Avoiding Montezuma's Revenge

Due to the poor quality of the water in third world countries such as Mexico or Cambodia one must be very careful to avoid contracting severe travelers diarrhea also known as Montezuma's Revenge.  While the obvious sources of contamination such as drinking tap water at a restaurant should be avoided, it is also very important to make sure that you do not have any drinks that have ice or crushed ice in them.  This even goes for alcoholic drinks such as margaritas, don't think that just because there is some tequila in the frozen margaritas that it will stop you from becoming very ill.  Because of this it is important that you make sure that you rise off your toothbrush with bottled water and don't accidentally let it touch tap water accidentally.  Also you need to be careful when eating fruit, in most cases fruit that has a peel to it such as oranges is safe but with other fruit, like apples you need to make sure that you wash it with bottled water so as to remove the pathogens that might be on that surface layer.  In the end it isn't really that difficult to keep from getting sick, all you have to do is make sure you stay with sealed bottled drinks.  This is one instance where the factory seal is vital because I have seen locals selling bottles of water that they washed off and refilled from the tap themselves.  I have seen this done more with glass instead of plastic bottles but still it is good to make sure you keep an eye out to keep from getting sick.

Camping With Bears

If your travels take you to bear country, for example Yellowstone national park, there are some important things to remember to safely enjoy your trip.  The first thing to know is that you want to make sure that your car does not have any food or drinks that might attract a bears attention.  You may think that buried cheeseburger in the backseat is safe, but remember bears have a very strong sense of smell and can rip a car door off with one hand, so why risk it.  This prohibition goes double for the tent since the last thing you want is a hungry bear ripping into your tent while you are trying to sleep.  The way you deal with the problem of food is by putting all food and drinks into a bag 100ft away from your campsite downwind.  You also are going to want to hang it 25 feet in the air and make sure it is 6ft or so from the tree so the bear cant easily reach the bag by climbing the tree, or if you are in an established camp ground they should have some bear proof containers for you to use.  The cooking and preparation of food should also be around 100ft downwind from the campsite so as to not attract the bears with the smells of the food you just prepared.  When it comes time to cleaning the dishes (or yourself for that matter) make sure you use unscented soap because while bathing with fruit scented shampoo and body wash will make you smell nice, it also makes you smell like food to the bears, which isn't something I would recommend.

Illegal Japanese Meds

One of the biggest things to know when going to Japan is that some of the medications that you may be used to taking when in the United States or Western Europe might get you arrested for many years in Japan even if you have a prescription for the medication and a doctors note.  The big thing to know is that the Japanese are really really serious about their drug laws.  Stimulants seem to be especially frowned upon in the Japanese legal system particularly because anything containing methamphetamine or amphetamine such as Adderall, or things containing pseudo-ephedrine in concentrations above 10% is extremely illegal and if caught with it you can expect long prison sentences.  Also it is important to note that in Japan blood and urine tests alone can be used to convict someone of using a prohibited substance, thus making any possible medication mistake costly for you when it comes time for sentencing.  Also narcotics like Codine phosphate (in concentrations above 1%), hydrocodone, etc, require a special permit issued by the Japanese authorities prior to your trip.  This State Department Article has information on how to get the proper authorization to bring in narcotics to the country.

Medical Care In Japan

Getting access to non-emergent medical care in Japan is relatively easy as long as you know a couple of quick pointers.  First and foremost its is important to remember to make sure you have medical insurance that will cover your costs in Japan because as the State Department says the cost of a serious injury in Japan can be up to $120,000 if you don't have insurance.  Though it is important to note that even if you have insurance that will cover everything with no deductible it doesn't always mean that your medical coverage will be free overseas.  This is because many medical facilities charge foreigners the whole fee upfront leaving the patient to collect the reimbursement back from their insurer on their own.  While this may seem like it makes the insurance seem worthless it might be the difference between being out a few grand for a few days or weeks or being out the money forever.  Now when it comes to finding English speaking medical facilities the State Department has compiled a comprehensive list of the various facilities and their contact information.  Now if your medical issue is an emergency or you just need to brush up on how to say a few medical words like "bleeding" in Japanese for your medical visit check out The Guide To Making An Emergency Call In Japan

International Driving Permits

Sometimes when you are traveling abroad it is helpful to be able to just get in a car and drive.  Unfortunately in most cases your U.S. driver's license isn't enough in a foreign country to legally drive.  What you need is an International Driving Permit.  International Driving Permits are not expensive costing about 15 dollars and requiring two passport quality photos when the application is filled with the American Automotive Association (click here for the application.)  It is important to note that the driving permit is valid for only one year and that many countries have limitations on how quickly you can re-enter the nation with a new permit.  Make sure you understand that fully because in some nations like Japan if you enter too quickly you can face a lifetime ban on the usage of international driving permits in the country.   It is a good idea to go over all laws in the locations you plan to drive in so as to avoid both accidentally breaking laws you didn't know existed as well as be aware of the penalties should you get in an accident and what sort of punishment you might be facing.  Also make sure that you have the proper insurance coverage for your vehicle in the nation you are driving in and don't just assume that even if you are driving to a country from the US that your insurance stateside will be valid once you cross that border. 

Guide To Making An Emergency Call In Japan

When traveling abroad we all hope nothing happens but just in case it does, it is sometimes good to know how to perform an emergency call to get help.  One of the first things you need to know about emergency calls in Japan is that there is no one "911" equivalent instead the number you dial depends on the service you need.  The number for the police is 110 while fire and medical help can be found by dialing 119.  It is also important to note that it might be impossible to dial either of those numbers from a cell phone in Japan.  Also it might be impossible to find an English speaking dispatcher and so knowing some basic emergency service Japanese might be valuable.  Below I have taken the language help for fire and medical emergency calls from the State Department and made it phonetic so that English speakers with no Japanese experience can get an accurate idea on how to pronounce the words.  Or if you forget them (as you probably would) in an emergency simply look at this website from your smart phone as you make the call since you might not be able to use cell phones anyway.

Dial 119 for fire or medical emergency help

Kah-gee des-oo

Say this to be directed towards help from the fire department

Kew-Kew des-oo

Say this for medical emergencies

(Remember to stay on the line until you are 100% sure the dispatcher knows both why you are calling and where to send the help as well as your phone number)

Dough she-ma-she-ta ka?

(What the operator will say after you tell them fire or medical it will mean "what happened")

den-wah ban-go wah (insert telephone number) des-oo

How to tell them what number to reach you at (guide to telephone numbers at the bottom)

wah-ta-she no nah-may-uh wah (insert name) des-oo

How to tell them your name

shoe-ket-sue des-oo

Bleeding

co-set-sue des-oo

Broken Bone

He-doy yah-kuh-do des-oo

Burn

co-kew co-nan des-oo

Difficulty Breathing

kay-ren des-oo

Convulsions

moo-nuh gah tie-hen koo-roo-she des-oo

Chest Pains

co net-sue des-oo

High Fever

Kuh-gah des-oo

Injury

dough-koo-boo-sue des-oo

Poison

dough-koo gah-sue des-oo

Poison gas

bee-yo-key des-oo

Sick

E-she-key foo-may des-oo

Unconscious

If you call from a land-line (i.e. not a cell phone) the dispatcher will in most cases have the capacity to trace the phone call and send help to your location.  However if you are using a cell phone or sometimes if you aren't it might be important to know a few words to direct them towards you.  First of all if you have the actual address of where you are remember to give it in reverse order of how you would normally give it.  For example instead of giving the street number, street name, then city you would do the exact opposite.  If you have any land marks around you the following phonetic vocabulary might help you direct the dispatchers.

may

Front

ur-ah

Behind

nah-nah mah may

Diagonally in front

to-nar-E

Next to

As promised above here is the list of the words 0-9 phonetically so that you can give someone your phone number.  If you for some reason need to know the characters for Japanese numbers please see the Guide To Written Japanese

Zero

0

E-chee

1

knee

2

sah-n

3

yawn

4

go

5

row-koo

6

nah-nah

7

ha-chee

8

kew

9

Ok for a recap lets say your name is Jenny and your number is 867-5309 and you wanted to give out your number you would say

(wah-ta-she no) den-wah ban-go wah ha-chee, row-koo, nah-nah, go, sah-n, zero, kew des-oo

(My) number is eight, six, seven, five, three, zero, nine

*All information in this post except for the numbers 0-9 is based off of information found in This State Department Article you can find the non-phonetic version of the vocabulary there

Japanese Travel Guide

Guide To Written Japanese
Guide To Money In Japan
Gnoming Asakusa Temple Tokyo
Navigating Tokyo Metro System
Gnoming Mount Fuji
Guide To Mount Fuji Japan
Guide To Making An Emergency Call In Japan
Medical Care In Japan
Illegal Japanese Meds
Getting Arrested In Japan

Dangers Of Lay Over Countries

One important but seldom discussed aspect of international air travel is how to plan for countries where you are only staying for a lay over as you wait for another flight.  As I did not know until relatively recently often times when you enter a country even if you are never planning to leave the airport you have to not only go through customs but you must also go through the bag rechecking procedure all over again.  While I understand that the reason for this is that it is different countries have not only different lists of contraband but also varying degrees of proficiency at intercepting them, all of this makes it so you can not schedule those flights as you would normal domestic connecting flights.  This is not as big of a deal if you are booking a series of flights online say from Boston to Bangkok with a layover in Japan, this is a bigger deal if you have a set departure location and are traveling around a region.  For example if you were traveling around Asia but were scheduled to leave out of Tokyo you would want to make sure you gave yourself plenty of extra time to go through customs, recheck your bag and go back through security.  Because of all of this, that hour long lay over which would be more than enough time to get to the gate on a normal connecting flight, becomes very risky particularly because each nation and at times airport makes their own rules about how much of the security procedure you have to go back through to make your next flight.

Guide To Written Japanese

When considering a trip to Japan the Japanese writing system can seem daunting, however if a person knows just a couple of characters of Japanese Kanji it can make life much much easier.  First I would recommend going over the symbols for your gender.  While some areas of Japan, especially those that cater to foreign tourists might have a picture of a man or a woman (or in some instances English signage) it is best to know in advance so that when it comes time to use the restroom you are not left with a confusing and possibly high stakes game of heads or tails. 

女

female

男

male

Another important time to be able to read is when it comes to finding something to drink.  If for some reason you either want a drink but do not want to pay the high prices of a restaurant or bar the following symbol is generally found outside of a store that sells alcohol.  Also if all else fails and communications totally break down in a restaurant or bar show them the symbol by going to this site from your smart phone in the bar.

酒

Alcohol

Here is an example of this outside of a store

Now that you finally have your drink and enjoyed your meal its time to pay the bill.  The only problem with that is that sometimes the prices on the menus are in Kanji and so can be impossible to read if you don't know any Chinese or Japanese.  Below is a list of numbers 0 - 9.  In the menus I have seen that used Kanji they used 0 for zero instead of the Chinese character but I will add it just in case. 

一

One

二

Two

三

Three

四

Four

五

Five

六

Six

七

Seven

八

Eight

九

Nine

零

Zero

The other thing is that for numbers under 1000 they add place the numbers 0 - 9  next to each other to equal the number below is an example of what I mean.

五

五

二

Five Hundred Fifty-Two

If the number is horizontal it is important to verify how much things are because if it is a two digit number it can be read left to right but if it is three digit it can at times be read right to left.  In the end all the numbers in this guide should be used as an aid for communication so that if you see something like the above symbols on a menus instead of the numbers you are used to, you can get an idea of how much the meal might be but in the end since you will be paying for the food you order it is a good idea to verify that your idea of the price is right before you order.  This can be done by writing the number you think it is on a napkin, or using your fingers as I did at one restaurant, or even getting out your phone and dialing the number you think it is so they can see what you are talking about.  In other words make sure you know exactly what to expect before ordering so there are no surprises come bill time.  If you have any other issues with paying for things in Japan see the post I did earlier on Money In Japan

How To Beat Jet Lag

Jet lag is the scourge of everyone who does long distance air travel.  The CDC says that the reason for jet lag is the fact that as a person crosses more than three time zones in a day their biological clock has a harder time adjusting to the new surroundings.  While the CDC article did say that eastward travel takes the longest to adjust to that has not been the experience of myself or those I have talked to about the issue.  This is because with long distance eastward travel you are able to go to sleep at 8:00 or 9:00pm local time where you arrive and sleep through to the next day and this helps automatically set your biological clock to the local time.  Now in order to do this I would recommend not sleeping on the plane during long distance eastbound travel so that you are sufficiently tired for the local nighttime where you land.  Unfortunately none of this applies when it comes to westward travel.  When you travel west, say from Tokyo to Houston, you will feel very tired by the time you get to the local night time but you will wake up in the middle of the night for no reason.  You will still be dead tired but will be unable to fall back asleep, with you just laying in the bed staring at the ceiling wishing you could go to sleep. 

The way to fix that problem is to take an antihistamine like BENADRYL® so that it puts you back to sleep and lets you complete the normal sleep cycle for your new time zone.

Now of course before taking this and or any other medication please consult your doctor to see if it is right for you, disclaimer, disclaimer. Now this is why I say if you can give yourself two days to recoup after doing long distance westward air travel.  This is because if you have to wake up at say 7:00am for work right after traveling west like that you might wake up at 3:30am on your own making it so if you took an antihistamine you would feel very groggy and dead tired when you had to wake up at 7:00am.  In the end the real trick to getting the body used to its newly found timezone is to immediately do things at the appropriate time for that timezone.  This includes eating, working out, sleeping and waking up.  If you eat everyday around 7:00pm in the United States then when you go to Tokyo or Germany eat at 7:00pm Japanese or German time.  Hope this helps, enjoy traveling.

Pure Awesome: The Wilderness Downtown

I just saw this really really amazing thing Google has done with the band Arcade Fire.  Not to spoil the surprise of it but it takes the neighborhood where you grew up and makes it into an awesome music video.  It is the first non-creepy use of Google street view technology in a residential area.  Works best on Chrome because after all its a Google product, an awesome Google product.  Definitely worth a look. 

The Wilderness Downtown