Recommendations for travelers who DO speak Japanese?

33 comments

1. I can only speak for myself, but if I would be able to speak japanese I would visit the countryside, maybe Tottori prefecture or take Tours you can only Take If you speak japanese, like the Tour through the underground watertanks in Tokyo.

   But since you lived there you probably know better than most where to go and what to do.

2. What specific dates? Will you be around through January? Even further north, December is pretty early for winter sports or heavy snow (though obviously it could happen).

   Whatever you do, I’d caution against trying to do too much–especially given that your husband hasn’t done anything. For a first-time visitor it’s really easy to fill 2 full weeks without even beginning to get off the beaten path, and the farther off the beaten path you go, the more time you’ll be spending just getting there rather than actually doing things.

3. Yay, Tohoku! I’m N2 myself and feel like rambling on for a bit bc it’s not often I *don’t* need to worry about language barriers, so sorry. If you’re going to Fukushima, might be worth spending some time in Aizu. Wakamatsu, Urabandai, etc. are definitely worth going to if you’re in the area, maybe also Kitakata if you’re into ramen. Ouchijuku, down near the Tochigi border, is one of my favourite places I’ve been in eastern Japan, particularly behind the village around the shrine.

   If you go north into Yamagata you’ve got Yonezawa (Uesugi Kenshin lore, much of which you need Japanese to understand) and Tendo (a town obsessed with Shogi pieces, ditto) along with the “Japanese High Hrothgar” of Risshaku-ji Yamadera.

   Miyagi I didn’t really get the chance to see much of outside of Sendai, but I hear good things about Matsushima and (if you can reach it) Kinkasan, and Sendai itself is a low-key nice sort of a city with a wonderfully garish samurai mausoleum.

   Iwate you’ve got Hiraizumi, Genbikei, and an odd temple built into a rock cave halfway between the two, plus the post-3/11 new-look inaka town of Kamaishi with its very scenically located giant Buddha, plus there’s Tono and its Japanese folklore connections, which I never got the chance to explore but want to some day.

   Akita has Kakunodate and its samurai mansions, but other than that I don’t know that much about what there is to do there. I hear the rice is good.

   Aomori has a lot of hidden things going on. Shirakami-Sanchi, of course, which is just something else, but I hear you’d rather prioritise cultural stuff. Hirosaki has a proper castle, and then there’s Mount Osore in the Shimokita peninsula, then, comes to mind (it really does feel like Buddhist purgatory!), plus I hear that Jesus is supposed to be buried in the southeast of the prefecture. No, really.

   I’m not sure about festivals, I’m afraid… every time I’ve been to Tohoku it’s been in either the spring or the summer, and the obvious ones I can think of (Tanabata, Nebuta, Kanto, the fireworks at Omagari, etc) are also in the summer. Onsen are of course everywhere!

4. The only kind of placed I can think of off the top of my head are places you probably don’t want to take a husband to.

   Some tours perhaps. Think like “sake brewery in Akita” sort of thing. But then again there are plenty out there that are English friendly and closer to the main airports.

   My parents manage to do some pretty darn rural things and they don’t speak nor read Japanese at all.

5. I find that speaking ability is more important in the city than in countryside. In countryside, most people are more willing to try to communicate, while I find that a lot of people in city are more willing to help once you start speaking as basic Japanese. (this include service worker)

   On the other hand, you will have easier time navigating countryside with reading skill. Not sure if textbook will help much because a lot of them will be a place name written in Kanji, sometime not in standard fonts.

   Lastly, to be honest, as I am living in Japan, I would say that a lot of places that do require Japanese abilities, whether to actually research or to enjoy, are not that impressive. Sure, it’s a nice place for day trips or weekend if you live in Japan, but it’s not worth that much if you are travelling from overseas.

   That said, after the major touristy places (for your husband at least, touristy spots are touristy for a reason), why not pick a few relatively unpopular locations to explore in deep? Southern Nara are rich in cultural attractions with relatively few tourist due to lack of English. Place like Asuka, Sakurai, or even Ikaruga, Nishinokyo are full of (IMO) beautiful shrines and interesting museums. You can also try the San-in area (from Amanohashidate, Kinosaki Onsen, through Tottori , Yonago, Matsue, and Izumo). Actually, I would say that anything in the Sea of Japan side would qualify. Not sure about festivals though. After all, Japanese ability allow you to go deeper into one location than just the major places that have English information.

6. I lived in Aomori pref for two years and as much as I LOVE advocating for it as one of the most gorgeous places in Japan (not biased at all!) you really have to love snow to go there in winter. You can do things like snow shoeing, go up the Hakkoda ropeway, ride the Tsugaru stove train… Oh and Aoni onsen is amazing, it’s a Ryokan type place on a mountain side and there’s no electricity! The onsen baths are lovely, there’s an outside one too with a big wooden bucket bath next to it you can relax in alone. You could maybe organise a homestay with a Japanese family? I imagine they’d know where to take you for more of the beaten path experience.

7. I think that almost anywhere you want to go in Japan, you will be able to find some sort of information in English, at least the highlight of what almost any area have to offer. While visiting, I also found that many of the attractions do have flyers or some information in English.

   If you look at itinerary that people post here, you’ll see that a vast majority are doing Tokyo, including classic day trips to Nikko, Kamakura, Kawaguchiko, Hakone, then Kansai, including Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Kobe and Mount Koya. The classic extra destinations include Hiroshima/Miyajima, Kanazawa, Takayama, Nagano and Hokkaido.

   So regions such as Tohoku, Shikoku, Kyushu and San’in are obviously not as often found in itineraries, but that does not mean the there is no info. Just look at websites like [japantravel.com](https://japantravel.com) and [japan-guide.com](https://japan-guide.com) to see that there is info on about any area.

   So what I would do, is check these well known websites and focus my attention on the prefectures and regions where you have not been yet. Once you have a rough idea of the regions you want to visit, you can dive deeper and fill your itinerary a bit more.

   Where I personally found that knowing Japanese helped me is that I could find some accommodation such as ryokan and minshuku that only have reservation in Japanese. In some more rural area or places where I want to go to a ryokan with onsen, I would open Google Maps and search for accommodation and open their websites, this way I was able to find places not listed on booking websites. It could also be useful to have transportation information in some more remote location, such as ferry and boat schedule. On tricky schedule to find was for bus in south of Nara prefecture (by the way that is an underrated area).

8. Was recently in this position. We loved Tottori, Kagoshima, Ibusuki, and Miyazaki. The less touristy cities were great it seemed the people were friendlier, everything was cheaper, and it was cool to try unusual foods I’d never heard of like champon and chicken Nanban. Tokyo is cool but when everyone around u is speaking English it doesn’t feel as special.

   Edit to add if you’re in a small town you’ll want to rent a car for sure!

9. Hi! I’m between N3-N2 (I think, according to my university Japanese class + self-testing) as well! I think I might have a few suggestions (but adding よくわからないけどね just in case haha)

   I have a friend whose family is from Hachinohe in Aomori, and he said that there’s lots of things to do there; there’s quite a few yokochos there for drinking and eating yakitori and a fresh seafood market there. It’s not a bustling city like Tokyo, but it’s quite fun apparently if you’re tired of the main cities. For that matter, you could also check out [Abroad in Japan](https://www.youtube.com/user/cmbroad44/playlists), a British Youtuber who lives in Hachinohe and shows a lot of places espeically in Tohoku.

   Matsushima, Miyagi might be another scenic place to visit. There’s lots of forested islands that could be scenic if you’re willing to make a drive.

   Hachimantai in Akita is known for lots of mountains and lots of onsens that you could check out, and so does Ginzan in Yamagata.

   Not Tohoku, If you’re into scenic things, you could check out Amano-hashidate in northern Kyoto, and then make a drive / take a train to Kinosaki-Onsen in Toyooka, Hyogo, which is apparently Japan’s biggest Onsen town.

   Good luck! Side rant: not sure if you understand what I mean, since you did exchange so your useful Japanese level must be super high, but every time I say something wrong in Japanese, people get confused because my pronunciation is correct but what I’m saying sometimes doesn’t make sense. So I could be at a konbini and I would say something which sounds like what a fluent Japanese speaker would say, but not be context appropriate… hahah

10. Some of the best “off-the-beaten-path” experiences I’ve enjoyed in Japan have been in Kyushu – the Kurokawa onsens are hard to beat and do not suffer from the over-commercialisation of some of the other famous onsen towns. I cannot recommend hiking in Yakushima enough, and having the language skills will come in handy when it comes to local rentals and restaurants on the tiny island.

11. My wife and I have traveled to every region of Japan and honestly having good language comprehension just allows you to travel easier, learn more information from sites, and have an easier time at restaurants.

    I would say some of my favorite places for people who have traveled to Japan before or are looking for non-traditional places to visit check out Shikoku or Kyushu. We spent two weeks driving Kyushu during the summer and it was amazing. Takachiho, Gokanosho, and Hyuga were some of my favorite places in all of Japan.

12. My Japanese is terrible and I travelled to quite a few places while I was there for a year, from Okinawa to Hokkaido! Did not hold us back haha. We went to Yakushima / Kagoshima / Kirishima area during December and as it’s the off season it was really quiet and so many awesome things to see/do (also Izumi to see the cranes!). Yakushima especially was incredible, would recommend to everyone, think this was my boyfriend’s favourite trip during our time in Japan.

13. Yakushima is hands down the most beautiful place I’ve ever been ever.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakushima

    I made it pretty easily without speaking Japanese but nobody spoke English for sure. I highly recommend a guide to show you around the island when you arrive as renting a car isn’t possible, the buses are fine for getting to and from destinations but they don’t go everywhere.

14. There is nothing more humbling than speaking decent Japanese, then meeting an old man that speaks 甲州弁.

    Personally, I’d say stay with a host in a village. If you want a good chance to speak Japanese, people that have connections for house parties is good. Or someone that is head for an izakaya group.

    I would recommend Yamanashi, but we are mostly dry during winter. No snow. It’s a nice place, very friendly people (山梨はおもてなし).

15. Kyushu! I’ve been in December twice, and it’s mild weather and fun times- my speaking Japanese was always a plus. I love Nagasaki in particular, there’s so much interesting history there (and it’s the sister city of my hometown!)

16. Personally I would visit Zao ski resort and ride the gondola to see the “snow monsters” or visit Ginzan Onsen in northern Yamagata. IF there is snow it’s lovely. (This last year we didn’t have any snow though 😢)

17. Unrelated question, how do you keep up your japanese? I found that even when I go home for just a month the quality of my japanese takes a temporary dive.

18. I mean, if you speak Japanese you can find info in Japanese, right? So why ask here?

    If you are a self-assessed N3 and your husband doesn’t speak, then maybe just plan the trip for someone who doesn’t speak Japanese.

    It os useless planning workshops or guided tours in Japanese if only one of you understand 50% of what is said (yes your “N2” wont get you further than that).

    I would use your skills to book Japanese-speaking only hotels and restaurants.

19. First step buy a ticket. Secons step get a Suica card. Third step visit Iwate. Beautiful scenery of beaches and moutains high enough to bathe in clouds. The small villages, the natural osen and deep caves of Iwaizumi for example, magnificent.. It’s an hidden paradise for those who can access it.

20. You could try visiting the tomb of Christ

21. If you speak Japanese, that opens up a lot of avenues for you. I would visit the countryside that are less full of tourists, and experience real Japanese rural life. Places like Tottori (there is an amazing Sand Museum and interesting castle ruins) might warrant a two day trip.

    We are in Niigata, and there are lots of interesting places here. It may be a little bit early for skiing (although Niigata does get lots of snow, usually later in the year), there are other great places to see. Niigata is also famous for it’s rice and sake, so the experience would be very interesting. TripAdvisor has lots of information about Niigata city and if you have a chance to rent a car, there are even more places outside.

    Please feel free to contact me for ideas about what to do in Niigata if you do decide to visit.

22. A great drive at that time of year would be from Maebashi (my old homebase) up into the mountains. Takasaki has a nice little downtown and the giant Kannon statue is worth a see. Takaragawa onsen is incredible and there is great skiing as well. I stayed at a lovely ryokan once in that neck of the woods but sadly can’t remember the name.

23. If your trip is in December than COVID 19 shouldn’t be an issue

24. Mie prefecture, theres a lot of artisan/craft places that are superduper old like the ceramics warehouses that you pay for by weight (its like 2,000 yen and they give you a bag) or visiting the inkstone artisans that will custom make you one as a souvenir. plus the yogurt/icecream/milk there is amazing, would give karuizawa/kobe/takeyama a run for money.

25. > Mt. Fuji area, but we may need to save those for a visit during another season, not winter.)

    Winter is better for seeing Mt. Fuji, at least in my experience. More cloud-less days. You can even see them clearly from areas like the coast of Enoshima and from a high point in Tokyo.

    Southern Kyushu comes to mind with this thread…

    I visit Miyazaki quite often because grandparents live there and it’s quite isolated, even within Kyushu. Aoshima Island is walkable from the year-round surf spot, Aoshima Beach and has a lush-green forest with a small shrine inside. Another interesting place is Udo Shrine: situated on a cliff and half-covered by a cave, the structure of this site is unique and beautiful.

    Last summer I also got the chance to visit Kagoshima, enjoyed the sand bath in Ibusuki and a night at a family-run local hostel there. In Sakurajima, I participated in a daily-run bus tour (1400 yen) which was conducted in Japanese. Got to learn about the history of volcanic activity there, visited a gift shop, and saw some nice views despite the cloudy weather – there were only like the 6 of us on the tour (weekday in July)

26. Some of the more rural areas would work. A temple stay maybe, some ryokans we went to didn’t have good English-speaking staff.

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28. You can try travelling around Tohoku. Nyuto Onsen is apparently gorgeous in winter, I’d love to go there one day.

29. Dewa Sanzan (出羽三山, “the three mountains of Dewa”) in Yamagata Prefecture is a great off the beaten path to visit. The mountains are named Haguro-san, Gassan, and Yudono-san and are centers of the mountain worship Shugendo

    Shugendo is an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn from local folk-religious practices, pre-Buddhist mountain worship, Shinto, Taoism, and esoteric Buddhist Vajrayana beliefs.

    Dewa Sanzan’s appeal is its remoteness. The heavy snowfall makes travel in the mountains difficult during the winter months when only Haguro-san remains open. The best time to visit is between July and mid September when all three shrines are open to pilgrims and tourists.

    If you’d like to do a bit of Japanese study while there I’d suggest learning how to say “thank you” in the local dialect (山形弁) Yamagata-ben which is a form of Tōhoku-ben. In standard Japanese you’ll use “arigatou gozaimasu”. In Yamagata-ben you can use “mokke da no.” The “mo” in “mokke” is pronounced like “mow” in English followed by the double consonant “kk”. When you pronounce “kk” you break the “kk” up as if you’re putting a little space between the consonants of the double consonant e.g. “ippun” → “ip_pun” The intonation rises from “da no.” e.g. もっけだの. Beyond learning a few words of Yamagata-ben it’s extremely difficult to master it unless you’re born or raised there. Locals from Yamagata visiting Tokyo can be completely incomprehensible to Tokyo folks.

30. it’s cool that you can “speak japanese” like you say. but a big part is your attitude and how you look and act around people. my wife and i been going for the last 4 years and we rarely see any other foreigners at the spots we go to. I speak zero japanese outside a few little words. my wife speaks understands japanese and at best speaks intro japanese. regardless just have fun and enjoy your self.

31. Thanks to everyone for the great feedback and ideas!! You all gave me a lot to think about. It was really good for me to remember that my Japanese ability is probably best used to go “deep” rather than “far” since it’s my husband’s first time in the country. It’s likely we’ll stick close to the typical 2-week itinerary but with some adventures to Fukushima (my exchange student stomping grounds) and possibly the Kinki region outside of Kyoto/Nara to mix it up. I’m super excited to dive back into studying and leverage my language skills (the few that I still have, haha) to make the trip more enjoyable and a bit easier to book things like ryokan and onsen, without stressing too much about going somewhere wildly off the beaten path.

    Thanks again!!

32. If you can speak and/or write japanese then you can book restaurants and ryokan that are japanese-speaking only. A number of ryokan are not on booking.com or any other booking website, they only have their own website and you have to call or write them to get a booking. When we went to Ginzan Onsen the ryokan I wanted to stay at only had a telephone number on their website, not even email. My written japanese is better than spoken, so I sent them a post card (plus a self-addressed envelope for the reply, with japanese stamps I got from ebay) and managed to get a front view room that way.

33. Tohoku might be a good place.

    Lots of near things, and Sendai is great fun.