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33 Travel Tips

Kevin Kelly, is known for being great at many things, travel being one of them. His recent list of travel tips has been going around the internet at breakneck speed lately. 

Inspired by that post, here are 33 travel tips I’ve compiled. I did my best to have them not overlap with Kevin’s tips and to focus more specifically on Japan.

33 Travel Tips for Japan:

1. Search for restaurants in Japanese instead of English (or your native language). This will yield far better results. See Finding Great Restaurants.

2. Have a sealable plastic bag for trash, or at least a plastic bag for trash. You won’t find many public trash cans in Japan and you’ll get sick of holding trash in your hands while you explore the city (or country). See this post about gomi (trash).
   

3. Stay off the main streets when choosing where to eat. This may seem obvious, but it’s shocking how many people don’t do this, and the times I skip this guideline I usually regret it. Many restaurants on main streets are for tourists and locals who are in too much of a hurry to care how good the food is. It probably won’t be bad (this is Japan after all), but it’s unlikely to be the best or most unique, and it usually costs more (especially near tourist areas). Make this a rule and you will eat better than you imagined and meet more interesting people, who may also be more interested in you.
   

4. Get an eSim. For such a technologically advanced country, Japan has shockingly scarce free WIFI. They’ve been working on it, and it’s gradually improving. Airalo is the eSim I use.
   

5. Learn “sumimasen” and/or “suimasen”. They both mean “Excuse me,” and it’s how you call someone over to take your order in a Japanese pub/izakaya/restaurant. For that reason, it’s vital to know and get comfortable saying it fairly loud. Better yet, learn 20 phrases of Japanese. I will provide a list of 20 phrases I find useful in an upcoming newsletter.
   

6. Learn the Japanese way to tip in an izakaya.

7. Become a temporary regular. Go back to specific neighborhoods, yokochos, and cafes/bars/izakayas/restaurants on repeat. That’s how people get to know you. You’ll be remembered and may make friends with owners, staff, and regulars and they’ll give you tips on where else to go. This is how I get most of my recommendations of where to go eat.
   

8. Have your luggage shipped ahead using a Takkyubin service (TA-Q-BIN). You can have your bags sent from the airport to your hotel or from one hotel to the next hotel and avoid the hassle of dragging them from place to place. It’s how Japanese travelers do it, and it’s wonderful to be free of your bags, and then to just have them show up where you need them.
   

9. Carry a small hand towel or handkerchief at all times. That’s what Japanese people do. Most public restrooms don’t have paper towels to dry your hands. You can also make sure to take the small Kleenex packets handed out by people near train stations. They’re free. It’s a form of advertising. They come in handy.
   

10. Go to Hasegawa Liquors in Tokyo Station to inexpensively sample local Japanese whisky, gin, or even scotch from Scotland before you decide which to bring home for yourself or your lucky friend back home who loves whisky/gin/scotch. You can taste up to three different drinks per visit for a small fee. It’s not a bar, it’s a service to help you make a good decision with your alcohol purchase. And, it’s fun.
    

11. Always take a few business cards from the front desk of your hotel that have the hotel’s address and phone number. These are incredibly useful if you get lost, but even more, they are perfect for showing to your taxi driver to get you back to the hotel after a long day. Especially if you aren’t staying at one of the more famous hotels.
    

12. Hire a local tour guide early in your trip to take you on a tour of one of the yokochos. Harmonica Yokocho in Kichijoji would be my top pick. Ask them to take you to places that don’t necessarily cater to tourists. Japan is a country that is built on relationships and introductions. You can now return to your favorite spots from this tour and become a temporary regular (tip #7).
    

13. Bring easily packable items to give as gifts for people you connect with or people who go out of their way to help you. Japan has a deep tradition of gift giving (omiyage), and these gifts will hold more meaning to Japanese people than they might to you. This small practice will greatly improve how you are received and can also help with becoming a temporary regular. Candy/chocolates of where you’re from (especially if they are unique), individually wrapped small snacks/treats, and Trader Joe’s bags are incredibly popular in Japan. Maybe skip the keychains and fridge magnets.
    

14. Don’t wear a lot of perfume, cologne, or overly strong deodorant/body spray, especially to fancy restaurants, small sushi places, and small izakayas. Japanese people are highly sensitive to smell and can find the overt use of fragrances off-putting. You may even be denied entrance and that would be unfortunate.
    

15. Always look above and below the ground level of office buildings to find more food and drink options. Japanese office buildings contain multitudes, whole cities even.
    

16. Go to the restaurants on the top floors of malls. They are almost invariably good and are where locals eat. They are not exclusively on the top floor, but that’s where they often are.
    

17. A Suica card is an easy way to avoid calculating (or guessing) how much you need to pay each time you take a train. It will smooth your travels. You can also download the Suica mobile app on your phone, add funds to it, and use it at train stations, subway stations, buses, and convenience stores. I prefer the card because I don’t want to constantly get my phone out.
    

18. Use native Japanese apps/websites to look for food. Tabelog and Gurunavi are both good.
    

19. At conveyor belt sushi, order from the chef to get fresh nigiri instead of waiting for them to hopefully put your desired item on the belt or taking pre-plated items that have been there for who knows how long. Don’t be intimidated, a simple “Sumimasen (name of sushi) kudasai” will do the trick. Watch how the locals do it and copy them.
    

20. Carry cash. More and more places in Japan are accepting credit cards and/or other forms of electronic payment, however, it can be hard to tell which places will accept a credit card and which won’t (look for stickers on the door or near the counter/register area). You can be guaranteed that many smaller places (the kind I recommend you go to as much as possible), are least likely to take credit. So, to be safe, have cash on hand. Cash is still king in Japan.

21. Get some cash from the ATM at the airport. You’ll get the best conversion rate from an ATM as opposed to a bank exchange or money exchange place or getting it from your home country.

22. You’ll be getting large denominations from ATMs. Don’t put the burden of breaking them on small business owners; break them at convenience stores (konbini). The staff doesn’t care, and they are always stocked with all denominations of bills. 
    

23. Use coins at convenience stores. It’s annoying to have tons of coins, which you will have soon enough as 1 yen, 5 yen, 10 yen, 50 yen, 100 yen, and 500 yen all come in coin form. Convenience stores make them easy to unload. A coin purse can be useful as well, so you don’t have a bunch of coins in your pocket. Hands, Loft, and many other stores will have them.
    

24. Download the full Japanese dictionary on your preferred translation app so you can use it offline. This way, you don’t waste precious wireless data for this purpose.
    

25. Avoid the trains during the morning rush hour. Especially if you have even a bit of claustrophobia.
    

26. Don’t open or shut taxi doors. They open and close automatically and are controlled by the driver. They will open and close them for you.
    

27. Take at least one day trip out of the city. You could live your entire life in Tokyo/Osaka/Kyoto and not run out of things to do, but spending even 24 hours in a small town will completely change your experience of Japan.

28. If you see more than 1 or 2 foreigners in a restaurant, other than a chain like McDonald’s or Torikizoku (which you are specifically choosing to eat at), go eat somewhere else.

29. Leave time in your schedule and have the openness to embrace serendipitous occasions. You never know when someone will invite you to a party, or to go bar hopping, or to sing karaoke, etc. (All these things have happened to me while out and about).

30. You do you. Make your trip personal. Of course popular attractions are popular for a reason, but it doesn’t mean you have to go for that reason. Design your itinerary around your interests. You’ll find that in Japan people go deep into their hobbies, so there will be shops, bars, and clubs (as in groups of people) who are super into whatever you could possibly be into. Go to these places. If you’re into hiking, join a hiking group, if you love manga and anime, go to Electric Town and Nakano Broadway a bunch of times, if you’re all about Disney, get a hotel near DisneyLand and DisneySea and go as much as you like, etc.

31. Have a plan for the mornings. Most malls, shops (including many of the best coffee shops), restaurants, and other things one may be accustomed to doing in the morning, don’t open until 10 or 11 AM in Japan. Here are a few suggestions of what to do.

32. Take a taxi when it makes sense. Yes, They’re more expensive than the trains, but the value of convenience, saving time, not getting lost, getting to space out and rest your legs, not having to lug your arm-fulls of shopping bags (or luggage), not making your parents weave through the crowds of Shinjuku or Shibuya with their suitcases, are all great reasons to allow yourself to take a taxi once in a while. The cost is minor compared to what you’ve already paid for flights, hotels, etc.

33. Go to a fireworks festival if at all possible. They are amazing in Japan.

Solo Dining 

It may feel strange to go out for a solo meal in the country you're from, but that’s not the case in Japan. Japan has mastered making solo dining a normal occurrence.

With most restaurants providing counter seating or counter space if it’s a standing bar/restaurant, Japan is easy for solo diners to navigate. It’s nice to go to small places like izakayas by yourself, as you are more likely to interact with other patrons.

Solo diners are welcome in most Japanese restaurants, and you will not feel out of place.

Some shops cater to solo diners. Ichiran ramen comes to mind as they have counter seats with partitions separating you from other diners. Every seat is its own private booth. The whole point is to focus on the ramen, not conversation or anything else.

I tend to choose these types of restaurants when I’m tired and don’t want to answer a bunch of questions about where I’m from, how long I’ve been in Japan, whether I can eat natto, and other common questions you frequently get asked in Japan. 

I don’t mind these questions in general. I just don’t want them when my brain is tired. 

Tokyo Metro Ginza Line

I’ve written about the Chuo Line and how many amazing neighborhoods are on it; this time, I want to mention a few reasons the Ginza Line is so great.

Ginza Line stations are much shallower than many newer, deeper subway lines making them easier to navigate. They have fewer stairs/escalators to take for people with luggage, kids, or mobility issues, making it a faster, easier, and more efficient route to the platform. Also, at peak hours, trains run every 2 minutes on the Ginza Line, so you don’t have to wait long for the next train.

The Tokyo Metro Ginza Line connects plenty of areas you are likely to visit: Shibuya, Omotesando, Ginza, Ueno, and Asakusa to name a few.

There are also some lesser-known hidden gems along the Ginza line. 

Kanda has tons of izakayas and restaurants right along the train tracks and it is not full of tourists. There are many used bookstores in Kanda as well. 

Tawaramachi Station is the closest station to the famous Kappabashi dori (Kitchen Street) shopping area.

Finding a hotel near the Ginza Line and using it instead of primarily relying on the Yamanote Line can save you time. I’ve enjoyed staying in Kanda before as it is centrally located and has access to the Ginza Line. Of course, you could also stay in any of the more famous areas along the Ginza Line like Ginza, Shibuya, Ueno, or Asakusa. Just being aware of the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line will give you more options for getting around.

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