English Language in Japan
Oh, you've got a good question there!
Yes, English IS taught in Japanese schools. It used to be taught from junior school upwards but recently they've started teaching it from primary school. However, in relation to other countries in Asia, the level of English in Japan is INCREDIBLY poor. Sure, maybe a lot of people can use grammar better then most English people but when it comes to speaking/listening you'd be better off talking to a wall.
Of course there are a lot of people who speak English very well, but on the whole- don't have high expectaitions. Sometimes you get someone who is so proud of the fact they can speak English they speak it to you even if you ask them something in Japanese :evil: Irritating ****s. So about 4 years ago I invented my own country (Vlatstonia) and language(Vlatstonian), that sounds like something from Eastern Europe or Russia and give them the "I don't have a clue what you're saying, I don't speak English, please speak in Japanese"
I had the "luck" of having a very hard-headed wife who after a month or so of me being in Japan, refused to talk to me in English- forcing me to learn Japanese by myself very quickly. I got to the level of being able to hold a decent conversation in under a month with no lessons or books to help me. It's an amazingly easy language to learn, you just have to get stuck into it.
I don't really remember what it was like not understanding Japanese here- even now I wrongly assume (99% of the time) that most other forigners can at least read Katakana and Hiragana with no problem at all, which gets me a lot of bemused looks at work when I write something down for a guest.
Talking to some guests I hear that they're very lucky if they find someone who speaks good enough English to be of great help when they're lost or whatever. Although, I doubt that not being able to read signs and stuff would be all that much of a problem.
If you stay at a good hotel- i.e. the one where I work :lol: You can ask the staff to help you with stuff you don't understand- translate notes to show to people, like "Where is ... station?" etc...
Also if you want to know where to come in Japan, I really wouldn't bother with anywhere else apart from Tokyo. Osaka is crap, Kyoto is just a load of old temples which all look the same and you can see the same kind of stuff in Tokyo anyway (if you've seen one temple, you've seen them all), and most of the other big cities are not really all that interesting (I mean, who the hell wants to actually go to Sendai?!?).
In Tokyo you've got Ginza, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Shibuya, Asakusa, Roppongi Hills, Shiodome, Odaiba, then if you go for about an hours ride by train you can go to Yokohama or Kamakura, or over the other side into Chiba and go to Disneyland/DisneySea (if you're into that) or Makuhari.
It's not all that scary at all here. Don't bother about not understanding stuff, no one really bothers- you're a forginer, you're not expected to understand so theres no need to worry.