Guides
Japan, in practice
Five short guides, checked against official Japanese sources: sending your suitcases, the onsen bath, manners, the phrases worth knowing and everyday life. They read well on a phone, and offline inside the notebook.
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Practical: what you need every day
The useful moves of a trip to Japan: arriving and clearing customs, paying and claiming tax-free shopping, getting around by train and taxi, staying connected, reacting in an emergency, and daily life between konbini, toilets, rubbish and weather.
- An IC card (Suica, PASMO, ICOCA), on your phone or as a plastic card: it pays for trains, buses, konbini and vending machines.
- Bank cards work in most places, but keep some cash: small restaurants, clinics and country taxis sometimes take cash only.
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The phrases worth knowing
Polite Japanese phrases sorted by situation: greetings, restaurant, transport, hotel, shopping, onsen, luggage, taxi, health. Each one in Japanese, in romaji and in English, with pronunciation tips and a list of useful words.
- Two words carry you almost everywhere: すみません (sumimasen, excuse me) to approach someone, ありがとうございます (arigatō gozaimasu) to thank them.
- Show the Japanese sentence on your screen: it is safer than saying it, and nobody minds.
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Japanese manners, the essentials
When to take your shoes off, how to behave on the train, in the street, at a restaurant and in Gion, how to pray at a shrine and at a temple, and how to thank people without leaving a tip.
- The principle behind everything: do not bother other people (迷惑, meiwaku). When in doubt, watch what people around you do and do the same.
- Take your shoes off as soon as a step, a shoe locker or a pair of slippers is waiting at the entrance.
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Sending your suitcases (takkyūbin)
Sending a suitcase on to your next lodging or to the airport: where to drop it off, how to have it held when your lodging cannot take parcels, how to fill in the waybill, what it costs and how long it takes.
- 宅急便 (takkyūbin), Yamato's parcel service, takes your suitcase to your next lodging or to the airport in 1 or 2 days.
- Three drop-off points: your hotel's front desk, a Yamato office (up to 200 cm and 30 kg) or a Seven-Eleven or FamilyMart konbini (up to 160 cm and 25 kg).
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The onsen bath, step by step
Finding the right entrance, washing and then bathing properly in an onsen, a sentō or a ryokan, knowing when to skip the bath for health reasons, and what to do if you have a tattoo.
- You wash fully at a shower station before entering the pool: the bath is for relaxing, not for washing.
- Read the kanji on the curtain, not its colour: 男 for men, 女 for women. In a ryokan the two baths are sometimes swapped between evening and morning.
These guides apply to any trip to Japan: they hold no personal information and are the same for every traveller.