It's indeed a regrettable circumstance that the diplomatic ties between the two countries don't reflect their cultural similarities. My parents, who are Chinese and in their 60s, managed to travel around Japan without knowing Japanese or English. They successfully took trains, hailed taxis, and communicated with locals using just a pen and paper, ultimately enjoying their trip.

I'm sure they have Chinese around other places, but one thing I've noticed around train stations in Tokyo is that for the major announcements they are read out in Japanese, English, and Chinese. Hopefully those announcements were something that helped them on their journey.

And Russian and Ukraine, presently superlatively so.