Trip to Japan....

H

HardD99

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 20, 2000
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ok next month i am taking a 7 day trip to japan we are going with a group so for the most part we will have a few translators, but i plan on venturing off by meself and i am going to need to be able to talk to people. i am looking for a good jap to eng, and eng to jap translator. i would really like one that speaks so i can type something into the translator in english and have it speak it in japanese for me. but a regular one will also do. i have found a couple but cant seem to find any reviews on anything. i believe this will be the only time i ever use it so im still trying to decide if i will even need it, but i plan on doing alot of shopping there and would like to ask questions about some products there.

on a side note, has anyone ever been to tokyo and can tell me a good place to find all the latest electronics for pretty good deals?

thx in adcance guys
 
Those translaters are crap.

You won't be able to really communicate with them. You are better off getting a simple guidebook. The electronics stores that cater to tourists/computer types will be places you can communicate by saying "Pee Shee Eye or Aei Gee Pee or Pee Shee Eye Ee" (PCI/agp/pcie)

The place for you is Akihabara, a couple of stops from Tokyo station, Ueno and Asakusa. Akihabara, also known as Akiba, is best buy, radio shack, your local anime store, surplus electrical parts store, fry's and local hole in the wall computer shop, on steroids and amphetamines, about 8 city blocks full of it. Some prices exhorbitant, others incredibly cheap. Some of the stuff isn't available here yet, some of it is way behind the US releases.

Bring cash. Japan is not credit-card friendly, and many of the smaller stores may not want to deal with traveller's checks. Get cash at your hotel/Narita airport before you go to Akiba. It's generally safe to carry cash (I routinely carried about $2,000 in my wallet when I lived there), but of course, try not to look like a tourist......ahem......

There are a couple places you will want to check out there: Namely the duty free shop for the region free DVD players, and the LAOX series of computer shops for other stuff. Be careful, as there are about 3-4 LAOX shops in the area, and each one has a different specialty (mac/pc/software/computer books-in Japanese/games/etc).

Have fun. I'm going back in a few months.

(I lived there for 3 years, recently)
 
I have not been to Japan, but the most famous electronics district there is Akihabara. They say you can find anything under the sun in the area, which is supposed to be an area about 2 kilometers in diameter.

As for Japanese <-> English translator thing, can't help you there.

Hoping I can go one day and go broke in Japan, with my broken knowledge of the language and my mastery of kanji. :p
 
well i plan on taking about $2500 with me to spend, so im guessing ill prob spend $1000 on fewd and souveneirs, then spend the rest on electronix, any other suggestions on what i should buy over there? i love electronic gadgets but i cant remember the price of things here in the US for everything, so im kinda affraid imma get a little screwed on some stuff, lol. i actually dont even know where in tokyo im going, lol, signed up for this trip with my mom and everything planned out. is it easy to jump on a train or something and get to the nice big electronic areas?
 
The place for you is Akihabara, a couple of stops from Tokyo station, Ueno and Asakusa. Akihabara, also known as Akiba, is best buy, radio shack, your local anime store, surplus electrical parts store, fry's and local hole in the wall computer shop, on steroids and amphetamines, about 8 city blocks full of it. Some prices exhorbitant, others incredibly cheap. Some of the stuff isn't available here yet, some of it is way behind the US releases.
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QFT Well said sun!

Enjoy yourself. If you get lost or confused, put a dumb look on and someone will help you that speaks English. Many people under 30 speak passing english andmost will want to try and converse. Don't use slang and be respectful and you will be treated well. Also you have to checkout a Pechanga place.
 
Sunborder said:
The place for you is Akihabara, a couple of stops from Tokyo station, Ueno and Asakusa. Akihabara, also known as Akiba, is best buy, radio shack, your local anime store, surplus electrical parts store, fry's and local hole in the wall computer shop, on steroids and amphetamines, about 8 city blocks full of it. Some prices exhorbitant, others incredibly cheap. Some of the stuff isn't available here yet, some of it is way behind the US releases.
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since all the stores are best buy, radio shack frys etc, they still sell cheaper than the US? and do they sell different products or just the same. i find it kinda odd that they have the same companies as us...
 
HardD99 said:
since all the stores are best buy, radio shack frys etc, they still sell cheaper than the US? and do they sell different products or just the same. i find it kinda odd that they have the same companies as us...
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He meant that those *types* of stores were blended into one big emporium.
 
Also, it looks like a giant swap meet but it is all electronics. Pricing will be all over the place as well as service. Be patient and have fun.
 
My father was the chief negotiator for the US Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (Phrma) to East Asia in the late '80s, and when he was in Japan, not many people could speak English, but nearly everyone could write and read it. You might have good luck with people being able to read&write questions/answers to you.
 
if you tried to talk to me with an electronic translator, I'd judo chop you.
 
:D

i'd stare at you dumbly and then point at my ear to indicate that i can't hear much at all anway


for the translator thing though, i think your best bet would be to learn as much as you can yourself. it's better to try than have a computer do it for you and mangle the grammer and get past/future tense mixed up when it shouldn't. i know german translators have a tendancy to do that. :rolleyes:
 
My father was the chief negotiator for the US Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (Phrma) to East Asia in the late '80s, and when he was in Japan, not many people could speak English, but nearly everyone could write and read it. You might have good luck with people being able to read&write questions/answers to you.
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Well, I spent three years there much more recently. Even in the 70's and 80's (when my parents lived there), you would be hard pressed to find that many people who read and wrote English beyond a first year foreign language level. Today you will find that young people, people in the tech industry, and students in particular will speak passable conversational English, of the "where is the toilet" or "five tickets......kyoto shinkansen" sort. At least in downtown Tokyo.

Regardless, you should have a pen & small notepad for drawing diagrams, maps, writing things down, but more importantly, bring a guidebook and a smile.

You will meet all sorts of people, some who can speak English, some who can read it, and some who can't. Just remember that you are in somebody else's country, and take things in stride. Have fun in Akiba, and drool for all of us. (Don't count on buying software over there, unless you are into PC anime porn, which, while in Japanese, would probably run on your machine. The local electronics shops are chock full of it, right next to the kiddie comics [shiver] Your best bet is hardware, some of which you will not be able to find in the US).
 
yeah i dont plan on buying any software, maybe GTA for my PSP if they have it :) but i plan on buying alot of electronix. only thing i am worried about is finding my way to the tech place you guys are telling me about, after reading my itinerary it looks like im only going to be in tokyo for 1 day then headed to yokohama. so i have about 1/2 day to myself to get to the place i need to and buy as much as i can, but if i cant communicate where i want to go and no idea whats north or south it seems like its gonna be hard to find my way, and im worried i come home with nothing :( actually i wonder if mapquest works for japan :)

another thing im curious about is, i am taking my laptop with me and around here there are many unsecured wireless networks i can log on to, but i was really hoping that in most places there i am able to log onto someones network and talk to my family back home for an hour or so and post on HF or check prices of things in the US, stuff like that. anyone know if internet access is very easy to come by? i dont want to have to go to a certain place for a hotspot since i will be traveling with a group...
 
I was in Tokyo over a weekend a few years ago. On Sundays, they close the main road through the Akihibara district and it's like a big street market. Wild stuff - just about everything you can imagine and a couple of things you never thought of.

Sunborder hit the nail on the head - when I was there, I was struck by the fact that everytime I saw something interesting.....it would have cost more than it would here in the US.

Taiwan / Hong Kong, on the other hand....:cool:

Have fun - B.B.S.
 
Don't even think about using a compass in Tokyo. It's worthless. Fortunately, the signs are all in English. All you have to do is go up to the information kiosk in the train stations, or look for any employee and say "AKIHABARA" (use spanish vowel sounds) and you will be fine. Most of the signs are bilingual in the train stations, and it's one of the major stations. You should have no trouble finding it. When you go into the train station, there will be booths next to the turnstiles. Feel free to ask for help from the guy inside. All of the lines are color coded, so you should have no trouble, really.

Also, for playstation stuff (I don't know about psp), it is all region specific. My Japanese PS2 can't read US games and vice versa. Same for Xbox.

Half a day is plenty. As for wireless access, I couldn't say off the top of my head, but the hotels frequently offer a modem connection in the room or have a PC you can use. But, if you are in downtown Tokyo, don't expect to find a lot of unsecured networks. Cafe's and starbucks, maybe.

If you have to use the phone, purchase a calling card (KDDI is the company you want), and use that. The instructions are in English usually. Again, a guidebook is what you want. A good guidebook to Tokyo will have all of this you need. I'd recommend picking up the lonely planet tokyo and Japan editions. $20 bucks could save you a lot of trouble.
 
PSP is region free for all games. The only thing that is region specific is the US/ JPN Movies. Meaning that a JPN PSP can't play US Movies, and vice-versa.

Have fun in Japan, I'll be in Europe in a couple of months :)
 
PSP is region free for all games. The only thing that is region specific is the US/ JPN Movies. Meaning that a JPN PSP can't play US Movies, and vice-versa.

Have fun in Japan, I'll be in Europe in a couple of months
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Actually, PS2 GAMES and Xbox GAMES are also region specific. That's why there are specialty shops in Akihabara that sell American Xbox and PS2 systems and titles. While I don't know about the PSP specifically, Sony is in love with DRM, so I would find out first, for your specific system. Also you will want to note that there are many more regions than just the US and Japan. Fortunately, both use the NTSC standard, but plenty of places use PAL. If you are buying a gaming system outside the US or titles for gaming systems, you want to know which TV format they support, and which region, if applicable. CDs and VCDs do not have region encoding, but anything DVD based (like xbox and ps2 titles) will have this problem.
 
i really appriciate all of your guys' comments, im getting really excited to go and trying to get as much info as i can b4 i head out so that i may be fully prepared.
 
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