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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/DizzyEwok on 2024-04-07 14:05:39.

We’ve just finished a 17-day trip to Japan and have a bunch of learnings and recommendations that will hopefully help others. We’re definitely not experts, and I’m sure we misinterpreted a few things, but these are the things we’ll be bearing in mind if/when we go back. Worth mentioning that we’re very food-focused travellers!

Prices are quoted in yen (¥) in case the exchange rate fluctuates significantly, but we’ve also included some approximate costs in today’s £. For our trip, ¥1000 = £5.30.

Itinerary summary

We flew directly from London to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, so we lost the first and last days of our trip to the ~14 hour flight. The remaining 15 days included:

• Tokyo (4 days inc. day trip to Kamakura)

• Mount Fuji 5 Lakes Region (3 days)

  • Hakone (2 days, 1 night)
  • Lake Kawaguchiko (2 nights, 1 day)

• Kyoto (4 days inc. day trip to Nara)

• Osaka (3 days)

• Tokyo (1 final day/night before flight)

Overall learnings

Money

• We had read that Japan is still very cash-centric, but ~80% of our purchases were by card (Mastercard and Amex). Cards are accepted at most shops, bars and restaurants, and all convenience stores.

  • The notable exception to this was the Suica card for public transport (see below) which can only be topped up with cash.
  • Many places accepted card but not Google/Apple Pay – you needed the physical card and sometimes you had to sign for it.
  • Tourist attractions (e.g. temples) are often cash only but rarely expensive.
  • There are ATMs in almost all convenience stores, which are abundant, so if you do run out of cash it’s easy to nip out to get some more.

• Generally Japan was less expensive than we’d expected given what we’d heard, though this might be due to the particularly weak yen right now. Some typical prices:

  • Ramen: ¥1200 (~£6)
  • Beer in a restaurant: ¥500-600 (£2.50-3)
  • Glass of sake in a restaurant: ¥400 (£2)
  • Sushi platter for 1 in a sushi restaurant: ¥2500 (£13)
  • Sashimi platter for 2 in an izakaya: ¥2000 (~£10)
  • 1-way subway journey: ¥200 (£1)
  • 1-way train to day-trip destination like Nara: ¥1500 (£8)
  • 1-way standard-class bullet train ticket with reserved seats, e.g. Osaka->Tokyo: ¥15,000 (£80)
  • Coffee: ¥200 (£1) from a convenience store, ¥600 (£3) from a coffee shop, ¥1000 (£5) from a specialist coffee shop
  • Hotels: we spent an average of ~¥20,000 per night (£100) for hotels of a reasonable standard (think 3-4 stars)

Transport

• It’s an absolute must to get an ‘IC card’, Japan’s equivalent of an Oyster card.

  • The dominant brand of IC card is “Suica” in Tokyo. It works all over Japan, across different train/bus companies, even in convenience stores.
  • There are other brands like “Pasmo”, but Suica is the easiest to get hold of as there’s a machine to get a “Welcome Suica” which is valid for 28 days for visitors at Haneda airport.
  • As of right now, you can only get these at the airport. So don’t leave the airport without getting one!
  • Note that you can’t get back unused credit when you leave, so don’t top up much more than you will use.
  • You top up the Suica card with cash (only cash) and then use it to tap in/out of subway lines. It calculates the correct fare for you and deducts it from your balance.
  • Without a Suica, you’ll have to buy paper tickets everywhere. This has the potential to be a nightmare, as the subway system is run by many different companies, which can mean multiple tickets per journey if you’re changing lines.
  • Apparently there is a way to get your Suica on your iPhone and use it via NFC. Potentially this can also be topped up via credit card rather than just cash. But we didn’t try this as only one of us has an iPhone and only Android phones bought in Japan are supported.
  • Every station has machines to ‘charge’ your Suica with cash. If you go on an expensive journey and your balance doesn’t cover it, you won’t be allowed back through the gates, but there are “fare adjustment” machines to recharge there and let yourself out.

• The subway systems in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka were all great.

  • Clear signage in English in all the stations; announcements and digital displays on trains switch between English and Japanese every few seconds.
  • All the stations are numbered as well as named, which makes things extra easy. Sometimes the Japanese names can seem similar to an English-speaker, but if you know you’re going from J-12 to J-16, there’s no room for confusion.
  • They’re all very clean, largely because there is no eating or drinking allowed on any train. They’re also incredibly quiet as phone calls aren’t allowed and people keep talking to a whisper.

• Google Maps worked incredibly well everywhere we went (even for more-remote bus journeys).

  • Although the station signage is clear, the maps are not. It’s much easier to let Google figure it out for you. It will even tell you what exit to use and where to get on the train to reduce your time spent walking down the platform.
  • Sometimes the train will change subway while you’re on it. Google Maps will helpfully say “Remain on board” even though it might not be obvious from the map.
  • Note that some stations are huge, and Google Maps doesn’t always properly account for walking from one platform to another. We didn’t find this to be a problem as the trains are regular enough for it not to matter (e.g. every 6 minutes). It’s something to watch out for when getting the Shinkansen (bullet train).

• The Shinkansen (bullet trains) are awesome. Super punctual, clean and quick.

  • You can check prices and book up to a month in advance at – you get a QR code to pick up your tickets at the station. This was super easy and meant our longer journeys were low-stress as we’d reserved seats. It seems like this was worth it as every train we got was full or close to full.
  • You can pick up tickets you’ve bought online at any major train station. It’s worth doing this in advance of the day you travel in case there’s a queue at the station (they can get long).
  • For one short journey (Kyoto to Osaka) we didn’t reserve tickets because there are trains every ~5 minutes and it’s only a ~15 minute journey. But the queue for the Shinkansen ticket machines was so long, we spent longer queuing than we spent on the train!
  • You can get delicious “ekiben” (bento boxes of food for the train) at the station. Don’t underestimate the quality of these, we had some great sushi for ~¥1000 (£5). Food and drink is allowed on Shinkansen.
  • It didn’t seem like the green car (first class) upgrade was worth it. You get so much legroom in standard class.

Language

• We had heard that the level of English was very low but we were pleasantly surprised by how many people could at least get by speaking English. We were actively seeking out less touristy places and we never had an issue communicating, even when there was no English spoken.

• There are a handful of Japanese phrases that we found incredibly useful:

  • Ari-ga-to gozai-masu: “thank you”
  • This is the polite version of thank you. You don’t pronounce the “u” at the end, it just sounds like “mass”.
  • If you elongate the a to be like “maaaaas” then that seems to indicate more enthusiasm. We never heard anyone say “domo arigato” (thank you very much), so it seems like this elongation is the preference.
  • We were surprised how rarely “arigato” (the casual version) was used.
  • If you don’t bother with anything else, this is the one to learn.
  • Fu-tari desu: “we are two” (again, don’t pronounce the u)
  • This is all you need to get a table at a restaurant as a couple. You’d probably be fine just gesturing the number 2, but it seems a bit more polite to say something as you do it.
  • If you are asked “nan desu ka?” when you walk in that means “how many are you?”, to which this is the correct answer as a couple.
  • Ku-da-sai: “please”
  • To order in a restaurant you just say the name of the thing and then this phrase afterwards. E.g. “bīru kudasai” means “can I have a beer please?”
  • There’s a polite version of ‘please’ which is interchangeable: “onegaishimasu” (maybe just Google how to pronounce that one!)
  • Kā-do de: “pay by card”
  • Unlike in the UK where it’s assumed that you will pay by card, often in Japan you have to explicitly say it or they will wait for you to hand them cash without setting up the card machine.
  • You can make this more polite by saying “kādo de kudasai” which means “I’d like to pay by card please”.
  • The word for cash is “genkin” so if you hear that in a response, it probably means they only take cash. Most people know the phrase “cash only” though, even if they don’t speak much English.

• We used Google Translate’s camera function extensively to translate written Japanese, e.g. when there was no English menu. This works incredibly well, and we had a lot more confidence to visit places with no English (e.g. particularly local restaurants) as a result.

• The couple of times we struggled to communicate what we needed to say, we just used Google translate to generate the Japanese and showed it to the person on our phones. Some Japanese people also did this with us without being prompted.

Food and drink

Food was the thing we were most excited about when planning our trip and it did not disappoint! There is lots to say. We’ve left specific recommendations to the sections below that focus on each…

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