From Tokyo to Pune: A Traveler's Odyssey

We set sail on a journey like no other in this episode, kicking off with an electrifying giveaway that could whisk you away on a seven-night cruise with just a click and a follow. We're revealing how you can stack the deck in your favor, boosting your chances to revel in the high seas.

The voyage doesn't end there—climb aboard as we embark on a tale of two continents, narrating the trials and triumphs from the bustling heart of Tokyo to the vivid vibrance of Pune. Discover how an unexpected layover morphed into a culinary and cultural quest through Japan, from the unparalleled precision of Shibuya's foot traffic to the warm glow of Tokyo's lantern-lit streets. Revel in our anecdotes from the quirky corners of Japanese life, the surprising twists of hospitality, and the intoxicating chaos that colors India's landscape.

With every twist in our travel narrative, we unravel the threads of comfort and culture. Find out how a flight deal isn't just a ticket—it's an invitation to indulge in the sky's exclusive luxuries. Get insider access to our strategic stops and why sometimes, the best parts of travel are the unplanned ones.

But the story doesn't shy away from the shadows cast over travel paths. We navigate the complexities of the Middle East's beauty against the backdrop of global tension, unraveling how these realities reframe the wanderlust of the intrepid traveler. With our candid conversation, we aim to bridge the gap between media headlines and the pulse of the streets, ensuring you're equipped to make the most informed decisions for your next escapade.

So, tune in and transform your next journey from a mere trip to a tale worth telling, with insights, laughs, and a perspective that takes you beyond the tourist trail.

Virgin Voyages Giveaway and Podcast Introduction

James: Hey folks, James and Mike here with something you don't want to miss. We're spicing things up with our Virgin Voyages cruise giveaway. We've been giving you multiple ways to rack up those precious raffle points, and this week it's simpler than ever.

Mike Putman: Just head to our website and go through the raffle form. Simply hit "follow" on our YouTube channel to get five points. You heard it, five points just for enjoying our YouTube channel. And remember, all your points add up, boosting your chance to win that dreamy seven-night Virgin Voyages cruise for two. Hit follow and let's make waves together.

James: And don't forget to stay tuned to our podcast and social media for more ways to earn points. All the links are in the description at No Tourists Allowed. Welcome to No Tourists Allowed, a podcast where two recognized travel industry executives with a combined 71 years on the inside of travel and technology give up their secrets to the thing everyone wants to do: travel better, pay less, and see more of the world. Here are your hosts, Mike Putman and James Ferrara.

Mike Putman: Hello, I'm Mike Putman.

James: And I'm James Ferrara. Welcome to No Tourists Allowed. I am just back from a weekend trip that was just a couple of hours away. Mike, on the other hand, is halfway around the world. Eventful, Mike?

Mike’s 36-Hour Journey to Japan

Mike Putman: It was very eventful. I started out at 4:20 AM on Thursday morning flying out of Greenville. I got to the airport at five o'clock, one hour before the flight.

James: Well, that's because the airport's the size of my garage. It was also voted the number one small-to-medium-sized airport in the United States, I might add. Greenville is a very nice airport, but there's no good food there. That's the only thing.

Mike Putman: Actually, there's a Wolfgang Puck restaurant, which is pretty good for an express lounge. But at any rate, I got on the plane for a six o'clock departure. At 5:50, the pilot comes on and says, "The first officer did a walk-around inspection and saw some separation in the front cone." He saw some fiberglass separation. They told us not to worry and that a technician would be there to get us off the ground in 30 minutes. Forty-five minutes later, they came back and said the technician saw the separation and they had to ground the plane. Everyone deplaned and I had to wait for my carry-on luggage. The flight was delayed eleven times. I kept all the notifications just as proof. It was not the airline's fault; it was Delta, and they did a great job communicating. The gate agents were exceptionally nice and really tried to help people reschedule. I decided to wait because I had a 1:20 flight out of JFK, which was a nonstop to LaGuardia. I had transportation set up to get me from LaGuardia to JFK, and I left four hours to do that movement between the two. What happened was the flight kept getting delayed to the point where I could not make it to JFK in time to catch the flight. Through lots of coordination, calls, and begging, I got on another flight to JFK, but it got me there at 2:30. I ended up having a 12-hour layover at JFK because the next flight to Tokyo didn't leave until 12 hours after the first flight.

James: So you lost a day in your trip.

Mike Putman: I lost half a day. I left my house at 4:20 on Thursday and got to Tokyo local time at 4:55 AM. It was about a 36-hour day of traveling. There were parts of it that weren't so bad. I got into the first-class lounge for American because I was in business class on Japan Airlines. There are worse places to spend 12 hours. I had a really nice flight. If our listeners have never flown on an Asian carrier, the service is generally speaking outstanding, and it certainly was on this flight. It is a long flight to Japan—fourteen hours—but I had some awesome food on the plane. They had a choice of a Western menu or a Japanese menu. I took the Japanese menu and it was really good food. It was food that you'd be happy receiving at a nice restaurant.

James: You don't usually hear "awesome" and "plane food" in the same sentence. But you made the right choice. You took the indigenous food, which is probably much better than the Western food. So, what did you do in Japan? You're there at five o'clock in the morning.

Hotel Standards and Tokyo Sightseeing

Mike Putman: Luckily, I had a lie-flat seat, so I got about eight hours of sleep, which was nice. I was okay when I got to the hotel. I stayed at the Westin there, which is an exceptional hotel. The standard at that hotel—and I think it's probably true for most Asian hotels—is that while it might be rated a four-star in the US, this is a high five-star hotel. In Tokyo, the way they maintain things is absolutely spotless and the service is impeccable. I haven't been to many hotel rooms that have been as thoroughly cleaned. There was not a water stain anywhere; it was immaculate. It was so sterile, which is what I like in a hotel room.

James: And they were able to accommodate you early in the morning?

Mike Putman: I was communicating with them through the Marriott app, which is very convenient. They held the room, and they charged me for it. I didn't know exactly when I was getting in, so I paid for Friday night even though I didn't get there until 6:00 AM.

James: A little bit extra for the use of the room. So how long were you on the ground in Tokyo?

Mike Putman: I got there on Saturday at 4:50 AM and I left Monday. I was there a little over 48 hours. Luckily, I had a friend from high school who lives there and teaches English. He and his girlfriend were my guides for the day on Saturday, and we had a blast. We traveled like locals. We took two cabs, but we took probably eight or nine trains going to see shrines, different parts of Tokyo, and the big crossing in Shibuya. It’s that crossing you always see with all the lights.

James: Looks a bit like Times Square.

Mike Putman: Yeah, but you have six different roads converging at one point. It was really interesting because there's such order in Japan. The lights turn and everybody walks, then the light stops and it's like a ghost town except for cars. They engineered things really well. I was actually interviewed by the national TV station there. They were having their Halloween event on Saturday night and they were trying to keep it under containment because of the terrible incident in Korea during Halloween last year. They were out at that particular junction where there is a famous statue of a dog. The story is that the dog used to go with his master to the train station every day. The master would take a train to work and then come back, and the dog would be waiting. At some point the master died, but the dog continually came back every day for three years looking for him. They have this statue there—not McGurrow, I forget the name of it—but it's a fairly important thing. They had it covered up because of the festival, and a reporter interviewed me about the statue.

Observations on Japanese Cultural Nuances

James: You texted me from there about what an interesting culture it is. I was in Japan just before the pandemic on the Diamond Princess doing a circumnavigation of Japan and South Korea. The Diamond Princess, for those of you who were paying attention at the beginning of the pandemic, became the poster cruise for the pandemic. It was the first big reported case of the disease spreading, and some people died. It was terrible optics. But I was in Japan for a while and I had the same reaction. Most Westerners think, "Wow, this is an interesting culture." What caused you to have that reaction?

Mike Putman: A couple of things. One was when I was on a train and I sat down by an elderly gentleman, and the guy stood up and moved to another seat. I had taken a shower after I arrived, so it wasn't that. My friend looked at me and said that some older people there have an issue with foreigners. It seemed really bizarre because I wasn't being obnoxious. It was just strange. I asked my friend who has lived there for eleven years why they would not like foreigners. He said it is because they are so shy. It's not that it's offensive to be beside a foreigner, but they're so shy they don't want to have any kind of interaction. Then I went to a really nice Izakaya that I've been trying to get into for about three months. It had been written up by magazines as a top place to go in Tokyo. I went there and it wasn't a "nice" place in terms of decor, and the server was almost standoffish. An Izakaya is a casual type of place, but they had highly rated food. The service definitely did not go with it. I asked for water three times—literally three times. We were having other drinks too, so it wasn't like we were trying to save money. There were several other things that seemed out of place for a highly regarded restaurant. I don't know if it had something to do with being an American, but it was bizarre. Still, I really enjoyed my time there.

James: In my experience in Japan, there is such a stark difference between that culture and ours that many things feel off because we're not used to it. I do think a lot of it is about reserve and conservativeness, and it comes off feeling cold to us. Especially people of a certain age there were brought up not to look you in the eye, which is considered forward and aggressive. They speak very softly and they stand off from you. It's totally different from our backgrounds in the West. Yet, that's balanced in Japan by a lot of goofiness and animation. If you look at the advertising and the strange vending machines, and the animated characters everywhere, there is a whole other side to the culture that is colorful and crazy.

Mike Putman: One of the things I really liked was that they had beer vending machines everywhere. Also, if you lose your underwear somehow, there are underwear vending machines in Japan.

James: Anything else in particular you did that was memorable?

Mike Putman: Not really. I enjoyed my time there. There is a really cool Starbucks that used to be the biggest in the world. It has a roastery inside that is four stories high. They roast the beans on the ground floor and pipe them up through these pipes to cool them off before they come back down into grinders. They also have a tea bar and a full bar there. It's all pretty interesting. I was only there 48 hours, but I enjoyed it very much. It's a super clean city, really well organized, and the food I had was well above average.

James: If you're a certain kind of traveler, you might go places seeking out history. The difficulty in Japan is that as a result of heavy bombing in World War II and hundreds of years of earthquakes, there is not a lot of physical history in Tokyo. You go there thinking you'll see Shogun palaces, but most of that was recreated in the sixties and seventies. It's a Disney version of architecture from the 1500s. There just aren't a lot of old buildings, except for shrines.

Mike Putman: There was a shrine we went to that was over two thousand years old. So you can find those places.

James: I did one in a cave that we had to climb down to on the edge of the sea. Inside the cave, they built this beautiful shrine. Kyoto is another great city to visit for that purpose; it’s been beautifully preserved. So, now you went even further and you're in India.

The Value of Stopovers and Traveling to India

Mike Putman: You talk about polar opposites. I went from a place that's very sterile and clean to a place that's disorderly with lots of character and culture. I'm spending a few days here. I had another great experience on Japan Airlines flying from Tokyo to India. Here is one tip for our travelers: when you fly to an international destination and it's not a nonstop, sometimes it's better to avoid the nonstop if your schedule permits. I was flying from New York to Delhi. There is a nonstop on American that's fourteen hours, but I typically break my trip up in London. This time I chose Japan Airlines because they had a fantastic business class price. Generally, if you go on a national carrier and change planes at their hub, they'll allow you to do a free stopover. So I changed my ticket for a free stopover and got two or three days in Japan to see Tokyo. It was a good way to spend a couple of days.

James: That is a great tip. The other one is that for these long-haul flights, you really want to maneuver your way into lie-flat seating. If you book ahead of time and work with a professional InteleTravel advisor, you can do it affordably. It makes the trip humane. If you have to do it in economy with three inches of recline on a fourteen-hour nonstop flight, it's rough. Don't do that to yourself if you can help it.

Strategies for Finding Business Class Deals

Mike Putman: I'll also share with our listeners that right now, through November 7th, the airlines are having a business class sale. Round trip to about five or six destinations in Europe from certain cities is $500 for the fair part of the ticket. It's out of some "second-tier" cities like Nashville. These are cities that American and British Airways have nonstop flights out of, even if you wouldn't expect it. Once you bundle in the taxes and fuel surcharge, it's $2,100 round trip. That is still a hell of a price and probably better than what a lot of people paid to go in coach this summer. Book those early and take advantage of them. When I get back home, I'm going to plan another trip to take advantage of that air deal.

James: Absolutely great advice. Are you in Mumbai or Pune?

Mike Putman: I'm in Pune. I have an office here and I'm doing this recording before a team dinner with my staff. I've already had some good food here.

James: Do you have a recommendation for us if we wind up in Mumbai, Pune, or Delhi?

Mike Putman: In this case, I'm with my team or a supplier and they take me places. I don't always remember the names because we might be having a few cocktails, but the food here is generally very good. A friend of mine who has a dining club in Pune knows all the best restaurants. He's like you, James—he's on TV and radio because of his knowledge. We are going out tomorrow night, so I'll write down what we do.

James: Thank you for sharing all that, Mike. There are some very good tips about long-haul travel embedded in there. Don't be afraid of it. There is a whole world outside your comfort zone, and we want you to get there.

Travel Safety and the Middle East Conflict

Let's talk a little bit about what's going on in the Middle East because we shouldn't avoid it. It is a global concern and conflict. We're not going to make political statements, but the loss of life is tragic no matter who it is. From the point of view of the travel industry, tour operators, vacation companies, and religious pilgrimages have all been canceled to that part of the world through the end of the year. In Israel and Jordan, the two big tourism destinations, travel is affected. Even in Egypt, where the conflict hasn't spread, people are concerned. A question that comes up a lot is, "Can my InteleTravel advisor help me?" This is a good tip for everyone on what to do when something like this happens. You want to have a real travel insurance policy from an insurance company, not just the tour supplier. I like "cancel for any reason" coverage. You want to be in the driver's seat of assessing your own risk.

Mike Putman: If for some reason your travel advisor does not mention travel insurance, feel free to ask them. A lot of agents don't push it. For a high-risk place, insurance companies don't typically price it any differently than if you were going to Switzerland.

James: You still should cover your investment. Your mom could get sick or something could happen at your job. I am a believer in travel insurance. If your travel advisor hasn't offered it and they are an InteleTravel advisor, I would like to know about it because we teach them to always talk about it. Here is what a travel advisor should not be doing: they should not be giving you an opinion on whether or not it's safe to travel. They are not trained to make those judgments. What we can do is give you official, credible sources like the U.S. State Department's risk assessment. You can read the detail about why they give countries certain ratings. On health-related issues, we can give you official places to go to get real information so you can make your own decision.

Evaluating State Department Travel Advisories

Mike Putman: Now, I'm going to say I disagree with you, James, on the State Department thing. If you go to the State Department right now and look at Jamaica, it's going to give you a Level 3 warning, which says "don't go unless it's vital." They say the same thing for Mexico.

James: I would say this: read the detail. The ratings can be misleading. There is a Level 3 rating for the United States from the UK's foreign ministry because of violence in certain cities. In the case of Mexico, the State Department immediately clarifies that the violence is in border areas related to drugs and not in Quintana Roo, where Cancun and Tulum are.

Mike Putman: Right, but they say it blanketly for Jamaica too. They're using stats that have a murder rate per hundred thousand people, but Jamaica is one of our top destinations. We just don't send people to Kingston because that's where the issues are; they aren't in Montego Bay or Ocho Rios. Before we leave the Middle East, the reality is there's not going to be travel to Israel or Jordan in the near future. It looks like this conflict is going to continue. If you have plans, I wouldn't suggest making them until past spring. It is a wonderful destination for those of the Christian, Jewish, or Muslim faith. Jerusalem is a Mecca for all three. When I went to Israel two years ago, I found that the sites are intertwined. The site where Christians believe Jesus was baptized is the same spot where Muslims believe a prophet ascended to heaven. The area is life-changing to visit, whether you're religious or not. It's incredibly beautiful and the food is great.

Middle Eastern Highlights and EU Visa Updates

James: I was not expecting to have awesome food in Israel, but I did. Tel Aviv has an incredible culinary culture with new Michelin-style chefs. I highly recommend it. We can't go right now, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be on your list. Use this time to plan. Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Turkey—this part of the world holds so much fascination. They are all going to need our economic support eventually. Keep them in your prayers and your future travel plans.

Finally, all those visa requirements for the European Union have been put off. That's great news. You don't have to worry about that until spring 2025. Mike, thank you for joining us from so far away.

Mike Putman: I did not want to miss the podcast. I look forward to another episode next week here on No Tourists Allowed. Don't forget about our Virgin Voyages cruise giveaway. Go to notouristsaloud.com to learn more.

James: Follow the instructions, get your entries, and follow our YouTube channel. We'll see you here next week. Thank you all for being here.

Mike Putman: Thank you for listening to another episode of No Tourists Allowed. We'll see you next week. No Tourists Allowed is produced by Podcast Studio X.