TheTechMatterAnswer: Japan Travel & Internet survival guide

For your journey is absolutely essential to know a little bit of English.
Only a small portion of Japanese people speaks good English, but usually they know a few words, so you can communicate with a minimum of English and a bit of gestures by hand.
Be careful to not exaggerate with the hands signs, since the meaning of gestures is usually different from what we use in our country.

Below there are links to videos on Youtube that explain some Japanese gestures :

Learn Japanese – Japanese Body Language and Gestures – Lesson 1

Learn Japanese – Japanese Body Language and Gestures – Lesson 2

Learn Japanese – Japanese Body Language and Gestures – Lesson 3

Learn Japanese – Japanese Body Language and Gestures – Lesson 4

Learn Japanese – Japanese Body Language and Gestures – Lesson 5

Learn Japanese – Japanese Body Language and Gestures – Lesson 6

Learn Japanese – Japanese Body Language and Gestures – Lesson 7

Learn Japanese – Japanese Body Language and Gestures – Lesson 8

To request information about places to visit I suggest you show a map to your Japanese interlocutor: this will greatly facilitate the communication.

You have always to choose eating at restaurants with photos that represent the food and then point out the plate represented in photos.

You have to know that bread is called “pun”(you have to pronounce it how you read it) and water is called “mezoo”.

If you really want to have a better “peacefulness” you can buy an electronic speaking translator like the Trinvo.
You could also buy a small dictionary but if you make a well planned travel it is very difficult you have to use it, and it is rather awkward and slow as a method.

The signals in railway stations are also in English, as many instructions in large metropolitan cities. Tokyo subway map that indicates the cost of the trip is in Japanese, but is enough to just compare it with one English map to understand.

The language in Japan is a problem only if you are particularly interested in certain products or certain features that are not generic, in which case would be useful to get help from a Japanese friend (maybe contacted through Skype among those who speak your language) or a guide.