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Two Weeks in Japan

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GarandMarine:
So I'm going to Japan this May to visit my brother, he's been stationed at NAF Atsugi for about half a year now and is looking forward to seeing some family and taking his first chunk of leave in a while. The first week is what we have in writing from his command for leave, and we have it pretty planned out. (I have a 14 day JR rail pass lined up for myself) and it was originally just going to be that week, but my mother wisely pointed out that if I'm going for a week and spending the money on the plane ticket. I might as well go for two weeks and really stretch my legs out. My brother and I have Tokyo fairly well covered (the weekend I get there there's even a big shrine festival!) and we're going to run out on a day trip to Hiroshima. I know we have some smarty types around, hopefully with some first hand knowledge/experience so my question is, where to next? I like the sound of a hot springs, and I hear Japanese beaches are quite pleasant as well. In general I tend to try to get the actual culture and skip tourist traps if at all humanly possible.

It's worth noting that I speak practically no Japanese. (I can apologize, say hello and ask where the head is and that's about it) my brother had informed me that he'll be providing me with all the stuff the Navy hands out to make sailors and Marines slightly less offensive gaijin then normal. So hopefully that'll help me avoid getting marked for death because I offended someone in the street some how. *kidding*

Boiled Dove:
That sounds like a blast. My eldest daughter has been studying Japanese for 5 years and will continue when she goes to college this fall. She really wants to make the trip as well. I'm thinking she will actually move once she is out of school.

I have no experience to offer just wanted to say that it sounds like a great trip.

Redball:
My first wife and I spent 4 days in Kyoto in 1968, choosing Kyoto for the temples. When we took a temple tour, we took the Japanese language bus because it was cheaper, and we had a guidebook in English to tell us what we were seeing. We also stayed in a Japanese-languge-only ryokan, again because it was cheaper. But coming out of Peace Corps service in India, we figured we could deal with the language problems. We mostly did, as I recall.

mtmerrick:
I've never been (tho I quite want to) but I will share a tip a friend of mine who spent a few years out there told me.

Learn the language. If that's not something you can do,  for whatever reason, learn to use Google translate. A lot.  Japan is not nearly as English-language-friendly as you would think.

Akima:

--- Quote from: mtmerrick on 30 Mar 2013, 10:16 ---Japan is not nearly as English-language-friendly as you would think.
--- End quote ---
I'm slightly mind-blown that anyone would be surprised that Japanese people mostly speak Japanese, or would expect them to be "English-language friendly".

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