The Least Useful Guide to Fukuoka

I went to northern Northern America at the end of last year.

Here are some notes just for the future trip…

·        Don’t underestimate the impact of Thanksgiving when EVERYTHING stops its operation—even supermarkets and McDonalds are closed. Being a tourist with no one invites you to their home, your life becomes extremely difficult and hungry. On top of that, after Thanksgiving people get into a kind of year-end festive mood, things can be slower and you can’t expect punctuality for the rest of the year (just like our year-end and New-year delay)

·        The NORTH FACE is not as special as we might think in Japan. Its products are often sold at discounted price (even at the list price, they are more accessible than they are in this country) at outdoor shops.

·        You can find something made in America more easily in outdoor shops or hardware stores than in department stores. Go for Fleet Farm rather than Macy’s.

·        People sometime give you entirely incorrect answers with the air of confidence  when you ask them about something very important or serious, such as …whether your flight has been cancelled or whether their shop opens on bank holidays. Find someone trustworthy to get correct information, or double-check if you really need to know the truth. 

·        English is (at least for me) not a lingua franca in the USA. In some places, I couldn’t communicate at all while my great Japanese English worked perfectly (even on the phone!) in some places on the same condition and situation (eg. At the front desk of a hotel, supermarkets, busy airport desk). Forget about the mantra English teachers often chant (“English is the universal language”), which is applicable only when you are a master of every accent and dialect in spoken English, which by all means I am not.