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Avoid Major Fails When You Travel With FailPop

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Today’s Killer Startup: FailPop

 

Screen Shot 2015-07-13 at 4.41.25 PM

 

Elevator Pitch:

FailPop is “the end of all travel fails.”

 

Why It’s A Killer Startup:

At the time of writing this, I’ve been in Japan for around four days. Here are the ways that I’ve totally “failed” in Japan:

  • Putting money in the cashier’s hand instead of the tray, repeatedly. (Mortifying, every time.)
  • Looking the wrong way when crossing the street. (Can’t get used to drivers coming from the left.)
  • Kissing my boyfriend in public. (We may as well be humping.)
  • Wearing a dress with spaghetti straps. (Apparently shoulders are irresistible?)
  • Not carrying a little towel to dap at my sweat as I lug massive bags through the Tokyo Metro system. (I don’t think one would be sufficient anyway.)
  • Walking on the wrong side of the stairs. (See “wrong way crossing the street,” above.)

 

I’ve probably failed in about 8,634 other ways that I don’t even know about because: Japan. For example, I’m currently on the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto, eating a bento box with my fingers even though I’m pretty sure I should be using chopsticks. The food cart lady didn’t give me any so… Maybe not? Maybe Japanese people travel with their own? Who the hell knows?

 

If I’d downloaded FailPop before embarking on this adventure, I probably could have avoided quite a few of these.

 

FailPop has more than 100 travel tips to help you navigate the tricky cultural stuff that no one tells you about in a new country, like the fact that short shorts are okay but shoulders are definitely out. They’ve illustrated everything with silly gifs so you can know how to eat your food, what to wear (and what to leave at home), how to meet people, and a few extra tips for those of us who are seriously on the struggle bus. You’ll probably still end up doing a bunch of stupid shit because, well, that’s inevitable when you’re in totally foreign territory, but you can at least limit the amount of embarrassment you’re suffering on a day-to-day basis.

 

Oh, dammit. I just found those chopsticks. Oops.

 

Tweetable:

Keep from looking like a total idiot when you travel abroad with @failpopapp

 

Photo Credits:

FailPop | z Q/Flickr

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