Your Ultimate JAPAN Travel Guide: Unforgettable Osaka, Nara, Kyoto & Tokyo

We spent 7 days exploring Japan and its different regions including Tokyo, Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, and Mount Fuji! We were shocked by some of the differences in culture and we’re giving you the top 29 things to know before you go to Japan as an American so you can have a smooth and budget-friendly journey!

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0:00 Intro to Japan
0:30 Best Time to Visit Japan
1:44 Japan International Airports

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What’s up explorers welcome back to our Channel we’re the choose here from choose to explore where we teach you guys how to see the world and save a dollar so we just came from an amazing bucket list trip to none other than Japan and throughout our seven days we

Visited so many different regions we went through Tokyo Mount Fuji Nara Osaka and kiyoto so in this video we’re going to give you our top 29 tips that you need to know before you go to Japan so stay tuned you don’t want to miss this one okay so the first thing we’re going

To get into is when’s the best time to visit Japan so the first thing you need to know about that is that Japan experiences all four seasons there’s summer winter spring and fall and depending on what your interest are that will really dictate when the best time

For you to go to Japan so the most popular time to visit Japan is definitely during Sakura season or the cherry blossom season now this season changes slightly year to year depending on the environmental conditions but it’s typically somewhere in the end of March early April for about 2 weeks so in the

Summertime it’s actually a lot more hot and more humid in Japan and there’s also risk for heavier rains during that time so keep that in mind so we actually visited in the fall which has cooler temperatures in the summer and is also less humid and also even though there’s

No cherry blossom season during that time the beautiful leaves were different color orange and red and that was really nice to see too definitely an amazing time for a beautiful Fall Foliage and lastly there is winter and typically in Japan it is cold you will see snow

Sometimes times um bring a winter code and be ready to be bundled up and one thing to note is that Japan is very popular to visit all throughout the year and one thing that we did notice throughout our journey in Japan is there was a lot of people everywhere that we

Went so now we’re going to go over where should you fly into when you’re headed to Japan so there are two main international airports that are near Tokyo and that’s Hana as well as Narita so Hana is going to be closer to the city center only being about 9 miles

South of the city and and using the Kuku line I think that’s how it’s called we took the train and took us to the city center in about 30 minutes or so so while we were doing our flight searches we also found flights to Narita Airport and those were sometimes cheaper than

Flying into Hana airport however Narita Airport is also a bit further so you would have to factor in the cost of public transportation so the Narita Airport is about 37 Mi east of the city center so it is a bit further away but there are two main lines you can use to

Get from the airport to the city center so the first one being the Narita Express so this is a dedicated train service that connects the Narita Airport to Major Tokyo stations like Shinjuku shabuya but this one takes around 60 to 90 minutes also they have the KC

Skyliner and this is an Express train service that connects the Narita Airport to the uo station and this is approximately 40 to 50 minutes in order to get there so next up we’re going to go over the entry requirements as an American so entering Japan as an American was easy and really convenient

First being that you did not need any visa requirements in order to enter the only thing that we needed to do prior is to fill out an online form and have a QR code presented on the time of our arrival we have a link to that form in

The description below so the next thing I’m going to talk about two things that typically don’t go well together and that is big cities and safety so while Tokyo is the most populated city in the world Japan is one of the safest countries in the world as well and you

Should always be prepared and knowing the emergency number of the country that you’re visiting so it’s not going to be 911 if something goes on it’s going to be 110 in Japan and you should always be prepared with travel insurance cuz you never know if something goes wrong and

We personally use safety Wing it’s usually a little over a dollar a day for coverage for whenever we’re abroad per person so we definitely recommend that and you can see that Linked In Our description as well but overall throughout our whole experience in Japan we had an amazing time and day and night

We never felt unsafe so in Japan the currency that they use is called the Yen and right now as an American it’s an amazing time to go and visit because the US dollar is strong in Japan at the time of this video recording is just under

150 Yen per1 us so see the world save a dollar your money goes really far here in Japan so Japan is a very modern country and throughout our experience in Japan we predominantly use our credit card for most of our purchases and transactions however we did find that a

Few more local spots were cash only and these are going to be like the street food vendors the local store or even some different vendors at shrines and things like that yes so have your Japanese Yen prepared our next tip will save you on foreign transaction

Fees while you’re in Japan so as we just talked about there are some places where having cash will be more convenient and exchanging a US dollar to the Japanese Yen may give you a bad return on your money so one alternative to that would be going straight to the ATM so we

Typically use the Charles swab debit card and this allows us to get reimbursed on ATM fees as well as paying no foreign transaction fees on our debit card but one thing to note and this is a pro- chew tip to always deny the conversion and you’ll save money by

Denying the conversion because you’ll actually take your money out as Japanese Yen when you select the conversion what it’s doing is it’s taking your money out as US Dollars and then it’s converting it into Japanese Yen and somewhere along the lines some money gets lost I don’t

Know where it goes but it’s not in your account anymore so next we’re going to talk about the pasmo card which looks like this so at the air report we got the pasmo card cuz we thought it would be like the metro card here in New York

City but what we realize is that a pasmo card is much more than just a metro card such as shopping vending machines storage lockers and we just found so many uses for it during our trip so I highly recommend having this one as well so the next point is one of the best

Things coming to Japan as a tourist and that is taxfree shopping so as you’re shopping throughout Japan there are two different prices that could be displayed one is going to include tax and one does not so obviously viously the one that does not include tax is going to be a

Lower price but if you do see those prices just be sure to ask the sales associate what they mean also if you are paying taxes be sure to keep all your receipts because at the end of the trip when you are at the airport you can find

The vat tax refund place where you can get some of that tax money back to you also I do want to note that some shops in particular I remember in uniglow that they had different spending requirements in order to get the taxfree shopping so I think it was something like spend $40

And you don’t pay taxes but if you don’t meet that minimum spend then you are going to pay taxes and our next point will save you money especially if you’re coming from America where there is a strong tipping culture and that is Japan does not have a tipping culture so you

Really shouldn’t tip when you’re in Japan because they may actually take offense to that so this is really surprising coming from America because we typically tip 18 to 22% to everybody so not being required to tip definitely saved us a lot of money here in Japan

Now let’s get into where you going to stay when you visit Japan so I was do my research on Tokyo and especially a lot of people recommend to stay in two different areas and that is Shinjuku and Harajuku which are both great places to stay but they can be a little bit more

Expensive so if you’re looking to save some money it may not be the most ideal spot for you these areas will also be the most populated areas inside your trip in Japan so we actually stayed in Tao city which is a little bit outside of these very populated areas but the

Key is to stay nearby a train station so it was very easy for us to get from point A to point B and get to everywhere that we needed to go the trains are very well connected and if you’re looking for some of the best recommendations on

Where to stay for any budget check out our explore Japan travel guide which is linked in the description below so the next thing we’re going to talk about are storage lockers here in Japan so one of the most convenient things about Japan are having these storage lockers all

Over the city I’m talking about just on the street I’m talking about in bus stations Universal Studios Disney World almost anywhere where you could think about it they have storage lockers there in Japan and this was especially convenient for us because a lot of the places that we stayed had late check-ins

And early checkouts so what do we do with our bags in the meantime the storage lockers so they have all different storage lockers in different shapes and sizes and each one of them have different prices as well and also it was very simple to pay for them using

Our pasmo card if not please have some Japanese yen in order to pay for these as well and now we’re going to circle back to the great public transportation in Japan so traveling through Japan was really easy for us one of the easiest we’ve ever been to in the world because

Of without easy it was to navigate their buses and their trains syst so during our entire experience in Japan we were able to navigate the country using only public transportation we did not take one taxi throughout the entire trip and this brings us right to our next point

There are no grabs or Ubers in Japan there are taxis that you can take but they will be a lot more expensive than taking public transportation the next thing we’re going to talk about is the Japan Rail Pass the Jr pass so I read a lot of articles about Transportation

Throughout Japan and almost everybody recommends the Jr pass but what I would say about our experience through Japan is we saved a lot of money by not doing the Jr pass so where the Jr pass definitely will save you money is if doing the bullet train is on your bucket

List so where the Jr pass will save you money is if the bullet train is on your bucket list I mean going into this trip I even watched the bullet train movie and I was mesmorized by the bullet trains because they’re moving so fast but they are significantly more

Expensive than any other modes of transportation in Japan so we used a combination of day passes online passes our pasmo card and we saved a tremendous amount on Transportation if you want more details on how you can save with Transportation throughout Japan check out our explore Japan travel guide

Linked In the description below so our next point is something that really surprised the both of us because when you think of domestic travel within the United States you might think expensive but domestic flights in Japan are significantly cheaper we we did a quick search and we found flights for like $

20 to $50 and they’re super quick as well so if you do have a really tight itinerary and you do want to save some money and you want to get there faster than a bullet train you can take a flight in Japan so what I recommend

Before you even get to Japan is to download the offline maps and Google Maps this will allow you to have a copy of the map to use even when you do not have service throughout Japan and it was super convenient to use Google Maps throughout our time especially in Japan

Each train station has a Japanese name its English name and the station number is well in Google Maps it even tells you what platform to get off of the times that you’ll get there it was just really incredible really easy to use so I definitely recommend using Google Maps

Throughout navigating Japan so while we did say we did not find it necessary to drive throughout Japan because of the great public transportation if you do have plans to drive in Japan you definitely need an international driving permit what we found is through AAA you can get an international driving permit

For $25 before you enter Japan also I know what’s a very popular tourist attraction is to do the Mario Karts throughout Tokyo and other cities but in order to do those you actually need to have an international driving permit as well I had a good amount of friends who

Booked this excursion and later found out that since they did not have an international driving permit they were not allowed to do the Mario carting but not just that our next point is that they drive on the opposite side in Japan as well well if you are an American so

Our next point is the biggest culture shock not only as an American but also as a New Yorker and that is how orderly people are here in Japan so if you know anything about public transportation especially in New York you know you got to be there like 10 15 minutes before

And be prepared to wait about 30 minutes after the time schedule because it’s all up to the driver’s discretion now in Japan in Japan they come on the minute matter of fact they come on the second as soon as it says 7:30 they are there at 7:38 so be at that bus

Stop all time cuz they will be there also was so different than in New York is that people line up in their designated lines in spaces before the train even comes so as a foreigner you look crazy just walking right up to the gate and being able to just walk on you

Literally have to wait on the sides for the people to come out through the middle you wait on the side in orderly fashion and once they go you can enter through the middle file in ACC course so amazing to see because I never would imagine this in New York the next part

Is how nobody Jay Walks Like It would be like 3:00 in the morning Liv and I are out there’s nobody on the road it has a stop walking sign like everybody in New York is crossing the street if nobody’s out but literally if it is not green

With a person walking on the sign nobody will walk at any hour of any day I understand that that’s what you’re supposed to do but I’ve never seen that before so even though Japan is the most populated city in the world you’re outside and there’s no noise there’s

Crowds but there is no noise so everybody’s respectful of the other person and nobody’s yelling at each other nobody’s on their phones it’s just a great thing to be around Japanese culture yes nobody wants to hear your phone conversation on the bus or the train anywhere nobody got a big boom box

On their shoulder there’s it it’s amazing and also really cool thing was whenever he goes to the restaurant there’s usually a spot on the side of the table to hang your bag not just that sometimes they had a dedicated like tray on the side of the table where you can

Put it in so nobody’s bag is on the floor also whenever you’re doing a transaction the money is not to be placed in the person’s hands ultimately you’re going to be placing it in a tray sliding it to them and then they’ll take it off of the tray you’re not going to

Place money in somebody else’s hands and Not only was Japan extremely orderly Japan is Extreme extremely clean so I know a lot of people find clean as a basic standard but we’re from New York so every time I go somewhere and it’s clean I’m Blown Away by it I’m impressed

Because how is such a big city so clean like why can’t New York do the thing but honestly Japan is beyond clean it is spotless if I drop something on the floor I just might eat it in Japan so if you’re out in the public you will notice

That nobody eats when they’re out and especially nobody eats while they’re walking and in public transportation yes it’s not even allowed like you cannot do that something that also is unique is that there are no trash cans out in the street so if you have garbage you

Literally have to hold your garbage and go from one place to the next also when you enter different establishments they may ask you to take off your shoes and in many places they actually give you a pair of slippers to put on while you’re in Japan so of course we can’t not

Mention the Beday in Japan so we actually have Beday here at home but the Beday in Japan are on a different level they are different so so the Beday in Japan are heated they play music they do flushing sounds they do everything that you could imagine and more I think I may

Have to go to Japan again and bring a bedet back home and our next point is about eating in Japan in particular the amazing Cuisine here in Japan and we had some amazing dining experience throughout our time in Japan and if you don’t want to take our word from it

Japan has the most Michelin starred restaurants out of any country in the world so the one thing of note is that a lot of things in Japan are meat and pork based so for me I’m basically a vegetarian so it was a little bit tougher for me to find certain foods

While I was in Japan but they did exist there were some vegetarian and vegan options and we have those included in our explore Japan travel guide linked below one thing that also was surprising to me in Japan is the combinations between Foods so there were a lot of

Unorthodox things that didn’t sound good on paper but I’m an adventurous eater and I tried them and a lot of the things let me tell you went very well together in Japan so they got something going on that I wasn’t thinking about but I’m happy that they

Got it so one example I had a pulled pork and deved egg sandwich that I ate almost every single morning I got it just because it was such an interesting mix and it was so good I had it almost every single morning in Japan in America

I know I got to get live her coffee preferably by 9:00 in the morning before before that but in Japan a lot of cafes don’t open till like 11: or 12:00 so it is going to be a little bit more difficult to get your morning coffee

There in Japan unless you’re going to a convenience store which is open at all hours of the day so convenience stores in Japan are different than any other place that I’ve ever been to In My Life 7-Eleven Japan is not like 7-Eleven in New York they have so many different

Food options and you can get a real full-blown meal and it’s inexpensive as well being that I didn’t speak or read Japanese it was great because I just handed the package to the store clerk and they did everything for me in terms of the heating and the cooking of the

Items but for me I was really big on checking all the ingredients before I bought something in the convenience store so basically I just used the translate app on my phone and I took a picture and it would just translate everything straight from Japanese to English and I could read the packages

Perfectly fine so any sneaky beef or pork ingredient I was like I can’t take it but they would let me know what that at so the next thing that was really cool about Japan is that you can order using a kiosk and there are many reasons why ordering through a kiosk is very

Beneficial number one being that the kiosk will be in English so I don’t have to translate anything this way you know exactly what you’re ordering number two if your social battery is low you don’t have to talk to anybody you just go to the kiosk and you order and number three

A lot of times you can just pay at the kiosk as well and this is super convenient because you literally just pay grab your receipt sit down and the food will come to you yes so sometimes the food will come to you or there’ll be a screen that will tell you your ticket

Number you just go up to the counter and grab your food and it’s perfect so our next point is about reservations in Japan so as we said numerous times throughout this video Japan is the most populated city in the world so being that it’s so populated and so many

Tourists come to visit things can get very busy so there are many different activities that are bucket list for a lot of different people and you have to pick and choose what is important to you the ones that you really want to do you have to book weeks if not months in

Advance in Japan and I’ll give you an example of some of these things that sell out pretty quickly the Mario carting the shabuya sky Pokemon cafes all of these things are going to be super difficult just to walk in and enter without a reservation also a lot of places especially restaurants are

Going to have long wait times now what we’ve realized with our time in Japan is that Japan has amazing food so I’d recommend if you’re waiting hours for resta restaurant just go to another restaurant because there’s so many great places you can eat and you do not need

To wait 2 hours to eat anywhere and our next point is something that was super convenient for us as Americans is that in Japan they use Us outlets so while we always pack our Universal travel is after it was really convenient that we could just plug in our Electronics right

Into the wall because they use the US outlet and our next point is a major money-saving tip especially if you have kids or you want to live out your childhood fantasies here in Japan and this is theme parks in Japan are significantly cheaper than they are in

The United States so during our time in Osaka we actually visited the Universal Studios and in Florida it’s like $150 and more to enter Universal Studios but in Japan we did it each for under $60 per person and we got to experience the Super Nintendo Mario World and it

Was amazing experience also Disneyland is so much cheaper here than it is in Florida or in Los Angeles and they even have the Disney sea which is a unique Park as well last tip that we have is that there’s way more to Japan than just visiting Tokyo so Tokyo is the capital

City and we spent the most time in Tokyo as well but to be honest with you guys my favorite city was outside of Tokyo it was actually in Kyoto and this is what I envisioned Japan to be we also had unique experiences in Mount Fuji feeding

Deer in Nara bowing with them we visited at Osaka and went on our first ferris wheel and did a river cruise and there’s still so much that we did not visit that we have to come back to Japan to do next time so stay tuned because we have a

Whole lot of Japan content coming in the next few weeks so thank you guys so much for checking out our video we truly appreciate you guys especially if you made it all the way to the end cuz you could be anywhere in the world but you’re sitting down watching this video

With us so thank you guys please be sure to like comment and subscribe and we’ll see you guys on the next one I