Watch This Before Your Travel to Japan

Watch This Before Your Travel to Japan

Here at Tokyo Creative, we have been working and supporting tourism in Japan for the past 7 years. And right now, tourism is booming. Tourism is crazy right now. But we thought it’d be a good idea to share some of our tips and tricks and advice for being a tourist in Japan or traveling around Japan. So that’s what this video is. 7 years feels like so short. I feel like we’ve been doing this for so much longer. That’s why I thought Yeah. 7 years is way too short. No, I I incorrect. Not factual. wrong. After I I counted the number, I feel like we know each other more than 10 years. Feel forever. I’m tired. And we’ve been doing tourism forever. I’m excited. I’m excited. Let’s go. Okay. Yes. Let’s start with point number one. Point number one. Eim card. Eim card. Right. Right. Right. Right. Without internet, you cannot do anything. You cannot access to anything we are going to introduce you guys. So, by the way, this is the post sponsor. Yeah. So, usually So, usually we put the sponsor like in the middle of the video, but because an ESM is so important, we decided to put it at the top as like the number one important thing when you come to visit Japan. Granted, I feel like Japan is one of those countries that you can easily find Wi-Fi anywhere and it actually works. But actually the security is I’m not sure my you know my family-in-law use a lot of free Wi-Fi and then I notice like oh that’s a bit danger to to do stuff especially you know buying stuff Yeah. Yeah. Don’t open your bank accounts and stuff. Yeah that’s not good. And then this uh sale is service by the node VPN. So the VPN company is giving the service. So which is the security is really high. Awesome. So I think it’s like legit one. I didn’t I didn’t know all that and I’m still using it and it’s great. How was the system though? Was it easy to set up? Sally, I just had to download the app. I had to select which country I’m going to the data plan like how much how many gigs how many how many gigabytes I wanted. Yeah. And I just had to install it via the app. So, I didn’t even need to go into the settings page or anything which is great because I’m like a technological idiot. You’re a technology guy. I’m not. Yeah. So, I’m really bad at it. So, usually when I go into the settings app, I really struggle because I’m just like, “What do I turn on?” Yeah. So, um I figured it out because on the SY app, you just need to activate it via the app. So, everything is settled there. Very easy to use, which is awesome. Yeah. I actually had a family member come and visit recently and she used it and I was like, “Wait, they’ve invented that now.” I always used the little cards when I went back home and it was so frustrating and sometimes it would also kind of deactivate my card here. Oh, yeah. That’s the worst. So when I came back, I’d have to go to the shop and be like, “Can you please worse?” I’ve had to do that a few times in Japan. I feel like it’s a Japan specific thing. Why? But yeah, from now on, I’m going to be using it every time I go back to Australia. Yeah. If you guys are interested, uh, please check out our QR code. We have a QR code right right here, baby. Blocking Emma’s face. And also, probably a link in the description down below. So, please check it out and use our coupon code for a percentage off. I forget how much. I used it. I used it. 15. 15. If you want 15% off, please use our I saved a little bit, too. Yes. All right, next point. Yes, now we have set up the internet so we can use other things which is sika sika. Oh, I’m a pass. Why the penguin is the best part? Oh, really? Yeah. I like the pink on the card. Oh, it’s like gray and like it’s cute. I like the passmo. But wait, we’re not sponsored by No. Okay. Okay. I’m a pass girl just because the pink is cute. But Passmo is physical cut, right? Yeah. We are digital. We’re digital girls. See, this is what I mean. I’m not a technology girl. I really can’t. Yeah, it’s much harder now to get a hold of a Suika. I think you can now at the airport and it’s not too bad, but you can get it on your phone and it makes things so much easier. Okay, so I’ll listen and I’ll learn and maybe I’ll download it after this. But how often you use Sika though? Every day. Every day. I use it for transport cuz I like to separate my purchases. But you can use it almost everywhere. You can use it to get drinks from convenience store or from vending machines. You can use it to pay at pretty much any store. It’s just very convenient to have, especially if you’re coming here as a tourist. You can just load it up with a a bit of money and then just it’s easy. You even can do the EU catcher, you know. Yeah. Yeah. You can use it at I use it to play Dance Dance Revolution. Emma’s really good at that. Thank you. We have some videos. We have some old videos of us dancing together. She’s really good. I I do love a bit of DDR. Yeah. But yeah, I I really recommend getting it for your phone. It just makes things a lot more smooth. And also, if you have a credit card on your phone, sometimes places are now saying no contactless payment. So, a lot of places are rejecting like overseas credit cards on your phone. Um, but if you have a Suika, you can still use that. No contactless payment just means like touch credit cards. I see. Yeah. For some reason. But Suika and Pasmo are fine. You can top up with the credit card, right? Yes. So, essentially it’s the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. I think if Suika or Pas like if Pasmo doesn’t work or Suika doesn’t work, try the other one. Just give it a go. I I tried getting the Pasmo app for ages and I couldn’t get it. This was years ago. So eventually I went with Suika. But I’m glad I did cuz I love the penguin. And if you go to Ueno, there’s a little penguin cafe and you can buy goods with the Suika penguin. The Suika goods are really good. Like peng Why are you with Poss? The card is cute. Possible is a weird noble thing. A character you never seen. Guys, I can’t take all this past hate. I did see this suika penguin um beret before. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With the head on the like the face on the bra. So cursed. So good. Shinjuku has the statue as well. Statue of. We should make that the new hatko. Oh, we know that. Next. Next. Nice thing is Oh. Oh, yeah. Is there an app for that? There are multiple apps which makes it so much fun. Guys, this is really important. I don’t know how to use this, but I’m going to learn it right now. If you don’t have an app, you’re going to have to go to like the green window at a bunch of like big stations and go line up and get a ticket that way. But usually, if you do that, a lot of the good seats will be gone because everybody’s using the apps. So, if you’re going kind of cyto direction in Osaka, then you use X Smart EX. Smart ex. But if you’re going like more north, then you use echynet. Echet. Yes. So there’s two separate apps. But I would recommend as a tourist just using the websites cuz the apps can be a little bit finicky. I’ve had a lot of issues with them. And if you use the website, you can also use like I think there’s an English option or you can use translate on on your laptop or whatever. But what’s the website called? Just echinet or smart x. It’s the same as app’s name. Sometimes like when I buy the ticket for other creators, they have no idea uh east side and west side is different you know things the system. For example, if you go to like a uh west side always the blue ticket comes out. But if you go to east side no no ticket comes out. Yeah. That stressed me out so much cuz always going down to like Kyoto Osaka you tap in you get a little ticket that’s like here’s your seat number here’s how you get there. But in in the green side in the north side you tap in there’s nothing comes out. Where do I go? What do I do? Oh my god. Yeah. So it why it’s same jail but system is different because the company is actually different. I see. Yeah. Go on those two websites if you’re either going north or going south worse and you’ll be fine. And we just made a JR pass video about it as well. So if you’re curious about like JR pass particular system and details and what’s good what’s not good go to the our other videos if you if you know the taxi shape taxi shape taxi shape do you know no I know taxi shape but everywhere everywhere in the world is the same taxi shape like you know the hat they wear like a small hat on top of the cap you know and And they are saying like uh the company name brand name and then if you use if you see the word of coing which means individual u that that is a bit a bit danger of course there’s so many good guys but it could be I feel like I feel like she’s giving me dating advice. No independent people wearing the hatar you know like they could be but there many good guys. Yeah. I didn’t know the hat. It goes like a individual taxi which means the guy guy is not involved or belong to any company. So he’s got no rules. What? He’s just a free Roma. Whoa. Yes. Less regulations. Guys, this is important. A lot of they they could be nice people. Like if you’re in the Inaka, it might be hard to find anything other than that kind of taxi, I feel. So they they they might be okay, but there’s less uh safeguards in place, I guess. If they’re with a company, then there’s lots of rules and regulations they need to follow. And if there’s a problem, you can take it up with the company. Whereas, if it’s an individual and you have some issue with them, then you have to like fight them in court like person on person. So, yeah, they yeah, they can show their attitude a bit more and and do whatever they want kind of thing. If you book through an app like a taxi app, would you get all these cogen people? Okay, maybe. Uh maybe if the person is in part of the this system like apps but I I personally I think if you you grab randomly you try to find like you you check like a small hat what they’re saying and then just avoid coing for example. Look out for the hat. Yeah hat. I always use go taxi. That one’s usually really reliable. these taxi people. Well, I don’t I don’t not all the time, but sometimes I got to I got to get home and it’s like 4:00 a.m. And where is she going? Where am I going? To the club to listen to music and not drink any alcohol. That’s the taxi tip. Nice. I will recommend another app. I use a reusable water bottle and uh refills, you know, in Australia wherever you go that you can’t really that’s just everywhere, but here it’s harder to find them. There’s an app called My Mizu and it just has it’s a user based app and you can find where uh places you can fill up your water bottle at. I love that. Yeah. Like little parts. They add a picture of it and they’re like, “Yeah, tastes good.” I really like it. Uh, also I would recommend if anybody out there has a disability, I would recommend Wheel Log, which is another user- based application where it can show you barrierfree entries to hotels, restaurants, elevators, to stations, and stuff like that. Wheel Log Mama Mama Papa Mop. So this one, let’s say that together. Mama Papa M. Yes. So this one is telling you where you can uh the kids friendly, baby friendly locations like cafes and stuff because sometimes not kids friendly and then it’s very difficult. It’s similar to wheelchair. I guess these are all really good. Uh the UI is a very social so it’s very Japanese style because of very wordy kind of things but still I think if you like look up for information that’s very difficult to find in English also um it’s like a translate okay any other things you want to add on what else did you script about the hotel I noticed I I’ve I’ve been betrayed by the hotel a lot because I thought it’s a very wide nice hotel because they took the pictures in wide lens. I should have noticed because it’s, you know, this 360 like the the paranomic views is always wide lens when I enter. Oops. I cannot open my business, you know, trunk to settle settling the gears and stuff. It’s very difficult to unpack stuff. So, it’s very cute to get the Yeah, hotels are very small here, uh, for the most part. And yeah, so many times I’ve been on like booking.com or whatever and seen so many beautiful pictures and I show up, I’m like, “What the hell?” Yeah. Japanese hotel is extra small. Yeah. And I I forget now. I’m used to it. I’m so used to it. And then like when my family members come, they’re like, “I was expecting it to be so big.” I’m like, “This is quite a big room.” Like, what do you mean it’s huge? happen a lot. Especially if you’re traveling with other people and you have to open more than one suitcase, that’s when it gets really tough. But now that I’m living in Min, I’m like a bit spoiled for choice because it’s so it’s actually a really good size. Um there’s like six people in this room right now and we got space. And we have space like for many suitcases, you know, like I’m quite thankful like I like the having this amount of space. I think but your true that’s true. I like to carry around a suitcase when I’m prepared for situations where I won’t have a lot of space for my luggage to open. I like the one that opens from the top. Um just because well I open this open right what is that one? What is that? What am I looking at? So instead of instead of you have like a it’s great because if you don’t have a wall behind to lean on it. I love that there’s like straps that are adjustable so you can they can just like hang on by themselves. That’s nice. Really smart. I didn’t know how to use it until this trip. Oh yeah, I realized what they were for. Speaking of like a chai room, this is my go-to pouch. So cute from Nintendo because everything in the even the bathroom is so small. Ah, oh my god. Let me bring mine. That’s so small. I really need to get one of those. So mine is just from Muji. I have two of these. Um but for my travels, I usually just bring one. I bring this everywhere. It just has um like my small little items. This is most of my makeup and then like my soaps are here. Some of the soap is in the bathroom, but this is the main thing. It’s just so easy to hang everywhere. And all of my little work trips also have like a separate pouch. So, this is great. That’s so nice. I just brought a very small thing. It’s just it’s not really to do with like the actual travel aspect, but it’s something that I think everybody should carry around when they’re in Japan. Mine is just a little tip, but uh bring a little hand towel or when you’re here, you’re going to have a lot of cute hand towels to choose from, so you could purchase a little hand towel. A lot of bathrooms here don’t have anywhere to dry your hands. Also, if you come in summer, you’re going to be really sweaty. Sometimes if it’s been raining, you want to wipe a bench off. It’s just good to have a little towel. And it’s really popular to have. And yeah, it’s true. I feel like this is part of Japanese culture that no one really tells you about. When I first came here in 2018 or something, I saw like all my guy friends had like a, “Oh, you want to use my hanky?” Like a little guy like the guy would take a little hanky out of his pocket. I’ll be like, “Why do you have a hanky?” And you just fell in love. Yeah. Love a man of a hanky. A little break to have two special guests to give us some more tips. We have Joe and Hito. Hi Chan. What have you brought? I have two ideas I want to recommend. One Mhm. But this is the stand. Oh, nice. If we wanted to take the video or something like just when we eat. Oh, that’s actually good. Wo wo legit. We eat something and we want to see the Oh, you got the same one. What? Whoa. You want to see the Netflix YouTube and we can do this and like this. Oh, you can. Wo. And And it’s pretty slim. That’s That’s really good actually. It’s great for content making too. M. My second second one is this nice pouch. When you open it and it’s ah you can put your passport or some important document here. And here is for the card. And if you travel to Japan, you have so much like coins or notes. Notes like bank notes like receipts and all sorts. Yes. Yes. And you can put here. Yeah. I have a a passport holder, but it’s a little bit smaller and if I shake it, everything will fall out. So, I like this style. Awesome. All right, Joe. What do you have for us? Okay, this is kind of for everywhere in the world. It’s not specific to Japan, I’d say. Um, I don’t carry googly eyes around. I’ve been carrying googly eyes around for years. You just leave them. Leave them. Eyebombing. Just innocent fun. It’s good. It’s good. Yeah. Um but no, but my tip uh these days is rather than carrying around a battery pack, I find phones charge like way faster than they used to like 5 years ago. Just carry a charger. I’m more likely to come across a socket than I am wanting to carry my phone connected with a battery for like an hour or so whilst it’s juicing up. I can just plug in for 10 minutes and I’ll probably get enough battery from that than what I needed, I guess. Um, and it’s way lighter, more convenient. Yeah, that’s good. I hadn’t thought about that. I always carry around a really heavy battery pack and multiple cables and I get really frustrated with it. the Yeah, I should just keep an eye out a bit more for I guess the the thing that’s maybe more specific to Japan uh and also America and parts of Asia, the two pin design is really nice and portable. That is my pouch. Awesome. Thank you guys for your tips. And now back to the rest of the other tips. Y it’s the bicy surprise news and the tips you I learn from you. Oh, always teaching. You know, I got the facts. This one isn’t a super fun one, but uh it is illegal for you to not be carrying your passport when you’re in Japan. I didn’t know that. Your actual passport. You have to have it on you at all times according to law. Unless you live here, then you can carry your ZU card with you. But yeah, you got to have your passport. So, why do you have your passport right now? When you have your ZU card for this for this bit? Oh, I have my passport. I didn’t realize you didn’t have to. I forgot you don’t live here. I thought she thinks I’m here in her heart all the time. You’re always here. You’re always here. Never leave. Always here. Always here. What do you mean? Look how thick that is. Oh, yeah. And the Australian passport is $700, by the way. Yeah. Mine’s 70. Cost me so much money. 700. So, wait, wait. Okay. Crazy, right? How much was it? So, what it was? No, it was $614. Uh, in if you’re in Australia, it’ll cost you about $400 to renew your passport. Insane. However, if you live overseas, you got to pay the embassy fee, which is $200. Hey. Uh, so I just renewed my passport. This is my old one. And it cost me $614. I didn’t know that. It’s the most expensive passport in the world. In the world. Yeah. In the world. Reason? No idea. Doesn’t make sense. Australia, this is my official complaint. You should make Why the hell? Why the hell? Why the hell is it 650 kangaroo? Yeah. Why the hell kangaroo emu? You should make it like a necklace, you know. It’s like It’s like I have Gucci on or something, you know. Very expensive. Yeah. But please carry your passport around with you. It’s recommended to make a copy so you can keep the copy in your hotel room, but you have to carry the real thing on you. My god, we could have been arrested at any time. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. to to bring with you all the time is I think a plastic bag or like any like goui ble is important because there’s no trash cans. Uh Tokyo especially in Japan is void of trash cans. Uh everywhere you go, it is difficult to find a place to throw away your trash. If you eat at a convenience store, if you buy food from a convenience store, throw it away at that same comini. If you’re eating in the hotel room, throw it away at the hotel. If you happen to be out and you buy something and you’re away from the store, then good luck. You got to have a little bag with you to keep the stuff in. I have put open cans and open bottles in my bag and it’s really bad. It goes everywhere and your stuff is ruined. So, please just have a little plastic bag to make sure everything has a place. Hey, is there any is there any tips when you are walking around Tokyo? Walking around Tokyo. You mean you surprise me like that? I got to think. Mommy, I got to think now. I want to give something useful. I’ve been sitting here learning. I might as well be an audience at this point. Let me think. Ah, no. I feel like Emma has like surpassed me in a fashion game. What? Since I’ve left. That’s insane. Yeah, my role has been taken over. Oh, yeah. But obviously, I think this is an obvious one. Always dress comfortably for the weather and obviously shoes. I don’t even I can’t give this tip. I don’t wear the most comfortable shoes, guys. I wear comfortable shoes all the time. There we go. Ever since I broke my ankle, I wear very comfortable shoes. Only comfortable shoes. Only Yeah. Only the best for these feet. But yeah, uh just bring bring sensible stuff. I know people like want to go out and I feel like in Australia I used to wear more heels all the time, but here you will be walking so much, but but dress cute, comfy, comfy, cute, but you’re going to be walking a butt ton. Maybe as well if you’re buying new shoes for Japan, wear them in a little bit. Make sure you definitely feel good wearing them cuz there’s there’s stairs, there’s distance, there’s you’re just going to get tired. So, yeah, love your shoes. Yeah, very short. Love them. Right. what she said. How much cash did you bring this time? Oh, I always have cash with me. Cuz I’m not technological. No, no. In general, you should have cash with you here. It’s not a Natasha thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Guys, always have cash because it depends on what kind of stores you go to. There are some places that only accept cash as well. So, it’s always good to have either options. Obviously, you can be tech smart like these guys and have all the apps, but what if you don’t have cash that day? Then you got to look for the friend like me that’s like, “Ah, I have so much cash.” So, you know, it’s good to have both. I recently became a cash mama because I was with some friends who some of them didn’t have a cash payment. She’s she gets it. She They’re like, “Oh, we only have we only have cashless.” I’m like, I become I become the mama. I keep track of everyone’s owings to me. Oh, nice. She’s a loan shark. I need to add interest. Oh, damn. She’s not a good friend. Yeah. No, but cash is really important. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if you want to do this. What do you mean? Oh, like go to a shady business. Oh, gotcha. Yes. She’s not getting She doesn’t get it now. I really thought it was something else. Maybe you need cash like that, too. Yeah. I was like, we just did this. You don’t want to be traced to go into that kind of business. You need cash. No, no, no, no, no. Maybe you need cash so that you can do gacha gacha. Yes. Yes, if we’ve already posted uh the gacha video, if there’s a gacha video out where we go and spend $5,000 each, $100 total on gacha palm. Got lots of cute things. So, if you like gacha, you just want to live vicariously through us because you don’t want to spend $5,000 on gacha. $5,000. You can watch that video. The last thing I think is also something that I already do that I already do, I already do that. I feel like a lot of other people might in their brain do it as well. But unfortunately because sometimes these seasons are the popular fun seasons. I get it. But if you can, you should avoid like really popular seasonal occasions like um New Year’s maybe. Golden week. Golden. Oh, Golden Week is awful. Won’t come. Yeah. Oborn. And like August is a big school holiday as well. of things are generally pretty busy because Japanese people really hard to get the paid leaves. So that those public holidays is the most lucky ducky ch time to travel around Japan. So it would be extra crowded if you come the same time everyone else domestically is traveling and more expensive. So much more expensive. I just tried to book a holiday on oldorn week and I was like well I’m not going to do that. I’m not I’m not going anywhere. Exactly. So you can should avoid it. So check the Japanese current map for each. Yeah. Also, Sakura season does get pretty uh busy, crowded, and expensive. It’s the best. It’s the best. But there is a there’s a big payoff. You know, you get them. It’s It’s true. Did you know that in Japan you have they have the most number of public holidays? Yeah. Was it 16 or 26? I think it’s 16 or 26. It’s either one of those, but it’s like the most in the world. So, check your calendars. Okay. Yeah. That’s it. Those are our tips for visiting Japan. Let us know in the comments down below. Were there any that you were surprised by or are there any that we’ve forgotten? Yeah. If you have more tips, I’m here to learn. Clearly. Same. I’m always down to learn something new. You’re not tourist. Yeah. Sh’s ready. Cool. Well, it’s been good to see Natasha again. And of course, Shy. It’s good to be on TC always. Yeah. I just hit my head really awkwardly. I was like, we’ll see you in a video sometime soon. Byebye. Byebye. I start off with I was like and then I was [Laughter]

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We finally sat down together to chat about one of our favorite topics—travel tips for Japan! 🇯🇵 In this video, Natasha, Shiori, and Emma share real stories and personal hacks that made their own trips smoother and more fun. From handy items to pack, to little cultural know-hows, we’re covering the things we wish we had known sooner!

Filmed at Minn Akihabara ▶︎ https://bit.ly/MinnHotel
Located right in Akihabara, perfect for game, anime, and electronics fans. An apartment-type hotel where you can relax with your family or friends❤️ Thank you for having us!

CHAPTERS:
00:00 START
00:46 eSIM card
03:26 Suica / IC cards
06:04 Shinkansen
8:00 Taxi
10:25 Mymizu
10:55 WeeLog
11:10 Mamapapamap
12:04 Hotels
13:32 Tips from TC Members
18:36 Carry your passport
20:36 Carry your bin!?
21:53 Dress comfortably
23:00 Bring cash
24:44 Avoid peak seasons

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Natasha: ‪@NatashaElle
Shiori: @littlegiantshiori1410

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Video edited by TC ex staff Sandy
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