoring that that dish in different notes.
18:44
This is where we ask the question to clients, For
18:46
example, what level vegetarian? I know there's no, there's no
18:49
official classification for this, but if you're a vegan, for
18:51
example, it's going to be a little trickier.
18:54
If you're a vegetarian for religious purposes, it's it's
18:57
going to be tricky as well. I like to think of this as the
18:59
MasterCard logo, if you will. MasterCard is not sponsored this
19:02
podcast by the way, but I like to think of it as the MasterCard
19:04
logo, the Venn diagram, the overlap of Japanese food,
19:08
healthy food and vegetarian food is a narrow band in the middle.
19:11
So what happens more often than not is you end up going to
19:14
places that are actually not Japanese.
19:17
First thing we start with when talking with clients, for
19:20
example, is we'll say you can always go to an Indian
19:23
restaurant and they're everywhere.
19:24
They always have vegetarian dishes.
19:26
Now I know what you're thinking. Hey I'm going to Japan.
19:29
The last thing I want to have is non Japanese food.
19:31
I want to I'm going there for the Japanese food.
19:33
Fair enough. There are a number of
19:35
restaurants in tourist areas, for example in Tokyo and Kyoto,
19:40
in Osaka, and even in Kawaguchiko and places like
19:44
that. Near Mount Fuji, for example,
19:46
you will find vegetarian and vegan options for Damen and for
19:54
so let's call it international food or multi multinational type
19:56
of type of restaurants. You might see some Japanese
19:59
items on the menu, but a Japanese person might not
20:01
recognize that as a as a Japanese restaurant.
20:04
Hey, we're all about an open eyes approach in terms of Japan
20:07
travel here. So we're going to we're going to
20:08
call it like we see it and and let you know now, depending on
20:12
where you go. For example, if you're in Kyoto,
20:14
we have a place that we've we've been to a few times for Damen.
20:17
It's in the popular Higashiyama area.
20:19
It's near Guillon, for example. It is a.
20:22
Is a ramen restaurant. They make it with pork the the
20:24
traditional way. They have a vegan ramen that
20:27
that I've had there more than once and I'm not a vegan.
20:31
I'm not a vegetarian. Not that there's anything wrong
20:33
with that, but I've very much enjoyed the vegan ramen there.
20:36
I've had a couple of places as well.
20:38
There's a chain called Engine Engine Ramen, for example, in
20:41
Kyoto and Osaka and elsewhere that has a wide menu with a
20:47
vegan option with a gluten free option.
20:50
So as you can see, it's it's doable, but it's tricky.
20:53
Now when you're in Kyoto, we definitely recommend going for
20:57
shojin diyoti, which is usually part of a Buddhist temple and
21:02
Buddhist cuisine is generally vegetarian.
21:05
However, Aki does shojin diyoti. Do they serve things with dashi?
21:11
Probably not, but you should ask.
21:12
It's important to ask if again, if you, if you are a strictly a
21:15
vegan or observing a vegetarian practice for religious purposes,
21:20
ask what their dashi is. Ask what they use and ask if
21:23
they have an alternative such as kombu dashi, which is the
21:26
seaweed dashi. One of our clients ask is it
21:29
possible to customize or order off the menu as a lot of
21:33
Americans call it, to say I'd like a salad or I'd like
21:35
something with vegetables or something like that.
21:38
It might be if you're in a hotel, an international hotel,
21:42
or in a in an international chain restaurant, but as a rule,
21:48
it's probably best not to try that.
21:50
It's generally frowned upon in Japan in terms of customization
21:54
and order customization. So if you're a vegetarian, for
21:57
example, and you're going with a group of people and you're
21:59
standing outside a restaurant looking at the menu and you
22:01
don't see vegetarian options, assume that this place, this
22:04
restaurant is not going to work out and you should probably move
22:07
down the street. And the great thing about being
22:09
in Japan is there are all kinds of restaurants in all kinds of
22:11
neighborhoods, and you will find something for you somewhere that
22:15
works out. So I hope that helps.
22:16
Thank you, Pooja, for the question.
22:17
We appreciate that. Back after this.
22:22
Welcome back. We're taking your questions,
22:23
we're giving you answers. And this is a question that
22:25
comes up at least once a week, if not more from clients.
22:28
And that is, do I need cash in Japan?
22:32
We just had this question come up the other day.
22:33
The short answer is yes, and I'm going to explain why.
22:37
So you might be thinking, Oh yeah, Japan, Japan's living in
22:41
the future. It's cashless, right?
22:43
This is the country that still uses the fax machine.
22:46
So they absolutely, definitely still use cash.
22:50
Hey, I'm an American living in Japan.
22:52
A big word for US Americans is freedom.
22:55
And so I know for a lot of people, cashless feels like
22:59
freedom. Cashless feels like, hey, I'm
23:01
free to move about my country or my town and not worry about
23:05
somebody robbing me and somebody, you know,
23:08
pickpocketing me or something like that.
23:10
Well then in Japan it's quite the opposite.
23:13
You'll feel free if you have cash because cash opens up doors
23:17
in Japan. I'm going to go down a list of
23:19
reasons why you should have cash.
23:20
Clients asked if they bring cash from home.
23:23
You can do that. If you want Peace of Mind, you
23:25
can go to your local bank. You will not get a good exchange
23:27
rate, but still not a bad idea to get maybe a couple $100.
23:33
Again, we're speaking U.S. dollars here.
23:34
Get a couple $100 in cash. It won't be a great rate, but
23:37
that will ensure that you have cash when you arrive in Japan.
23:41
Now, having said that, 99.9% of the time, no problem to use the
23:45
ATM at the airport. Use the ATM.
23:47
By the way, don't go to the booth where you're physically
23:48
exchanging cash. They'll give you a bad rate
23:51
every time. Use the ATM at the airport and
23:53
we usually suggest to our clients take out ¥50,000, which
23:56
is about $300 and change 310 three, $120.00 as at the time
24:01
that we record this. That will probably last you a
24:04
long time and you'll start to realize where cash is used.
24:08
For example, if you're looking to buy a bullet train tickets or
24:10
a similar express train, when you walk up to a machine, the
24:13
machine might take credit cards, but it might not take your
24:15
credit card. And here's where we get into
24:16
another situation where I'm saying cash is freedom.
24:20
Sometimes international credit cards randomly fail in Japan for
24:26
no particular reason. There's just not a handshake
24:28
being made somewhere along the way.
24:30
So that's a great reason then, isn't it, To have cash on hand
24:35
because you don't want to be in a situation where you've enjoyed
24:37
your meal. You walk up to the cash register
24:39
to pay, and all of a sudden you realize your card doesn't work
24:42
and you have no cash. Now what other kinds of places
24:45
don't take credit cards? So local restaurants in Japan
24:49
tend to be cash only. A lot of local restaurants don't
24:54
take credit card. Let's start with Rahman, for
24:55
example, because you probably want to eat that during your
24:57
time in Japan. If you want to go to a local
24:59
Rahman restaurant, they usually have ticket machines and those
25:02
ticket machines are usually, for your purposes, cash only.
25:07
So that's a great reason to have cash on you as well.
25:10
You might find yourself in a situation where you're in a
25:13
small store or a small restaurant and they take cash
25:16
only. I want to give you one more
25:17
reason why it would be nice to have some cash on hand.
25:20
It is possible that while you're here in Japan, there could be a
25:23
situation where the credit card systems go down and the AT Ms.
25:27
might go down as well. So I'm talking about either an
25:30
earthquake or a tsunami or a typhoon.
25:34
These are the big ones, and it doesn't happen that often, and
25:37
the systems are pretty good overall, pretty strong, but not
25:42
unheard of. It's a good idea to have cash.
25:46
So for all these reasons, have some cash on hand, feel good
25:50
about it, feel free about it. To my American friends and to
25:53
our American clients, I want to say that cash is freedom in
25:56
Japan, and I've learned to embrace it.
25:58
It took me a little while. It took me some mistakes.
26:01
Now, if you're concerned about what happens to the cash that
26:03
you have leftover at the end, that's a legit concern.
26:06
I get that. Spend it, spend it down.
26:08
The great thing about the exchange rate, especially these
26:10
days is you can buy souvenirs, you can buy literally anything
26:14
with cash, and you can even get pretty good meal at the airport
26:18
before you go. And here's a bonus if you have a
26:21
few 1000 or ¥10,000 left, something like that, come back
26:25
to Japan and spend it again because that money is not going
26:28
to go out of style. So really all kinds of reasons
26:31
to have cash. Quick break.
26:32
Hey, if this episode has you rethinking how to plan your
26:35
Japan trip, well, that's just what we do here at Japan Travel
26:38
Pros Summertime, winter time, first trip, second trip, Golden
26:42
Route, or something more regional.
26:45
We'll help you build a customized Japan trip that's
26:47
just right for you. Go to japantravelpros.com/plan
26:52
and schedule a session with us. Got a question from Michael in
26:57
New York? Hey Michael, how you doing, pal?
26:59
So Michael wants to know Japan summertime.
27:03
Good idea, bad idea. What's the deal there, Michael?
27:06
I'm going to give you the short answer and a longer, more
27:09
nuanced answer because that's that's how we do it here.
27:11
The short answer is if summer is the only time you can visit
27:15
Japan, please come to Japan. Don't let it be a dealer
27:17
breaker. Don't let it dissuade you from
27:20
your dream trip to Japan. It can be great, but know before
27:24
you go, know what you're getting into.
27:26
Japan gets hot and really humid in the summertime.
27:30
You might be thinking of summer as June, July, or August.
27:33
Well, those are different kinds of weather and in fact, three
27:35
different, distinctly different seasons here in Japan.
27:39
And so we've got spring, for example, starting around sakura
27:42
time, starting around cherry blossoms, late March, running
27:45
through April and May and into early June.
27:47
The weather tends to be dry relatively and the temperatures
27:50
are starting to warm up, but it's usually a pretty nice time
27:52
to be here. And then round about the first
27:55
or second week of June starts the rainy season in Japan.
27:59
In in much of Japan. Hokkaido doesn't have it.
28:01
Okinawa starts earlier. But for the rest of Japan,
28:04
typically the first or second week of June on through mid-july
28:07
for about a month or six weeks, it's rainy season.
28:10
Now what does this mean? It's not an all day, everyday
28:14
kind of rain, but typical Japanese person leaves home
28:19
every morning with an umbrella, knowing that at some point
28:22
during the day it might rain. It might rain for an hour or two
28:25
on and off, and sometimes the weather forecast shows sunshine
28:29
and then boom, there's a shower or even a thunderstorm in the
28:33
late afternoon, early evening, something like that.
28:35
So good to be prepared. It works better if you're in the
28:38
cities because you can always duck into a cafe or gallery or
28:43
shops or museum or anything like that.
28:45
You've got indoor options if you're in an area in Hakone, for
28:50
example, and you're you're planning on some sightseeing or
28:52
here in an area like Takayama or Nakosendo or the Alps.
28:58
In places like that, rainy season might affect you more,
29:02
but just depends on how you feel about rolling the dice and
29:06
seeing what happens. But again, good to know before
29:08
you go. And then once we finish rainy
29:11
season in mid-july, then it's hot and humid.
29:14
Traditionally that was all the way through August.
29:16
And at this point, what we're saying is it's all the way
29:19
through September. How hot and how humid?
29:23
That's a, that's a good question.
29:25
People we know who are from India, Southeast Asia, places
29:28
like that will tell you, Ari Sun, it's really hot here.
29:31
Here meaning Japan. In fact, we know a guy who goes
29:35
home in August back to India and then comes back to Japan and
29:38
says, wow, it's so hot in Japan. Not in India, in Japan, the
29:43
question we ask a lot of clients is not only where are you from,
29:48
but what's your lifestyle? Because we had a lot of people
29:50
say, oh, I live in Texas or I live in Florida or where I live,
29:54
summers get really hot and humid.
29:56
There's one thing that's even more important than that is what
29:59
kind of lifestyle do you have? Because if you live in a hot
30:02
place, but you go from air conditioned home into your air
30:06
conditioned car, to your air conditioned office, to the air
30:09
conditioned store, to the air conditioned gym and back to your
30:11
air conditioned home. You see where I'm going with
30:12
this? You're basically spending 24/7
30:15
in air conditioning. So how much time do you spend
30:17
outside? People take anywhere from 10,000
30:20
to 25,000 steps a day. If you do the math, you're
30:23
talking about several hours outside all day every day.
30:28
And Aki, does it, Does it get better in the evening or
30:31
overnight? It actually no.
30:33
Yeah, it's it's more humid. The temperature drops a little
30:36
bit. The sun goes down, but the
30:38
humidity starts to increase and actually feels stickier, if
30:42
anything. So not saying this is scary.
30:45
I don't want this to be a deal breaker for you unless if you're
30:49
somebody who has flexibility in your travel plans and you say,
30:52
yeah, you know, I can actually come there in October or I can
30:55
come there in February. Let's have that conversation.
30:58
Let's talk about that because those are probably better months
31:01
for you to travel depending on how you feel about heat and
31:04
humidity versus cooler weather or things like that.
31:06
Not that October is super cool, but it starts to at least go
31:10
from hot and humid to warm to starts to cool off by the end of
31:13
October. Let's let's say that on the
31:15
other hand, sometimes we're talking to a client and they'll
31:17
say, well, I can take 3 weeks off in the summer and have
31:21
effectively a 17 day or a 21 day trip in Japan, or I can spend 10
31:26
days over Christmas and New Year's.
31:28
Which one should I do? I think there's a really good
31:31
case to be made for you should still come in the summertime
31:34
because you're spending more time here.
31:35
As long as you set the pace, I think you'll be all right in the
31:38
summer. And that's that segways into
31:40
what we really want to talk about here in terms of, OK,
31:43
let's say you're coming to Japan in the summer.
31:44
If you're listening to this podcast and you've already
31:46
bought your tickets, or maybe you're a teacher, maybe you're a
31:49
student, or maybe you have kids in the family who are on the
31:51
school calendar. Those are all reasons that you
31:53
want to travel to Japan in the summer.
31:55
No problem. Important then to plan early,
31:59
plan well, plan often and have a Plan B.
32:02
That's a big one. Every summer we work with
32:04
clients in Japan who've come here and realize that was a,
32:07
that was a really ambitious plan, but it's time to put a
32:09
Plan B together. In some cases, we've seen
32:11
clients get heat stroke, which is not uncommon, especially
32:15
these days in Japan. And we've seen clients just get
32:20
completely wiped out by a very ambitious plan.
32:23
You can prevent this from happening by having a better
32:25
plan to begin with, a plan that gives you a little bit of space,
32:28
a little bit of breathing room. And that's probably a case to
32:31
have a few more days in Japan, but also spread out your plans
32:36
across those days. Don't add more plans to the
32:38
day's. Keep some space open.
32:40
If you're working with us here at Japan Travel Pros, we can
32:42
usually spot it. And when we look at an itinerary
32:44
and say, wow, you're kind of you're kind of setting
32:47
yourselves up for failure on this one.
32:49
And just to give you a little heads up, a little bit of
32:51
warning as to what you might want to do instead.
32:53
So we love helping out in those cases.
32:56
And yeah, again, Michael, if if summer is the time that you can
32:59
get away, absolutely recommend Japan.
33:02
Don't let it be a deal breaker. But if you have a flexible
33:05
schedule, you might want to look at some other times as well and
33:07
then see what works best for you.
33:15
Big thanks to everyone who sent questions.
33:18
And if you got a question, we'd love to hear from you.
33:20
You can send us a voice clip. Yeah, just go ahead on your
33:22
phone and record a voice memo. Send it on over, or it can be a
33:25
text form as well. e-mail us at Ari at japantravelpros.com.
33:30
That's Ari at japantravelpros.com.
33:34
Thanks for listening all the way to the end.
33:36
Hey, if you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us on
33:38
your podcast app. And if you want to help other
33:40
travelers discover the show, we really appreciate a rating or
33:43
review. We've got some guest episodes
33:45
coming up real soon, so stay tuned for those.
33:48
And until next time, safe travels.