Saturday

Useful apps while travelling in Japan

Travelling in Japan had always been fun and exciting as there are many things to learn, enjoy and discover here. We've been living in Japan almost two years and much of the holiday we spent here were strolling around and experience new things.But being a foreigner sometimes the journey couldn't get right just as we planned due to various factors.Thus, here are some tips that we think might be helpful to foreign travelers who are planning to explore Japan.

1.Mapping
The main rule for travelling no matter where your destination would be is know your way.You'll need to have a good plan so that your journey will go smoothly and not ending up over your budget on unnecessary things.So plan ahead by using Google Maps, jot down all the places that you wish to visit and search for the location.In Japan, for big cities like Osaka or Tokyo or etc, most of the travellers probably will not find it too hard to read the tourist map around here but in rural area, you might find it quite troublesome to read the Kanji especially when finding buses on the schedule board.By using Google Maps you can check the time,distance, number of the bus,fare (for some cases)and arrival plus departure destination.

2.Transportation
If you can't speak or read in Japanese at all, Hyperdia might be the best choice for you to check the schedule for trains around Japan.Hyperdia is easy to use, you can even choose what type of train you prefer to ride on by adjusting the setting and even "press while speaking" button is provided.As others apps, Hyperdia can give you the specific time, fare, which station and train number and even the whole journey total time and how many (norikae)times you'll need to switch trains too.For the time being, we can't find any apps for buses in English but you can simply search for the access and bus number via internet and jot down all the information needed.Plus, if you can do extra work, print down the place that you wish to visit in Kanji and show it to the Japanese that you'll ask at the information center.

3.Food
Finding delicious food would not be a problem at all in Japan as there are many good restaurants annd stalls around here.But finding Halal food supplier and restaurants that provide Halal food would not be that easy and hence we recommend Halal Gourmet.Halal Gourmet also provides compass and Qiblat for the ease of your journey.For non muslims,GURUNAVI would be handy.

4.Islamic
We've been using Muslim Pro for the two years since we came to Japan and we have no problem at all with this app.Muslim Pro provides you the specific time for prayers according to every region of places that you wish to know, Quran,Qiblat,Azan for prayers,Islamic calendar,some Dua, and etc.There are much more apps that you will find but for us, Muslim Pro might be good enough for travelling around.

5.Translate
Wandering around Japan without knowing any word in Japanese would be difficult and do take note that it is quite hard to communicate in other language(even English) in Japan.When you are stuck in the midst of trouble, you might wanna ask for help or direction but still you're stuck with the language.Don't worry and let Coori JED do the work and translate the words you want.

6.Safety
Travelling around Japan, no doubt it is safe and peaceful but for the natural disaster like earthquake,sometimes we human can't predict what or when the disaster will occur.Yurekuru might be the best choice for you to check out the latest news for natural disaster occurring around Japan.

Well,these are some of the tips for good apps when travelling around Japan so that the whole journey will go smooth.There are much more useful apps that you can download but these are the one that we prefer when getting around Japan.

Click HERE for useful tips on saving money while living in Japan 

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