(2019 Update!) 5 Apps to Download Before Your Trip To Japan
/
If you just love missing your bus because you waited in the wrong place, overpaying for things because you can't remember the exchange rate, or wandering around for hours looking for a wi-fi spot in vain - stop reading now, because this one's not for you.
I'd like to share with you five super-useful apps to download before you travel to Japan!
Whatever you've got planned in Japan, these apps should get you well-prepared.
1) HyperDia
Once you look past the sometimes awkward-sounding English (when Hyperdia tells you "TAKE TIME", it's not wishing you a leisurely trip, but telling you the duration of your journey), it's a solid tool for navigating Japan's wonderful rail system.
Hyperdia's app, just like the website, allows you to plan journeys and search timetables for (almost) all of Japan's train services. In English! It also benefits from the "Japan Rail Pass Search", which as you might guess allows you to search for routes you can take with the JR pass.
Hyperdia: App Store | Google Play
2) Norikae Annai - in English!
Norikae Annai is Japan's most-downloaded travel app. It's easier to navigate than Hyperdia, much more nicely designed and more user-friendly. The catch used to be that it was only available in Japanese. But now it’s available in an English version too, called Norikae Annai - Japan Transit Planner.
Norikae Annai - Japan Transit Planner: App Store | Google Play
3) Tokyo Subway Navigation
I LOVE the Tokyo Subway Navigation app, because as well as transfer information it also has a fully offline, pinch-and-zoom map of - you guessed it - Tokyo's metro system.
Good for getting to grips with (what often seems like) the world's most complex underground rail system!
Tokyo Subway Navigation: App Store | Google Play
4) Apps for Free Wi-Fi
Even if you don't want to be connected all the time, you'll probably want wifi at some point on your travels. Japan Travel by Navitime is an app with an offline map showing free wifi spots. It also has free downloadable offline maps of all the major cities in Japan.
Japan Connected-free Wi-Fi, similarly, has an offline map showing free wifi.
(Or you could just do what I do on holiday and stand outside McDonalds pretending to wait for someone while actually using the free internet. That's cool too, right?)
Japan Travel by Navitime: App Store | Google Play
Japan Connected-free Wi-Fi: App Store | Google Play
5) XE Currency
Not Japan-specific, but definitely useful.
Until the exchange rate hits a nice easy number like 100 yen to the pound, you'll probably want a currency converter so you can figure out how far your spending money's going to go. And the XE converter works offline, too.
XE Currency: App Store | Google Play
So that's what's in my "essential Japan travel apps" folder! What's in yours? Let me know in the comments.
First published March 2016; updated 15 October, 2019
Like many people in the UK, I studied French in school. I liked French. I thought it was really fun to speak another language, to talk with people, and to try and listen to what was going on in a new country. (Still do!)
When I was 14 we went on a school exchange to the city of Reims, in northeastern France. I was paired with a boy, which I’m sure some 14-year-olds would find very exciting but which I found unbearably awkward. He was very sweet and we completely ignored each other.
That was nearly 20 years ago, and I didn’t learn or use any more French until, at some point in lockdown, I decided on a whim to take some one-to-one lessons with online teachers. Here are some things I learned about French, about language learning, and about myself.