Navigating language barriers in the Kansai Area, Japan

Bill Situ
author
Published on Sept. 2, 2016
The Ubyssey's annual travel supplement: postcards from around the globe

As June was coming to the end, I headed to Kyoto for the rare opportunity of going abroad to study and teach.

After disembarking at Kansai International Airport, I proceeded toward customs like all the other passengers. Along the way, I found that nearly all the airport staff spoke decent English, which made life rather easy. I had always feared that my lack of Japanese would be an issue.

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Communicating with the airport staff wasn’t an issue, but once it came to typical daily activities like grocery shopping or asking for directions, that was when my initial fears became apparent. Luckily, I was able to pick up on the Kanji characters because I understood Chinese. If worse came to worst, I could have counted on my phone’s translator app.

As an East Asian person, it was hardly surprising that nearly everyone that I spoke to automatically assumed that I was Japanese.

Aside from my lack of Japanese, nothing else really caused any major issues. The best part of being in Kansai was the sheer ease in commuting. Kobe was only an hour away from Kyoto by Japan Rail. Thirty minutes was all it took to get to Osaka. Navigating a metropolitan city like Osaka might seem overwhelming at first glance, but with a map, it’s actually much easier than it looks.

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I also liked the fact that everywhere was very clean and that the food was awesome. Unfortunately, if you love California rolls, you won’t find them in Japan, but the local food is just as appetizing as what you get at a sushi restaurant in Vancouver.

With the busy school schedule that I had, I didn’t get as much time as I would have liked to travel. Still, I would say that I had an adequate experience of both traditional and modern Japan, having visited various shrines and temples as well as Universal Studios Japan (USJ).  

After all, I would gladly travel to Japan again or even find work there in the future. The one thing that I would need to do for next time is to learn more Japanese.