Britannia Ovens (esp Range cookers) your experience

[Janepie33]

DD and 3 friends are off to Japan for 2 weeks in July. They have an organised tour planned and seem to be visiting a whole host of places.

 

I was just wondering if anyone had and hints or tips for travels in Japan, either culinary, culturally or otherwise!

 

Thanks

[poachedegg]

ES went a couple of years ago when he was 17 and said the rice balls for breakfast were horrible, so they had their breakfasts at Mcdonalds. and to try the noodle bars.

 

He also said the baseball driving ranges are good too.

[Guest]

Will be interested to see how you get on as I was looking to go next year

 

Good luck I am sure it will be really interesting place to visit..keep us posted

 

indie

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I lived there for 3 years but I was 3 years old when I arrived and 6 when I left so didn't take much notice of things culinary or cultural .

 

Sounds like a fabulous trip for your DD .

[Seagazer]

I used to work in a Japanese stockbrokers, they are generally very traditional and fairly polite - until you get them in a karoake bar! I used to love most of the food apart from some strange bean curd type dessert thing they used to serve up.

 

I was asked to go to Japan to take a very important document but at the time had only ever flown to Majorca so 'chickened' out bitterly regret that now.

 

One thing I would say be careful of any bins etc as the men in our office had a horrible habit of spitting in them

[Willow]

Lucky them, it's been years since I last went. I loved visiting Japan.

 

I would suggest having some name cards printed business card size to give to people when they are given cards.

 

When I used to go it was very safe to travel and very honest. I left my purse in a phone booth one day and when I returned there was a lovely man trying to find the owner - he was delighted to have it claimed.

 

I found Japanese colleagues were more tactile (in a nice way) than British colleages (especially more so than Scots and Northern Irish )

 

Tell them Don't get a taxi from Narita airport , it's very expensive a train or bus from the airport is very easy to do.

 

Ordering food is easy as most restaurants have realistic looking replicas in the window and it is acceptable to take a waiter outside and point at what you want. They will be happy they are eating their food.

 

I love Japanese food, the only thing I ever tried I wasn't keen on was sea urchin (tasted of chemicals ) but it was edible (I really impressed a waiter in a Frnech restaurant when I went in a mixed nationality group later as it was only myself and French man who would try the sea urchin). I'd try it again on the grounds I wasn't keen on oysters originally but repeated tries mean I now like them.

 

I found trips and working with Japanese was enhanced by reading 'Culture Shock Japan' and learning more about accepted rules of behaviour. I suspect things have changed since I used to travel but you could see if there is a recent edition, it was an easy read.