Technology has shaped travel in so many ways. From ease of communication between family and friends for emergencies or so they can comment on the bowl of ramen you ate (just me?) to paying for train travel with the swipe of a phone. I’m sure my partner can’t imagine planning our trips without his ever-present hyperlinked spreadsheet.

I’ve always journaled when I travel and these days it’s more digital and shared than it is scribbled in my trusty red notebook but it’s the same premise. My mental wanderings and wonderings get corralled into something I can come back to read if I desire.

The technology that I’ve really noticed altering how I experience travel is Google Maps and Google Translate. Google Translate has made this Tokyo trip unlike any other. It has allowed us to ask more questions, to learn more information and be a little bit braver than otherwise we might have been.

No longer do I need to just point at something and hold up fingers to indicate quantity, yes/no and the like. Yes, it takes a little time but that’s better than avoiding interaction altogether because we don’t have more than a handful of words at our disposal. I always plan to learn some local language (yes, no, please, excuse me, two beers – you know, the important words) but somehow never get around to it.

Pointing my phone’s camera at a sign gives me a pretty good indication of what it means. Some translations are humorous as the image struggles to gather all the information. It’s arguably more helpful typing in an English word or phrase to have that translated into Japanese to show the patiently waiting staff. 

That said, our last visit to Tokyo 10 years ago pre-Google Translate was not less than. It just was. Maybe we gravitated towards restaurants with a visual menu displayed out front or even the plastic food models advertised for ease of knowing what you can get at a moment’s glance. Now, we feel buoyed to part the ever-present noren, the fabric hanging at the entrance of a business, and step inside not knowing what will greet us. Our own form of adventure holiday perhaps?

With maps downloaded for offline use we can stray into the back streets and turn corners with the knowledge that we should be able to find our way back on track easily enough. Maybe you like getting lost. For me, I take comfort in knowing a small deviation won’t derail my general direction that day. 

I’m mindful to say technology has whole-heartedly changed travel for the better. Without the forced interaction with locals, might we not just travel in a more insular way, in our own little bubble just in a different country?