024 - 2:18:26, 18.06

[00:00:00] I am John and my goal is simple to visit all 47 Prefectures of Japan. The only reason that goal is even possible is because of points and miles turning everyday spending into flights, hotels, and experiences across Japan and the rest of Asia. This is rewarding routes, a podcast about making travel like that realistic and repeatable.

Each episode I'll share what I'm learning so you can plan smarter, travel more often, and feel confident using points and mouths without feeling overwhelmed from booking, award travel and choosing the right credit cards to build a meaningful itinerary. And exploring regions, traditions, and moments that just make Japan so special, we'll figure it out together.

If Japan is on your bucket list or you want to keep going back and explore Asia along the way, you're in the right place. Let's build your rewarding route one trip at a time and welcome back to another episode. And I apologies for [00:01:00] missing the episode last week. Um. For an update. I'm officially a dad, so that's what's been happening with me lately.

And yeah, I do apologize 'cause I, I, I really don't like missing weeks. I try to bulk record most of my episodes so that I'm a little bit ahead in case things do happen like life. But, uh, unfortunately, uh, things. Backed me up a little bit more than I thought. But here I am today and, um, we have an exciting episode because we're gonna be getting into travel apps when you get to Japan.

So these are apps that you should probably download right before your trip, uh, that way you're, you're fully prepared and, uh, you have a way of. Knowing how to navigate Japan. Um, having things to help you book things in advance that we'll talk about and some other apps that are, are really good and really helpful for just having a nice smooth trip when you go to Japan.

So this week I don't really have any [00:02:00] updates or news. Uh, I actually have one bit of news and that's actually a transfer bonus that's happening with Capital One right now, and they're offering a 30% bonus when you transfer your Capital One points over to Japan Airlines. This was happening a few months ago and they brought it back and this ends on February 28th.

So if you have some Capital One points and you know that you want to transfer over to Japan Airlines. Now's a good time because when the transfer bonus isn't around, it's really not that great of a ratio to transfer your points over. You kind of lose out a bit. Uh, since it's one point for every 750 Japan airline miles, so it doesn't really make sense, but with this transfer bonus, it's a thousand capital one miles transfers over to 975 Japan airline miles.

So it's almost a one to one ratio, uh, compared to what normally is offered. So this is a really good transfer bonus. I've been actually looking at flights on Japan Airlines. And seeing what kind of, uh, [00:03:00] miles, redemptions that I can get. And I actually found a few business class seats to around 70,000 points per person.

Uh, I think for both of us. In an infant it was 147,000 miles and just under $500. So that's something I'm really considering. Um, flying over sometime maybe in the fall Uhhuh. So yeah, I'll let you know if I plan on pulling the trigger on that, but it looked pretty good. Uh, 75, 70,000 miles is, is a really good deal and uh, I know it's a little bit more 'cause it's, redemption isn't a one-to-one, but it's pretty close.

So, yeah, I'll let you know how that ends up. Also, I, I know I. Talked about, um, chase having the FIFA World Cup, uh, offer. I didn't pull the trigger on that. I actually forgot it was on the 10th. Um. I did check I think on the 11th to see if there was any tickets left over, but it was all sold out, so I imagine it was sold out pretty quickly, uh, on the 10th.

Um, but I know Capital One just came out with an [00:04:00] offer, so it's Venture X card holders have access to purchase World Cup tickets. From February 12th until February 24th while supplies last. So that's an offer. If you're looking for World Cup tickets, uh, and you have the Venture X Card, you can definitely look into that.

Uh, overall, that's all the news that I currently have. I've been pretty busy and you know, with the update of. You know, myself be becoming a father. It's been really exciting, but it's definitely, um, taking some time to adjust to a new schedule that we have and we're slowly adapting. We're getting used to the routine, so in time we'll get, we'll get more used to it.

And it's really exciting. And, you know, I'm taking all the time I can to just, uh, soak in these moments and I know. So many parents have told me like to really embrace these times. And because they, this time goes by so fast, like it's already been a couple of weeks, which is wild because it feels like he just got here and it's already been [00:05:00] a couple of weeks.

And, and just like that, you know, time flies and I just want to soak in all the moments that I can, uh, with him and with my wife. So, yeah, that's, uh, this. The life update right now. Uh, a little bit of news there, but yeah, we'll dive right into the episode here. And these are some of the best apps that that really helped with our trips to Japan.

And there's a few others that I'm adding that I haven't actually used yet, but I've researched it and found other people talking about it and went ahead and downloaded it, played around with it and found it to be really useful and, um, hopefully. You will find it useful. So I'll have like the most essential ones, uh, in the first part.

And then I have a few bonus ones that are more specific to certain people who have certain things planned and, and we will talk about those bonus ones later. Um, but yeah, let's get into it. And the first one, we'll, we'll just talk about navigation and transit and getting around [00:06:00] Japan, and I think this one's the most essential one for everyone.

And I think, you know, I'm sure you're listening to this podcast, but you've watched YouTube videos and red blogs and, and, and some other sources. But everyone's gonna be mentioning Google Maps because it really is such a great way to navigate around Japan. Google Maps is going to tell you your trains, your walking routes, your platform numbers, your exits, um, your live updates if you have trains.

Um, you can even save with Google Maps like your pins, itineraries. Like if there's a lot of places you have saved, you save 'em within like a Japan, um, saved folder and you'll have all your pins saved. Uh, you can even do reservations with restaurants on Google Maps. Uh, not for all the restaurants, it's for certain ones.

Uh, there's another app that I'm gonna be talking about for reservations as well, but with Google Maps as well, you can filter wheelchairs and like more accessible routes because there are [00:07:00] a lot of stairs within stations. So if you go on Google Maps and you filter wheelchair accessibility, um, it's, so it's actually going to.

Find you ways throughout the station to find exits with elevators. And this is going to be really helpful, especially for us, for our next trip because we might be having a stroller and, you know, having a stroller and then stairs really don't work. So, uh, being able to find those elevators within, you know, massive stations is gonna be so helpful.

So yeah, Google Maps is going to be your best way of navigating Japan. Um, it, it really is going to. Show you so much information and yeah, it's been fantastic for us and for everyone that you know, I've seen talk about Google Maps, so make sure you download this app before you go, or you probably already have it because I use Google Maps here in the US so you probably already have it, but if you don't, I definitely recommend it.

Next I'll talk [00:08:00] about the Sika. So. With iPhone, you can have your Sweer card as a mobile card. If you go into your wallet, your Apple wallet, and you hit the plus sign and you go to public transport, you'll see a little section where it says Japan. And you can get a Sweer card there and you can up, you can load it, um, with your credit cards.

I believe the credit card companies that allow you to. Add money to your sweeter card is Visa. I remember having trouble with a MasterCard back then, and I know American Express can be a bit of a hassle too. So if you have a Visa card in your Apple wallet, then you can use that card to. You know, uh, top up your Sweer card.

The sweeter card is so essential for getting around Japan. You, you tap it to get on trains. You can use it in vening machines, you can use it at home beanies. So it has so many purposes and it's really essential for having and getting [00:09:00] around, um, Japan because. You know, you don't want to be stuck getting tickets every single time you're at the station.

Um, and even when you're like running late to a train or something and you can just go to a vending machine and tap your sweeter card, it makes things really quick. Um, instead of having to like find all your coins because you'll end up having a lot of coins. So make sure you do use your coins. But in those moments where it's convenient, definitely having a sweeter card makes just.

Your Japan trip's so much easier and better, so I definitely recommend it. There's also a welcome Sweeta app that you can download where you can get a welcome Sweeta. It's like a temporary sweeta card. Uh, the mobile Swer card is like a permanent one that you can have for 10 years. If there's no activity in 10 years, then it gets closed.

But even if you just use it once, then it just resets. But with Welcome Suite, uh, you can download the app. You can use the app to up, uh, top up your welcome suite. I think it's fairly new. It came out sometime in 2025. [00:10:00] Um, I haven't actually used it, so I don't know too much about it. Uh, I have the mobile Sweer card, plus I have a physical Sweer card.

Uh, and remember, the penguin is retiring, uh, the penguin mascot on the ika card. So, you know, I would recommend just getting a physical ika if you're in Japan, just to have it as a souvenir, because I don't know, I, you know, I've talked about this in, in, uh, past episodes, but, uh, Japan loves its mascots and it's, it's cool to have little souvenirs with, uh, Japanese mascots on 'em.

And having the little penguin on the sweeter card, I think it's, uh, it's gonna be going away. So having that as this. A simple souvenir for yourself I think is really cool. So I would definitely just recommend getting a physical one, but if you don't, if you have an iPhone, you can get it in your wallet. If you don't have an iPhone or if you don't want it in your wallet, then you can download the welcome Sweeta app.

So if you want to avoid. Maybe using trains and you have to get somewhere really quick or maybe you're with a bigger [00:11:00] group. Um, getting taxis can be very convenient and the best app to get a taxi is go taxi. So the GO App is going to be kind of like. Uber and they have Uber in Japan, but it's just not as good as go.

I would recommend getting go, uh, used it for our last trip and it's just like using Uber, but it's Japan's main way of getting a taxi. Uh, of course you can at stations, you can go to the taxi line and and grab a taxi there. Uh, there's plenty of taxis around the major cities. But if you want it to be quick, easy, uh, you could do the payments on the app, definitely get the Go Taxi app.

It's going to just be really reliable. It's actually really affordable. It's so you'll end up getting cheaper rates on the Go Taxi app and yeah, I think it's really good. Uh, especially if you have places to be really quickly and you wanna avoid, you know. [00:12:00] Having to do like, uh, cash, um, in the taxi, and I've done that and it takes a little bit of time.

Sometimes you do the payment on the app, you get in the cab, you get to your spot and you're done. And you don't have to tip. Remember, tipping's not a. Really a thing in Japan. So yeah, it's very convenient and it's just a great way to conveniently get to the next place that you're going. Now moving on to language and communication.

One of the best apps for translations is going to be Google Translate. Um, Google Translate works pretty well in Japan. Uh, they even have the camera option where you could take a photo of like a menu or a sign and have that sign translated. Um, you can even download the language offline so that if you don't have service, you can go ahead and still use the app.

Uh, it just. Just a little heads up, like Google Translate doesn't get everything correct all the time. It's not 100%. Um, so just be [00:13:00] aware of that. And I'm going to talk about another app for another situation that might help even, uh. Further understand maybe certain products or understanding certain things.

Um, but Google Translate's going to do the job pretty well and I can highly recommend it. I've used it for both of our trips and there's actually another app if you didn't want to use the Google Translate. There's Papago and I use Papago mainly in South Korea as it was a great translating app and it actually worked a little bit better.

And from what I read, it works a little bit better. Um, but I know these are going to be a lot of apps too. Download, and I don't wanna overwhelm you with too many apps and having too many of these same apps. So I would recommend Google Translate, but you can see if you prefer Papago or Google Translate and just go with whatever one that you feel like you like a little bit better.

Um, but both do a pretty good job at translating. Next, we'll talk [00:14:00] about. Messaging app. So the major messaging app in Japan is line, uh, it's basically our version of WhatsApp. And WhatsApp is still used. Actually for our last trip when we had booked a photographer, our photographer recommended to use WhatsApp.

Maybe he felt like. That's what most foreign people use. So he went ahead and had WhatsApp. We also had it in South Korea for a Korean drama tour that my wife booked for us, and that was used through WhatsApp. So WhatsApp is still used for certain bookings, but line is going to be Japan's main source for messaging.

Um, so if you have things like group, um, organized events or activities where you're going to be communicating with someone who lives in Japan, like a local in Japan, then good chances are they're going to have the line app, but just heads up, they'll either have most likely line [00:15:00] or maybe they'll just ask you if you have a WhatsApp because they know most foreigners have WhatsApp.

Uh, so. I would recommend downloading either one of these apps or just having both just in case. Especially if you have an activity booked with a local, like a tour guide or some kind of activity. That way they can communicate with you. You'll mo most likely need one of these apps. So to move on, I know I talked about Google Translate, but there's another app that takes it a little bit further and makes it a little bit clearer, especially for shopping.

So this is an app called PA, and I just recently learned about this. I haven't actually used it, but I was watching videos on PA and it seems extremely useful because I saw myself struggling using Google. Translate when taking photos of things at, you know, while we were shopping. These are things like, um, like skincare or medicine or snacks.

Google Translate, like I said, [00:16:00] isn't perfect and it doesn't exactly grab everything. So on pa it actually, you can scan the, the barcode and it's going to give you a more detailed. English translation, it's gonna give you the ingredients, the instructions, so it's really going to be way more detailed. And it's great be, especially, you know, with us going to Japan with a child next, you know, buying things for kids I'd, we would want to know, um, more details on what's in these products.

So I, I definitely am excited to use this app for our next trip. Um, so I thought I definitely mention it for anyone. Um, going to Japan soon or in the future, this seems like a very helpful app because a lot of us are gonna be shopping and, you know, there are things that we just. We are very interested in, in, you know, the, uh, image looks really enticing, but we just can't, like, Google Translate is [00:17:00] struggling to really grab what it's saying on the packaging.

So Pike is going to really help, um, make it more detailed and make it more clear for you to understand exactly what's in these products. Because we all know we're spending hours at donkey holte shopping, and we know how overwhelming and how many different varieties of different products there are. Uh, so this is going to help out so much, uh, in the future, especially for us, uh, that we, we like going to these stores and, and trying different things and experimenting with different products and seeing what we like, um, for future trips.

I'm really excited to try this app for myself. And if you've tried this app or if you're going to try it in the, in the future, let me know how it goes. I'd love to hear, uh, how it is, um, from your perspective especially. So yeah, onto the next category, and that is going to be. Internet the way you're going to connect through all of these apps.

Maybe I should have made this, uh, one of the first categories, [00:18:00] but what I am personally going to recommend is getting an eim. Um, you can get a portable wifi. That definitely works, and there's definitely many companies out there. We used Japan Wireless. Um, during our first time in Japan and we got a portable wifi where you can hook up multiple people.

Um, my wife was connected onto the wifi as myself. Um, and if you have a bigger group, everybody can connect to the wifi. The only thing is if you get separated and um, one group wants to go somewhere and the other group wants to go somewhere else, you know, then it can be a little bit tricky. Um, there is a lot of wifi throughout Japan, uh, especially in the major cities.

Once you go into the countryside. Uh, you kind of lose that, but. I would just recommend getting an eim and the app I personally used was alo and it worked fantastic. I mean, I didn't really have any issue at all. Uh, and I was able to use it for South Korea and [00:19:00] Japan because they have multiple different.

Uh, option. So you can get an EIM for a specific country or you can get an EIM for a specific region in the world. So there was an Asia eim where South Korea and Japan was listed in that region. So I was able to just buy that package by maybe, I think, 20 gigabytes of. Data, and I was good for the whole trip, so I can highly recommend Alo.

Um, not a sponsor, but hey, if you wanna hit me up, let me know. Alo, uh, yeah, but I, I can't, I, nothing bad to talk about for alo, it was all a really great experience. Um, I was always connected, my wife was always connected, so. You know, it was, uh, it was just a great experience overall, and it's what I'll be doing for all my future trips to any country that I go to.

Now, let's get into the tasty part of this episode, and that is for food and restaurant planning. So one [00:20:00] good app, you know, you can use Google Maps to find food and restaurants. And actually a tip you can take further is using Google Translate, translating like the word sushi, or the words ramen. Or Taco Yaki.

Ok. And you can use Google Translate to get the hiragana or katana of that word, and then you can put it into Google Maps or the app that I'm going to mention here is tab log and you can find even more. Of those restaurants, because not everything is going to be labeled in English by the restaurant. So this just gives you more of a variety of places to choose from.

So Google Maps is a great way to, you know, find restaurants and food. But Tave Log is like Japan's Yelp and. It's really accurate from what I've seen. Uh, I've used it pretty minimally 'cause I didn't find out about it until our last trip, uh, pretty [00:21:00] last minute. So I relied more on Google Maps and then translating, you know, certain, uh, foods from English over to Japanese and then finding restaurants that way.

Um, but just know for the rating systems, Japan, like a 3.5 in the us That's pretty sketch, right? Like. You're probably looking for a 4.0 or higher, but in Japan standards, 3.5 is pretty good. Like that's pretty highly rated. Uh, just because the, the rating system, they're a little bit more critical, uh, when they do reviews.

So when you see a 3.5, 3.4, 3.6, like those are really good restaurants. If you see a four, I mean, that's. You're, you're looking at like luxury and high-end restaurants, but yeah, that's just don't get turned off by seeing like three, um, three stars or a little bit above three stars, because those are really good options as well.[00:22:00] 

Uh, I just wanted to point that out just so that you know, and you don't avoid those. Places because you'll pro you'll most likely have a great experience at those places. Um, but with Tab log, you can find even more local spots. So you can either use Google Maps or Tab Log and then, you know, with Google Maps, just translate the words over to get more restaurants to pop up.

But either way, um, you can download, you can have one or another. If you have Google Maps already, which you should have, uh, you can just stick with that. But if you wanted another app for food and finding restaurants, you can definitely get tablet logged. Now for getting reservations, there's multiple ways to get reservations.

I'll go over those first. So you can do it on Google Maps if the restaurant allows you to do reservation on Google Maps. Uh, other ways are calling the restaurant, but most times it's going to be hard doing that because. You don't really have a phone number to call restaurants and you don't speak. Most of you don't speak like [00:23:00] fluent Japanese like myself.

So what you can do is talk to your hotel staff and then if you know the whole, the restaurant that you want to visit, you can have them call the restaurant and they'll make the reservation for you. So that's, you know, one way of making reservations, but. If you wanted an app to help you, you can get OpenTable.

Not all restaurants are gonna be on OpenTable, but it just gives you another option to make reservations for restaurants on OpenTable to help, you know, book these restaurants that maybe are a little bit. More higher end that help you just get a spot because they tend to get booked up and there are some really good restaurants that get booked up days in advance or a day in advance.

So if there's a place you know you want to go before your trip, definitely make sure you check Open Table. If you can't find a reservation on Google Maps, and if you don't see any option there, then what you can do is talk to your hotel staff and then they can help you make the [00:24:00] reservation for that restaurant.

So. There's definitely different ways to do it. Um, so just look at your options and then you can take it from there. Now an app I haven't used in Japan, which I think might change during our next trip is Uber Eats. Uber Eats is really big in Japan and it's a great way to, you know, if you've had a long day and if you have kids, maybe it's easier if you can all go back to the hotel while you freshen up and you guys are hungry so you can make, you know, you can order on Uber Eats and then get food.

You know, locally dropped off to you. So this can be an option. I could see this being an option for us, um, because we just don't know how, uh, predictable our, our child will be. If, um, we need to go back to the hotel, but we're hungry and we don't have time to go to a restaurant, we can put an order with Uber Eats and it's going to have a lot of restaurants on there that you can choose from.

So I [00:25:00] haven't personally used this, but I know of people that have used Uber Eats and then they find that it's a great option, especially this is especially an option for those who have children or just had a really long day and you're just absolutely exhausted and you just want to hang out at your hotel.

And just have a dinner there. It's just nice having another option that you can still have, you know, local foods nearby and you're aren't exactly in the mood for maybe co convening food because you've had it for the past few days. Uh, you can still get food from local spots and enjoy it at your hotel room while you relax, while you reset.

Or maybe it's a really late night and you had a long day and you just didn't have time. And I know that feeling because there's just so much to do when you're in Japan and some days you lose track of time and it goes by really fast. Um, so yeah, it's just a, a good backup plan. You can order Uber Eats in and you can enjoy a nice meal that way.

Now moving [00:26:00] on to booking and experiences. I would say the number one app that I used for just booking experiences and tickets is K. That's K-L-O-O-K, kk. And you can purchase tickets for theme parks like Universal Japan, Disney, uh, Disneyland. Disney Sea. You can get train passes, you can get bus passes, you can get museum tickets, you can get tickets to, uh, Shibuya Sky.

You can get tickets to Castles. I mean, yeah, team Labs. This is a great way to get. So many of your activities booked, uh, prices are really good. Sometimes prices are a little bit more than actually like going to the places, but it's very minimal and it's nice having it all in one app. Having all your activities in just one area, uh, and not having to like search through your emails.

Um, it, it can, it can be a lot, especially if you have a lot of activities [00:27:00] booked. So Klu app, I couldn't recommend it enough. It is my number one app to go to, to book experiences. Also, if there's experiences that need to be booked in advance, I would download Klu ahead of time, way before your trip and start looking at things that get booked up.

I know Shibuya Sky gets booked up pretty early. Uh, especially for those sunset times. So if you want a sunset time, you're gonna have to book that early. Um, and yeah, it, it's just a great app. Couldn't recommend it enough and definitely use it, um, for booking those activities or even transportation. Uh, we booked, when we landed in nata, we booked a, uh, limousine bus from our, uh, airport to our hotel over by Disney Sea.

So there's that service too. There's just so many things. Uh, just download the app. You can mess around, look at all the activities they have and see you can start saving them, uh, for future trips. And then you can [00:28:00] book those things on Klu. So highly recommend. So the next app would be booking.com. And even though, you know, we talk a lot about mile points and miles and, and booking with, you know, points for hotels and getting free accommodation.

That's not always going to be the case, right? Like sometimes we will prioritize getting flights to Japan and then pay for our hotels, and that's completely fine because I've used booking.com. For hotels in Japan as well. For like you, if you want a traditional inn, you can book it on booking.com, that's acon, and you can get those, you can get those with private nonsense, private hot springs.

Um, and you can find a lot of different accommodations throughout Japan, so you don't always have to go with points and miles. And of course it helps you save and it helps your doll. You stretch your dollar, uh, out. Be able to spend more money on experiences and, and more on your trip than [00:29:00] your actual accommodation or flights.

But you can definitely use booking.com and definitely look at the hotels that have those flexible cancellations and say for example, you wanted to stay in an area. Um, but you weren't sure how long you wanted to stay in that area. You can book multiple hotels that have like flexible cancellation within 24 hours, and then depending on how your trip goes, then you can make those cancellations and then stay extended time and, and hotels.

So there's different ways of, of messing around with, um, bookings. But booking.com is a really reliable and really affordable option. For getting hotels in Japan and especially looking at Rio Con, you can go on, you know, the specific website for the Rio Con or you can just use booking.com. So there's going to be a lot of different options, but I found that booking.com was a really reliable source for booking hotels.

[00:30:00] Um, if you're not going to use mile or points for booking hotels, um, for like your entire stay, sometimes you'll just use it for. A part of your stay or, or none, and that's completely fine. You can use booking.com. I found it to be really reliable and it was a really great source. So. Onto our next and last major like essential category.

And these are practical tools. And if you have the iPhone, I'm not sure about the Android, but on the iPhone there's the calculator app that now allows you to convert. Currencies. So you'll be able to convert currencies from, you know, whatever country you're coming from over to the Japanese Yen. And it's really essential, especially if you don't fully understand, um, the conversion rates.

It just makes it easy. You just type it in the calculator with the conversion rate and it comes up really quickly. So it's a really nice, a very helpful tool, uh, especially if you're, [00:31:00] you don't wanna make the mistake of thinking something's $40 when it's actually $400. So, yeah, having the uh, conversion app on the calculator app is really helpful for finding those quick conversions for Android phones.

I'm not sure if it's on your calculator, but there are other free apps that you can download for currency conversion rates. Um, I think I've used one that's called xe, so that one was really good, but I just found now that the calculator app allows us to do conversions, it's a lot quicker and easier for, for myself, um, but I'm sure there's really easy options for Android users.

Uh, the next app and the last one that I'm gonna be talking about for more of the essentials and, and hopefully this one doesn't get used that often, but it's really good to just have as a backup, is the nerve earthquake notification app. Um, I'm sure you guys know Japan is prone to earthquakes, [00:32:00] and I don't want it to stray you away from ever.

Like visiting Japan, but this is more of a safety precaution on getting real time alerts and just having more of a peace of mind knowing that an earthquake is coming than rather it just happened to just, you know, happen. Without any notif like notification and, and you, um, getting scared. I, I am sure it's a very scary experience and I've experienced a very minor earthquake, uh, in a hotel room where the hotel room was starting to sway back and forth.

It was very minor and. You could barely feel it, but you could feel it. And I, I remember seeing the look on my wife's face and we were looking like, are we in the middle of an earthquake right now? Um, but it was very minor. It was just a bit, bit of a sway for a few seconds and that was it. But, you know, earthquakes do happen and.

Uh, it's just having that peace of mind and just being able to get notified before it [00:33:00] happens, and hopefully you don't have to experience any kind of major earthquakes, but, you know, this is just real life and, and Japan does experience earthquakes. Like major ones from time to time. So it's best to be safe and sorry, and to have these notifications all set up and that way you can take action if you know an earthquake does arise.

That's. On, uh, maybe more of a major scale. So, you know, just as a safety precaution really. Hopefully you don't have to ever really experience a major earthquake, but, you know, it does happen, uh, in Japan from time to time. So I thought I just put it out there just as a tool to have, um, just to, to keep you notified and, and to keep you aware of your surroundings and, and.

If some kind of major event were to happen, but, but don't let this scare you because you know people, I, I've listened and heard of people who've been to in Japan for [00:34:00] years and only, you know, really experiencing maybe one major earthquake. So the chances of you experiencing one. That's major is, is very unlikely, but it can happen.

That's why I'm just putting this out there. So, uh, onto lighter topics. Now we have bonus apps. So these are bo more niche, but I think they are very. They're going to be relevant for a lot of people who are visiting Japan. So having the Universal Japan app and the Disney app for, you know, if you, if you plan on visiting, are pretty essential, especially for the Disney app under a lot of restaurants in Disney that require use to.

You to use the app. Um, if you have like the fast, like the fast pass, I, I'm forgetting the name exactly of like the express tickets, you can buy those on the Disney app. Um, so there are benefits of having these app. I would highly recommend. Downloading the, the theme park apps that you [00:35:00] plan to visit on your trip to Japan.

Uh, another option or another bonus app would be Happy Cow. This is if you're vegetarian or vegan. This gives you options for restaurants that you know, have those. Um, vegan and vegetarian, uh, options in major cities. You're not gonna really find these in the countryside, but at least it gives you those options because Japan is, you're starting to see slowly more options because I know before it was very slim, uh, and I'm sure it's still.

Not as much as you would find maybe in your home country, but slowly they're popping up and you're able to find definitely places that are vegetarian or vegan friendly. Uh, another app that we are going to be using a lot for all of our future trips is the Mama Papa Map. This is going to highlight facilities that are baby friendly for changing your baby or just having a full reset.

Um, [00:36:00] feeding your baby. They have like really nice laid out places from the photos and videos that I've seen, um, you know, at stations and other places. So if you have a child and you want to know where like different facilities are for children or babies. Definitely look into downloading the Mama Papa Map.

This can be very, very helpful and I'm excited to see how this app works, but it seems to be very useful and very essential, especially traveling maybe with a baby who's under one that we're planning to do here in the fall. So that's a really good option for children. Now, the last one I'm going to be talking about, it's not really an app, it's a website.

But it is Visit, visit Japan Web. Uh, I've talked about this in previous episodes. Uh, instead of filling out a physical form when arriving in Japan. You can have everything filled out on this website, on Visit Japan Web. And once you get through [00:37:00] customs, it just allows you to go through quicker, uh, because you have everything filled out online And just get, it generates you a QR code that they'll scan.

All your information will pop up and yeah, it's just a quicker way to get through customs. What I do with this app is, um. On my iPhone, it, it allows me to use, take this website and put it onto my home screen, like an app, and that way I could just tap on it, it pulls up the website and boom, I have my QR code there.

So that's why I just thought I mentioned it because you could just, uh, make the Visit Japan Web and uh, the website and app. And just have it on your home screen just happen and your Q QR code will generate and then you'll have it when you go through customs. So that is it for all of the apps that I would recommend getting before you go to Japan.

That way your, your trip experience, it just goes so much more smoother and you have everything lined up and hopefully it's not super overwhelming [00:38:00] getting all these apps you can choose. What you want to download, because there are different versions that kind of do the same thing. Like I didn't talk about Navi time, which is like another way of navigating around Japan because I feel like Google Maps does that job already.

Uh, and instead of having another app, just use Google Maps for that instead of Navi time. Um, and yeah, you can, you know, pick whatever translating app you like. Pick whatever, like messaging a, a messaging app that you do, you prefer, or maybe you've already talked to like your local guide in advance and maybe they told you what app they used, so you can already have that app downloaded.

Um, and yeah, you, you can play around with it, mess around with these apps and see how, how you like 'em. But these are personal, um, experiences for myself. And I added a few that I researched and I found that will be really useful for future trips, especially the Mama Papa app. I can't wait to use that 'cause I [00:39:00] wanna see these really cool facilities.

They look really nice. And I can't wait to take my kid there. But that'll do it for this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you, uh, um, enjoy these apps and I hope they make things just a lot easier and, and definitely let me know if I missed any apps that. I'm sure I did. Uh, I've made this, uh, I'm on very little sleep right now, but if I didn't miss any, just, just reach out, let me know.

I'd love to hear what apps that you enjoy using that you found very useful. Um, and yeah, I, you know, reach out if you have any questions about any of this. I'd love to help you out and. Yeah, and just make your trip just so much more, um, of a great experience for yourself and for whoever you plan to bring along with you.

So I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you got some really good value, and I'll see you next week. Take [00:40:00] care.