I have the travel bug at the moment and next on my list is to go to China and Japan but I haven't a clue where to start!

I want to see all the main things in China…..don't know much about Japan but I'd imagine it's an amazing place in its own right.

Advice and tips greatly appreciated 🙂

japan is ace

Go, start by buying a flight

thanks 😆

uh, how long would you be going for? they're very different places and if you want to see everything.. might take a wee while. also, go to Hong Kong (if you haven't been before) – it's ace too!

i haven't a clue at this stage how long i'd be going for so after i've worked out exactly where i want to go whilst there then i can decide.

I've been many times to Japan and Hong Kong on business and can only say DO IT!

I lived in Osaka for three months and found Japan a fascinating place.

Some thoughts –

It is expensive.

Don't go in the summer – it's unbearably hot and humid. Autumn and (esp) Spring are the best times to visit.

The people and the culture are at least as interesting as the sights. It is probably difficult to get an idea of the culture in only a couple of weeks though.

For cultural sights I went to Nara, Kyoto and Himeji-jo. I'd recommend them all. You'll probably have seen enough temples for a lifetime after that lot.

Travel – trains are the way to go. I believe railcards are available for semi-unlimited travel.

The cities are mid-boggling. I have not been to Tokyo, only Osaka. The size, bustle and ordered chaos are bewildering.

The food is good if you have an open mind. Most restaurants have plastic models of the food in the window so you can point to what you want if you can't speak the language. Don't bother with Japanese breakfasts – they are disgusting.

The language is a barrier. The Japanese are not good linguists so you'll have to make an effort. They are also incredibly polite so learn please and thank you. Learn to bow. Railway signs and some street signs are in our alphabet as well as their alphabet(s) so you can usually get by. Out in the sticks you can get a bit bewildered though.

It is very safe.

Stay in a traditional Inn at least once.

Get used to someone reading a pornographic comic while standing next to you on the train.

Go to a fish market if you get a chance.

You'll be expected to take your shoes off at times. Take socks without holes 🙂

Japanese TV is odd.

If you go in Spring – go and view the cherry blossom.

You will be surprised at how tall you are.

thanks donald – you've been really helpful 😀

Kinda sounds like Swindon except with more normal looking people?? 😆

Stayed in North-East China for 6weeks in 2005…was glad to get back to blighty, it was quite a shock! Almost the complete opposite of Donalds experience of Japan!!

It's cheap…you can feast on a few quid, er thats if you find a restaraunt that has pictures against the food descriptions! The food is NOTHING like your local Chinese…Lots of dumplings, pork or savoury (tasty). the meat dishes are all on the bone, er well they just chop up meat, bone grissle etc…takes a bit to get used to gobbing out bone etc(not so tasty)!!

It's a MASSIVE culture shock, I'm not being racist when I say that the Chinese are quite impolite…they have no concept of queing, rarely say please or thank you and a VERY chauvinist!!

Transportation is predominantly by taxi,which are cheap, if going quite a distance then it's worth while sorting out a fixed price (make sure they set the meter if not, otherwise you will get ripped off)

Crimewise…hmmm…we had a nasty experience in a taxi..i'd treat it like any first time visit, don't flash money or electronics about

Beijing is great, try and go to part of the Great Wall that is off the beaten tourist track, otherwise be prepared to be very crowded!
Er street beggers…there ARE lots, learn the Chinses for 'No..go away'

There are LOADS of markets selling VERY good fake clothing and watches etc don't be too put off!!

oh if you off the beaten track, we were 75 miles away from North Korea they had not seen any causacins…EVERYONE stared, EVERYONE…hahahha, er gives you a sense of what superstars go thru…it's VERY unnerving at first..

I've travelled worldwide, but China took me by surprise…would i go back…not on your life!!

been to both, but spent more time in japan.
japan is, along with iceland, my fave country.
i went in march time, which wasn't too warm – in tokyo at least. tokyo is just a bizare place, utterly fascinating and amazing. go to omotoe-sando and harajuko on saturdays to see cos-play people – they're ace. also go to condomania in shinjuku (i think), shop full of condoms, its a laugh.

i also spent 5 weeks or so on hokkaido (and then spent 2 more weeks elsewhere, travelling around). hokkaido is definitely manageable in the summer, not too hot, and some great hiking (why i was there). sapporo is a realy nice city, not half as crazy as tokyo, significantly more relaxed, and they have a good street beer festival 8)

oh, definitely recommend going to a baseball game. i went to the sapporo dome to watch a game, the stadium is the amazing one where the football pitch hovers and goes outside when there is baseball on… great atmosphere! also the fans are barmy! same at the football matches.

as for travelling i hitched quite a bit, which was very safe and reliable, think i waited at most 20 mins for long distance trips. i also got a ju-hachi train ticket – which gives you unlimited day travel on the local trains. these go at 60kph max, and stop EVERYWHERE! they're awesome. you see all the local people doing their local things – going to work, going to school, going to the shops, going back home, going out, plus you see all the countryside… on one epic train day (i was trying to get across hokkaido) i took 12 different trains over the space of 13 hours. it was sooo good…

loads and loads of things to say about japan – its incredible!

china – ok, i like china, and would like to go back and do more.
night trains are cool, god way to meet people and travel without spending too much money which also avoiding accom costs… i loved the food.
while in china i have eaten:
chicken testicles
goose feet
tortoise
snails
ducks heads
eels
penis

um, the first time i went i did the tourist things – shanghai, beijing, wuhan, xi-an, 3 gorges dam (out the way, but impressive). shanghai and HK, imo, aren't that amazing, just like any other world city. beijing is a little different, more 'chinese' than shanghai somehow. best bits imo is the countryside….

and yes, people are rude and will try and overcharge you, esp in the touristy areas (ime at least)

its ace.

Kinda sounds like Swindon except with more normal looking people??

thankfully i'm not a swindonion 😆

takes a bit to get used to gobbing out bone etc(not so tasty)!!

do they have vegetarian dishes out there?! 😯 if so that will be the safest option for me as gag if i find any grissle whilst chewing!

I lived in Japan for a year as an English teacher. I'll eat anything (mmm, whale!) but i had a couple of vegetarian friends who managed… okay. My friend Chris spent many months explaining to the dinnerladies at his school that he didn't eat meat but repeatedly got served it in one form or another: "Its got bacon in but its cut up really small, you can eat that can't you?".

Actually they'll be plenty of dishes to choose from without meat, but your main problem will be finding out if things are cooked with fish stock.

China will be harder but there are some fantastic vegetarian restaurants in Beijing, and a Muslim quarter in Xi'an where i had a great vegetarian curry and naan bread.

I also lived in Japan for 3 years and would recommend a visit. I lived up in the mountains in Nagano-ken – world class winter sports location and cool mtb trails too – BIG ****' mountains though!

To be honest when everything's balanced out I wouldn't say Japan is any more expensive than the UK if you're prepared to ditch western habits.
Tokyo is a massive city and unlike any other part of Japan so don't be fooled by the whole super-hitech images you see on TV – you'll only really see it on that kind of scale in Tokyo.

The best way to see it would be to set up a homestay for at least part of your trip, unless you've got any mates who live out there. As Japan is so different a bit of local knowledge and genuine Japanese-life experience will make a massive difference to what you get out of your trip.

My wife's Chinese though I've only been once for a 3 week trip but we travelled about a bit.

There's obviously no point trying to do China in one trip but I'd suggest flying to Shanghai – although that wasn't of much interest to me other than seeing a modern Chinese city in all it's gory – Pudong is worth a look if you like sky scrapers. The main thing is that Suzhou, Nanjing and Hangzhou are nearby and all worth visiting, my favourate place was West Lake at Hangzhou which must be one of China's finest attractions with plenty to see – enough for a long weekend at least.

This site was very useful:

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/

West Lake:
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/zhejiang/hangzhou/west_lake.htm

For China (not sure about Japan) you will need a visa, I used these guys;
http://www.travel-direct.com/
They were very good and the extra cost was a fraction of the cost of wasting a day travelling across the country. They are incredibly helpful on the phone should you have questions; I will be using them again providing my teaching plans pan out.

Nockmeisters experience of China was very different to mine.

I flew to Shanghai (via Baharain; somewhere I would truly not want to go back to), spent a week staying in a friends spare flat (had to register at police station; you have to tell them where you're staying at all times). We then took a 41 hour train journey to Chengdu and then a 2.5 hr bus to Leshan where we stayed in an apartment which will be supplied with the job that I hope to be starting soon (again had to register with police). We returned to Shanghai to fly back to the UK spending a few days in Chengdu where we saw the giant pandas amongst other things.

I was fortunate that my friend had spent a year out there so knew most of the the food symbols but with a printout of a chinese menu reader with English, Pinyin and Symbols I would feel confident to order in any restaurant.

All the food that I had in both Shanghai and in Sichuan were delicious, and we were eating most of the time at very backstreet dirty looking places where the Chinese eat. Because chinese people are for the most part not wealthy meat is more valuable to them so they use far more of the animal but also eat far less meat than westerners do currently. The gobbing out of gristle was a bit different but probably is no more impolite that our actions when eating chicken off the bone in Nandos.

China is a huge culture shock, and they don't tend to use please and thankyou very often but their facial expression and tone is probably enough when speaking amongst themselves. My friend has an interesting take on their queueing attitude (which I might add doesnt differ vastly to that of many europeans); if you are not in a hurry and fighting your corner then why not go before the person who doesnt fight their corner.

We used busses a lot as the maps are very simple and the costs are even lower than the cheap taxis, Chinese busses are too busy (at rush times) to charge different fares for different journeys so everyone gets on and pays the same fare to travel on the route.

I felt far less at risk of crime than in most UK cities, I think the Chinese are very honest and those that aren't are probably scared of conning westerners in case of complaints and them been subsequently rounded up.

I wore my Oakleys less after the first week not because of crime but wearing a pair of glasses three times that of a months national minimum wage made me think. All the taxis we used were honest but white knuckle experiences,

Many of the beggars didn't even try with us, they only tried the asians around us, those that did went away with a quick boo yow (no want).

If you want knock off goods china is quite well stocked, in the tourist areas of Shanghai we did get people coming up to up saying "bag, rolex, dvd" and showing laminated cards of their wares but after a "boo yow" they go away. In tourist areas of Spain the "looky looky" men are far worse than any sellers we encountered in China.

I'm blonde so was quite a rarity for Chinese eyes but everyone was really cool and didn't make a fuss. I would say that most people were quite shy so a complete opposite of mobbing.

Essentially when it comes to China if you fail to prepare you prepare to fail.