In many other countries “the $Foo is at its weakest in decades, and many Foo workers haven’t had a raise in 30 years” means young people will be more inclined to emigrate and that isn’t happening in Japan, AFAIK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_diaspora#Americas: “The Japanese diaspora has been unique in the absence of new emigration flows in the second half of the 20th century”)
Anecdotally from friends, I'd say the top three reasons are:
* Lack of money
* Lack of time off from work
* Lack of English skills, making travel abroad intimidating. In previous generations this was counteracted by bus tours with Japanese guides, but those are seen as lame by the younger generations.
Isn't the "Lack of English skills" easily solved with the plethora of translator devices and apps these days? About a decade+ ago (I think 2010-11), I remember a woman who sat next to me after Narita, traveling "to explore India."
She carried a tiny device the size of a typical compact (make-up thing for person who wants/needs to make up). She had no idea about English but can communicate via her device and it was pretty good at that time. I was pleasantly surprised and amazed by that. Imagine translator devices/apps ten years hence.
Last year I've been asked by a guy for directions to the hotel where he was staying.
It standed out for me because:
a) he was clearly in his early 20s
b) he asked me this after boarding the bus on the same stop as me
c) he could find out the directions just by using a plethora of map/navigation (GPS for Americans) apps available here
d) he was going the wrong way
Just yesterday I saw a woman trying to find out which route she needs to board. She was in ~50s and I can bet $10 she had an Android phone => at least Google Maps. She just didn't even though about using it.
So despite it's 2023 there are people there who still live like it's 1990.
Exactly. You have to be pretty technologically inclined and have done extensive research to determine how to get a data sim in a foreign country, and not get screwed by roaming costs.
Even I, an HN tech god, rely on McDonald’s Wi-Fi and the Here app, even when I do have data enabled, as it’s often painfully slow.
Can't you mostly just pick them up at the airport when you arrive? That may not be the absolute cheapest option, but SIMs are not usually hard to find.
Sounds like they are just making life hard for themselves, I always check prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com before the trip and get the most suitable sim card at the airport.
I find purchasing an eSim from an app on my phone while waiting at the departing airport for my flight is even easier and time efficient than buying a sim card at the destination airport. And cheaper, last I bothered to look at the airport sim card stands. (I'm quite obviously a tourist.)
Last time I travelled was pre-pandemic before esims were common place, so I just pre-ordered a SIM card online that I just needed to pick up from an airport booth after showing my passport.
Depending on the country and how rural you are travelling it can also be worth checking out the coverage and frequency band compatibility to ensure you get the best reception possible.
I'm in my 40s and I really love fooling around in real life. Observing printed maps by moving my entire body or my head towards it, is more relaxing than having to actively take out my phone and finger my way to the same information on this minuscule device.
I find interacting with sign posts or humans more enjoyable than living in the matrix where I have to find the correct bus provider website, learn to navigate its crappy user interface, finally having to revert to Google maps, and then get the suggestion to go by boat.
Or you can just start with google maps, type in your destination, and take the appropriate bus route that even shows you where the hell the bus is right now, which will also not involve a small rowboat or whatever hyperbole you are envisioning.
I'm sorry that you don't appreciate hyperbole, but in Europe, public transport planning by Google Maps is quite often inferior to local services. And these local services do suggest water taxis here and there.
Also, typing in the destination still is cumbersome. I hope we can agree on that.
Well, many a times, the analog method are way faster. When trying to figure out the direction of a public transport, especially underground, I like to quickly ask someone for the direction to which a train/tube is traveling to. It is way faster than using a smartphone underground or trying to find the signs that says so.
A habit I picked up when building digital/technology features -- how does this compete with pen/paper or an analog method.
For me personally using a translator app just adds an additional layer of awkward to every interaction. Where you have to fiddle with it and the other person might not understand how to interact with it right away. It's not a huge problem, but if your not super confident already, it might be enough to discourage you.
When I went to japan, lots of people where very hesitant to use their english. Like they didn't want to embarass themselves. I'd never really experienced that before, everywhere else I had gone to previously, people's drive to communicate was usually a lot stronger than their drive to hide weak language skills.
I believe it is common with some nationalities (S Korea, for example) to study to the point of perfection but be very reluctant to speak another language outside of a classroom situation.
Easy to say when my native language is basically the lingua franca of the world, but in 2009 I went to China with a friend and we managed to get by fine with a combination of gestures and an offline translation app on my Palm Centro....
It's nice if you don't have to use it much. Otherwise it's a device that makes all your communication lag, and you'te also putting a lot of faith in the translation when you're alone in a foreign country.
For ordering at a restaurant it's fine. For trying to find a way to go to the consulate because your bag was stolen, it's not ideal.
Most cities where intercontinental tourists go to have Uber. And while I use Apple Maps rather than google I’ve used it in dozens of cities in dozens of countries on 6 continents with limited problems. Or of course I’ve just hailed taxied and shown them the hotel business card or location I’m going to.
China is probably the main tricky part, last time I went about 5 years ago I had issues paying with cash, although at least visa was accepted pretty much everywhere.
Japan doesn't have Uber, neither does Thailand. Korea also kicked Uber in 2022.
Basically, the shenanigans they pulled to get a foothold in the local markets didn't work everywhere. You'll find local alternatives, but that means local account registration etc.
I've had no issues with google translate, there is a conversation mode where each person can just tap a button, speak into it, and it converts speech to text and then translates.
Sure you wont want to have a nuanced philosophical discussion, but you can easily have a conversation with it.
id probably add to that: Lots of hostile neighbors. Korea/japan (both koreas) relations aren't great, netiher are russia nor china. Meaning you gotta fly a long long way to get anywhere. Similar to how there are many people from american midwest whove never been abroad.
living in europe all my life, almost everyone has been abroad here, but much much fewer have ever left europe, which is essentially what japanese people would have to do to go anywhere that doesnt view them with suspicion
> id probably add to that: Lots of hostile neighbors. Korea/japan (both koreas) relations aren't great, netiher are russia nor china. Meaning you gotta fly a long long way to get anywhere.
South Korea is one of the top international destinations for Japanese people. It has varied over time, but right now it actually may be the top destination.
The US is so huge that you literally cannot visit another country by land (save Canada, aka Diet US; or Mexico, aka California Sur) - and there are definitely regional variations but it’s all much more similar than even a couple hundred miles in Europe.
A common school trip in the USA is visiting Washington, DC; for some that’s a six+ hour flight. The same flight in most places in Europe would put you in Asia or Africa.
Mexico is culturally completely different than the US and definitely counts as another country lol. Canada mostly doesn’t except for a few regional chains and such but Mexico is very much not diet California in any way
bollocks. 10km from the border its going to look and sound pretty gringo -- since thats who its catering too -- but leave the tourist areas and its not the same at all.
plus only ~30% of LA is hispanic, which is roughly akin to all of the US, regardless of what Latin country or area they're from. peruvians ain't mexican, amigo.
No the comment is right, LA is almost 50% hispanic today. A lot of the development for certain neighborhoods honestly looks similar as parts of Mexico. (The more single story, working class, chicken wire and plaster parts of LA at least)
I wandered just a bit south on a whim with no destination and as you go even a bit past the first major city the roads are empty, people just leave the highway whenever, the city streets are dirt with massive pits, and the small towns can resemble permanent homeless camps with fences cobbled together from box springs. The experience feels quite lawless (or at least significantly different enforcement) than a drive at random in the United States.
I know the whole country is not like that, but it is not a vacation spot I would go without a plan unlike the US where you can do a cross country drive and rely there will be services almost everywhere.
Texas is big even for the USA; and I believe you can find almost every possible biome there (except polar perhaps) without leaving the state. Whereas some Eastern states are so small that the majority of people leave and return every week.
California and Texas are big enough that you can drive for a whole day and never leave the state; Rhode Island is small enough that you can bike your way out of the state in a few hours.
Yes reasonably so, Guam and Hawaii are the go-to overseas destinations you hear people mention, but Taiwan is close and cheap. You can fly there LCC very cheap, and the Japanese view it as much more comfortable a visit than say visiting mainland China (because it is).
Europe is quite uniquely positioned as a starting point for travelling. There's a big diversity in a small amount of area, with cheap travel options (within Europe flights are cheap). If you want to travel farther, Europe is still "centrally located" relative to the land mass.
The CNN article does this too, but "traveling" doesn't just mean going to the US or EU. Japanese used to travel a lot to neighbour countries and that didn't cost that much, nor require much english skills.
Now money is clearly a factor, but this would go deeper than travel and more into how many Japanese are giving up on many luxuries as they feel the pressure. Hell, part of the younger generation doesn't want to date because it feels like a money pit.
This is correct, but it has settled status regarding an acceptable holiday destination. I.e. while Russia is far closer, very few Japanese have had friends visit there on holiday. Hawaii on the otherhand is in "routine" holiday status, with an established Japanese-catering industry there.
What makes dating in Japan "feel like a money pit?"
While I understand it's neither the same country or culture, but for the sake of example, I live in one of the more expensive US cities and dating isn't expensive unless you insist on going to fancy restaurants (which is fine to want to do, but if neither of you feel you can afford it, who are you trying to fool by spending so much?). Coffee shops or similar seem to be the most popular cheap date choices and unless you judge people for not wanting to splurge on dates, I see no downside to them. When the weather is nice there's lots of outdoors stuff that is free / the only cost is transit to and from.
Yeah I just looked up the actual charts, the current measured drop in travel is clearly just due to the onerous travel restrictions that were around due to vaccination requirements (all the requirements to upload documents etc). Those didn't end until this year in Japan, so I don't think we'll have the numbers to make any real conclusions until the end of 2024...
I have understood that Japan has strong domestic tourism market that caters to their market, that is short weekend or extended weekend holidays. That fit better in the work culture.
That is my understanding also, numerous internal destinations that are considered appropriate for various vacation lengths and prices; after all, airline prices get high when crossing the ocean.
I would suspect part of it is the lack of novelty, its like travelling from Australia to New Zealand, its a different country but similar enough that it doesn't really feel "overseas".
The strong domestic tourism market is partly caused by the lack of international tourism.
Indeed even when people go overseas, the most preferred destinations are Guam and Hawaii, as they're seen as acceptably close and familiar destinations.
Sounds like Japan had a massive fear campaign around Covid that might make Japanese people less likely to be willing to travel. It is a pity, although this will make Japan stay more authentic for longer, as the less Japanese people travel, the more distance there will be between Western culture and them. As someone who might want to visit Japan some day this might even be good news.
The best destinations for Japanese ppl used to be Europe & America aka “the West”.
Now these places are increasingly becoming unsafe thanks to garbage progressive policies.
It's the expected inconvenience. TFA points this out rather indirectly, but I've been hearing from Japanese for years that they are dissuaded from travel by the expected hassles of going to countries that run less smoothly than Japan (which is nearly any place).
Aside from natural disasters, (almost?) anywhere is also more dangerous than Japan.
Also, the expected length of a trip abroad is shorter. There are half as many vacation days as in many other countries. By the time you're done with flights and acclimated to the time difference, you need to start thinking about going back. This also makes the per-day cost of a trip high.
After moving to Japan I've also become reluctant to travel!
I don't know. Personal opinion follows, YMMV: I've been to Tokyo recently. The subway system is much less convenient than, let's say, NYC. There are multiple operators, you need to purchase tickets separately to each one, it's not obvious for a tourist to understand the reasoning, and you can't pay with credit card (in 2023...), You need to either purchase a special card from a desk, or pay cash. In 2023. I consider that a hassle (it actually surprised me, I envisioned Tokyo as the city of the future. It is indeed, only it seems to be the future of 1993, sadly not of 2023).
You could have bought a Suica or PASMO card (whichever, didn't matter), max it out, and not think about it for a week or so.
That's what I did with my parents a while ago, they even paid their small stuff at the convenience store with it. I'm not sure they even remembered how cash looked like during their trip.
To your point, yes, the railway system is clearly the futur, almost solely because of the Felica cosystem.
This is only if your phone has Sony Felica hardware and a license to use it. New iPhones do worldwide but android devices, including Pixels IIRC generally only have this available phones sold in Japan.
Also, there are just in the last year or two increasing restrictions on using foreign cards for charging transit cards in Japan, presumably to prevent churning.
For the three weeks I was there in March I bought a suica card at the airport and never had to think about fairs for subway or buses for the rest of the the trip. I also used it to pay fir food at convienance stores and roadside stops. That seems pretty darn convenient to me.
i routinely needed to go to an atm to withdraw cash to load up my suica while i was there. I dont understand how the Japanese people find that acceptable.
It's not about the objective(?) reality, but public perception. In my Japan days (1980s-90s), American companies were having a terrible time marketing their goods in Japan, because of the Japanese (often wrong) presumption that foreign goods were inferior.
It's true there are inconveniences in Japanese life, but they are generally very predictable. What the Japanese hate is unpredictable inconveniences.
No they're not stop making things up. Most Japanese people and families cannot afford to travel. Wages in japan have not risen since the 90s and have actually gone down with inflation.
Suica fixes that. As for NYC being "more convenient", I would trade whatever it is you went through for clean and on time subway/train. I spend the least amount of time on the subway in NYC as I can.
> you can't pay with credit card (in 2023...), You need to either purchase a special card from a desk, or pay cash. In 2023
Erm, mate "in 2023" you can ALSO put a SUICA card on your phone's electronic wallet. ;-p
Frankly, give me Japan's rail system any day of the week. You can get across Tokyo, with multiple changes, and plan your arrival to the minute. Try that in NYC, London or any other city !
And as for the Shinkansen, it puts most other country's railway systems to shame.
Fun fact (IIRC): The headway (time between trains) is consistently down to something like 1m50s during rush-hour on Tokyo subway. It's nuts how freaking punctual the system is !
> You can get across Tokyo, with multiple changes, and plan your arrival to the minute.
Except you can’t? You can know your arrival to the minute, but you can’t actually change it to the minute.
Which isn’t actually that much more useful than other systems. Occasionally you will be able to rely on cutting it close by scheduling your ride to arrive right before an apt, but most of the time you are basically in the same boat as in other cities: you are planning to arrive 10-30 minutes early because otherwise you would be late.
Tokyo IS in a bit of a bind right now around IC cards for visitors.
Because of a "chip shortage" suica and passmo cards are not being sold right now (except for commuter cards)
Mobile suica and passmo only works on phones that have felica hardware and licenses. Recent iphones do worldwide, but most(all?) androids sold outside of Japan do not have this available.
This is because there's just a lot more rail. Tokyo has 3x the density of stations (0.61 per mile vs 0.2) and 10x the amount of track (2929 miles vs 248) as NYC. Tokyo is just a much much bigger city.
> You need to either purchase a special card from a desk, or pay cash
Japan has been on the train card system for over 20 years. The same card works for all the operators. You can put it on your phone (if you have a Japanese phone). People don't use credit cards in Japan at nearly the same frequency we do in the West, so the train card acts as a debit card in a way.
Buying a card is slightly more inconvenient than using a contactless credit card, I'll give you that. But you get cleaner, safer more timely trains, way more stations, and way more destinations.
Now that is a world class invention. A damn sight better than Amsterdam or Brussels that have done away with cash on public transport. You are required to pay for an rfid or nfc card in order to get through the barriers. No more complementary tickets with other things.
Nowadays, in countries like France even with all the money in the world it gets difficult to get "smooth and secure" if it includes any public place outside of your hotel and museums. And I think that it's getting worse faster for asian tourists than residents, they are targeted.
I would even say that since the pandemic, traveling has become nightmarish. Airlines and car rental companies are outright pulling scams on their customers to get them to overpay. They create inconveniences that you can only pay your way out of. If you're lucky.
Hertz is so disorganized that they mistakenly report their own customers to law enforcement for Grand Theft Auto and then even double down in light of evidence they've fucked up.
Also quietly over the last few years, the credit card companies have been taking ownership stakes in most of these travel-oriented businesses and will now deny your chargebacks that they should be honoring.
i dont know if it would turn my stomach, but i have never had an experience in an airport that i'd describe as good -- best case, described as "not bad".
its a fundamentally miserable experience, and the stealth fees, high costs, and general bullshittery make me hate it.
All my "not bad" experiences from the last few decades of travel, seem like heaven compared to travel today. And I don't think it's rose tinted nostalgia.
The problem with many trains is that you have to book a specific time (like with airplanes) or else the price rises significantly (like with planes). The price is almost more than air flight. And in the US, passenger trains have to wait for other types of trains, making them artificially slower.
Do you have any proof? I don't trust HN comments to talk about other countries vacation days, since I see too many people here say Americans get no vacation days, yet every company I've worked at in the USA offered 15-20 days.
> yet every company I've worked at in the USA offered 15-20 days.
Then you've been very fortunate. This is not representative of many people - ask anyone working in a restaurant or retail how much paid vacation they get.
Unlike many countries, in the USA the legal minimum is zero.
The article given below states that the average amount of taken vacation days is 9 per year (article is from 2015). In Europe, the typical amount is 25 paid vacation days (plus holidays), and you usually have to take it out (otherwise you'd have to be financially compensated, so companies usually pressure their employees to take it out fully).
I spent some time in Japan a decade ago and made some good Japanese friends. But I got to know a bit about their life work imbalance and it makes the US look like Europe. Combined with the hassle of traveling in a world of rude tourists, influencers, scammers and crappy airlines I completely understand why Japanese would be reluctant to leave their country.
I kinda wish more countries would adopt this mindset. Tourism and the hospitality industry is incredibly scummy, and all the people flocking to take original pictures holding up leaning tower of piza[1] are contributing to the problem.
Almost anything evil you can think of ranging from money laundering, theft, smuggling, all the way to sex trafficking and child prostitution. It all becomes so much easier if run out of a hotel.
Often a cash business, often anonymous, people from all over come and go and even if the card requires registration and card payments there's still a lot of plausible deniability.
Most japanese have time to travel around the same three weeks a year: over new years, the golden week in early may or middle of August for the Obon holidays. Prices for everything travel related skyrocket around these three weeks. Work ethic being what it is, for most there is no other time to travel than in high season. In the current uncertain economic climate and weak yen this is even more unappealing than it was before.
It's interesting that views on travel vary so much. Even in the U.S., it seems there are "travelers" and "non-travelers". I have been wanting to go to Japan since before the pandemic, so I asked some friends and family members if they want to go too. "Nah, I'm fine looking at photos. Plus 12 hours is a long time to sit on a plane." Long time?! That process used to take months. We Americans sit in office chairs and in front of televisions for hours with no problem. I can understand financial or health reasons for not traveling (or having small children), but I've never understood the reluctance to sit in a chair for a mere half day or less in exchange for making it halfway around the world.
The complaints about airports in this thread I also can’t relate to. The most damning thing people list is usually like, “the lines were long, i had to take off my shoes.” Patience is the best life hack you can make. With patience, you can go to an environment like an airport or trafficky road not harm you at all since you are indifferent. Think of all the people running around stressed out to various destinations while traveling: thats all self imposed stress. Learn to sit and wait and just let it go because it doesn’t serve you to be so stressed.
Completely agree with the remarks on patience. I will add that the source of my patience tends to be being well rested. If I am well rested I am sympathetic to the mother with the crying child. If I lack rest then she is a terrible mother. Happily I am beginning to slowly recognize when my irritation is from lack of rest and that does help moderate the situation somewhat.
I went to slovenia with my cousin and we stayed at a wonderful Airbnb. The host brewed his own beer, and we drank it while hiking the mountains, and while paddling a canoe across the lake there. The countryside was beautiful, the people were kind, wildflowers and fruit trees everywhere. We learned so much about the country and it's history, encountered dishes we had never tasted, and fell in love with a life that would only ever be a fleeting memory.
I think about that trip constantly even though i have had many since.
I understand why you might not want to travel, but... I don't sympathize, as it appears you do not sympathize with those who do travel.
Been living 21 years in Japan. And while the world has a lot to offer, Japan has everything you need : Tropical Islands, gorgeous mountains/ country side and freezing cold places and amazing snow in winter. So why would want to go overseas? No need for visa/long flight…
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[ 495 ms ] story [ 2220 ms ] thread> The cost of travel is also a consideration.
> The yen is at its weakest in decades, and many Japanese workers haven’t had a raise in 30 years.
> Less disposable income means young people may be more inclined to stay at home or explore nearby locations
Sure, there are some other valid points, but it's pointless to talk about traveling abroad if you don't even have the money.
Being an island nation with many hours of flight to any destination not in SEA doesn't help.
In many other countries “the $Foo is at its weakest in decades, and many Foo workers haven’t had a raise in 30 years” means young people will be more inclined to emigrate and that isn’t happening in Japan, AFAIK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_diaspora#Americas: “The Japanese diaspora has been unique in the absence of new emigration flows in the second half of the 20th century”)
TYO to PAR?
* Lack of money
* Lack of time off from work
* Lack of English skills, making travel abroad intimidating. In previous generations this was counteracted by bus tours with Japanese guides, but those are seen as lame by the younger generations.
if only there was some way to remedy this.
She carried a tiny device the size of a typical compact (make-up thing for person who wants/needs to make up). She had no idea about English but can communicate via her device and it was pretty good at that time. I was pleasantly surprised and amazed by that. Imagine translator devices/apps ten years hence.
It standed out for me because:
a) he was clearly in his early 20s
b) he asked me this after boarding the bus on the same stop as me
c) he could find out the directions just by using a plethora of map/navigation (GPS for Americans) apps available here
d) he was going the wrong way
Just yesterday I saw a woman trying to find out which route she needs to board. She was in ~50s and I can bet $10 she had an Android phone => at least Google Maps. She just didn't even though about using it.
So despite it's 2023 there are people there who still live like it's 1990.
And hunting for working wifi might be complicated as well.
Even I, an HN tech god, rely on McDonald’s Wi-Fi and the Here app, even when I do have data enabled, as it’s often painfully slow.
Last time I travelled was pre-pandemic before esims were common place, so I just pre-ordered a SIM card online that I just needed to pick up from an airport booth after showing my passport.
Depending on the country and how rural you are travelling it can also be worth checking out the coverage and frequency band compatibility to ensure you get the best reception possible.
I find interacting with sign posts or humans more enjoyable than living in the matrix where I have to find the correct bus provider website, learn to navigate its crappy user interface, finally having to revert to Google maps, and then get the suggestion to go by boat.
Also, typing in the destination still is cumbersome. I hope we can agree on that.
A habit I picked up when building digital/technology features -- how does this compete with pen/paper or an analog method.
As a UK citizen, we have the opposite problem.
For ordering at a restaurant it's fine. For trying to find a way to go to the consulate because your bag was stolen, it's not ideal.
Nowadays you just put the address into google/Apple/etc maps, or get an Uber.
Many countries also won't have Ubers, and/or you'll need a local credit card to use the taxi apps.
Having a smartphone still helps a lot, I'd probably bet on actually reliable web resouces for standard help phrases
China is probably the main tricky part, last time I went about 5 years ago I had issues paying with cash, although at least visa was accepted pretty much everywhere.
Basically, the shenanigans they pulled to get a foothold in the local markets didn't work everywhere. You'll find local alternatives, but that means local account registration etc.
Sure you wont want to have a nuanced philosophical discussion, but you can easily have a conversation with it.
living in europe all my life, almost everyone has been abroad here, but much much fewer have ever left europe, which is essentially what japanese people would have to do to go anywhere that doesnt view them with suspicion
South Korea is one of the top international destinations for Japanese people. It has varied over time, but right now it actually may be the top destination.
A common school trip in the USA is visiting Washington, DC; for some that’s a six+ hour flight. The same flight in most places in Europe would put you in Asia or Africa.
A huge portion of socal is Hispanic but the culture overall is more American than Mexican IMO
plus only ~30% of LA is hispanic, which is roughly akin to all of the US, regardless of what Latin country or area they're from. peruvians ain't mexican, amigo.
I know the whole country is not like that, but it is not a vacation spot I would go without a plan unlike the US where you can do a cross country drive and rely there will be services almost everywhere.
But I'll grant that Mexico is another country, unlike Canada :D
A common vacation is to drive to the mountains in Colorado, a state to the north west.
To even get out of Texas from my house is an 8 hour, 500 mile (800k km) drive. It is crazy how big the US is.
6 hours will get you to the US from EU.
There is also internal Japanese tourism - such as to Okinawa or Kyoto
- South Korea
- Thailand
- Taiwan
- Hawaii
The CNN article does this too, but "traveling" doesn't just mean going to the US or EU. Japanese used to travel a lot to neighbour countries and that didn't cost that much, nor require much english skills.
Now money is clearly a factor, but this would go deeper than travel and more into how many Japanese are giving up on many luxuries as they feel the pressure. Hell, part of the younger generation doesn't want to date because it feels like a money pit.
While I understand it's neither the same country or culture, but for the sake of example, I live in one of the more expensive US cities and dating isn't expensive unless you insist on going to fancy restaurants (which is fine to want to do, but if neither of you feel you can afford it, who are you trying to fool by spending so much?). Coffee shops or similar seem to be the most popular cheap date choices and unless you judge people for not wanting to splurge on dates, I see no downside to them. When the weather is nice there's lots of outdoors stuff that is free / the only cost is transit to and from.
Well... if you live in Australia, odds are you'll be able to communicate with the New Zealanders without difficulty.
This does not apply to Japanese traveling to Korea. They'll be well aware they're overseas.
Indeed even when people go overseas, the most preferred destinations are Guam and Hawaii, as they're seen as acceptably close and familiar destinations.
Also, the expected length of a trip abroad is shorter. There are half as many vacation days as in many other countries. By the time you're done with flights and acclimated to the time difference, you need to start thinking about going back. This also makes the per-day cost of a trip high.
After moving to Japan I've also become reluctant to travel!
That's what I did with my parents a while ago, they even paid their small stuff at the convenience store with it. I'm not sure they even remembered how cash looked like during their trip.
To your point, yes, the railway system is clearly the futur, almost solely because of the Felica cosystem.
Also, there are just in the last year or two increasing restrictions on using foreign cards for charging transit cards in Japan, presumably to prevent churning.
It's true there are inconveniences in Japanese life, but they are generally very predictable. What the Japanese hate is unpredictable inconveniences.
they just xenophobic -- literally the fear of the unknown.
https://nbakki.hatenablog.com/entry/Changes_Wage-Workers_Sal...
Erm, mate "in 2023" you can ALSO put a SUICA card on your phone's electronic wallet. ;-p
Frankly, give me Japan's rail system any day of the week. You can get across Tokyo, with multiple changes, and plan your arrival to the minute. Try that in NYC, London or any other city !
And as for the Shinkansen, it puts most other country's railway systems to shame.
Fun fact (IIRC): The headway (time between trains) is consistently down to something like 1m50s during rush-hour on Tokyo subway. It's nuts how freaking punctual the system is !
Except you can’t? You can know your arrival to the minute, but you can’t actually change it to the minute.
Which isn’t actually that much more useful than other systems. Occasionally you will be able to rely on cutting it close by scheduling your ride to arrive right before an apt, but most of the time you are basically in the same boat as in other cities: you are planning to arrive 10-30 minutes early because otherwise you would be late.
I see the pedants have arrived.
I suspect you knew exactly what I meant. No further comment.
I was clarifying so that my point could be made. I’m sorry that it rubbed you the wrong way.
Because of a "chip shortage" suica and passmo cards are not being sold right now (except for commuter cards)
Mobile suica and passmo only works on phones that have felica hardware and licenses. Recent iphones do worldwide, but most(all?) androids sold outside of Japan do not have this available.
This is because there's just a lot more rail. Tokyo has 3x the density of stations (0.61 per mile vs 0.2) and 10x the amount of track (2929 miles vs 248) as NYC. Tokyo is just a much much bigger city.
> You need to either purchase a special card from a desk, or pay cash
Japan has been on the train card system for over 20 years. The same card works for all the operators. You can put it on your phone (if you have a Japanese phone). People don't use credit cards in Japan at nearly the same frequency we do in the West, so the train card acts as a debit card in a way.
Buying a card is slightly more inconvenient than using a contactless credit card, I'll give you that. But you get cleaner, safer more timely trains, way more stations, and way more destinations.
Now that is a world class invention. A damn sight better than Amsterdam or Brussels that have done away with cash on public transport. You are required to pay for an rfid or nfc card in order to get through the barriers. No more complementary tickets with other things.
Thing is money is shorter nowadays.
(not everyone seeks comfort of course, but they're also short of money either way)
I thought I’d miss it, when I retired.
That turns out not to be the case.
The thought of getting onto a plane, turns my stomach.
I like being other places, but the process of getting there, has become a nightmare.
I’ve been traveling internationally, since I was a child.
Things have changed.
Hertz is so disorganized that they mistakenly report their own customers to law enforcement for Grand Theft Auto and then even double down in light of evidence they've fucked up.
Also quietly over the last few years, the credit card companies have been taking ownership stakes in most of these travel-oriented businesses and will now deny your chargebacks that they should be honoring.
its a fundamentally miserable experience, and the stealth fees, high costs, and general bullshittery make me hate it.
Unfortunately, my countrymen do not share my enthusiasm.
plus this is HN, so "every company I've ever worked for" is almost certainly a white collar STEM gig -- which ain't 90% of the country.
High pressure not to take it? I doubt you can say that with any level of confidence.
These are both also untrue based on my experience.
Then you've been very fortunate. This is not representative of many people - ask anyone working in a restaurant or retail how much paid vacation they get.
Unlike many countries, in the USA the legal minimum is zero.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/22/japan-long-hou...
I think you're counting in the numerous official national holidays, but those are so sparse, and the GW is cutthroat to go anywhere.
Almost anything evil you can think of ranging from money laundering, theft, smuggling, all the way to sex trafficking and child prostitution. It all becomes so much easier if run out of a hotel.
Often a cash business, often anonymous, people from all over come and go and even if the card requires registration and card payments there's still a lot of plausible deniability.
[1] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-59WY5njH9CA/UZUfoKQjitI/AAAAAAAAFW...
Order some food or cook new dish.
want hike just run
With sun is a little problem because you can't make country hotter but you can go to swimming pool.30°C + temp isn't good for your electronics.
You can replace travel with computer. I just can't/won't overpriced everything
I think about that trip constantly even though i have had many since.
I understand why you might not want to travel, but... I don't sympathize, as it appears you do not sympathize with those who do travel.
To each their own, eh?
Most people are working for years without a break.