I went to Japan for the first time in April. Nagoya specifically. No one goes to Nagoya. I left out of Detroit and there were about 50 people on a large plane. There were only about a quarter of the seats filled and the people I traveled with (my dad and his friend from high school), were some of the only non-Japanese people who were on the flight. My reason for going was that I want to move over to be an English teacher and everyone I know suggested I take a trip there to see if I liked it first before I decided to move over.

Stuff I learned that might help you. I'm putting it in a list so it's easier to read:

1. Research EVERYTHING before you leave. Regulations, how Japan works, IF YOUR MEDICINES ARE LEGAL, etc. They make a big deal about anti-depressants over there and stuff like sinus medicine.
2. Make sure your phone works before you go over. I don't have a smart phone so mine didn't work even though Verizon said it would. My dad's friend had a smart phone and set it to roaming and it worked but I had to go back to the airport to get a rental phone.
3. If you want to use your debit card over there, tell your bank first.
4. My plane tickets seemed to get more expensive as the time to my trip got closer yet dropped randomly from $1600 to $800 for about a day about two months before I left. Luckily we bought them on the cheap day. I do not know why this happened. Also pick a flight with a couple of hours of layover. It can take a long time to go through security and all that.
5. I flew with Delta and didn't have any issue with them.
6. Plane food is really good but I have always liked public school food and packaged microwaveable food.
7. On a 13 hour flight you're going to have to poop and it's terrible because of how small the bathroom is, yet there is STILL more room than in your actual seat.
8. I found sleeping on a plane is impossible since the flight attendants are always coming by with drinks or food or whatever.
9. If you're afraid to fly, a little turbulence will make you always feel like you're about to die, especially on a connecting flight with a smaller plane. It's a good thing my dad warned me, but planes feel like they're dropping out of the sky for a few seconds after their ascent.
10. Don't spend your whole life before you leave constantly watching stuff about Japan on youtube because you will be burnt out when you get there and not find hardly anything interesting because you've seen most of it before.
11. You can exchange your money at the Japanese airport and I THINK you might get a better exchange rate.
12. I stayed with a friend most of my time and sleeping on the floor is not as easy as it sounds.
13. Public bathrooms are in all of the convenience stores. They're not especially nice but they're there.
14. Most of what I ate was from convenience stores. Hamburgers and wraps and Monsters. I lost about 7 pounds from walking so much and not really eating either. Katsu Curry is the best thing I ever ate.
15. I felt really safe walking the streets at night time or by myself.
16. Game Centers are really cool. I only saw new stuff there. One game you would take two guns and combine them together (they had magnets) into three different kinds of guns. The tutorial was so long by the time the game started I didn't care anymore but the gun combinations were still really cool. I think I saw Pokken and then Dissidia was there too but I didn't play it for some stupid reason.
17. Nagoya is a nice city. It's not very busy so it's a good first time place to visit.
18. I went to a video game bar called Critical * Hit in the center of the city. It was pretty cool. They have a lot of old and new games connected to TV's on the bar itself.
19. If you're kind of chubby in America you're going to feel very fat in Japan.

There's probably a lot more to tell but I just wanted to go over the most important parts so they could help any of you future travelers.

Thanks for the heads up. The real question is: Did you get to try any Tokyo Bananas? I've been wanting to buy some but they are uber expensive online.

@naoiko said:

I had to look this up. I never saw these but I didn't look much in the deserts area.

Did you have a good time there? Most of this is not about Japan.

That's because Japan is the easy part. Getting there is the hard part. I had a really good time. Just walking around and seeing all the different stuff was worth the trip. Gachapon machines are good for souvenirs for people back home.

I live in Japan now. I've been here almost 10 years now. Met my wife here and now have two little girls. I started out teaching at an eikaiwa (a conversation school and one the jobs you will most likely find if you are looking to come over here) but have have been teaching at the University level the last 6 years.

Everyone has a different experience when they come here. Nagoya is an interesting place to start. Pretty big, and very non Japanese friendly due to it being a major automotive industrial city. You would probably have a very different experience if you were in a different city. Not bad by any means, but different.

Anyways I'm glad you had a nice visit. If you have any general questions I'd be happy to answer if I can. Just give me a bit sometimes due to the time difference and having kids. One thing, be careful who you take a job with and research a lot before you come. There are some really great companies, but a lot of very shady ones.


Good luck.

Oh and Tokyo Bananas are awesome!