Useful websites once you are in Japan
I’ve previously mentioned some useful Japan and Japanese related websites. Most of them deal with learning Japanese. I’m now accumulating links that aren’t language related but will prove useful for someone living in Japan (since we will be doing so in less than four months). I’ll start with a few I know. If you have any to add to the list please do so as a comment to this blog entry.
Japan Train Route Finder allows you to enter your beginning and ending destination (in romaji). The site will then provide you with a variety of ways to get from Point A to Point B, including the fastest way and the cheapest way. We used this a lot on our trip in 2007. It saved us much time and money.
Weather Forecast (Tenki Yoho) is a Japanese version of weather.com. I suppose you can just use weather.com, but I like the Tenki Yoho site better. You can see the whole country at a glance, see how the day compares to averages, and learn Japanese weather terminology (if you can read some kanji) on Tenki Yoho.
Hiking in Japan is a blog with dozens of hikes listed in sufficient detail that you can actually get to the hike location (I hope). The hikes are sorted by prefecture or region so you can find hikes near your location easily.
Softbank’s inexpensive cell phone service is what we plan to use to call each other in Japan. For about $10 a month we can make free calls to each other. You have to purchase a Japanese cell phone though as foreign cell phones don’t work in Japan.
What links have you found useful?