Ken@Japan

Perhaps, you can use some English-speaking guides during your tour in Japan. I believe that would make you free from those language problems. First option is a taxi. There are some taxi providers in Japan, who have services in English. You can check out the following websites; Nihon-Kotsu http://www.nihon-kotsu.co.jp/taxi/use/english.html When you are around Tokyo, you can call a taxi in English for 24 hours by dialing the number shown in the website. However, the driver coming to you might not be able to speak in English. The website says that when you have some troubles to let the driver know your destination, you can also dial the number to ask for some helps. It seems no charges except the general fare and phone-charges. JET-S TAXI International http://homepage1.nifty.com/jet-shimamura/ This is an in-English tourist guide by a taxi. You can consult with them for your own tour schedules when you need. Dai-ichi Koutsu http://www.daiichi-taxi.com/05other/english.html Based in Hiroshim...

Firstly, you might look for tourist information. If you go there, there might be some English speakers and you can obtain tourist tips from them. Basically, major airports and/or stations have those information boxes, where usually female receptionists will welcome visitors. Especially, at the international airport such as Narita (Tokyo), Haneda (Tokyo), Kansai International (Osaka), Centrair (Nagoya), there must be those information center with English fluency. Since almost all of foreign visitors should pass the airport when getting in Japan, it might be better if you collect information you need for your trip before leaving the airport. Narita International Airport: http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/index.html Haneda Airport: http://www.tokyo-airport-bldg.co.jp/en/ Kansai International Airport: http://www.kansai-airport.or.jp/en/index.asp Centrair: http://www.centrair.jp/en/index.html In cities or towns, there should be some English-speaking information boxes attached to the main ra...

Japan is full of English-phobia people. If you come to Japan, you will be surprised at their allergy against foreign languages, especially English. Even with simple words to communicate, they will frown and escape from you by saying "No....No English...". If you come to Japan, you should overcome this obstacle simply by learning some simple Japanese or looking for tourist information. As our compulsory education, at least we have three-year English classes in junior high schools. If they go to high schools and then university later on, cumulatively they study English for six years, but they have not been practical in English unfortunately. Some say it is because of our English education. Firstly, the education focuses too much on reading/writing skills. In education, textbook is a god to students, so they get asked to learn contents in the textbook by heart. Referring to my experiences at schools, teachers taught us how to spell words, and asked us to read textbooks, and th...

送信者 Trip in Mt. Kouya Kouya-san or Mt. Kouya, written in Japanese as 高野山, is one of the biggest temple complexes for Buddhist in Japan, located in Wakayama, Japan. It is around 2.5 hours away from the central Osaka by train, and its status as UNESCO's world-heritage holder has attracted many tourists from both Japan and foreign countries. Religiously, this temple complex is for Shin-gon shu（真言宗 or vajrayāna）, one of the Buddhist parties in Japan, who sets Buddha at the center of universe in its own dogma as "Dainichi Nyo-rai"(大日如来 or mahaavairocana）.Historical ly, it was founded by a high monk called Kuu Kai (空海）or Kou-bou Dai-shi（弘法大師） in 819 for a training space for himself or his students. It is comprised of many small temples, but the core temple is called Kon Gou Bu Ji temple (金剛峯寺）, where legendarily the founder Kuu-Kai settled to spread his teaching to people who needed spiritual remedy, then currently it has been a center of Shingon-Shu Buddhism all over Japan, Th...

Dear readers, Hi, I'm Ken@Japan, it's nice to meet you all here. I'm Japanese and based in Osaka. I have many friends in this world, and they always ask me about Japan from our language, culture, religion, to sometimes politics. Upon these questions from my friendship network, I came up with starting a blog to let people know my country in English. I'm not a professional editor/writer, so sometimes I might get it wrong, but from a view of native Japanese, I would like to put my experiences/knowledge here in this blog. Thank you for the attention. Regards, Ken