"Paul's Journey Through Japan" a Japan Travel Page by Paul2001

Way back in 1990 I decided to take the accept a close friend's invitation to visit him in Japan where he was teaching English. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to visit a country that we see and read so much about but really very few of us actually experience first hand. I found this to be a very unique adventure because much to my surprise, though many Westerners live in Japan, very few seem to actually visit it as tourist. In fact I was the only unguided traveler that I came across while in Japan. I assume that the legendary great expensive costs of the place is partly responsible for this, however I really did not find it that expensive. At least not in 1990 when the Yen was trading somewhat more favourably against the Canadian dollar. Still the place is not cheap but there are tricks to keeping the cost of a trip to Japan in order. Avoid taxis, eat where the Japanese eat, stay where the Japanese businessmen stay. At the time I was paying about $60.00Cdn a night for a room.
Overall I think that the trip proved to be very educational and overall very successful. As it was at that time the first country that I visited where I was a racial minority, spoke virtually none of the language and knew little of the culture and history. All this had both its good and bad effects on the overall impressions that I now have of my journey. Actually my worst experience was with the weather because it was very hot (38C in Hiroshima) and at times quite rainy. However overall I do not regret for a moment that I went to Japan and I highly recommend it as a travel destination.