ChatGPT Makes a Good Travel Companion

Earlier this year, I spent about a week in Osaka, and for the first time, I had generative AI to keep me informed on a trip to Japan. I was impressed with what ChatGPT did to augment my admittedly rusty knowledge of Japanese language and culture. It makes for a talkative and informed, though not totally accurate, travel buddy.

I studied Japanese back in college, and in 2002, I spent a summer studying abroad in Tokyo. I stayed with a host family that had dial-up Internet, which cost a fair amount of money per minute, and I had no mobile phone of any kind, so I had to be self-reliant when I was on the go. The fanciest gadget I carried was my Casio EX-word electronic dictionary, which came with a stylus and sort of recognized my handwritten characters; at about $100, it was such a great tool that I brought one of my classmates to the same back-alley shop in Akihabara so he could get one of his own. I’ve been back to Japan three times since as a tourist, next-most recently in 2018, and on each occasion I’ve had a smartphone with apps for translation, mapping, and web browsing, that make me feel like I’m cheating, compared to my 2002 experience.

This time around, I came to Osaka, a city I’d never spent any time in. I had tickets for Pokémon Go Fest and Expo 2025, which were being held nearby, and my old iPhone 11, which I use as a travel phone. I bought an Airalo eSIM with 5 GB of data, which turned out to be just enough for my lengthy Pokémon Go sessions, with enough data left over for light web browsing and ChatGPT usage.

Having a background in Japanese certainly helped me a lot; it would take lots of time and energy for ChatGPT to teach the fundamentals of etiquette, food, payment, and non-verbal communication skills that make interactions go more smoothly. I had also spent some months brushing up on my Japanese using Duolingo, which, like most translation apps, does an OK job of teaching me words and sentences, but offers no cultural education at all. ChatGPT fills in a lot of cultural gaps. For example, while Duolingo’s rigid lesson plan was teaching me to talk about kings, queens, and knights for some reason, I could ask ChatGPT to walk me through the domain-specific vocabulary I’d need to, say, buy commemorative silver coins at a dealer. The AI app can also role-play conversations, something that I found valuable when I was taking Japanese classes in college, and that Duolingo only offers as part of its super-premium “Max” subscription that costs nearly as much as ChatGPT Plus does. ChatGPT even could teach me a few phrases in Osaka’s distinctive Kansai dialect, something that I barely remember from my college class days, and that Duolingo doesn’t teach.

I can tell that ChatGPT’s data set includes a lot of the expatriate forums that I found useful on prior trips to Japan. It can tell me about popular local brands similar to over-the-counter medicines that I use at home, so in case I run out on my trip, I know what to look for at a pharmacy. (Google Images can help me find what these brands’ packages look like, helping me even further.) It can recommend stores to buy particular goods, and can give me suggestions about how to ask a clerk for a particular item. It can also give answers that are respectful of local customs. One of my old coworkers went to Kyoto some years back, for example, and despite having Google Translate, was frustrated when they couldn’t figure out how to get “free refills” at a tea shop there, as they were used to at home. ChatGPT tells me that, in Japan, traditional tea shops charge per pot or per cup, with free refills generally not offered. Conversations go more smoothly if I better understand whether I’m about to ask the right person for something I can reasonably expect to receive.

ChatGPT’s photo recognition was a real gem during this trip. Google Translate supports translating text inside an image, which is useful at certain museums, where professionally printed signs describe, in brief, what I’m looking at. Shrines, temples, and historical sites include some plaques with essay-length texts written on them; in that case, I don’t want a literal and complete translation on my phone. Photographing a text-dense plaque at Shitennoji temple, for example, led to ChatGPT explaining that I was looking at a historic example of drainage pipework, without having to read the complete history to understand this. At the same temple, photographing certain objects outside produced explanatory responses that concisely described their purpose and significance. Unfortunately, inside some buildings, photography is not allowed, and I didn’t test whether I could get away with taking pictures by saying that they were for my virtual assistant, rather than for my camera roll. Photo recognition responses from ChatGPT, like many AI tools, are confident, but not always correct; when I sent ChatGPT a photo of the Hanshin Tigers’ minor league stadium, for example, I was told that I was at the team’s major-league facility, Koshien Stadium, which the minor league field is designed to resemble.

Where ChatGPT really shone on this trip was in recognizing handwritten and very stylized Japanese text, including elaborate signage at restaurants and bars. One bar in a popular nightlife area had a lengthy handwritten sign outside, with the only English text reading “For overseas people” and “Only the Japanese menu”. In seconds, ChatGPT clarified that at this bar, patrons are not allowed to use mobile phone apps to translate the menu or communicate with staff — something that, if it were posted outside in English, would probably incite a lot of harsh reactions online. I’ve been at restaurants in many countries, including the U.S., where menus use so many esoteric words or design elements that even a fluent speaker of the local language might get confused. An AI assistant won’t be as well-informed as a waiter will be, but it can probably answer a question more quickly, without awkwardness or judgment.

My next international trip will take me to Norway and Sweden, where I’ve spent effectively no time before, and where English proficiency in cities is excellent. Nevertheless, I’ll still use ChatGPT to improve my local knowledge, and to feel more confident in my travels. Especially when the barrier to entry is so low — just the cost of a local eSIM, which could be as cheap as $5 — it’s worth a try.