re: Common mistakes when traveling internationally?

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I assumed there would be lots of English speaking people in the service industries there (i.e. taxis, restaurants, etc.)

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I went to Tokyo/Mt.Fuji way on back in 2010 alone for a long weekend when I was studying abroad (found some roundtrip airfare from australia for around $500). Do not expect wherever you go in japan to speak english. Hotels, train stations, airports you can likely find someone who speaks english. Small restaurants, the local bus, or just walking around, I wouldn't count on it.

To combat this, I usually take a cheat sheet with some common phrases to whatever country I'm headed to. Simple things like "Can you help me?" "I'm lost" "Where is the bathroom?" will go a long way if you can even attempt to pronounce them in japanese. I couldn't find a train station to get to a tour one morning and saw these two little old japenese ladies. Asked them in what i presume was japenese "Can you help me? I'm trying to find this train station". They proceeded to respond in japanese . I ended up getting on the bus with them to a different train station, they sat on both sides of me and offered me a werthers original along with some strawberry japanese candy. Enjoy your trip