I would agree that would have been the case years ago. Nowadays with the equivalent of babelfish on our phones, language barriers have come close to being almost non existent.
Totally agree with it - IMHO the main enabler being Google maps with public transit support. In both 2017 & 2019 we were able to get by with that + some rudimentary Japanese on some actually non-trivial trips sometimes.
Also, even when comming from Europe (Czech Republic) Japan always seamed much more convenient & more civilized than at home! :D Like, like everything is clean, there are vending mashines, convenience stores and public toilets everywhere + super public transport. EVen in reasonably remote/inaka places. :)
Was hoping that was the case, good to see. Seamless translation as part of my glasses would be great, as waving one’s phone about looks a little dorky. And I would have Arthur’s response to a babelfish I fear. The lack of subtlety in Roman lettering made pattern recognition easy, harder with complex symbology.
