Depends where you go, in osaka and toyko english is spoken and understood by pretty much all establishments.

Its much better in the big cities although I fould some subways with only japanese maps. Its a lot harder in the smaller towns.

In Tokyo, you’ll be fine, but in smaller cities some basic Japanese could help. I’d highly recommend getting an English-Japanese translater/book still.

places in tokyo were fine, the subways were a bit tricky but should be alright if you know how to read a map.

restaurants (especially in kyoto) were the places we had the most problems, as well as buying tickets to the bullet train.

I got by without much Japanese.

It is much easier in the major/large cities. In the smaller cities it can be more difficult.

Scott

Same answer from me too. Tokyo and Osaka was pretty easy to get by with only english, but the smaller places its a little tougher. I would say that a good phrase book will be sufficiant and you can get by with that. My experience was that most people would go out of their way to help you if you made an effort to communicate with them.

Erich

My girlfriend and I spent time in Tokyo, Kyoto and Kobe without knowing and Japanese and we survived and didn’t starve. Seriously though, as mentioned you can get by just fine in the larger cities with only English but the more Japanese you know the better your chances are for really experiencing the culture. That’s true anywhere you go. You might want to try to pick up a language less tape or CD (or check p2p for mp3s) to try to pick up at least a few words before you go. At the very least you’ll be polite with things like please and thank you…

A phrase book is good too but I have only found these useful for trying to translate menus so make sure to get one with a good food section. The basics can usually be found on the web somewhere for free. You might also want to consider finding a good travel picture book. These are usually small pocket sized books with pictures in groups like food, hotel, transportation, medical, etc. To use it you just have to point. This is good in a pinch.

I was also told that many Japanese (and others in the world as well) understand English but with any non native speaker, may have problems understanding you. Writing down your question will help them to take their time to understand what your asking.

I’m sure you’ll have a great time. I love Japan and can’t wait to go back.

Sure, you should be able to do well there not knowing any Japanese. Just remember that most fast food places will have picture menus if you get real hungry. Hold out money and point to the item, they will know what you want. Keep it simple, to try to do anything like ‘no tomatoes on my burger’ and remember that if the chain is the same as back home the sequence of ordering your food will most likely be the same (this worked when I tested it at a McDonalds).
The rail lines were easy, just get a copy of the “Tokyo city atlas – a bilingual guide”. The rail map in it will be VERY handy.

Acually, pretty good in places like Tokyo and Osaka, but in a few places you might want to hire a translator.

Go for the high school students,
they are shy sometimes but they are willing to help and a lot of them would be try speaking English ;)

I don’t think you can get by so easily with no Japanese at all. I went to Tokyo – I speak Japanese and my grandmother, who came with me, doesn’t. She found it reeeeeally hard. At least learn:

“sumimasen, xxxx wa doko desu ka?” which means ‘excuse me, where is xxxx?’

and

“xxxx ga arimasu ka?” which means ‘do you have (any) xxxx?’

and

“Nan yen desu ka?” = ‘how much is that’

Same as above.. big cities are easier but small towns are much more interesting. Traveling around Tokyo has always reminded me of Chicago for some reason. Iv’e traveled to the sticks when I did not know very much Japanese and got by. Notebook and pencil are a good thing for writing down what you are saying (even in english this helps as they can read but not understand your dialect) pictionary also to write down the characters for where you are going. Trains and tickets are easy, although the new video screens are a bit difficult as you have to read or guess the text. Older train ticket machines are easy. Find the name of the city where you want to go on the big map by the ticket booth (in roman characters and kanjii in the big cities, kanjii only when you get out in b.f.e. so copy those names down) and under the city name will be the price. Put that amount in the machine and press the corresponding number. Sooo easy. Tokyo station is huge but color coded and if you get turned around you can ask a rail attendant. Eating is a snap too as many resturaunts in the walking around areas of any size of town have outside displays of plastic food showing what they offer. Its always nice to learn the lingo, but it also is fun living up the Japanese’s expectations that all weterners are crude barbarians (yabanjin) by pointing at model of food grunting and holding up how many fingers for the amount. This requires having the server follow you outside to the street so you can point… kind of comical actually.

If some one tells you to play it safe and stick to the big towns or pre-reserved hotels, promptly walk away. I have done spontaneous travel in Japan and if you travel by rail its a snap. Close to the station there will almost always be a place to stay and something tasty to eat. Worst case you sleep in a station and eat some oden from a 7-11.

Just say ‘thank you’ alot, ‘excuse me’
and look for picture menus or you can point at the plastic food to eat at first- then take note of what characters are associated with food, numbers, then major street names and train stops – you’ll be just fine. Oh yeah, be sure to catch some wacky television.

its a bit daunting at the start, and then you realise that things in english are understood with an ‘o’ at the end. ie BREAD = Breado , CHEESE = Cheeso u get the picture..so u definately won’t starve. My biggest misconception on Japan b4 i was there was that everywhere people only ate fish… I don’t like fish. However when i got there, i found that Tokyo litterally has the best restaurants in the world.
People are friendly even when they don’t want to be.. Great place.