First Hour in Japan | Do THIS as SOON as You Land in Japan

First Hour in Japan | Do THIS as SOON as You Land in Japan

Are you traveling to Japan for the first time? What do you need to do as soon as you land? In this video, we’re going to go through everything that you need to do to get out of the airport and on your way to exploring Japan. Let’s go to Japan. to the next station is [Music] Hey guys, Wong here and today we are going to go through a checklist of things that you need to do to get yourself into Japan and begin your adventure. A lot of these things apply to traveling to any country in general, but some of these things are Japan specific. Let’s dive into it. As far as packing and getting on the plane, I do have a complete Japan packing video, so go ahead and check that out. But in short, as long as you have your passport, a visa if you need it, and a means of getting cash by either bringing cash to convert or bringing a debit card, you’ll be fine. All right. Well, what is the first thing you should do when you land? One of the best comments I saw for the first thing you need to do as soon as you land in Japan is to turn on subtitles. I thought that was pretty good. Anyway, the actual first thing that you will need to do when you land is to clear immigration. There will be signs as soon as you get off the plane directing you towards the immigration area. And there are signs in English as well, so you don’t have to worry about getting lost. When you get there, you can fill out an immigration form at the counter. They do also give you these immigration forms on the plane as well. Alternatively, if you want to save some time, you can prefill out an immigration and customs declaration ahead of time on the Visit Japan website. I’ll put a link to that below. You can do this before leaving your home or on the flight if you have Wi-Fi. Doing this will require your passport info, visa info if required, the address of the hotel or Airbnb where you are staying, and your flight info for your flight into Japan. You can also declare anything that you are bringing into Japan that is required to be declared, such as certain over-the-counter or prescription medications that may be required to be declared there. I go into that more specifically in my packing for Japan video as well, but in short, Japan has a lot of banned items and you don’t want to start your trip off on the wrong foot at immigrations and customs for bringing in Nyquil D. Yeah, Nyquil D. That’s illegal. Lastly, you can also register for the tax-free services if you are not a resident of Japan. And this will allow you to get tax-free discounts while shopping in Japan until they change the policy in 2026 to a refund system. Once you have completed the form online, it will give you a QR code. And if you have completed this in advance, then all you need to have with you is your passport and your QR code. And you will get in line, scan the QR code, and proceed through immigration. or alternatively, you can show your physical form if you didn’t do the online one. Once you have the QR code via the Japan web app, you don’t need internet to pull it up. So, getting connected as soon as you land isn’t necessary, though we’ll go through that in a bit. The second thing that you will need to do comes after clearing immigration, and that is getting your checked bags and going through customs. Any checked bags that you sent will come through here and you must retrieve your bags before going through customs as you will not be able to get back into this area after you leave. After getting all of your bags together, you will go through customs where you will scan your QR code again or hand in your customs declaration form if you filled it out physically along with showing your passport. Once you have cleared customs, welcome to Japan. time to enjoy everything that Japan has to offer. Starting with the toilets. Public toilets aren’t usually something you would want to go to. But in Japan, as all of these comments say about what to do when you land in Japan, the bathrooms here are clean and the toilets are life-changing. The toilets in Japan are the fancy ones with bedayets and heated seats and some even play music if silence in the bathroom isn’t your thing. They are amazing. And in short, now is a great time to go to the bathroom before you begin your adventure. The fourth thing to do is to get connected. If you have an international data plan, you should be able to connect just by turning your phone off of airplane mode and it should connect automatically without any additional steps required. If you don’t have an international data plan or if your data plan is slow, you could do one of a few things. You could opt by using public Wi-Fi, though I wouldn’t recommend this, but if needed in the airport specifically, there is public Wi-Fi available. But around Japan, there’s not a lot of public Wi-Fi. So, there are much better options. Let’s talk about those. The next option is a Wi-Fi hotspot, and you can rent one in advance if you would like to ensure availability or rent one when you get there. To rent one in advance, you could use the Clook app, for example, to rent a portable Wi-Fi device and pick it up when you get to the airport at your convenience in Japan. So now would be the time that you would go pick it up. The Wi-Fi hotspot is nice if you are traveling in a group with a bunch of people who need it or if you have multiple devices that need internet. But the problem is if you split up while in Japan then you lose the internet and that can make it pretty hard to find everyone. That is why the next option is the one that I recommend and that is getting a physical SIM card or an e SIM. Most newer phones can take e SIM cards or electronic SIM cards without you having to physically swap out your existing SIM, which makes it a much simpler and hassle-free process. And you can swap between the physical SIM and the eSIM at the click of a button. If you have a device that is not eSIM compatible, you can purchase a physical SIM card and swap that out. Just make sure not to lose your physical SIM. Also, make sure that your phone can support eSIMs before you purchase it, as I ran into someone at the airport who was asking for help setting up their eSIM when it appeared that her phone didn’t support eSIM cards. Through the Clook app, you can get an eSIM with unlimited data in Japan for around 20 to $25 for 1 week, which is pretty affordable. I would highly recommend the unlimited data plan for your time in Japan, especially if you are new to the country because being able to look up places and use Google Maps as you go around and live translating things such as menus and signs is super helpful. Unlimited data in my opinion is a must. I have a link to the Wi-Fi hotspots, the physical and eims through Click down below, so go and check those out. Click is a great app for booking activities all over Japan, and they have discounts all the time, allowing you to get things like tickets for attractions like the Tokyo Skytree or Disneyland for discounted rates. Now that you are online, the fifth thing on our list is to go and exchange currency or withdraw cash as needed. In Japan, cash is king. And while the country is modernizing to accept credit card payments, cash is still widely used, especially outside of the major cities and in shrines and temples and with street vendors. Trust me, you’ll need some cash. I would recommend exchanging or withdrawing at least around 10,000 yen or around $70 US to start, but if you are planning on enjoying a lot of street food or going to arcades, for example, you will need a lot more cash on hand. Though cash is relatively easy to withdraw as you can find ATMs at major train stations all throughout the city, you can also find ATMs at our next stop. Step number six is to visit a convenience store in the airport. So this one is optional, but convenience stores have ATMs where you can withdraw cash if needed. So that is well convenient. But the main attraction of convenience stores is the food. Now after a long flight and depending on the time of your arrival, you may be hungry. And there’s no better place to start your trip than to go into a 7-Eleven and pick up an on-agiri and an egg sandwich. And it seems I’m not alone in thinking this. It’s a lot of people commenting about this. Also, for me personally, I love to have snacks with me as I travel around and snacks in Japan are amazing. So again, totally recommend going to check out one of the convenience stores like 7-Eleven, Lawson, or Family Mart and picking up some amazing Japanese food and snacks for yourself. Personally, I also get these Japanese pancakes from 7-Eleven for breakfast the following morning, and it is my favorite way to start off the day in Japan. All right, moving along to step number seven, and that is to use luggage forwarding services. If you aren’t familiar, Japan has some of the best luggage delivery services in the world. Companies like Yamato Transport offer hassle-free luggage forwarding to your destination. There are counters right outside of customs at the airport. Just look for the Yamato Black Cat logo. And if you have a lot of large bags, it can be quite convenient to have it sent to your hotel or to another Yamato transport location that you can conveniently pick it up from. They even offer same day transport depending on your location. But if you aren’t within a same day area or arrive too late in the day, you can expect it next day or possibly 2 days if the destination is farther. Either way, it is a very convenient way of being able to explore Japan without worrying about carrying your large suitcases around. And this will come in handy when taking the trains because there is not a lot of room on the trains for large luggage. You can also store luggage at some of these locations if you are out sightseeing and don’t want to lug your suitcases around as you travel, such as in between hotels after you check out in the morning and you just don’t have a place to go till your next check-in at 3:00 p.m. or something like that. Definitely a lot of convenient options here. The way they advertise it, you can even check in your bags and get them sent to your hotel as soon as you land. from your hotel, you can get them sent to your next hotel and then from there when you are ready to leave Japan, you can get them sent to the airport directly and you can pick them up there. Basically, in short, if you wanted to, you don’t have to bring your bags around anywhere. You can just keep getting them conveniently sent from place to place to make your trip hassle-free. Now, with your stomach filled and snacks ready to go and bags out of the way, now we can go to step eight, and that is to get a Suika card. There are a few options as far as a Suika card goes, but mainly Japan’s trains, buses, and even many vending machines and stores run off of these IC cards. And the main IC cards in Japan are the Suika and the Pasmo card. But there are many others in Japan as well, and they all essentially do the same thing. They allow you to load money onto it and conveniently tap to pay for everything from trains to snacks at 7-Eleven. There is also a special Suika card called the Welcome Suika, which looks awesome and does stand out with its strong red color and Japanese cherry blossoms on it. This is a special card designed for tourists and is valid for 28 days after first use and does not have an initial deposit fee like the regular cards. This card cannot be refunded or reused after this 28day period. The regular Suika card or any other IC card work a bit differently and the regular SUA card expires after 10 years of inactivity. The regular cards have a 500 yen initial deposit and you can also get a refund on the Suika or the Pasmo card for any remaining balance plus the 500 yen initial deposit where you cannot get a refund off of the welcome sua. So careful with how much money you load onto your welcome sua card. If you end up with some extra money at the end of your trip, swing by a convenience store or one of the many vending machines and stock up on drinks or snacks for your trip home. There were shortages for the past few years on the Suika and the Pasmo cards due to a chip shortage. However, now it seems everything is back to normal again. So, you can get these cards like normal again. These cards are also a great souvenir from Japan as well. If you aren’t into souvenirs and just want convenience and you have an iPhone, you can get the mobile Suika app or download the Suika to your Apple wallet to allow you to use your phone to pay or swipe through train stations as well. On to step nine, which is making your way from the airport to your destination. There are a handful of options here. You could take the more direct but expensive options like taking a taxi or a charter van. And if you have a large party, this could be more convenient, especially if you have a lot of luggage. I did use one of the charter vans for my group as we had a lot of people and luggage. And let’s just say the luggage barely fit into the van cuz we had so many things. But we made it and it was pretty convenient, albeit a little expensive, but much better than the alternative of carrying all the luggage through the trains. Alternatively, you can take the Narita Express train which has service from Narita to the southwestern part of the Tokyo area like Tokyo station, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Shinagawa and can run down south to Yokohama and costs around $23 one way. Or you could take the Kes Narita Skyliner Express which can take you to the northeastern area of Tokyo like Kesueno station or Napori station and costs around $16 one way. You can also take the airport limousine bus for around $25 and this takes you to various bus stops in the city and can be very convenient if you are staying at or nearby one of the stops which are typically at train stations, hotels or big attractions like Disneyland. After taking either the train or the bus into the city, you may need to either do a bit of walking to get to your accommodation, or you can get a taxi for the final part of your journey, especially if you have a lot of luggage, cuz I wouldn’t want to lug all that through the streets. If you want to use a taxi, you can get one at the taxi areas at train stations for example, or you can use the Go Taxi app, which is like Uber or Lyft and allows you to book a taxi from wherever you are. So, if you want to book a taxi, then you will want to download and set up the Go app ahead of time so that should you need to book a taxi, you have it ready. Lastly, step 10 is to check into your hotel or Airbnb. Hotels in Japan do get booked out, especially during peak season. So, if you are planning a trip to Japan, make sure you book in advance because lastm minute bookings can be quite hard and expensive. As long as your hotel is near a train station, in particular the JR Yamanote line in Tokyo, you will have easy access to the rest of the city, which will make getting around a breeze. And that’s basically it. All that’s left to do now is to enjoy everything that Japan has to offer. Just don’t forget to turn the subtitles on. If you have any additional tips for things that you should do as soon as you land in Japan, let me know in the comments section down below. And I will see you guys in the next one. [Music]

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First time in Japan? Travelling to a different country can be stressful.
This is a guide to get you through everything you need to know from the moment you land to enjoying downtown Tokyo. This is your checklist to your first hour in Japan.

Visit Japan Web(Online Immigration and Customs): https://www.vjw.digital.go.jp/main/#/vjwplo001

Japan Pocket Wifi: https://affiliate.klook.com/redirect?aid=93822&aff_adid=1085259&k_site=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.klook.com%2Factivity%2F16399-unlimited-4g-lte-wifi-japan-airport-pickup-ninja-wifi

E-Sim: https://affiliate.klook.com/redirect?aid=93822&aff_adid=1085258&k_site=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.klook.com%2Factivity%2F109393-japan-esim-high-speed-internet-qr-code-voucher

Yamato Luggage Services: https://www.global-yamato.com/en/hands-free-travel/

Narita Airport Limousine Bus: https://affiliate.klook.com/redirect?aid=93822&aff_adid=1085261&k_site=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.klook.com%2Factivity%2F2274-narita-airport-limousine-bus-tokyo

Haneda Airport Limousine Bus: https://affiliate.klook.com/redirect?aid=93822&aff_adid=1085260&k_site=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.klook.com%2Factivity%2F150434-haneda-airport-limousine-bus-tokyo

Narita Express Train(N’EX): https://affiliate.klook.com/redirect?aid=93822&aff_adid=1085262&k_site=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.klook.com%2Fjapan-rail%2Fnarita-express-nex

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Chapters:
0:00 – Intro
0:24 – Preface
1:00 – First: Clearing Immigration
1:40 – Visit Japan Web
2:40 – Tax Free
2:58 – Visit Japan QR Code
3:30 – Second: Getting Bags and Going Through Customs
4:00 – Third: Experiencing the Bathrooms
4:44 – Fourth: Getting Connected
5:25 – Wifi Hotspot
6:06 – Sim Card(E-Sim)
7:30 – Klook
7:51 – Fifth: Exchanging or Withdrawing Cash
8:45 – Sixth: Convenience Stores
10:00 – Seven: Luggage Forwarding Service
12:08 – Eighth: IC Cards
12:47 – Welcome Suica
13:15 – Regular Suica
14:16 – Suica App
14:34 – Transportation
15:13 – Trains(N’EX and Keisei)
15:50 – Bus(Airport Limousine Bus)
16:30 – Taxi(Go App)
16:57 – Hotels
17:30 – Final Thoughts

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