Survival in Japan

    When a friend of mine was assigned to a 6 months project in Yokohama, Japan last Sept. He asked me for tips on how to go about in Japan. I gave him below online websites available that I think is a very helpful tools to at least have a decent survival in Japan for non-Japanese speaking muslim in Japan.

[Online Translator]

     The most helpful online translator engine I use is Sukimania. It translate word and sentence from English to Japanese and vice versa. It translate 9 different online translation tools, and will display the translation in one page. The 9 translator engine are, Excite, Livedoor, Infoseek, Vil-net, Google, So-net, Bring Translator and  Free Translation.com. It is very useful, it's free and gave you  9 choices of translation where you can choose the one that give the most closest meaning. You do not need to go to each online translator site, and look for the translation from one site to one site, rather, it help you to expedite the translation by combining all answer from 9 free online translator available on line. It also save you from wasting time when a single online translator you choose cannot translate the sentence you provide.

     This translator is helpful you are give documents in written Japanese and you need a to understand or at least have a rough ideas on what sort of information the document contain. Thus, it is just simply to cut and past the sentence on the green space provided on the website and click on the grey button in the middle of the website. In the screen shot below, 3 out of 9 translator return a translation to the Japanese sentence I key-in. At least, you can compare the 3 answers and figure out the meaning. 

Sukimania Cross Translator

[Train Route Finder]

Japan railway network is massive. Besides keeping in your wallet a copy of Japan JR railway map and Tokyo Metro Subway map, it is always helpful to plan your journey in advance by checking through train route finder site. The most helpful easier one that I found very helpful is Jorudan.  

 
 As you can see, you only have to fill in the To and From destination on the portal, select the date you which to travel and select the type of seat whether reserve or un-reserved or green. I usually select the seat type to un-reserved because the other 2 type is for express train where they charge for the seat you book. For example, says you just arrived in Narita and your hotel in Shinjuku Prince Hotel which is located in Shinjuku. Al you need to key-in is From Narita Airport to Shinjuku and the route finder will give you options on how to reach your destination. In this example it gave 4 options.

     The first option is always the fastest way. With options route given, you can plan your journey that suits you. If you don't have time luxury, you can opt for the fastest route, but the fastest route needs you to change train, you have a big luggage and you don't want to carry it around, thus you can opt for option2 that only travels on 1 train until the destination but it is expensive. 

Fig2. Option 1

Fig3. Option2

Information available here are:

• Total time you will be on board.
• Total ticket fare you have to pay.
• Total distance you'll be travelling.
• Departure time and arrival time according to your travelling time which you've specified in the initial screen.
• Train Line name.
• Departure, arrival and transit train station (if any).
• Departure & arrival time, on board duration, ticket fare and distance for each train line involves if the travel involves jumping from one train line to another.

[Japan Meteorology Agency]

     Japan is the most natural disaster prone country in the world. They have typhoon, earthquake, volcanoes  threat, tsunami and every possible disaster god can create. Their national meteorology agency updates real-time and it is always accurate. 

     Some of the information you can find in this site are:

• Weekly and 3-hourly weather forecast.
• Warning and advisories on volcanoes activities.
• Warning and advisories on earthquake and tsunami.
• Warning and advisories on Tropical Cyclone.
• UV Index
• Snow depth

[Solat timetable]

Information about solat can be found from Islamic Center Japan website. All you need to do is click on your city and this portal will display solat time according to your location.

[Halal Food Portal]

It is not difficult to get supplies of halal food in Japan. You can buy on the internet and get it delivered to your door step just in one day with a very minimal price. Baticrom Online Store, is very comprehensive that you can also buy supplies from any Asian country including Malaysia. Thus, you don't have to worry about not getting starve because you don't eat raw fish. Just go to their website below, and full your shopping cart with halal food bu just clicking away.

    There are a lot more information and online tool that are very useful, but I think the above are enough for Malaysia muslim who does not speaks Japanese to survive in Japan to start with.