How to Prepare for a Trip to Japan: The Order That Works

A local girl in Nagoya — the order we give every friend who tells us they are finally coming.

Most first-trip mistakes happen because something was done in the wrong week — not because it was done badly. So here is the order.

2 months out

• Book only what sells out: teamLab, Ghibli Museum, Ghibli Park. Build the trip around those dates
• Book your rooms — earlier for autumn colour or cherry blossom, when prices in Kyoto stop being rational: business hotel, ryokan or capsule, and the 2026 lodging tax
• Everything else can wait. Restaurants, temples, day trips — fine to sort the morning of
• Pick fewer cities than you want to. Tokyo and Kyoto in ten days is a good trip. Six cities in ten days is a train journey with sightseeing breaks

1 month out — where you sleep

• One night in a ryokan, the rest in business hotels. The ryokan is the experience; business hotels are small, spotless, cheap, and what Japanese people actually use
• Stay near a station on a line you will use — not near the sight you want to see

2 weeks out

• Buy your eSIM. About $27 for a week of unlimited data, roughly half the cost of pocket WiFi, with no device to charge or return — prices and the one installation trap
• Do the JR Pass maths. Add up the actual long-distance fares you will take. Since the price rise it often loses. A Tokyo–Kyoto return alone no longer justifies it
• Check your medicine. Some ordinary cold and ADHD drugs are illegal to bring into Japan, and the paperwork for the rest takes weeks — the Japan packing list, and what is banned

1 week out

• Tell your bank. A card frozen on day one, in a country that still runs on cash, ruins a morning
• Plan to carry cash. Cards work in cities and chains, not at the small ramen place, the shrine or the locker — cash, cards, ATMs and the new tax-free rules
• Install five apps: Google Maps, Google Translate, your eSIM app, Suica, one transit planner
• iPhone: add Suica to Apple Wallet now. Ten minutes at home, and you never queue at a ticket machine — IC cards, airport trains and the JR Pass maths

The night before

Install the eSIM — it needs WiFi, so it has to happen at home. Leave the line off until you land. Download offline maps. Pack lighter than you planned.

TSŪ INFORMATION
what Japanese connoisseurs know

You do not have to carry your suitcase. Japan’s overnight luggage forwarding — takkyūbin — moves a case from your Tokyo hotel to your Kyoto hotel for about ¥2,000–3,000. Hand it to the front desk in the morning, travel with a day bag, it is waiting that evening. Every hotel does this. Locals move house this way. It is the difference between dragging luggage up station stairs in August and not.

The first 20 minutes after you land

• Switch the eSIM line on. You should be online before immigration
• Get cash. The 7-Bank ATM in any 7-Eleven takes foreign cards reliably
• Transit card. iPhone: already done. Android bought abroad usually cannot hold Suica — get a physical Welcome Suica at the JR counter
• Take the train. A taxi from Narita is about ¥25,000 . The train is under ¥3,000 and faster

Once you are here

• Eat lunch properly. The restaurant that costs ¥4,000 at dinner does a set lunch for ¥1,200. Learn one word: 定食 teishoku — how to order without Japanese
• Use coin lockers. ¥400–800 a day, paid by tapping Suica — prices, a finder, and what to do when they are full
• The convenience store is a real option, not a compromise — start with the rice balls
• Buy souvenirs flat and light: stationery and drugstore skincare beat any gift shop. Tax-free needs ¥5,000 in one shop and your passport

Two honest warnings

• July and August are hard. Not warm — 35°C and humid from breakfast. Move your dates if you can
• Do not over-plan. The best days here are the ones where you got off at the wrong station

More from us: the live tools — currency, phrases, locker maps — are in the Perfect Japan Guide.