Talk:Japan Voyage Tips and guide

A list of the status of each of the prefectural capitals.

ChubbyWimbus (talk) 14:34, 27 April 2017 (UTC)Reply

Should there be warning or caution boxes up for Japan because of the typhoon, or should we wait until the damage has been assessed? JRHorse (talk) 15:57, 18 September 2022 (UTC)Reply

Those travelling now might appreciate a warningbox being there already. –LPfi (talk) 16:50, 18 September 2022 (UTC)Reply

Thanks, done. Will see how things shape out over the next couple of days. JRHorse (talk) 17:47, 18 September 2022 (UTC)Reply

The warning is warranted because not being able to buy smart cards is really weird, quite inconvenient, and easily worked around if you know about it in advance. Plus this is a temporary state of affairs that will go away once Sony or whoever gets their shit together.

AFAIK it is not possible to buy regular Suica/Pasmo anymore, even at the airport. The 28-day expiry of the tourist cards, which are still available, is mentioned and highlighted.

The Android apps are useless on non-Japanese phones without osaifu-keitai, because they can't be used as cards. For Apple phones, Apple Wallet works fine, there's little added value to installing the dedicated app.

The rest of my edits was for duplicated or excessively verbose content, people can draw their own conclusions about (eg) whether they should use cash or credit to buy a card. Jpatokal (talk) 07:28, 16 November 2023 (UTC)Reply

I put the expiry of the tourist cards into the caution box, because this is actually something to be very cautious about. A situation that is the current status-quo is hardly anything you can be cautious about, you just have to accept it. Also, I barely believe it will be temporary, especially if someone at the card companies does the maths on how much money tourists let expire with these tourist cards. But I am happily looking forward of you convincing me of the contrary in let's say 2-3 years. Everything else is speculation and WV is not a place to spread company propaganda ... who know what is the real reason for the decision. As I said before, these cards (tourist and non-tourist) use the same technology, it doesn't make sense that "chips" are the real reason for this change. Furthermore, why would any new technology come with such a short expiry date, suddenly the new RFID chips go explode after a few months? That seems all BS to me. But please provide me with an independent source that explains all this technology change properly.

Furthermore, it is not true that smart cards are overly accepted by Japanese, maybe in Tokyo, but in other regions the situation is much different as it was explained to me. Hence, I adjusted the wording of the importance of the card in Japanese society.

I furthermore adjusted some wording and the cash option with Suica.

For the rest, I agree with you.

Cheers Ceever (talk) 11:34, 16 November 2023 (UTC)Reply

Just wondering how wikivoyage is handling w:2024 Sea of Japan earthquake / WD:2024 Ishikawa earthquake / Commons: 2024 Noto Earthquake, which are all synonyms for the same event, I think. Thanks in advance, Ottawahitech (talk) 22:36, 2 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

There seem to be warningboxes at Wajima and Noto Peninsula. —Granger (talk · contribs) 22:38, 2 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

This article is continuing to grow as small amounts of text are added -- a little here, a little there. Please consider putting your text in branch or topic articles instead, or looking for less important text to remove if you have something that you think really should be added here. Remove out of date text is also a good way of improving the article.

Continually adding text to an article that is already one of the longest in Wikivoyage makes it more difficult for readers to find the information they most need. A compendium of "everything there is to know about Japan" is not going to be read by many people. Ground Zero (talk) 19:41, 22 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

As soon as I complete another laborious sweep to try to make this article more usable, the incessant tinkering begins again: just a few extra words here, another important point to add there, and the article goes back to growing inexorably. Sigh. Ground Zero (talk) 17:34, 15 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

It looks to me like the "By train" section is unnecessarily long, considering that there's a dedicated Rail travel in Japan article. It could probably be cut off after the 3rd paragraph. Similarly, "Spectator sports" seems unnecessarily long. We could shorten it to: "A, B, C, X, Y and Z are popular sports in Japan. To read more about the unique experience of watching them here, read Spectator sports in Japan." The "Music" section is also unnecessarily long and could be truncated in a similar way to the "Spectator sports" section, while making sure the information that's currently there is included in Arts in Japan#Music. Ditto for "Performing arts" (oddly named, as if music is not a performing art!) and "Japanese cultural arts". And ditto "Hot springs and public baths". Onsens are so important in Japan that that fact should be stated, but it shouldn't take more than one paragraph, with all the details relegated to Public baths in Japan. "Shopping" could easily be cut down, for the same reasons. It could be possible to cut down "Eat" and "Drink", too. At a cursory look, cutting down other sections significantly might require additional dedicated articles. Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:19, 16 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

This article is starting to go a bit overboard with the use of kanji. It's generally agreed that they're useful for place names, foods/drinks, and other things where the traveler may need to recognize them, but I'm really struggling to think of even a wild hypothetical where somebody would need to know that the Azuchi-Momoyama Period is 安土桃山時代. Jpatokal (talk) 00:06, 4 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

I agree. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:13, 4 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

I think that Jpatokal's approach is sensible. Ground Zero (talk) 11:04, 4 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

+3. //shb (t | c | m) 11:28, 4 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Yes, looking at it, words like "commoner", "burakumin", and "self-disembowelment" are rather unnecesary, and that's just under the "Culture" heading in the Understand section. We should really only consider translating words that will help travelers get somewhere or locate something and even then not everything needs to be here. Some words might be more appropriate to translate in the more specialized travel topics rather than here in the general Japan article. ChubbyWimbus (talk) 11:46, 4 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

But I will say that if the Japanese word is reasonably commonly used in English-language publications, we should include the Japanese term in the article as well. The dog2 (talk) 16:00, 4 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

If you mean that literally, I don't think it makes sense. Is there an important reason why the Kanji for Shinto, Zen, typhoon or tsunami, for example, is needed in this article? This is a travel guide, not a scholarly article. Ikan Kekek (talk) 16:13, 4 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

For certain terms, both the English translation and a direct transliteration from Japanese are common in English publications. In such cases, both terms should be mentioned. The dog2 (talk) 16:24, 4 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Why? Wikivoyage uses the most common English spelling of everything. Romaji was not widely used either time I visited Japan. It's been a while, but I imagine that's still true, and the fact that it's not mentioned at all in Japan#Talk suggests that it is. Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:23, 5 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Because some English speakers might be more familiar with the translated form, and some might be more familiar with the transliterated form. The dog2 (talk) 17:07, 7 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Do you mean like judo with or without a line on the U? Give an example where the differences could plausibly confuse anyone. Ikan Kekek (talk) 18:09, 7 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Like imperial court noble and kuge would be an example. And when describing Japanese castles, the terms donjon and tenshū may both be used in English publications to refer to the same thing. The dog2 (talk) 02:26, 8 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Terms for castles are relevant, but why would a traveler need to know the Japanese word for an imperial court noble? Ikan Kekek (talk) 03:03, 8 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

If they're visiting historical sites then it could be relevant. Certain privileges were mostly restricted to the samurai and the imperial court nobles in feudal Japan, such as having tiled roofs, though rich merchants could get an exception from the local daimyo. The dog2 (talk) 03:14, 8 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

That kind of detail sounds relevant to the article on Japanese castles only. Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:43, 8 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

I agree, seems like a niche case where it's relevant. //shb (t | c | m) 08:07, 8 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

I don't like this, because what we're saying is "we could provide you with this information, but we won't." Instead, can we direct them to a site that covers these things well? Yes, it would be an exception to Wikivoyage:External links, but if we agree upon it, we're good. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:24, 16 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

If the rules are complicated, we might want to refer to an external source, but a list of taboo gifts doesn't sound like something we couldn't easily incorporate, here or in Omiyage. The advice is in the plural, but does that mean that the traveller is expected to research several lists to get a satisfying one, or that there are specific lists for specific contexts, varying too much for us to summarise them? –LPfi (talk) 08:48, 17 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

The bullet in question also says:

You, as a guest, may find yourself inundated with gifts and dinners. Foreign guests are, of course, outside of this sometimes burdensome system of give-and-take (kashi-kari), but it would be a nice gesture to offer a gift"

I find that odd. Why is it self-evident that you aren't required to participate in the kashi-kari? Is this really saying that you could just accept the gifts, smiling and thanking, without giving anything yourself? I don't believe that would be seen as acceptable manners, even for a foreigner, except perhaps as a blunder excused for ignorance, but marking you as arrogant or as a fool if repeated. I understand that you might not need to understand or partake in the finer points, but if that's the intended meaning of the statement, it needs to be worded differently.

–LPfi (talk) 09:03, 17 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Omiyage says: "this […] is essentially mandatory, even for foreign visitors". I am now tweaking the bullet. –LPfi (talk) 09:14, 17 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

As written the advice is so vague as to be useless: "gifts are mandatory in some contexts, but we won't tell you which ones! And some gifts are bad, but we won't tell you which ones!" I'll take a stab at rewriting this. Jpatokal (talk) 21:37, 18 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Great! Ikan Kekek (talk) 21:53, 18 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Thank you – but I am a bit confused about the edit. I understand that the rules for funerals and marriages may be too complicated to explain here, and for those, consulting a local would be natural. However, for gifts to business partners and especially to a host (a newfound local friend), finding a local or searching the internet seems overly difficult.

For business partners, is the advice given sufficient? Are the same kinds of gifts appropriate if you are invited to somebody's home (if so, we should perhaps make it clearer)? Shouldn't we warn that different own clever ideas (such as flowers and knives, now not mentioned) need to be checked or avoided?

–LPfi (talk) 08:41, 19 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Basically any gift that is appropriate in the West is appropriate in Japan. Yes, some things like knives and clocks should be avoided, but who on earth gives either a souvenir anyway?

But I've split the home gift stuff into its own bullet for clarity. Jpatokal (talk) 05:01, 20 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Thanks. It looks good now. –LPfi (talk) 14:48, 20 April 2025 (UTC)Reply