A Collection of 40+ Years of Experience & Wisdom
(…and What So Many Others Leave Out)
You can have a fantastic trip in Japan! And contrary to what so many other people say, you can do it on a budget. There are many discounts and opportunities for international travelers that residents of Japan can only dream of. Perhaps some crackpot with an ax to grind has told you about the $20 cups of coffee, $100 melons, sky high price for this or that…what you need to remember is that for nearly every wild price they quote, there is often a cheaper alternative available – if you only knew about it. Your main costs will be accommodations, food, transport, and incidentals. Each of these will be looked at more closely.
What to See, Where to Go, When to Travel
Japan has something for nearly anyone. Many have expressed interest in seeing Japan, but don’t have any idea on what to see. It’s all up to your own individual interests – and nobody knows what those are better than you. So what interests you? There are many aspects to Japan, including its many temples/shrines, castles, shopping, arts, museums, gardens, hot springs, hiking, folk crafts, festivals, nature, pop culture, cuisine, and many more. Don’t be afraid to try something new. You absolutely do not need to hire some overpriced tour guide at all. But if you are flummoxed at going to a foreign country and need your hands held, there are many groups in Japan with free guides – you only pay for any transport, meals, and admissions fees.
Once you know what to see, you can determine where to go to see it all. Do you prefer to see some of the best in many places? Or fully immerse yourself in a given region? Do you travel fast paced, or go really slowly? Either way, those who have a better experience are people who are realistic and don’t try to bite off more than they can chew, nor those who just linger and loiter. You don’t have to see it all in one trip. Japan will always be here. So if you think you might return to Japan again, it makes more sense to stick to just a couple of regions, and leave the rest for the future. And please don’t be a clod who only spends all your time in Tokyo, then flies home to tell your friends that you’ve “seen Japan”. You haven’t.
For some people though, Japan is a One and Done. There are of course many countries in the world and so much beauty and wonder to explore. But you can explore Japan over countless trips and still find something different and memorable. Kyoto alone has over 2000 temples and shrines, and even if you just concentrate on the best 10%, you’d be busy for a very, very long time.
The overwhelming majority of people as first timers go to see Tokyo and the Kansai Region (Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Kobe, and Himeji). There is a good reason for this – both Kyoto and Nara were former capitals – Kyoto for over a thousand years. Tokyo makes up the modern heart of the country, while Kyoto and Nara make up the traditional soul of Japan. Some extend this by taking a side trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima. All worthwhile places, but again, think about what appeals to you the most and then go there – you do not need to follow the same old beaten trail. Remember, the whole country is wide open to you, from Okinawa to Hokkaido.
When to Go?
The best seasons to visit Japan are spring and autumn. But there are some nice things in each season. It’s important to note that Japan actually covers a lot of latitudes, and Okinawa starts warming up more than 3 months earlier than Hokkaido. Summertime in Hokkaido and the far north of Honshu Island though is excellent.
The peak expensive seasons in Japan are the end/start of the year, Golden Week (end of April & first week of May) and O-Bon. That said, getting a hotel in popular places like Kyoto during the cherry blossom season (usually the end of March through the first week of April) can be hard. Choosing a suburb or Osaka is a good alternative. While the cherry blossoms are famous and beautiful, the rest of spring’s beauty follows later – you can see the blossoms but the mountains are often still brown and dead until weeks later.
The second half of April is one of the best times to see Japan – that is when spring is in full swing, temperatures are moderate in much of the country, and it is not as crowded as later in the year. May is also a great time.
Late spring and early summer (June through early July in the southern half of Japan) brings the rainy season and there are many days of pouring rain, steam bath humidity, and lots of mildew for damp clothes. Summer brings some horrendous muggy and sticky weather (especially in Kyoto, which sits in a basin) everywhere except the high mountains and far north. Autumn brings some deeply yearned for relief as well as the beautiful autumn colors from November (or earlier up north or mountains). Early September can still be very hot, plus that month is prime time for typhoons and jellyfish. Winters are cold but not unbearable in most of the country. There are also many great places to ski in the Japan Alps and Hokkaido. Late winter around February through March brings the plum blossoms (ume) just before the cherry blossoms and they are exquisite too. If you have a choice though, autumn after typhoon season is by far the best season to go to Japan, as far as good weather goes.
Avoid Golden Week No Matter What. However….
You must have heard the stereotypes of the workaholic Japanese, staying til way late at night at work and rarely seeing home. There is truth in that for some of course, and Golden Week (end of April through the first part of May) is one of the few times in the year Japanese actually expect to have a holiday. Years ago many rushed to the airport and flew abroad. With Japan’s economy in a coma for 25 years, there is somewhat less of that these days. Prices can be high, airfare exorbitant, trains full, hotels booked up, you name it. Everyone says to avoid this time like the plague.
However, once again, there is opportunity here that few others see. There is a huge exodus of people from the big cities at the start, and their return at the end. In the middle, the big cities are actually quieter than normal. As a foreign tourist, you are not bound to their work schedule, so you can start or end your trips through it or around it – and still do well as long as you are not fighting the Japanese for the same seats and heading in the same direction. So timing is crucial here. Avoiding Golden Week also means cheating yourself of some of Japan’s most beautiful sights, like the peak of the wisteria at the Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi and Kawachi Fujien in Fukuoka, or the beauty of Japan’s tulips such as the annual Tulip Fair in Toyama, Huis Ten Bosch in Nagasaki, Umami-kyuryo Park in Nara, the Nanohana festival in Nagano, and Shinrin Koen in Saitama, among others. The shibazakura at the Fuji 5 Lakes, the Hitachi Seaside Park in Ibaraki, and Nabano no Sato in Mie are all gorgeous in springtime.
The Nuts & Bolts – The Keys To A Fantastic Japan Trip
1. Budget
These are the same anywhere, yet few people consider them. The first is properly budgeting your trip and knowing what standard you’re satisfied with. If you want to splurge, you can. If you don’t, you still can be comfortable without skimping, scrooging or starving.
You can eat quite decently at a restaurant for ¥1000 (about US$7) per meal (sans booze). You could even go lower by getting food at a grocer’s, convenient store, fast food, or department store basement (especially after 6 PM when they start discounting their bento meals). Don’t be afraid of someplace if you can’t read the menu. Many places have displays of the food they serve in a window-front. Just take the waiter or waitress outside and point at what you want.
In Japan, bars can be moderately expensive to insanely high. Some ex-pat places can have some good deals and happy hours. But if you want to save some money, grab a few drinks at a convenience store, find some benches on a street or park, and do some people watching. It just might be even more educational and enjoyable for you – and yes, in Japan you can get completely plastered on the street and as long as you aren’t a nuisance, nobody cares.
Can you find a cheap, clean, decent, and convenient place to stay the night for US$30 a night where you’re from? How about just $20? You can in Japan! Yes, even in Tokyo at some hostels like 1980stay or even your own hotel room at places on Tokyo’s east side between Minami-Senju Station and Asakusa like the Juyoh Hotel or Tokaisou – and countless more in between. Even including AC, fridge, and free wi-fi. Nothing fancy, quite spartan, and hardly spacious, but clean, quiet, and decent enough. There are many others across Japan too. Cheap capsule hotels also exist for the non-claustrophobic, and while you might try one for a night to experience it, it’s not really the best for multiple nights or if you are a light sleeper.
Beyond that, there are many 2-Star business hotels which offer en suite rooms and sometimes breakfast thrown in for free. Most are conveniently located near train stations and there are independent hotels as well as nationwide chains like Toyoko Inn, Smile Hotel, Superhotel, Comfort Inn, Dormy Inn, Route Inn, Mielparque, Hotel 123, and numerous others. There are also Japanese inns (ryokan) which range from cheap to exorbitant hot spring places, and are well worth a night for the experience. Plus if with a significant other, there are many ‘Love Hotels’ made for couples which are roomy, cheap, and clean.
Above that of course are countless 3-5 star hotels. Use your favorite booking engine like Booking, Hotel, Agoda, etc. if that is what you need. For some, such as with families, there is also Airbnb.
What Area to Stay In?
The short answer is always, “near a station or bus stop”. But since most people focus on Tokyo and Kyoto, let’s start with that first.
Tokyo:
You really could stay anywhere, as long as you are close to a subway or JR station. It can take about 30 minutes to get from one end of the city to the other. There are advantages and disadvantages to each area. Three popular places many choose. One is on the west side, near Shinjuku or Shibuya. These are the main modern and business + entertainment areas of the city. Some good points are that there is an endless list of things to see and do. Near Shinjuku or Shimabara Station is also good if you want to take some day trips west of Tokyo, like Yokohama, Kamakura, Hakone, Izu, etc. or to the Fuji 5 Lakes area. One not as good point is that hotels tend to be more expensive there. Shinjuku Station is also one of the most complex stations in the whole country, and it is easy to get hopelessly lost in there.
Another area is the east side, around Asakusa or Ueno. Hotels tend to be cheaper, and if you want super-cheap, there are many spartan cheap hotels between Asakusa and Minami-Senju. It’s also a good area with several good sights, like the Sensoji Temple, Skytree, Ueno Park, Kappabashi, Ameyokocho, and so on. Near Ueno Station is also good for day trips from Tokyo to such places as Nikko, Karuizawa, and Nagano.
A third area is around Ginza or Tokyo Station. From Tokyo Station it is easy to take the bullet train either north or south, and Ginza is famous for its high end shopping boutiques and upper crust atmosphere.
Kyoto:
There are really 2 major areas people stay in for convenience, though you could stay in many others as long as you are near some station. One is near Kyoto Station. There are both cheap and more expensive places nearby, and there are advantages to that area – it is easy to take day trips from Kyoto Station to other places like Osaka, Nara, Kobe, Himeji, Otsu, etc. The station is very convenient for taking a JR train to Arashiyama or down the Nara Line to Fushimi Inari Shrine, Uji City, and Nara. There is also a Kintetsu train station there, plus the city subway, and buses going all over Kyoto. It’s not close to Kyoto’s most famous places, but it is not true that there is nothing good around it, as some misinformed types say. You can easily go see the 2 Honganji Temples, Shoseien Garden, Sanjusangendo, Kyoto National Museum, and while you could take a short subway ride there, it’s less than a 15-minute walk to see the beautiful Toji Temple.
Another popular and good area to stay in is the “downtown” Kawaramachi are, close to Higashiyama. The advantages here are that there are stations for the Hankyu and Keihan trains and subway, so it’s easy to get to other parts of the city. Higashiyama is also one of the better areas in Kyoto, crammed full of very good temples and shrines, with very little time wasted getting from one to the other.
TRANSPORT
One of the most important things to remember regardless of where you choose is that Tokyo’s trains and subways are absolutely jammed during the weekday morning rush hour, generally between 7:30 – 9:30 AM, and if you are a tourist thinking you can move your suitcases on the trains, you are in for a terrible migraine. If your airplane or train schedule puts you there in that time frame, you will need other alternatives, like a bus or taxi. The evening return home is more spread out and not as bad, though 5-7 PM can be pretty thick as well. Some lines or areas are much more jammed than others. Once the rush is done, things get much, much better, especially on the subway lines – JR lines however such as the Yamanote Line are always pretty busy, even in afternoons or in the evenings – it is not unusual needing to stand most or all of the way.
Kyoto on the other hand is a lot more disorganized and chaotic. There are several different rail systems, a city subway, buses, and taxis. No one system blankets the city and you will likely need more than one way to get where you want to go. JR trains go to Arashiyama and down to Nara, with the bullet train of course going in and out of the city. Kintetsu trains go south of Kyoto Station down to Nara Park, southern Nara, and over to the southern part of Osaka. Hankyu trains go from the upper downtown Umeda area of Osaka over to Arashiyama and Higashiyama. Keihan trains go between Osaka’s southern Umeda area to Kyoto’s southeast and northeast. Kyoto’s subway goes north of Kyoto Station and to the city’s southeast, and the Randen street trolley covers Arashiyama to parts of the northwest. Buses go all over, and are the only public transport way to get to other areas like Takao and the Ohara Area, but they can be jammed during rush hour, they can be very slow, and from mid-afternoon heading out of the central area there are often many elderly getting off at every last bus stop, which makes it take twice as long for you. Taxis are everywhere but not cheap for crossing the city – yet for a quick spurt to get somewhere like from the subway station to the Kinkakuji Temple they can be a lifesaver.
For long distance transport, choose what best suits you and your itinerary. Do not listen to some simpleton’s one size fits all advice – for some, a rail pass might be perfect. For others, a bus pass might work better, or no pass at all. For those going very long distance, flying makes more sense – and there are some low cost carriers like Jet Star or Peach. Can you take a safe, clean 2 hour flight for $70 (or even less!) across the country where you’re from? Again, you can in Japan! That and a regional pass can save a lot of time and energy. ANA and JAL both have foreign tourist fares for ¥11,00 a flight or less. You now have no excuse to stay chained down to the beaten trail. Some advocate taking a night bus for long distance. They are definitely inexpensive, and as some enthusiastically promote, you can save spending money on a hotel for the night. But they are not for light sleepers. While the seats are better than economy class on airplanes, if you don’t sleep well on planes, you’d likely arrive dead tired and with a sore neck.
Renting a car makes sense particularly if there are 3-5 in your group and you are going to some isolated place or mountains where public transport goes infrequently, if at all. Okinawa, Hokkaido, Shikoku, Kyushu, and the Noto Peninsula are a few places where a car might be ideal. The whole country is wide open for you – getting away from the tourist mobs might be the highlight of your trip. Renting a car for the big cities or when you can take the bullet train rarely makes sense however. Parking in big cities can be troublesome, fuel is not cheap, and the freeways are anything but free. Getting somewhere quickly and renting a car locally is often a better choice.
2. Money
If you are American, you should exchange your dollars for yen in Japan. In the US the exchange rates are terrible. Most Japanese banks do not take foreign ATM cards. But overall it is very convenient to use your ATM card in Japan at a 7-11, a Japanese Post Office, and a growing number of Family Marts and Lawson’s convenience stores compared to exchanging cash. For 7-11 and the post offices, there are over 20,000 of each across the country, so it is very easy to find one in places most tourists go. Make sure the bank knows about your trip so they don’t suspect fraudulent usage and freeze your account. Some British and Australians say that the rates are better in their home countries. You can see the current rates in Japan and decide for yourself. Be aware though that some banks will throw an out of network ATM fee at you, and/or a foreign exchange fee (about 3%) in addition to the spread from the interbank exchange rates. Check with your bank to find out – and use a bank or credit union that doesn’t nickle and dime you. The Schwab Card is one popular choice – it has no fees on its side, and any fees from any ATM machine are refunded back to you. Some people do well with a WISE or Revolut card, but there are limitations you should be aware of regarding getting cash with them.
Credit Cards and the “Cash Is King” Cliché
These days, credit card acceptance in Japan has vastly expanded and it is continuing to improve. That tired, worn out belief that you have to have cash for everything in Japan is completely obsolete, and you can easily pay by credit for most major things like hotels, department stores, chain stores, convenience stores, supermarkets, medium to long distance trains/buses, many restaurants and urban taxis, and more. This does not mean however that you don’t need any cash. For small fee places, mom & pop stores, and many places in the sticks, you will still need cash and you should always make sure you have enough to get you through the day. The ideal credit card would be one with no foreign exchange fees and bonus rewards for travel. Again, to avoid trouble, tell your bank about your plans before you leave. Some say you don’t need to now, but if your card is cut off, it can be very troublesome and expensive to call your bank from abroad.
If you want to exchange cash, that is fine too. There are many banks at Japanese airports. Unlike other countries, they do not charge some horrible exchange rates (that’s banks, not kiosks), and if there is any difference in the rate at the airports compared to banks in the city, the difference is so little that you’d need to be exchanging a mountain of cash to feel it. Remember also that if you are bring in over 1 million worth in yen (regardless of which currency) you need to declare it on your Japanese Customs form.
You can also see what Japanese money looks like at:
Note that you cannot use 1 or 5 yen coins in vending machines and phones.
3. Do your research.
* Know what you want to see, and how long it takes to get there.
Use sites like Navitime or Ekispert, and Google Maps to lookup rail fares, schedules, routes, and for help to avoid getting lost. Remember that many places close their entrances around 30 minutes before closing time. Some places may be open or closed for a holiday. If open, they are sometimes closed the following business day. For museums, Mondays may be a problem, as well as the start/end of the year. Those who do their homework are going to make the most of their trip, while those who “just wing it” are far more likely to end up lost, waste time, and miss a lot of the best places to see.
* Have a back up plan. Stuff happens – some place may be closed, the weather sucks, you suddenly find somewhere better you’d rather see. Trip Advisor is especially good at listing other places close to somewhere you might go see. Every morning check the weather forecast and plan accordingly. If there will be heavy rain, someplace indoors like a museum or aquarium might be a good choice.
* Many comprehensive sites exist that you can look through, such as Japan Guide or the JNTO. Many official city and town websites have their own sightseeing info online also, and often you’ll find great places that are listed nowhere else. Many cities and larger towns have tourist info offices in or next to their main train station – USE THEM. Often you can get free maps and lots of helpful info. Some places may be under renovation, and that may or may not matter to you. Look for any local rail/bus/trolley day pass to save money. Tokyo has an excellent 48 or 72-hour subway pass. It can take you to almost anywhere you’d want to go in the city (but not everywhere, of course), and as long as you don’t limit yourself to just that (sometimes a JR train may work better), it is easy to save money.
* Take the tourist guidebooks with a huge dose of salt. Do not solely rely on them. The truth is that many have not been updated in several years. Most of them are written by “experts” who know very little about Japan, and only mention the most famous places. Rarely to never are the Japanese themselves brought in, and they know their own country better than anyone. The most accurate and up to date info is online. Nearly all the books almost exclusively focus on Tokyo and Kyoto. Allocating a good amount of your time on those two places is worthwhile and understandable. But Japan has so much more to offer, and most books shortchange and gloss over countless other places, if they even bother to mention them at all. Many “experts” don’t have a clue that so many more great unlisted places even exist.
* Do NOT automatically “Just get a JR Rail Pass”. In October, 2023 JR jacked up its rail pass price by a killer 70%, making it a terrible money loser for nearly all tourists. In fact, the 7-day pass now costs more than the 14-day pass did before its price increase.
JR East raised its regional rail passes by 50%, with JR West and JR Kyushu raising theirs by 20%. Regional passes may still offer some savings, if you travel enough. Know where you will go and verify you’d save money on a pass first. If you only stay in one region, a regional pass likely makes more sense. If you travel too slowly or too little, you’ll likely lose money on a pass. Use this handy calculator to see if you’ll save something or use Navitime, Ekispert, or Google Maps. If you travel very far, it’d probably make more sense to fly. There are low cost carriers like Jet Star, or Peach, to some cities, though you need to check the schedules and factor in the baggage costs also. ANA also has discount fares for foreign tourists, and JAL has its Explorer Fare. These days you can fly across the country for peanuts, and not murder a whole day sitting on trains. For some areas like the Mt Fuji area, Koyasan, and Tateyama, a JR Pass won’t help you at all. Look at other passes too by Odakyu, Kintetsu, Tobu, Hankyu, and Nankai.
Eight Myths About the JR Rail Pass:
1. Just get the rail pass and save money!
While you could save money on a rail pass, it is not a guaranteed money saver. If you don’t travel enough or travel too slowly, you could in fact lose money on a rail pass. It is made for heavy long distance travel, especially by bullet train. Don’t listen to any uninformed person who tells you to just automatically get the pass. Always make your itinerary first, then see if the pass is worth it or not. If you have a very long trip in Japan, a series of regional passes might make more sense. And while taking the train from Tokyo to Sapporo or Kagoshima will likely get your money’s worth, it also kills a whole day doing it – flying most of the way and then using a regional pass might be more sensible – time matters too.
2. You can go anywhere on a JR Rail Pass!
Totally wrong. You can NOT use it on city subways, JR highway buses, or non-JR rail lines (with a tiny number of exceptions, such as the Haneda monorail). JR is by far the biggest rail network in Japan, but there are other private rail lines, such as Kintetsu, Keisei, Meitetsu, Nankai, Nishitetsu, Hankyu, Fujiden, etc where you cannot use the JR Rail Pass. The Kansai area is loaded with them. And there are a number of places where JR does not go at all. Plus, you cannot use the pass on Nozomi or Mizuho bullet trains, which are “faster” unless you cough up a big surcharge – you have to take other trains like the Hikari, Sakura, etc. And while there are up to 8 or so Nozomi departures per hour from Tokyo, there are only 1–2 Hikari, making it less convenient.
3. Get a JR Pass and never have to pay for trains!
Simply wrong, again. In addition to the above, there are a few places where JR trains run over non-JR tracks, and you do have to pay.
4. A Tokyo-Kyoto round trip makes a rail pass pay off!
No it doesn’t. See for yourself. You barely make it half way with the 7 day pass. And if you are on a 14 or 21-day pass, you are seriously losing big money. If you have an abundance of time (though few vacationers do), there is also the Platt Kodama Ticket, which will save some money but take an extra hour as you stop at every last shinkansen station on a Kodama bullet train. And for those wanting to see Kanazawa, the Hokuriku Arch Pass is cheaper than the 7 day JR Pass too, though it takes a couple hours longer and only makes sense if you also want to see Kanazawa.
5. You have to buy the rail pass before going to Japan!
This used to be true, then it wasn’t but there was a 15% mark-up in Japan, and today you can get it online straight from the JR website, or from a travel agency. You still get a voucher or e-voucher, and need to exchange it for the actual pass at a main JR office in Japan. From an agency, they’ll mail you a paper voucher which must be redeemed within 3 months from its date of issue. From JR, the e-voucher must be redeemed within just one month, but you can also make seat reservations immediately upon purchase.
6. The JR Pass is always the best choice!
Not hardly. Again, it depends where and how long you go. If you are not going far, a regional rail pass is not only much cheaper, but quite possibly more suitable. Plus if you are going very long distance, quite often flying just makes more sense. You can get from one end of the country to the other in a 1½-3 hour flight, which beats sitting on trains for 8–15 hours. And since we’re at it, if going from Tokyo to Kansai and Hiroshima round trip, there is still a better choice than the full JR Pass. Just get regular fare tickets for the Tokyo-Kansai round trip, and use the Kansai-Hiroshima Pass for the side trip to Hiroshima (good for 5 consecutive days) – it still comes out cheaper. And on top of that, you can take Nozomi trains the whole way, saving you even more time!
7. Only foreign tourists can take advantage of the pass!
Again, not true. Japanese living abroad for at least 10 consecutive years (and can prove it) can also use the pass. Though for them, they must buy the rail pass voucher outside of Japan.
8. If going to Japan for 2 weeks, then get the 14-day pass.
This is a terrible newbie misconception. The pass is only good if you are riding the trains with it, especially the bullet trains. If you are staying put, you are getting no value from it. You can use it on local JR lines of course, but those fares don’t amount to that much.
So should you never buy the JR Pass, then? NO. Just don’t be a lemming and follow some well-intentioned but ill-informed “advice” to always get the pass. You could get savings from it – just check that your plans justify the cost of the pass beforehand. These days it is for aggressive long distance trips, or several day trips by bullet train. For example, if you are in Tokyo with a 7-day JR Pass, you could do a day trip to Sendai (90 minutes each way), and do an overnight round trip to Kanazawa (2½ hours) – that would pretty much let you break even, with half a week left to get even more savings. Of course, you’d need to want to go to those places to begin with, or else you’re really just cheating yourself.
Makes your itinerary first, then choose the best way to get there.
Some Important Other Items
Learn Japanese manners and etiquette – don’t come off as some clod while there. Japanese are quite tolerant, but you should do your best to avoid any embarrassment. If you are not on the metric system, then LEARN IT – nearly the whole world is on the metric system, and you will have to use it to get by. Such basic things are 23 kg (50 lbs) – the typical airline suitcase weight limit, 1 mile is approx 1.61 km, 2.2 lbs = 1kg, 2.54 cm = 1 inch, 500 ml = a bit over a US pint, 20°C=68°F, 30°C=86°F, and so on.
Bring the OTC medicines you think you may need – eye drops, aspirin, sunblock, vitamins, allergy pills, antacids, deodorant, etc – prices for them in Japan are pretty much highway robbery. That said, do not take anything with stimulants, Pseudoephedrine, CBD, THC etc., or you could land yourself in serious trouble. Plus if you are on some medication and unsure about if you can take it, then contact the Japanese government such as the local consulate or embassy. If you go to Japan in the summer, know that you will sweat like a pig unless you go way up north or the higher mountains.
Don’t drag your bags all over the city or country – use a Takkyubin service! One of the worst things you could do to yourself is try to drag your bags all over on trains and buses – especially during rush hour. A takkyubin service is a baggage delivery service with offices at most airports and major stations – they can deliver your bag to your hotel while you go off sightseeing – often that evening if within the same city and you give it to them by mid-morning, or in a day or two for another part of the country. Costs are often 1300 yen or so per bag within the same city, or around twice that for somewhere further. Many convenience stores can be drop off points as well, so if your hotel won’t act as one for you, there are tens of thousands of convenience stores across Japan. It would be smart though to carry some clean socks, shirt etc for a day if you use this. The takkyubin office can also hold your bags for the day if you want – this is very good if all the lockers in a station are filled up (and with growing numbers of tourists, unless you get to the station in the morning, they very well could be), or your bag is too big for the lockers. At Tokyo Station for example, there is the Rail-Go Service (Yaesu South Gate), but you’ll find companies at most stations – if you have trouble, ask at the Information Desk. Costs are typically 600-800 yen per bag per day – but please note that for just one day, many offices will close around 6 PM or 7 PM – so you’ll need to get back to the station before then.
Beware of carrying liquids on your international flight. Most people by now know that you can only carry containers up to 100 ml of liquids, gels or pastes on yourself or as carry on baggage. Anything larger must be in your checked-in bags. If you are flying to/from Japan with an international transit stop along the way, DO NOT purchase any duty free booze etc before your transit stop. When arriving at your intermediate stop, you will have to go through a security check again – any liquids like that duty free purchase will be seized. Wait until you are beyond the security check point of your transit stop or onboard your final flight before you buy any such goods.
Take a thin calculator, calculator watch, or a smart phone with a similar app for converting prices.
The truth is that few Japanese can speak English with ease. In school the goal is rote memorization and passing tests, not learning to communicate. If you take any taxis, there are extremely few drivers who can communicate effectively in English. But that doesn’t mean you are completely up the creek. If you get hopelessly lost, which is very easy in Japan, it is better to find some older school or college age students and *write out* your questions in simple words. Japanese are still very poor at speaking English but are often glad to help you out if you lose your way.
Write down the full address or take a business card of your hotel or destination to show someone in case you get lost. Get it written in Japanese as well.
Carry tissues or hand towels with you – some of the public bathrooms don’t have hand-drying facilities; a few don’t have toilet paper.
Have pen/paper ready; Japanese are better at reading than hearing English.
Consider renting a pocket wi-fi device or a SIM card for your phone – free wi-fi in Japan is improving but still lags many countries.
Last Word
Finally, don’t just visit places to cross them off of a bucket list. Experience Japan while there, not just see it. Since Japan is relatively safe and extraordinarily different, take time to simply walk around. Visit grocery stores and see what people eat. Smell the cooking aromas at dinner time. Walk through a typical neighborhood and see how people live. Listen to the children playing. Everyday life is quite different than it is elsewhere, and may mean more than seeing some old temple.