It has been our pleasure to be part of our client’s event in Tokyo, Japan this year! As always, we would like to share our experience that we hope would help you in planning an upcoming trip!
Airport Transfer to Shinagawa
Taxi is notoriously expensive in Tokyo. Our trip from Haneda Airport to Shinagawa, just shy of 20km, costed us ¥5000 which converts to about S$60. The return trip costed a little more at ¥5800, S$70. So if you don’t have a bunch of luggage to manage, try taking the train and save the money for a good meal.
Free Wi-Fi Hotspot in Tokyo
We would be spending most of our waking hours clicking shutter and pushing buttons in Photoshop, hence we didn’t subscribe to any mobile data package for our trip. Instead, we relied on free public Wi-Fi hotspots when we were out and about. We were surprised by the speed and availability of these hotspots, that were averaging 10mbps.
Connecting to Public Wi-Fi Hotspot
We used Travel Japan WiFi app, and you can find this in your iOS App Store or Android Play Store. As we flew with Japan Airlines for our trip, we were issued premium code for more extensive Wi-Fi hotspot coverage. The app wasn’t flawless on Android though, we had to close the app completely and re-open it each time we connect to a new hotspot. And when it still doesn’t work, we rebooted our phones and re-opened the app, which would solve the problem.
Conversing in English
We could not speak Japanese and we survived just fine. We are not going to lie that we feel alienated at times, because not only does everyone around you speaks Japanese, the signs and poster ads are in Japanese too. The locals generally understand English but would still respond to us in Japanese. Leaving us to figure their intention through facial expression or otherwise.
The Railway Map of Tokyo
Some railway stations have hard-copy of the train maps that you can pick up to keep. We have linked a high-res copy of the map for your reference. Navigating the railway routes will surely appear daunting at first, but if you’d just spend a little more time to cross reference the maps at the railway stations, you will master it very quickly.
Conclusion
Our team was really happy to have been part of a successful event. Schedule was really tight and we didn’t have too much time to travel around for sight-seeing, but we still enjoyed the trip with amazing photography. We are excited to visit Japan again!
