SPEAKER_04 0:00

Welcome to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast, where I chat with expats about their favorite holiday destinations. Let's be honest. Expats are some of the best travelers around.

unknown 0:10

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 0:10

Always planning the next adventure, exploring hidden gems and finding the best spots wherever they go. So who better to ask for travel inspiration? So welcome, Blaise and Tanisha to the podcast. I just a little bit of a background to the two guests that I have on today. One is my son, Blaise Barnes, and the other is his girlfriend Tanisha. And they are in Ireland. So I'm really excited to chat to them about their destination. So welcome, guys. So firstly, let's talk a little bit about A, what your destination is, and B, a little bit about yourself. Who are you and what why would you class yourself as an expat?

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Obviously, my mom. I'm Blaze, I'm 27, currently living in Ireland. Probably the definition of an expat. Lived overseas for the majority of my life. Moved overseas with you guys when we were, what was I, seven? Lived overseas till I was 16. Went back to boarding school in Australia and have traveled pretty much since then. And I've spent now two, this is my second stint overseas on my own as an expert. One was Italy two years ago, and now it's Ireland with my girlfriend Tanisha.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Yeah. I'm Tanisha. I'm 23. Yeah, happy birthday. I didn't even think about it really, but I guess I am an expert now. It's actually my first time even being in Europe. I haven't done that much trouble compared to you guys, but yeah, done like Japan and Thailand and Fiji. But yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

And Amsterdam.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Oh yeah, and Amsterdam as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

And Singapore. You've done it's a stuff.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

I have. Just compared to you guys, it doesn't seem like a lot.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

You've done a lot. And so what destination have you chosen?

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Tokyo.

SPEAKER_04 2:12

Tokyo. Okay, so let's find out why you chose Tokyo.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Well, we did Tokyo last year for Christmas. We did Tokyo and we did Hakaba, but we spent the most, the majority of our time in Tokyo. I think we spent, was it a little over a week or about a week in Tokyo? Uh I've done it a couple of times, or we obviously lived there as a family. But it is my well, Japan as a country is my favorite travel destination that I've been to. And we're going back again for Christmas this year.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

I know. We must love it. So what kind of traveler do you think you are? Like, are you the same type of traveler, or do you think you guys are different travelers?

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Everything's pretty similar. I think it depends on where we're going though, as well. Like I know that when I went to Thailand early in the year, like I was just like relaxing. But then going to Japan, like we want to be going out every day, like doing something new, trying all the food.

SPEAKER_04 3:03

Yeah, the food's a big thing, right? We'll get stuck into that in a minute. So what's how easy did you find it to get to Tokyo?

SPEAKER_01 3:14

From Sydney it was easy, it was one flight. The the thing that I guess I knew but didn't really realize till we got there is the difference in the two airports. You've obviously got what's the and you got Narita. Um Hanita was was really easy. I think we arrived at like what 600. 6 a.m. Yeah. We're in in Tokyo by probably seven o'clock.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Customs was was super easy, but obviously Narita, it's a little bit further. It was about an hour and a half. So and obviously when you were leaving um getting out of Japan, Narita was a lot heavier with with traffic coming out, right? So really, really easy to get into. But the airports, I definitely recommend if you can fly into Henita just makes things a little bit quicker and a little bit more convenient.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

I think people don't realise that there is two airports and that one is actually quite far away and you have to catch a bus because it's or a train, depending on where you're staying. And it's to get to Tokyo, was it a direct flight?

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah, direct flight. I think we left, was a corners flight at like what maybe eight o'clock, nine o'clock.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Yeah, eight or nine o'clock.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Um it was about nine, nine hours straight over.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

That's good because the time zones aren't that different. I think like two hours behind us, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Yeah, one or two hours. Yeah, it was it was really easy straight there.

SPEAKER_04 4:28

Yeah. So if you were to recommend a two-day itinerary, what would that look like?

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Oh eating, eat wherever you can. Um, and we did a lot of like walking around just the city, going to all the shops. I think the shopping, I mean, coming from Australia, the shopping isn't that great compared to when you go other place in the world. It's like going to Japan and like walking through the streets, seeing the massive shops that they have was cool. And just the food.

SPEAKER_04 4:56

Yeah, the food. Okay, so so the first day would just be shopping, do you think? And is there a particular area that you would shop?

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Everywhere, pretty much, right? Like you've got Shibuya, which is congested, but you've got all your your shops that you'd you'd find in most of the places in the world. Shinjuku was was really cool. That is chaotic but organized chaos. So a lot of people there, but uh pretty easy to navigate, but there's a lot of shops there.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

And I think when we went to, was it the Levi's store in Harajuku? Yeah, Harajuku. Yeah, where you could do custom Levi's, that was really cool. I wear those jeans like all the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:29

Can you can you explain what that means by for those who've never been?

SPEAKER_02 5:32

So you like go through the Levi's store, you pick a pair of jeans that you want, and then you can get them like customized with heaps of different embroidery options that they have, and then I think you have to pick it up. I think it's a week later.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yeah, I think it depends on how busy it is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

We picked it up the day before we left Japan, I think. So I think it was like maybe five days.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

But yeah, they're so cool.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Like, I haven't seen haven't seen a Levi store around the world since it has been able to do that. And we've we've checked out a couple, so that's definitely a bucket list.

SPEAKER_04 6:04

I was somewhere the other day that did it. Where was I? I but it's a smaller version. I think it was here at Singapore.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

That was with us.

SPEAKER_04 6:12

You could get oh that's right, it was you. Yeah, it wasn't only get like a couple patches.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

Patches, yeah. Patches.

SPEAKER_04 6:20

No, but it was where was that? In Dublin? Dublin, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Is it Dublin or was it in Galway? I don't remember.

SPEAKER_04 6:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Might have been Dublin.

SPEAKER_04 6:27

Remember, I can't remember.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

I just remembered by a store and it was small.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

Yeah. But it's not like it's a very different concept to what we saw in Tokyo. So there any are there any other custom stores or anything that you thought was a little unique that people should try or do or see?

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Yeah, you can get um like we didn't book it because you like you definitely have to book, but the custom fragrance. We make fragrance. And then I know I've seen on TikTok that you can do like custom like jewelry. I think that I think that's in Tokyo, yeah. But I think that's as well something that you have to book in advance.

unknown 7:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Whereas the rock size thing we just rocked up on the day.

SPEAKER_04 7:06

Yeah, bed's a very long line. I'd say go early. What was the other one that we lined up for and we didn't end up going because the line was too long?

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Oh, that shoe store.

SPEAKER_04 7:15

The um what's the name of Brandon?

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Tigers, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:19

Yeah, because that also is branded or something, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Like Yeah, you can do customization there too, but that line was just that was for a special one.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Also good to note if you end up doing that, that line that you see that's very, very long is just for that one shoe. You can actually go into the store without lining up for any of the other regular shoes.

SPEAKER_04 7:37

Yeah, yeah. That was very, very fast. So the first day we'd be shopping. Would there be something what would you do at night if you shopped all day?

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Well, at the time that we went, because it was Christmas time, they had that light festival. Oh, yeah, in Rapongi. Yeah, so that was really cool. And they had like an ice skating sort of outdoor rink there as well. That was cool. But apart from that, I would just say walk, walk around, yeah. Like you see someone just walking.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Yeah, and Rapongi, whilst those light at light festivals on and the ice rink and stuff, there's so many places to eat around there. The good thing about Japan and Tokyo specifically is you don't really need booking, I would say. You can literally just walk and find somewhere. You might have to wait in a line because it's quite big, especially that period of time. But the food, everyone knows Japan is one of the best places in the world to eat. So there's so many options.

SPEAKER_04 8:26

So, would you suggest if you're going there for Christmas, to buy your Christmas presents there rather than bring them with you?

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Yeah, I would also say traveling-wise, if you can bring an extra suitcase because there's so much and it was good for us, but at the at the time we went, the Australian dollar was quite strong. So everything seemed a bit cheaper than probably what it was. So it was really, really cool to shop there. And then one thing we didn't mention on the shops is sports stores. If you're a golfer, if and if you're you're there for the snow or or you do do you go skiing or snowboarding from time to time, there's a thousand shops there. Um, some of them seven, eight stories tall with so many cool things.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Like a floor for every sport very much.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

It's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 9:09

And what would you do on the second day then?

SPEAKER_01 9:11

If you've shopped all day the first day, I definitely think if you are a fan of Harry Potter like myself, uh, Harry Potter World is something that you can take off. I'm not sure what it was like booking it. Mum, you'd know because I think you booked it, but that was really cool. It only opened last year, so it's pretty new, especially at Christmas time. During the winter, they had the uh that Hogwarts display of the snow.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

I'm not a big Harry, but that was still like really cool to see.

SPEAKER_04 9:36

That that was fun. That was a lot of fun. I'm a big kid at heart, as you know.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:41

Hey, it's Paulie here. Just popping on to tell you about a quick way you can support the show. If you love this podcast, head to the link in the show notes. Any contribution helps me, keep creating episodes just for you. Plus, I'll send you a thank you email and give you a shout out in the next episode. The link is also on my website and social media. So support really does make this possible. Thank you. So, what would you do apart from that then? Because that's a couple of hours.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

What was the light thing that we did? The experience, the light and sound.

SPEAKER_04 10:18

Oh, the lab, the team lab. Team labs.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

It was definitely not what we expected, but it's definitely something to do. Yeah, it was cool. It's pretty popular. Some of the areas that you go through definitely cool that I would more interesting than others, but yeah, that's probably another thing to tick off. And then again, I would keep reiterating you don't have to do you don't have to book too many things in in uh Tokyo. There's so much to do. The city's so big, areas that are so different yet all so busy and lively, and they are lively till the early hours in the morning. So there's just so much to do, just walking and getting on the train, which is so convenient.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Yeah, I think one thing that I'd like to do next time is go to like a batting cage or like an arcade place because we didn't do that, and like Japan's big for that. So yeah, should have done that.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

We did heaps though. Would you suggest would you do the go-karts again? The go-karting.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

I think it's a cool experience. I wouldn't do it again rush to do it again. Yeah, yeah. Cool way to see. Yeah, yeah. So like the what's uh a Mario Kart experience, yeah. So you like dress up in your little onesies and yeah, in a go-kart, and like you actually go at some speed around the city. That was fine. You do need your international driver's license for it though. So that's like an important thing, otherwise you won't go hard.

SPEAKER_04 11:35

Yeah, we yeah. Can you explain how we learnt the hard way?

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yeah, well, I'm not sure what happened with Chiara, whether it was in communication or she left it at home, but I don't think she brought her international license, did she?

SPEAKER_04 11:45

Or she didn't she didn't come in time.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Yeah, it didn't come in time. And we thought that we might've been able to talk our way through it just because she has her Aussie license on her and whatnot, but no, they're pretty strict on it. So she had to drop on the the back of a shared kind of like she was with the tour guy. What would you call it with the motor behind?

SPEAKER_04 12:02

No, it's like an ATV, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Wasn't it on the back and she was pretty much designated designated photographer?

SPEAKER_04 12:09

Yeah, she was our videographer.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

She wasn't too happy about at the time, but I think she definitely while she couldn't drive her own uh cart, she was she had a good time, so I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_04 12:20

Yeah. And so okay, so let's get into food. Is there something that you need to try? Is there some where you need to try if um you're a first timer, especially at Christmas?

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Just everything, like the ramp, the sushi, the convenience store food.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah, it's just such a unique place where I don't think we ate anywhere and we were like disappointed. Yeah, it was so cool. And Rylan summarized it best where you it's the small places that are kind of unrecognizable, don't really stick out too much that are the best. Like he he found that ramen spot on the uh on the platform too.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

Train station, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Yeah, which was just an old lady at a little cart and station, and he he we all think that I was probably the yeah, we all tried it and it was the best one.

SPEAKER_04 13:09

It's so good that everyone is desperate to try it again when we get there next year. I just hope we find we find the right platform, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

But honestly, it was um there's nothing specific. I'm a big ramen fan, so ramen for me is my favorite food. Same with the katsu curry, but yeah, katsu curry. Like if I could recommend that place in Shibuya we went to for the sushi where they did the omakase sushi.

SPEAKER_04 13:32

That was great. Yeah, I could put that, yeah. I'll put that in the show notes because that was a really good restaurant, right? Because the sushi was a yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

It was just like a random spot, like up on like the fifth level or something that like only fit us and maybe four other people if anyone came in.

SPEAKER_04 13:52

Yeah, and I think what people don't realize is that the sushi over there, they make it on the spot. It's not like a sushi train where it goes around in circles. Well, you can do that, but that particular place he made it on the spot. It took a while, but we he kind of did everything. He didn't even know it was coming. The wasabi was fresh.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Wasabi, he like made the wasabi in front of us, and I yeah, if I didn't go there, I think our wasabi was banged.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

One thing I will say with those sort of places, and this one's a great example because we did this is the way we've we found it, is I didn't realize in Japan, obviously, it's a lot of high rises and stuff, but if you go down those little lanes, this was in the middle of Shibuya in a dead lane which we didn't even think about. You need to look up because there are so many restaurants talking about which you can so easily miss. And this one was just a one man, and I think it might have been his daughter or something like that. Yeah, it was his daughter.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

She was like, Bring her cut drinks.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

There's only like five seats. We all sat there and he he served us as it was.

SPEAKER_04 14:43

So it was really didn't speak any Japanese, didn't speak any English, but we got there. Yeah, we got there with our little bit of Japanese, and so and we went to that amazing place with uh where dad accidentally got the price wrong.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

But that was that wasn't uh that was the best dinner I'll ever eat in my yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:08

All I can say is that my husband left at one zero off the yen price, and it ended up being one of the most uh beautiful places I've ever been to in my life, and the and I mean the food was amazing. It's but ever the food everywhere is amazing, right? Yeah, and drinks, is there anything in particular that someone needs to try?

SPEAKER_01 15:31

We didn't really do a lot of drinking. I would say avoid avoid Guinness if you uh um yeah in any country that isn't island, really. Yeah, yeah, but I Tokyo is the place to to have a Guinness, but we didn't to be honest with you, we didn't really uh drink all that much. Some of the convenience store drinks are so cool, they got hot and cold.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

Yeah, actually, that's a cool thing about Japan, like their vending machines that they have that are like you can get like a hot chocolate. Yeah, was perfect for when we were there because it was freezing out in the street. Yeah, yeah, it was cold.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

I don't remember if you guys tried the the smoothie from 7-Eleven. Do we have to do that?

SPEAKER_04 16:07

Yeah, we did. I've actually got a TikTok with um Tanisha trying it. Do you remember that those those smoothies were pretty cool in 7-Eleven, actually?

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Yeah, and then Harry Quatterwell Butterbeer, I would say.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

Oh, yeah, we did try the butterbeer, and we did try sake as well at one stage.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yeah, actually the one that we had at that infamous restaurant, that was really nice, sake.

SPEAKER_04 16:31

Yeah. The other thing that people should know that if they're going there for Christmas and New Year's, New Year's isn't a place where you go out and drink either. Because do you want to explain why?

SPEAKER_02 16:43

They it's um a time where they all come together, isn't it? And they like I think they just enjoy spending the time with like their family because we went to try and find a pub or just somewhere to go. There wasn't any fireworks that we knew of in Tokyo.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

The only place that showed fireworks was Ferris Wheel was yeah, was in Yokohama.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Was it Yokohama?

SPEAKER_01 17:05

But it's not really advertised anywhere, and it's not really a big but the pub that we went to shut at like 10 o'clock. And that was an Irish pub. It was one of the only pubs that were actually open.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 17:14

We went out to dinner and then we couldn't.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Was it the temples or the palaces the next day that are really busy? That's their thing.

SPEAKER_04 17:20

Yeah, that's their thing. And even that night, everyone goes to the temples rather than go to out drinking and stuff like that. Yeah, I think you can still go and drink in Shibuya. I think we saw lots and lots of people going to your Shibuya, but it's maybe a little bit overcrowded. The other thing I would also mention is we went to Disneyland and probably on the busiest day of the year.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Well, I've I've always known, well, I mean, we've been before when we were a bit younger, but Disneyland in in Japan is or in Tokyo is very, very busy. And it caught us very off guard. I think we left the hotel something like 6, 6:30 for an open time at nine o'clock, and we got there and we were right with the back of the line. Yeah, we were waved there.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Yeah, we were there very early. Yeah. And I like that was my first time going to a Disneyland, and I'm not really I don't know. I wasn't sure if I was gonna enjoy it. And I think from what you guys have said, that's nothing like because we went to Disney C and you guys said that that's nothing like what an actual Disneyland is. It didn't have like the same like magical kind of feeling compared to the other Disneylands that you guys have been to, you're saying. So yeah, I think maybe I mean if you really like Disneyland and all that, it'd be good, but you just have to be aware that you're gonna have to be spending a lot of money to even get on any rides. Yeah, a lot of time waiting in lines, like your whole day is just gonna be waiting in lines.

SPEAKER_04 18:43

And the whole day was on the phone because we had the fast passes aren't like normal Disneyland, right? You can actually buy fast passes, and they ended up costing us like a hundred dollars for all of us for one ride. It was crazy. And and always on the phone. Yeah, it was really a bit of a I would skip it completely at Christmas personally, and maybe go another time if you're intending on going to Tokyo another time.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Yeah, I would say if you do want to go to Disney in Japan, Disney Sea is the one to go to purely because it's it's the only Disney Sea in the world. Yeah, it's a bit different, but be prepared that you know, yeah, you're gonna be spending probably a hundred to hundred dollars a person just on fast passes to avoid you know, four to six.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

I know.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

And we didn't even do it just to avoid the lines, we just did it to try and actually get on some rides because the lines were crazy. And even the what was that special land?

SPEAKER_04 19:39

Special world. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Tangled was a ride on there, but even to get that that special part they opened up, it was like a park. Um, you had to pay for entry into that, and that was a fast pass.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

And it's also really like it's not like you can just pay to get in, it's like you have to be on your phone refreshing the app, trying to yeah, like yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:59

And to get in there, you to get into any of the rides on in there, you actually have to pay on your fast pass or whatever, because you can't actually just rock up and go into one of the rides or line up was weird. That actually that didn't it's a bit weird.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah, I didn't not like Disney. I just thought that the whole having to be on your phone the whole time and you're literally just trying to find the quickest way to get a ride took away from the experience of what Disney is. Because as everyone knows, like Disneyland's one of my favorite things to go to, especially when March Witcoin. Um so that was just disappointing for me because whilst the rides were cool, some of them were you still waited two hours with a fast pass and then a minute ride.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah, yeah. That's I think the thing that shocked me is that like the first one that we waited for, you know, I'm expect like I've never really been on roller coaster. So I'm expecting like a 10-minute ride at least, and it was done in like a minute, and I was disappointed because I was like, I don't even wait so long. But it was still a good bait. It's just if you're gonna go, just know what you're expecting.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Yeah, which threw us off guard.

SPEAKER_04 21:02

Yeah, yeah, especially Christmas. I just think that was just overkill. There's just way too many people there. Was there anything that took you by surprise? Or was there anything that was unexpected and you that you discovered about the place?

SPEAKER_02 21:17

Well, we were saying before that the like New Year's Eve kind of took us by surprise because it's not like a major city like Tokyo, you'd think that have this massive countdown. But no, but apart from that, I would say just like the efficiency of the whole country, like trains, their service, the people, everyone's so lovely and polite. That was like surprising for me.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

And it's so busy, but it doesn't really feel like you don't feel closed in, and things don't feel like everyone's trying to push and in a rush. It just everything's like it's orderly. Yeah, it's so orderly, but it's it's so busy. They just do it so well over there, and everyone's so respectful. I think I already knew that going in, but it's probably one of the busiest. Places I've ever been to for that for a Christmas uh period. So uh and I didn't really feel I wasn't frustrated or anything by it. So that was probably the biggest one surprise us in a positive way.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

And a very clean city.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Yeah, so clean. Very good.

SPEAKER_04 22:13

Yeah, yeah, it's definitely clean. Did you have any cultural experiences with the locals?

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Not a whole lot, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:20

It was probably that first meal that we had, the what's it called? Omak omakase. Omakase, yeah, when like you know, he's preparing it right in front of you. I think that was probably the most cultural sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Yeah, I mean, everyone was so welcoming, especially into restaurants and stuff, even if they didn't speak any English, which was which was cool. But I think just the the most of the cultural experiences we had were through food. You know, everything was right in front of you, even the ramen. You see them making everything right in front of you, no English. They just kind of point to what they recommend and you just go with it. Yeah, that was that was how how nice and everyone was waste.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:56

Was there anything you wish you knew before you left? You went?

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Disney one was the biggest thing I think we all thought of. We knew this was gonna be like this, we wouldn't have done it. That's that's it for me. What about you? It was your first time in Japan.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

I don't know, I loved it. Yeah, uh like I wouldn't change anything that we did. Like that is definitely Japan, it's like my favorite place that I've ever been. It's obviously apart from Australia, it's like my favorite country in the world.

SPEAKER_04 23:23

So yeah, it's very different. I mean, it's it's got everything there, the the old and the new. Uh, because I've been even in the five days we did a hell we did a lot. Like we did a lot, covered a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Yeah, and like expect to walk like 20,000 steps a day.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

Yeah, yeah, we did, and and caught public transport everywhere because it's efficient.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Yeah, oh it's so easy, nothing's ever delayed, everything's on time. Know exactly what the train's gonna be, then when it's gonna go, and there's so many options to get to places. Um, I would say because the public transport's so efficient, especially the train systems, don't go there expecting to take taxis because sometimes it's actually longer to take a taxi than it is a train.

SPEAKER_04 24:03

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's very true. And I would say if you're going at Christmas time, book well in advance because it's so expensive, otherwise. Like so expensive.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

We we learned this time because this time we booked everything quite quite early. But yeah, we booked a little bit too late. I wouldn't say restaurants, as I said before, you don't really need to book restaurants unless you have a couple that you need to go to. Yeah. But be prepared to wait in lines. That's one thing I would say. I didn't realize.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

Yeah, but in saying that, like the lines like for restaurants and stuff go quick because I found that a lot of the Japanese, like if you're eating at a local place, they're literally just in there to eat. Like they're it's not a social, and they sit up at the bar and have like their ramen and then they leave. Yeah, yeah. Um you're only waiting like 15-20 minutes.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

Yeah, it's efficient, it's quick, it's and it's and everything's like you said, everything's delicious.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:56

So is there any tips that you would give anybody who's going that you can think of?

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Well, I've already said it a few times, but try to find places to eat that are not so busy, not crowded. You've obviously got the tourist traps and and things that are on TikTok and Instagram and social medias that draw a lot of attention, but it's the places that you don't expect, I think, are the best food. That's the uh the number one tip that Ralan actually gave us. But I definitely would say to anyone going to Japan for the first time.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Yeah. No, same. Yeah, same. Yeah. I think yeah, the highlight of our trip would probably be, except apart from like Hakuba, but would be the food. Yeah, it's exceptional.

SPEAKER_04 25:39

Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. I know that you have got busy schedules consider considering it's your birthday today and you're you're going to head out. So, yeah, thanks again for coming on. I really appreciate it. And I will speak to you soon.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

Thanks. Thanks, Halloween.

SPEAKER_04 25:59

So join us again next week on Truly Expat Travel Podcast, where I have another exciting destination in a world that's too big to be left unexplored. Chaffanel.