Atrip to Japan can feel like an other-worldly experience. It’s a country where traditional villages meet high-tech cities, and temple pagodas stand next to neon towers. Simply seeing a zen-garden can move people to tears, and getting blown by the breeze of a passing Shinkansen bullet-train is another uniquely-Japanese experience.

Check out these facts about travelling to the Land of the Rising Sun

Language
One of the easiest Asian languages to learn apparently. No tones! Kon’nichiwa means ‘hello’, Watashi wa ima no yō ni toire ni ikitaidesu means ‘I want to go to the restroom like now!’

Escalator etiquette
As soon as you step off the plane, it’s crucial to remember – stand on the left, and walk on the right. Get it wrong, and the whole nation’s flow shuts down. That’s 127 million disgruntled people!

Here’s a tip
Don’t! Tipping in Japan is insulting apparently. The Japanese believe that service should always be paramount, and true to form, service is always spectacular. A simple sumimasen or ‘excuse me’ will ensure someone will help you out, put your yen away.

For relaxing times, Make it Suntory Time – Bill Murray

Dirty irony
No trash cans to be seen, yet no wayward trash either. Go figure?

Mobies off
There are plenty of things you can do on public transport – full-scale BYO picnics, acts of gentle body-slamming to get out the door (bodies, no hands though) are perfectly ok, and no eyelids will be batted at whipping out a make-up compact or hairbrush BUT DO NOT DARE speak on a train car. Every car is a quiet car in Japan.

Age Before Beauty
A nation where the old Cher would be more revered than the new Cher – if only she could turn back time!

TripADeal travels to Japan here.