How to book Japanese hotels

Time and again visitors to Japan are lured into booking their hotel through familiar sources, whether those be the website of a Western hotel with branches in Japan, or through online travel sites which do the searching for you (and whose search results are frequently Western hotels with branches in Japan). Let’s not deny it:…

Tickets as souvenirs

Most people like to collect a few souvenirs on holiday, and in Japan there’s an almost bewildering selection of things to buy everywhere you go. But don’t overlook the souvenir you’ll be given every place you go: the humble admission ticket. Japan doesn’t seem to do the humble variety of admission ticket, though. Not to…

Survival Japanese

This is intended as a very simple primer for those without the time to gain a fuller vocabulary. I won’t be scaring you with the intricacies of Japanese writing: that’s beyond the scope of this article. Similarly the purpose is not to teach you beginner’s Japanese in any way; purely to give you a handful…