In 2003 getting around in Japan was bit tricky.

After a long 12-hour flight we had arrived in Tokyo without any room reservations. Miraculously we located an information booth in the airport, and they booked us into the Kimi Ryokan. They told us where and how to get the train into Tokyo, and then where to take the subway to Ikebukuro. They also had a brochure for the Kimi with instructions on the back which we kept with us the whole time we were in the city, and we used it a lot.On the train and at the subway we quickly discovered that almost everything everywhere was posted in Kanji, what the Japanese call Chinese characters, along with their own script-like alphabets Hiragana and Katakana, each with their own 46 obscure-looking letters. Like the subway in Tokyo, this bus ticket from Kyoto also has all the stops on the route labelled also in Kanji.Place names on tourist and subway maps were in Kanji.Directional signs, as well as important stuff like ‘West Exit’ which we needed to go out to find our Ryokan.We looked at this road in horror our first day. Fortunately we had purchased a 7-day rail pass as it quickly became obvious that we weren’t about to get on those roads and drive anywhere.And then there were the menus. And the numbers on the menus. I spent some time studying the Kanji at the back of my Lonely Planet guide book mainly to figure out where we were going. Or what we were eating. And what it all cost!Someone had told me it was easy to order food in Japan because they had these little mocked-up dishes of plastic food in the windows, “You just decide what you want, and point.” The first day we were wandering around Tokyo dazed and exhausted (it was between 2:30 and 5:00 in the morning back in Vancouver time). We were also starving. After viewing masses of unfamiliar, unappealing food we saw what looked to be gyoza dumplings for ¥480 ($6). Al dragged the waitress out to the street and pointed, “Gyoza?” She agreed it was gyoza, and we ended up with miso soup, rice, a clump of cabbage and the gyoza with lots of sauces, not a bad meal at all.

More of Dan’s CFFC: Signs and Navigation Aids.