There was someone local in a state furry chat who kept talking about his Japan was the best, talked a lot of anime quotes, and no amount of people who know what Japan is actually like could convince him otherwise.

He's apparently stuck there now and drinks most of the time because he didn't and still doesn't realize how goddamn racist his assumptions were and how it got him nowhere.

• he assumed everyone would like him cause he's American and
• he thought most people would speak English
• for some fucking reason he thought most of it was like Tokyo or specifically Akihabara(sp?)

So I'm cackling at this like how fucking appropriate

I visited Japan for the first time recently.

It is not the first time I visited a country that spoke another language, but it was the first time I went somewhere that didn't use the same alphabet I'm used to.

I must say, suddenly beign functionally analphabet is a very strange feeling!

Ah, the non-slop version of this meme. Nice work, thank you for your service.

I visited Japan in 2008, before Google Lens was a thing. My Japanese was rudimentary, like A-level. But I got by. I had a problem with my Suica card and the people in the subway station didn't speak any English and my Japanese certainly wasn't enough for the situation, but together we fixed it. And another time I wanted to ask something in a store and the woman had to fetch her coworker who spoke English, so that was fine as well. I would guess that today English is more wide-spread, particularly in Tokyo. So I wouldn't be worried to visit today, when my Japanese is even worse than it was back then. I must say that trying to communicate with a language barrier, while frustrating, is also what brings us together as humans. Most people around the world are decent people and are willing to help somebody in need. That makes for nice vacation memories.

Google translate/lens was absolutely goated for my japan travels. I really dislike google and try foss alternatives all the time but it was like having real life subtitles, good quality and adequate translations.

I definitely had a "what the fuck have I done" mini panic attack moment entering the Tokyo airport. But basic Japanese to keep manners got me by.

There kind of are though? Most signs are in multiple languages (Japanese, English, Korean, and Chinese), and for the ones that aren't, they usually have Romanji appended.

Plus, train stations, etc. Are very ample signage, and important information over the train intercom are in both Japanese and English (ie. "Now arriving at Ueno"). Also, train stations all have their own little jingles. So you can know where you are based on the song, when the train starts moving.

I know only a smattering of Japanese, but it was an incredibly easy country to get around in..

I lived in Japan for 6 years. This is kind of true, but if you can point then you can get what you're after.

I don't know, I thought half the fun of Japan was the not knowing what I would stumble on.

Neil Degrasse Tyson said it best on why he hates algorithms, "they don't let me find anything, they take away the wonder".

Never been to Japan, but here's a meme describing my opinions on Japan after being an otaku for 10 years

I'm flying to Japan this Friday. My first time... Dear lord, what have I gotten myself into

What would you recommend instead of Google lens/translate?

I tried to pre-learn some phrases but that was absolutely useless as soon as someone said anything back to me. The restaurants I ate at either had a set menu I'd reserved ahead of time or a touch screen menu but I ate a bunch of convenience store egg salad sandwiches. In the two weeks I spent there, I had two conversations facilitated by google translate: the Japanese person would speak into her phone and show me the screen and I would say yes or no. I thought I'd have to be asking "how much is this" or saying "one of this please" when in reality I would just look at price tags and grab however many I wanted of something and bring it up to be purchased in a cashless transaction. "Excuse me/sorry" got a lot of use but I spent large chunks of my days without saying anything to anyone. All guided tours were led in English. There's lots of verticality in Tokyo and you can kinda get an idea of what's going on in those upper floors but going downstairs seemed like an adventure. Google Maps was awesome and could walk your ass door-to-door including subway stops. I know I walked past all sorts of cool stuff but I had plenty of cool stuff on my list to see.

Ganbate, OP-san

Just on my way to the airport for a one month solo trip to Japan without knowing the language, feels kinda scary and exciting at the same time. No expectations, I sometimes just love the feeling of hurling yourself out of your comfort zone and having to adapt I find that those situations are a really good place to grow.

Depends on where you go. Some places do have subtitles. lol

Gotta get the dub then

My hovercraft is full of eels

It's all advertising anyway. Just do what you do in America, let it work on you subliminally to convince you to buy cartoon themed products you don't need or want.

Tasukete onii-chan!

Google Lens is basically irl subtitles

Google translate isn't great, but when I was there it was a nice assist to the engineer who spoke just enough English to work in America for our Japanese company.

Are you really asking if they use Japanese in Japan?

Until you accidentally almost poison your team mate. (The latest Jetlag The Game season was fun)

Maybe like 50% true. There's a lot of stuff in Japan that has English "subtitles" IRL because they get so much tourism these days, especially if you go places tourists go. That said there were still a couple of times where I went to a restaurant and the menu was only in handwritten Japanese. That's how I ended up trying whitebait for the first time!

As for google translate, I don't use it much simply because I've been studying the language for long enough that I don't usually need to. That said, as long as you're pointing it at something that is printed cleanly (not handwritten lol) it's usually good enough for travel. If it makes a mistake you can usually use the context in your human brain to figure that out.

You don't need to know any Japanese to pretty easily navigate metro Japan. Basically everything in Tokyo that you need to read is in Japanese first and English second. The same is mostly true in Kyoto but to a lesser extent. If you have an internet connection the trains are so accurate that you don't even need to know the name of the stop you're getting off at. Google maps says "get on the 3:12 train and exit at 3:38" and it's accurate enough that you hit your stops

If you want to leave metro Japan then it gets a lot harder with less English around and the people are less accommodating but it's still pretty manageable. This was in 2018 so I would imagine there's more English around but people are probably less sympathetic to tourists

大丈夫。日本語はかなり優しいと思う。

On the other hand, to compensate for this, some other things are not pixelated anymore.