Preparing for Japan

I've been doing a lot of reading in preparation for the trip. One of the things I've having some trouble with is preparing to travel in a country in which I cannot read signs, newspapers, product labels--anything. I've been to Israel--where I can phonetically read enough Hebrew to get by and where English is pretty ubiquitous anyway. I've been to Egypt, where I had a guide and where there's also plenty of English. I've been to Kenya, which shares an alphabet with English and has a multi-lingual populace (seriously--one of the people I got to know there spoke 7 languages fluently and did not consider this unusual). Japan?

Japan is different. I don't know anything about the language, except how to say "Hello" and "I don't understand." I'm learning--making a point to--but it's challenging to do this on such short notice.

I'm arriving several hours before jackwilliambell, so I'll be on my own just long enough to need to navigate solo. I'm studying maps. I'm trying to plan travel routes. It's a whole different sort of foreign travel than I've done before. Stretching myself is good and it's one of the reasons I travel. It's not always comfortable--which is okay. I just have to be willing to squirm a little. Good thing I am.