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2010 Magic: The Gathering® World Championships Travel Guide YOKOSO! Welcome to Japan! Editor: Carlos Ho. Contributors: Kenji Suzuki, Carlos Congratulations on making it to the Magic: The Gather- Ho, Michael Hall, David Vogin. ing® World Championships! In order to facilitate planning Photos: Carlos Ho, except where your visit to Chiba, local and foreign judges have prepared noted. Some photographs are licensed under the Creative Com- this short guide. We hope it proves useful and allows you mons Attribution 2.0 Generic li- to enjoy even more your stay in Japan. cense (CC-by 2.0). License terms are available online: http://creativecommons.org/li- censes/by/2.0/ Wizards of the Coast, Magic: The Gathering, and their logos Quick Facts are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC. © 2010 Wizards. All Electricity: 100VAC, 50/60Hz, North American-type plug. Rights Reserved. This publication Calling code: +81. is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically ap- Time zone: GMT+9. proved by Wizards of the Coast Cell phone network: 3G at 2100 MHz (UMTS-2100 or LLC. WCDMA-2100). GSM isn’t supported. 1 2010 Magic: The Gathering® World Championships Travel Guide Language and communication The official language is Japanese. Many signs are written both in Japanese and English (especially in sightseeing areas). However, most Japanese CAN’T speak English. If you need to talk to them, you need to speak REALLY slowly. It might help to write things down. Things written down in Japanese are really great, like addresses or common words that you might want to ask about. For example, you could ask someone to write down the kind of food that you’d like to find and show it to locals, and write down the name of your hotel in Japanese. The tournament venue, Makuhari Messe, is written as: 幕張メッセ Japanese players can understand most Magic words in English, such as tap, untap, instant, stack, damage, mulligan, life, and so on. You can normally play a game with a Japanese player without having to say anything in Japanese. However, you might want to know some Japanese sentences used by local players. Here they are, along with some other useful phrases: Playing Numbers Nice to meet you. — Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. zero — zero eleven — juu-ichi I play first. — Sente de onegaishimasu. one — ichi twelve — juu-ni I play second (I draw). — Gote de onegaishimasu. two — ni thirteen — juu-san * Many Japanese cannot understand if you just say “I play” or “I draw”. three — san ... How many cards in your hand? — Hand ha nan’mai desu ka? four — yon nineteen — juu-kyuu What’s your life totals? — Life ha nan’ten desu ka? five — go twenty — ni-juu Please wait a second — Chotto matte kudasai. six — roku I concede. — Make masita. / Watashi no make desu. seven — nana Thank you. — Arigatou gozaimasu. eight — hachi Traveling nine — kyuu Where is [Tokyo Station]? — [Tokyo eki] wa doko desu ka? ten — juu Is it near here? — Koko kara chikai desu ka? Can I walk there? — Aruite ikemasu ka? Does this train stop at ~? — Kono densha wa ~ ni tomarimasu ka? What’s the next station? — Tsugi wa nani eki desu ka? How long does it take? — Dono gurai kakarimasu ka? I’d like to buy a return ticket. — Oufuku no kippu o kudasai. Please take me to [the Osaka Hotel.] — [Osaka hoteru] made onegaishimasu. How much does it cost to go to [Osaka Station]? — [Osaka eki] made ikura desu ka? Where is the toilet? — Toire wa doko desu ka? Currency The yen (¥, also represented with 円 in Japan) is the Japanese currency. 1 dollar equals roughly 80 yen and 1 euro equals roughly 110 yen. Japan is a very cash-based society. Almost every small store doesn’t accept credit or debit cards; therefore you should always keep some cash in your pocket. There is a big upside to this as you’ll never be asked for a smaller note: 10,000 yen notes are accepted pretty much everywhere so you don’t need to worry about breaking your larger notes. Large stores and restaurants usually accept major credit cards; however, small transactions are rare in Japan (paying 1,000 yen by credit card is something that locals just don’t do). Some stores don’t accept AMEX – you’ll have better chances with VISA or MasterCard. There is also a pretty low chance of a Japanese store accepting your traveler’s check. If you need to get some cash, post offices normally exchange currencies, cash traveler’s checks, and have ATMs within their premises. It’s likely that your foreign credit/debit card won’t work at bank ATMs, but it should work at the 2 post office ATMs without issues. 2010 Magic: The Gathering® World Championships Travel Guide Tipping There is no tipping custom in Japan. At restaurants, taxis, hotels, etc. you never need to provide any tip and if you do so, it’ll be likely refused and staff might even feel offended. Safety Japan is one of the safest countries in the world. You can see women walking alone at midnight. However, it doesn’t mean there is no crime. Please do not leave your belongings unattended for a long time. Smoking In some areas, smoking in public spaces is prohibited, even outdoors. It’s recommended to smoke at designated smoking areas (i.e. places with ashtrays). Vending machines, convenience stores. In Japan there are drink vending machines and convenience stores in almost every corner. Vending machines will have the usual suspects like Coke, Mountain Dew, etc. but they have so much more. Coffee in a can (hot or cold) from a vending machine is the pinnacle of civilization so far. Most of it is sweetened, but unsweetened coffee is available, just look for the word “Black” on the can. Japanese convenience stores really do emphasize the “convenience”. Every convenience store is open 24h and they tend to have not only a great array of hot and cold snack foods and drinks, but also things like battery © midorisyu. CC-by 2.0. packs for phones, toiletries, and alcoholic drinks. Yes, you can buy beer, wine, and Japanese sake in convenience stores. Drinking in public space is not prohibited in Japan, but it’s not recommended. If you’re after a cheap takeaway meal, convenience stores are a great way to go. Although it’s likely irrelevant to foreign visitors, you can buy concert tickets, pay for amazon.co.jp orders, pay your bills, purchase Skype vouchers, and even book a visit to the Studio Ghibli Museum (only at Lawson stores) from convenience stores. Yup, it’s Convenient with a capital “C”. What’s even better is that some of the hotels in the Makuhari area have a convenience store within their premises. Transportation 1) From the airport to Makuhari Messe (tournament venue). Most visitors will arrive at Narita Airport. There is an express bus from Narita to the Makuhari area. This bus departs from Narita about once per hour. You can find timetables and fares here: HTTP://WWW.KEISEIBUS.CO.JP/PC/FOREIGNERS/FORFOREIGNERS.PDF Haneda airport recently restarted international flights, so check carefully which airport you’re landing at. If arriving at Haneda, there’s also an express bus departing approximately every hour to the Makuhari area. You can find timetables and fares here: HTTP://WWW.LIMOUSINEBUS.CO.JP/EN/platform_SEARCHES/INDEX/4/146 From both airports, you can also travel by train, but several transfers are needed. Of course you can take a taxi, but it is very expensive. Check the Makuhari Messe website for more information on transportation: HTTP://WWW.M-MESSE.CO.JP/EN/ACCESS/ACCESS_PUBLIC.HTML 3 2010 Magic: The Gathering® World Championships Travel Guide 2) Within Tokyo. In Japan, the main way to travel is by train and subway, even more so within the Tokyo area, where you can go anywhere by train or subway (and some walking). Trains in Japan are almost always on time and when they’re late it’s usually only a minute or two. The trains are also cleaned multiple times each day and are generally spotless. In Tokyo there are several railroad companies. JR (Japan Rail), Tokyo Metro, Tokyo Metropolitan Subway (these two are different) and many private companies. There are lots of them and planning your route might be really complex. Some route planners are mentioned a little further below. Usually you need to buy a ticket before you ride. Ticket prices depend on the length of the trip. You can see a “fare map” above the ticket vending machines, which in large stations is usually in English. Most of the train stations around Tokyo have English signage and even if you can’t quite figure out how to get where you’re going there’s generally someone in a booth at the ticket gates who will be happy to help. To buy a ticket, first check the appropriate fare. Find the station that you want to travel to in the fare map and note the higher fare (the smaller fare on the bottom is usually the reduced fare which probably doesn’t apply to you). Then put some money into the ticket vending machine and the fares available depending on the amount of money you have put will light up. Choose the appropriate fare and you’ll receive your ticket. That’s it! © Jay Bergesen. CC-by 2.0. Most of ticket gates are automatic nowadays. After you buy your ticket, just put it into the gate and it will open. Your ticket will come out on the other side of gate, so don’t forget to take it.

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