# Tips: Vacation to Japan

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tips-vacation-to-japan/831781>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 30, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tips-vacation-to-japan/831781 "2019-03-30T20:12:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tips-vacation-to-japan/831781/41 "2019-04-02T19:45:57Z")

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> [@Enola\_Gay](#):
>
> plus most people in the big cities speak English.

This is not true for Japan. In other Asian countries, Singapore, China, Korea, yes this is true, as they teach English to kids in grade school as a part of their regular curriculum. But not so in Japan. You can still find people in businesses that cater to tourist likely to speak some English, but it will not be “most” at all.

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**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tips-vacation-to-japan/831781/42 "2019-04-02T20:24:45Z")

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> [@Omar\_Little](#):
>
> This is not true for Japan. In other Asian countries, Singapore, China, Korea, yes this is true, as they teach English to kids in grade school as a part of their regular curriculum. But not so in Japan. You can still find people in businesses that cater to tourist likely to speak some English, but it will not be “most” at all.

That hasn’t been my experience at all. I’ve traveled to Tokyo many times & only speak a few words of Japanese, but found that people in stores, restaurants, etc spoke English. Their English wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but good enough that we could communicate & I did not hang out at the tourist traps.

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**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tips-vacation-to-japan/831781/43 "2019-04-02T23:38:51Z")

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> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> One leads to the other…

…and on that note, also learn the Kanji for “man” and “woman”, so you know which bathroom to use.

When I was (drunk) in Kyoto one evening, I ended up stuck outside the toilet, looking back and forth between the two, bewildered. The woman coming up behind me obviously thought I was some kind of pervert until she turned to go into the woman’s room, and did a literal double-take as she looked at the sign, and realized I couldn’t read. She then kindly pointed me to the right one.  
I passed her table on the way back to mine, and all her friends burst out laughing as I passed.

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