Japan Travel 101

Things to Know Before You Go

For my first subscribers-only issue, I’m going to zoom out a little and talk about some tips for either new travelers to Japan or for persons traveling to Japan after a long while. This information is based on my own recent experience in Japan—Hiro and I were lucky to travel there from March 19th through April 9th, 2023—so it’s fresh.

This coaster from one of the restaurants we visited makes me smile every time.

Before You Leave

I’m going to start with the assumption that you have plane tickets and hotel reservations already. But if you don’t, I can recommend both JAL and ANA for flights to and from Japan, and we used booking.com for most of our hotel reservations. (My husband is Japanese and I speak Japanese fluently, and that lets us research and find smaller places for special getaways, but if you’re interested in learning more about hot spring inns, I’ll be covering that in a later issue.)

Even with the information I’m sharing, I recommend you read a travel guide. Lonely Planet has a great guide to Tōkyō, for example, and because it is updated frequently, you can rely on data in the latest edition as being nearly always accurate. Restaurants and shops can come and go but such occurrences are rare in my experience, especially now that the pandemic restrictions are easing.

The other thing I highly recommend is an online stop at Visit Japan Web. Register for an account there and follow all the steps to create QR codes and other images for your cellphone that will let you move much more quickly through the two phases of Japan’s entry process: immigration and customs. With one account, you can file all the paperwork needed for everyone on your trip (as long as you are members of a family group—and I had no problem filing for both Hiro, my husband, and myself even though Japan has not *yet* formalized recognition for marriage equality).

The main graphic from the Visit Japan Web site, indicating how and where you can use this system.

Note on quarantine: Japan no longer requires vaccination documents from (most) travelers, including all travelers from North America.

For immigration and customs, you can use Visit Japan Web to complete all the usual questions: arriving flight information, where you’re staying in Japan, for how long, etc. For each of these processes, you are issued a QR code which you can then scan at immigration, and a QR code for customs as well. Doing so makes the entry process much faster and easier.

One note: if you’re planning on renting a car in Japan (and I will go into more details in a later issue), ask to have your passport stamped with an entry visa. Rental car companies require this. They also require an International Driver’s Permit, which you can get at AAA locations across the United States (and the CAA issues them in Canada as well).

What to Bring

Aside from the usual toiletries, I recommend printing out the prescriptions for any medication you might need to bring. I’ve never been asked at entry for such documentation, but I am aware of cases where it has happened. I also recommend bringing extra of any painkillers you happen to take. Hiro and I both did a LOT of walking in Japan and having spare sodium naproxen to go around helped.

If you are lactose-intolerant, PLEASE remember to bring your lactase. I forgot mine, and pharmacists looked at me (and at Hiro) like we had four heads.

I mentioned the walking above and that reminds me: bring comfortable shoes that you are very well used to wearing. Blisters happen, but don’t pack adhesive bandages. There is a Japanese brand, CareLeaves, that is far superior to anything I’ve used in the US. They stay on even under your socks.

From now on, these are my favorite adhesive bandages. I stocked up before leaving Japan.

I also recommend packing an extra, empty bag, just for souvenirs. Hiro and I are probably not ordinary in this regard, but we each filled bags with just souvenirs (mostly Japanese snacks, treats or cooking ingredients that are either not available or else exorbitantly expensive here).

The blue bag at left was Hiro’s souvenir bag. We also filled the box and mailed it (six kilos, 19,000 yen for express delivery (USD170)), because it was easier than finding a third souvenir bag to check at the airport. Why so much? My mother-in-law and brother-in-law had saved up a ton of food items that they knew Hiro (and I) would love.

Should you bring traveler’s cheques? That depends. I checked with my bank and found that it would be easy to withdraw yen in Japan using my existing debit card. Japanese convenience stores, especially Seven Eleven, have great ATMs for this purpose (and they are everywhere). At the end of the withdrawal, however, they will ask if you want the transaction to be charged in yen or dollars. Choose yen. The exchange rate from your bank will likely be more favorable.

When You Arrive

Regardless of whether you have a rail pass, (and I discussed the pros and cons of rail passes briefly in this issue), I recommend downloading the Suica app (and you can only download it from within Japan). Suica is a form of electronic money that you can add to the wallet on your cellphone. When using it on my iPhone, I was able to reload the Suica directly from my bank accounts.

Mt Suica card with the amount of money left on it at the end of the trip.

What can you use a Suica for? You can board trains, subways, and most buses with it. You can buy things at convenience stores with it. Some department stores and even vending machines will accept it too.

Suica is predominantly used in the Tōkyō area, but we had no problems using it everywhere in Japan. There are similar systems in use for other regions like Pasmo and ICOCA, but Suica was all we needed.

You can also use Suica to pay for taxi rides. Most taxis now accept a bewildering array of payment options (in addition to cash, of course). One note about taxis: the driver will automatically open (and close) the passenger door for you. More and more taxi companies are now using boxier vehicles (although the older sedans are still common), and they have better legroom, headroom, and more comfortable seats. There is a video screen playing commercials, but the off button is plainly visible. One commercial for SKY internet security was one too many and I quickly learned to silence the screens. Besides, you’ll have far more fun looking our the windows.

When did we use taxis? Both Apple Maps and Google Maps are really good at finding public transit routes, but they also tell you how much walking is involved. I have long loved taxi rides in Japan, and when my feet started aching after all the walking we did, I found myself gravitating to taxis. The most expensive cab ride we took was probably from Shibuya—we were exhausted after shopping there—to our hotel in Sugamo. Even with little nighttime traffic and a driver who knew every shortcut, it was close to 7,000 yen, around USD55. Most of our other rides were less than USD20.

I snapped a photo of the taxi screen to demonstrate the different types of payment options. And yes, do not board the taxi without any cash whatsoever. Sometimes cards don’t go through, although we rarely had problems using Apple Pay. Appropriately, the subtitle under the woman in the ad on the screen reads: It’s that we want you to come! And Japan indeed wants tourists back.

One More Thing

It can be a challenge to stay hydrated when traveling in Japan. Restaurants do serve water, of course, but in small glasses. Bottled water is available at convenience stores and vending machines—my favorite brand is Ilohas—but few Japanese people eat and drink in public. I was willing to risk glares from my husband, who reverts to a more Japanese persona when back home, to drink water on the regular rail lines, but the only time he drank on a train was when we were on the bullet train or a super express line. Some touristy areas will have places where you can stop to eat and drink, and parks are a good option too. You might need to spend a little time looking for a place to get rid of your trash. You can usually find a bin for empty drink bottles near drink vending machines, and most convenience stores have trash bins too.

Questions?

The one thing I love more than being in Japan itself is talking to people about Japan, so if you have questions, let me know.

Bonus Information

I am sharing a list of places we either visited or wanted to visit in Tōkyō this past trip. Most of the websites will appear in Japanese but if you look carefully (usually at the top right of the page) there are sometimes options to see the content in English. Hiro and I were very big on shrines and temples this trip (more on that in a later issue), but there is a wide variety of attractions. Tōkyō itself is officially classified as a Metropolitan District, not a city, and although I prefer to call the twenty-three local government entities at the heart of Tōkyō wards, sometime in the past twenty-five years, a shift occurred and they now refer to themselves as cities. I sorted our attractions by city, but if you download the attached spreadsheet, you can sort it however you please. Oh, and I have recommendations for queer destinations, but I’ll save them for another issue.

One final image from our last trip. This stele includes an inscription with the Buddha’s name and well-worn monkeys who speak no evil, hear no evil, and see no evil. It’s dated to the 27th day of March, 1669.