Welcome to Travel Jems with Dana. I'm an artist who loves to travel. I recently traveled to Japan to spend a 5 days in Tokyo. Here are some of the most helpful things you should know before your trip to Japan. These tips will help with logistics, safety, and planning out your days. :)
If you prefer to listen to my tips while working on something else, here is my video covering everything in this blog post and more.
Where to stay:
We spent 5 days in Japan (March, 2025) and decided to check out the Tokyo area. Tokyo is big, so there is plenty to explore for a 5 day trip. We decided to stay in Shinjuku, since it's relatively central to the area we wanted to explore and had a lot to do (eat/shop/explore). Most people who have visited Japan often say it doesn't matter where you stay since it's easy to get around. We liked Shinjuku, since there were 24 hour restaurants and it was still active at night, which made it fun to explore in the evening as well. It was a busier city area, but worked better for our interests and needs.
Money Exchange:
We ended up exchanging money at 7-Eleven ATM since it was convenient and had so many locations. They are everywhere around Tokyo with competitive conversion rates. We pulled cash from the 7-Eleven as needed for places that only took cash and to recharge our Suica cards. However, I did notice that the conversation rate was actually about 10 cents better at the airport when we were leaving Tokyo.
Data/internet:
We got a pocket wifi from the airport that worked very well throughout our trip. I reserved it online a day before our flight through Ninja WiFi and set our pick up location to our arrival Airport in Haneda. It was easy to pick up and use throughout the trip. Signal was good outside of some spotty areas when we were underground for the subway. We found a discount code really easily before check out, so make sure to do a quick search. We also got to drop it off at the Haneda airport on the way home.
Train/subway Suica card:
Get a re-loadable money card called a Suica card to use for the train to save time on buying train tickets. You can get one at the airport or at train station service centers. There are Suica cards where you pay 500 yen for (lasts 10 years from the last date you use it) or a free welcome Suica card that expires after 28 days. We decided to get the welcome Suica card since it was free to get. It does expire after 28 days, so whatever outstanding balance you don't use will be forfeited. You can only recharge the card with cash, which you can do at a 7-Eleven atm or at a train station. You can also use your Suica card to pay for other things like food where they accept Suica payment, so we had no problem using everything on it. We put small amounts on our Suica card to make sure we didn't put too much into it that we wouldn't get to use. It made tapping in and out of the train stations so much easier. You don't have to constantly wait in lines to buy a ticket at the train station this way.
JR Pass for longer stays/a lot of traveling:
Our trip was relatively short and since we stayed in the Tokyo area, the Suica card was all we needed to get around. If you plan on staying in Japan for a longer period of time with a lot of travel plans (2-3+ train rides), the JR Pass may be beneficial to you. It allows you to ride as many JR trains within an allotted time for a flat price.
Shopping Tax Free:
Some shops offer tax free shopping if you spend a certain amount and check out at their tax free counter. You will need your passport to purchase tax free, so make sure you bring it with you! If you plan to shop at some places multiple times and you're right at that threshold, consider buying everything you want together to get the tax free benefit.
Walking shoes + Energy conservation:
Do not underestimate how much walking and stair climbing you will be doing on a daily basis in Japan. We averaged 25,000 steps per day just exploring 1-2 parts of a city. Wear your most comfortable walking shoes and bring a backpack to free up your hands. Bring water as there are not really any public water fountains (I only saw one during our trip in a national garden). There are not many public benches or places to sit in the city. Use every opportunity at restaurants and on the train to sit, even if it's for a little while. It will help in the long run!
Considerations:
Japanese hotels are very small. We opted to pay a little more to have a hotel with some leg room, so that we could have a space to walk through, even with our suitcases open.
Most bakeries and restaurants open at 10-11am. This makes finding breakfast spots a little challenging, so we ended up eating convenience store food for breakfast. It also gave us a different perspective on how to plan for our day. Some people prefer to explore the parks, shrines, and temples in the morning to avoid crowds and since not much is open yet.
Google maps and Google translate helped us get around so much. You don't need to know English to order food or get around the major cities. A lot of restaurants have English menus and self order kiosks.
Japan does not have many public trash cans. Bring a plastic bag in your backpack for your trash. If you buy and eat convenience store food, I noticed they sometimes have trash cans inside for customers to dispose of wrappers after eating.
We did our best to follow all Japanese customs and etiquette. Japanese people value peace and quiet on train rides and do not eat and walk at same time. We whispered on the train only as needed and ate all of our on the go food right outside of the convenience store or place it was purchases at.