15 Japan Travel Tips for First Time Travelers (What I Wish I Knew)

15 Japan Travel Tips for First Time Travelers (What I Wish I Knew)

15 travel tips to Japan for first time travelers or if it’s not your first time but it’s been a while then these tips are going to help you kind of figure out what’s new in Japan I also have my itineraries down below linked for you if you want to get an idea of what to do when you go to Japan number one getting a digital sua card so I’ve heard that the sua cards are back if you wanted the physical one and you can just tap and go but using your phone is a lot easier because you also are most likely going to use Google Maps or any type of map on your phone it’s nice to just have it in your hand and not be worried about two different things on iPhones it’s called the wallet then we press the plus sign so then you’re going to go to Transit card we’re going to look for the sua card then we click on that and you add the sua card then I’m going to press continue then you’re going to put add whatever amount you want I’d say 5,000 yen which is about $3 is a good place to start and you can always reload I’m just going to put 5,000 and the minimum is 1,000 then you press add agree and then you can use your Apple pay add money to your sua card but basically it’s a little card it works on Transportation Systems and it also works at convenience stores to also pay for your snacks or anything like that the convenience stores also take credit card or cash but it’s just another option to have there’s also the pasmo card but the sua card is just the one that I ended up using now this does not work for the Jr pass so if you’re trying to go from Tokyo to Osaka or tooto that’s a totally different train convenience stores are life and there’s a meme where it’s like oh I spent $11,000 to get to Asia just to eat ramen at a convenience store the food is so much better at 7-Eleven Lawson’s family March the 7-Eleven in the US are so sad and the food is not good but in Asia it is totally different same with Korea same with Taiwan the food is made fresh and I literally saw the 7-Eleven workers making the onigiri in the back all fresh and it’s really well priced too pretty much all my breakfast came from the convenience stares the three most popular cities that a lot of tourists will go to for their first time is Tokyo Kyoto and Osaka now in Japan there is food everywhere literally everywhere for context Tokyo itself just the city of Tokyo has 160,000 restaurants there are about 1.5 million restaurants all throughout Japan which is roughly the same amount as the us as a whole and if you want reviews you can check Google reviews or table log table log is what the Japanese locals like to use in order to review their restaurants and the Japanese are very hard critics so if anything has a three star that means it’s good value and it’s good anything above that is like spectacular while here in America if it’s three stars it’s kind of like I’m not sure how I feel about it so that is a big difference and in Japan the food quality is so good you really can’t go wrong if you see a group of people eating there it’s going to be great so that’s the thing about my last two trips to Japan I pretty much planned all my meals because I feel like if there’s something I have to eat then I want to make sure I hit it but if you go to Japan more than once then you can really just go and eat and you’re going to enjoy pretty much everything you find you are going to walk a lot I walked 30,000 steps that is more than New York Japan requires so much walking you’re going to need comfortable shoes so make sure your shoes are already broken into don’t bring brand new new shoes and expect to be fine cuz my feet were so sore and my friends ended up getting a foot massage because we were walking so much if you feel like that’s going to be a problem of course you can kind of pull back your itinerary and make it a little more chill or increase your stamina by walking a lot before your trip too next you are going to need an external battery pack because if you are out all day you’re using your Maps you’re using your sua card it’s going to drain your battery I feel like when we’re traveling we’re already holding a lot of things with us all day long so you want to maximize space so an option is an ultra Compact and light battery pack and mine Wi-Fi if you are going in a group like you are a family and you know that you’re going to be sticking together all the time I would say get a pocket Wi-Fi it’s just like a traveling Wi-Fi with you everywhere you go and everybody can connect to that Wi-Fi but if you get separated that’s the problem that person who’s off by themselves are not going to have internet if you know that that’s the case then I would get an eim now Now setting up an eim can take some time I have shared in previous videos how to do it so I’ll just give you a quick little run through but basically an eim you’re just setting it up in your phone and once you set it up you don’t have to set it up again you just turn it on and off so I use ubigi aolo is another very popular one it was so fast highly recommend and it’s nice because I literally just turn it on when I land in Asia then I turn it off when I leave I have T-Mobile one where I have global internet everywhere I go these internet AAL Wi-Fi plans are not good you’re going to need a pocket Wi-Fi or an eim to roam around I think Google also has an international wi-fi system I’ve heard that one’s good too but the eims they can range from $10 to $15 it just depends how much data you need because I’m a content creator I’m uploading things all the time so I tend to get the most that I can if you get a pocket Wi-Fi you can have it delivered to your house in the US or wherever you are or you can pick it up at the airport at the post office but the post Office closes around 7:00 p.m. so you just have to make sure your flight gets there before then or you’re going to have to come back and pick it up and then my friend was able to actually mail their pocket Wi-Fi out at the post office in whatever City we were in to return it or you can return it at the airport too which is what I did like I mentioned Tokyo Osaka and Kyo are the three most popular tourist attractions you can stick Nara in there because it’s in between Tokyo and Osaka but it’s all within the same area but there’s so many other places in Japan that’s so beautiful that you can go to too so I went to Hokkaido my second time and I have a whole itinerary on that too but kazawa is another city that’s like a mini Kyoto so people say you could probably see all of kazawa in a day or two while Kyoto is definitely a lot bigger and it’s a lot more crowded because of the Taurus it just depends what kind of vibe you’re going for if you’re looking for the crazy chaotic wild nightlife that would be Tokyo but if you’re looking for like a calm type of place where there’s not a lot of tourists then you want to go to the other surrounding CI number eight in terms of Japanese culture do not hand your cash directly to the cashier they’re usually going to give you a tray and then you put your money on the tray they pick it up then they give you your change on the tray and hand it to you on the counter same with your card don’t hand your credit card directly to the cashier or the taxi driver put it on the tray next I found that Google Maps was very accurate to the public transportation in Japan especially in Tokyo it’ll even tell you which train literally like which one that you should board on because that’s going to be the most efficient spot when you’re exiting but again you’re just really saving like a few steps many hotels in Japan offer a soft like down pillow then they offer a pillow that has a bunch of beans in it so it’s very interesting but if you’re not a fan of that you may need to ask for an extra down pillow and like stack it to make it like a fluffy pillow don’t be alarmed if you’re like what is this pillow with beans in it Google Lens or Papa go are two apps I would recommend because you can take photo of the menu or of signs and it’ll translate for you live is it super accurate not really but it will totally help you kind of get the context clues of what you need to be ordering or if it’s the right place you can also use chat GPT now to upload files and photos I’m sure it’s a lot more accurate but papao and Google lens is just fast easy and I don’t have to worry about oh if Chachi p is too busy next something to be mindful of is a lack of trash cans in Japan there are not a lot of trash cans and even in the convenience stores they are tiny trash cans so you can’t even put a lot of your trash in there so just be prepared hold your trash whether you have a ziplock bag a plastic bag or something to put it in some people also like to have like hand wipes or things like that because the bathrooms won’t have towels if you are washing your hands there are so many stairs in the public transportation areas so you need to make sure that whatever luggage you have you are prepared to carry it so I had a giant check-in luggage as well as a carry-on my first time in Japan and it was so so tiring to Lug it around when I was arriving and when I was leaving so just make sure you take what you can carry cuz there’s a lot of stairs and the elevators are sometimes very far away so whether you have a baby and a stroller just be prepared you need to be able to carry everything or you’re going to have to go up and down the stairs multiple times and make multiple trips the best month to visit Japan or just East Asia in general it’s going to be March April May skip the Summers if you can and then end of September October November so that’s avoiding the super hot humid heat humid heat and then really really cold Winters but in Japan it is a little bit warmer than Korea but it still snows and the humidity is a lot now lastly the dates you want to avoid going to Japan are golden week which is from April 29th to May 5th and then New Year’s which is from like the 1st to the 4th pretty much so many things are closed during that time and all the touristy fun things are very crowded because people from all over Japan they get a break and that’s when they come into the major cities to like have fun those are the weeks where the hours are going to be so different for every restaurant Disney is going to be so crowded and you just want to make sure that if you can you want to avoid those weeks or you want to go off to the smaller cities during that time because a lot of people will be traveling if you have any questions please leave them down below and I’ll try my best to get back to you but Japan is a beautiful city there’s so much to see but there also a very respectful culture so I hope that Taurus we continue to be considerate of their culture of their mannerisms and to be respectful if you [Music]

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If you’re planning to go to Japan, here are Japan travel tips for first timers 🙂 I wish I had known these things before going to Japan for the first time. I’ve shared my Japan travel vlogs on my channel but I hope this video helps you if you’re going to visit Japan for the first time!

✈️ Tokyo Travel Vlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCpg1DHX-7s

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