Yeoh Siew Hoon
I arrived in Tokyo Monday morning on the Japan Airlines (JAL) red-eye from Singapore. There's a lot to be said for travelling to a foreign country on its home carrier. It prepares you for the destination.
We spend a lot of time lambasting national carriers and how wasteful and inefficient they are. Malaysia Airlines is a financial disaster, and JAL has had its share of financial woes for sure. But when a national airline reflects the country's identity well and respectfully, it serves a good purpose in the traveler's eye.
Traveling to Japan is so much easier now that visas for Southeast Asian countries have been lifted. It's done wonders for inbound tourism.
Indeed, the day I arrived, an email landed in my inbox, sharing the news that Japan and Australia had been rated Asia's most tourist-friendly nations in the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) latest travel and tourism competitiveness index.
Last year, Japan welcomed a record 13 million foreign tourists in 2014, helped by a surge in Asian visitors, including a near doubling of Chinese travelers. According to the WEF, Japan ranked first in the world in customer service and second for its unique cultural heritage. It was also rated highly for its communications network and efficient air and ground infrastructure.
I took time to explore Tokyo as a tourist and was taken aback by how much easier it is to enjoy the city these days, thanks largely to technology. While there is free WiFi almost everywhere, you can now buy local data packs from companies such as Global Advanced Communications.
Order your kit online, they deliver it to your hotel, you use it for as long as you're in the country, then return it via a self-addressed envelope. This enables you to access Google Maps to ensure you don't get lost, so I found myself walking more between places. Also, there's the Tokyo Subway app, which is available in English, Korean and Chinese.
I asked an Uber driver how much of his business is from foreigners. He said they have comprised the majority since he started with Uber a year ago. One driver I had spoke a smattering of English, but even if they don't, they will ensure you get to your destination, even take you to the door. That's how hospitable they are in Japan and how proud they are of what they do.
One night, it took our driver nearly an hour to find a hole-in-the-wall place that had been recommended, and when we finally found it (the wrong address was listed on Google Maps), he kissed the floor and took photographs with us.
In Asakusa, I went into Agora Place, a boutique hotel that has positioned itself for the tourism boom from Asia. Its manager is Taiwanese, and you can "style your stay," a la a low-cost airline model, choosing simple, basic or comfort in terms of amenities.
I popped into a little mom-and-pop soba place in Asakusa where they had a simplified menu in English with pictures. It said, "Point and order."
At Asakusa Shrine, men baring strong, young legs shill for business from tourists for their "powered by human" rickshaw rides. They seem very popular with young Chinese girls.
In Ginza, after dining on tempura, we walked past lots of salaried men either exiting or entering "gentleman clubs." We decided to walk into a music place called NB Club and met a Hawaiian-born singer who said she'd been performing in Tokyo the last six years because the pay was better than back in the U.S. It was pretty quiet. When we asked her if it got busier later, she said, "Deader."
I think gentleman clubs do better in Ginza than live music joints.
In shopping malls, the evidence of foreign visitors, especially from China, is overwhelming. At a Uniqlo clothing store in Diver City, we heard an announcement in Mandarin advising customers not to speak too loudly, not to squat in public and not to "kick the dog" (maybe this part got lost in translation).
But it proves that, like everywhere else, Japan is struggling to cope with the huge increase in Chinese visitors. Any nationality in mass mode is a challenge, and we can expect more challenges when this market of 1.3 billion people really moves.