The phrase in the subtitle loosely translates to “a frog in the small well is unaware of the mighty ocean”, referring to the state of being trapped by one’s own narrow knowledge and ideas, and not knowing that there is a wider world out there. So on a mission to break out of this narrow-minded perspective, I set on my first international trip. And I have to admit, I never thought it would be a country like Japan, which is so different from us in terms of language, food, culture and traditions.

It was around the October of 2021, when through some mutual contacts of Pranjal (wingmate and a close friend of mine) I got to know and befriend some amazing people like Revant, Shreshth (would be referred to as Shrey hereafter), Kanika (or Canny) and Kabya in Japan, and got involved with them in software projects. It was around the May of 2022 when Shrey and Kabya casually mentioned that I should visit Japan one day, complementing its unique beauty and the experiences this place has to offer. I did not consider Shrey’s proposal too seriously but talked about it to Antreev (batchmate in the same department and fellow Punjabi guy) one day. He got excited and said that we can go in December, as we would be free of placements worries too. And so I reverted that we would love to travel to Japan in December, but since Japan had not yet lifted the travel measures due to COVID-19, we had to apply for a business visa instead. This would add a logistical burden on Shrey’s end, but he was happy to help out.

Luckily, the Japanese Government allowed tourist visas from the 11th of October. Meanwhile, Anshumann (another batchmate in the same department and fellow Punjabi guy) also joined the bandwagon, and soon we started seriously planning out things like the visa application process, flight tickets and itinerary. We used to regularly track flight tickets on Skyscanner. Before the tourist visa ban, the two-way journey prices clocked to ₹150k, but they dropped to half after the tourist visa was opened. And around mid-November, we booked the tickets at a fairly cheap price of ₹59k. The visa process was fairly straightforward, but thanks to our procrastination and glitchy website, we delayed a lot in applying for an appointment, and finally got one on the 24th of November (this date fell between our end-semester examinations of the 7th semester). A roundtrip day journey to New Delhi, followed by a patient wait spanning 2 weeks, we finally received our issued visa back on the 10th of December. Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention above, the trip was scheduled from 26th December 2022 to 8th January 2023, covering roughly 12 days.

As our trip approached, things started turning gloomy. There was a sudden rise in COVID-19 cases in East Asian countries like China, Japan, etc. Japan, at its peak, was recording 200k new cases every day. The trip meant a high probability to catch Covid and get quarantined either in Japan or India. As Antreev and Anshumann had their next-semester registration on the 10th of January, they were a bit worried if that could mess up their registration process. And on the 23rd of December, 3 days before D-Day, Anshumann backed out of the trip. This was a sad phase for me, as I worried all of the efforts would amount to nothing. But Antreev decided to stick through. And so we had to readjust a bit of our itinerary and logistics at the last moment. But hey, we finally witnessed the land of the rising sun!

The trip was an absolute blast. All the insta reels selling the beauty of Japan (which the recommendation algorithm had been feeding us for months) finally turned into reality. One cannot simply help but admire one of the finest engineering marvels of Japan:- the railway network (the bullet train journey was bliss!). It is exciting to see how Japan has embraced the whole anime culture, which you observe even in the smallest things. The hospitality of the people and the seriousness and discipline with which each working-class person does their duty (railway officers, convenience store workers, bus drivers, etc.) is very humbling. The perfect balance of technology and traditions is yet another thing to admire, something I felt a lot in Kyoto. The only regret I have is not being able to stay till spring and witness the cherry blossoms 🌸.

Being my first international trip, that too to a very unique country like Japan, I thought to share the itinerary, expenses and learnings we had along our journey. So, without further ado,

始めましょう!
hajimemashou!
let’s start!

Itinerary

As Shrey lived in Kyoto, most of the part of our trips centered around this city. But the location of Kyoto is great in the sense that it is close to other famous parts of Japan like Osaka, Nara, Kobe, Hiroshima etc. And so including Tokyo (a must place), Hokkaido (cuz winters!), and Shirakawa-Go (a rural scenic village of Japan) into the list, we formed our first draft of the itinerary. Given we had 12 days, we were pretty “confident” in believing that it would be feasible to cover so many places, which obviously, wasn’t the case. The final itinerary was pretty dynamic, and a lot of decisions were taken at the last moment. Many things didn’t go as planned, we missed our train at some places. We got lost for a while. On the other hand, some things exceeded our expectations. And, to be honest, that is the fun part.

Here is what our actual itinerary looked like:

Expenses

The majority of the expenses can be broken down into 3 parts:- travel, accommodation and food. Travel: Apart from international flights, we had a domestic flight from Osaka to Sapporo. We also got a Japan Railway(JR) Tourist Pass, which is very helpful if you plan to travel to many cities via JR Trains. Accommodation: We only had to pay for the stay in Osaka, Sapporo and Tokyo. The prices are comparable to that in India(~₹3,000 per night for 2), and the quality in hotels in Japan is very assuring and uniform. We never had to compromise on hygiene or furniture quality. Food: 2 proper meals were the go-to routine, and the third meal was easily supplemented from convenience stores like 7/11, where tons of beverages and packed food are available.

Learnings

➜ Carry plenty of cash

We are so used to UPI and online payments, that it seems difficult to wrap the idea around the head that a technologically advanced country like Japan hasn’t gone cashless. The fact is, that Japan is still a cash-centric country. You would be able to use cards at most of the stores, but keep plenty of cash for food and travel. To put it in perspective, we brought in ¥120k in total but still had to cash out some from the ATM.

ATMs are usually available at convenience stores like Family Mart.

➜ Cabs are freaking expensive

We are habitual to booking cabs on Ola or Uber, a relatively cheap mode of intracity travel in India. But cabs in Japan are an inconvenient mode of transportation. As stated in Japan Guide,

When using a standard four-passenger taxi, fares typically start around 400-750 yen for the first 1-2 kilometers and increase by around 80-100 yen for every additional 200-400 meters traveled.

Prefer buses, trams and trains, which are usually priced at ¥190-280 for local travel.

➜ Discipline, Manners and Communication

Japanese people are highly disciplined and punctual. I wouldn’t rate them as the warmest and most hospitable people, but surely they are professionally very helpful. It is very common to wear masks in Japan, even before the Covid times. In such a foreign land, I advocate abiding by the following phrase

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

When it comes to language, most Japanese people only know a basic amount of English. Learn some basic Japanese phrases like Sumimasen, Arigato, etc. Add in a pinch of slow and broken English, and a dash of vague hand signs and you are good to go for basic communication.

➜ Finding Vegetarian food is a struggle

Before going to Japan, I had read and heard enough that one gets a hard time finding vegetarian options here. One even suggested bringing an ample amount of Maggi packets from India. In retrospect, I should have paid more serious attention to it. Finding veg food is indeed very difficult. Even in a global food chain like Mcdonald’s, the only vegetarian options were French Fries and Ice-creams. In Sapporo, everything is cooked in fish oil. So much so that the entire city has a funny smell due to this.

Still, with a bit of street smartness and help from experienced people, you can survive. For breakfast, convenience stores like 7/11, Lawson and Family Mart offer hash brown, pizza buns, chocolate-chip cookies, etc. Pasta cups with veg flavors like tomato, and mushroom are also available, which you can easily cook with boiled water from the kettle available in the stores themselves. As the Japanese heavily consume rice, you can order that in restaurants. You can also ask the waiter to avoid meat in rice if plain/veg rice is not available on the menu. Italian and Mexican cuisines offer many vegetarian options. Lastly, you can look out for Vegan restaurants, but you will find them in abundance only in selective cities like Tokyo and Kyoto. Furthermore, going to these restaurants becomes difficult if your accompanying friends are non-vegetarian.

Lastly, take a friend with you who eats meat so that you can take out all the meat from your food and give it to him. 🙃

With this, I sign off.

ありがと ございます!
Arigato Gozaimasu!
Thank you very much!

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