There are a lot of things that you
should know before traveling to Japan, but I'm sure that you already know that because
you clicked on the video. So here we go: 50 things you should know before traveling to
Japan, as a sample of my brand new travel guide, Beyond The Tourist Trail, which is out now
on my website. Starting with number one, you should always carry cash on you because you're
almost certain to come across a restaurant or a shop or something that doesn't accept credit
cards. Number two, wear your most comfortable walking shoes because you will be doing a lot
of walking in Japan. Number three is that you should always keep your passport on you for legal
purposes. If you're ever stopped by the police in Japan for any reason, they're going to ask you
for either your residence card or your passport, so just always have it on you just in case.
Number four, have your passport on you for tax purposes. If you're going to be buying anything
expensive, like electronics and things like that, if you present your passport, then you can get it
tax-free. So yay for cheap shopping. Number five is the big one: masks. Can't wait to get into this
topic. Technically, Japan has not now nor ever had a mask mandate per se. They've just had a lot
of recommendations from the government. So that means that 99.9% of Japanese people are wearing
masks at all times. Recently, Japan has actually downgraded the classification of the severity
of COVID, so now it's on the same level as the flu. They are now recommending and encouraging
people to take off their masks outside. My kind of general rule that I go by: if I am indoors,
on public transport, or in a crowded place, I put on a mask. If I'm outside or I'm walking
by myself, I take it off, and nobody has been offended thus far. So I recommend that you do
the same. Speaking of COVID, Japan still has entry procedures, so you either have to be fully
vaccinated and boosted and have proof of that, or you need to have a negative PCR test taken within
72 hours of boarding your flight to go to Japan. You have to log all of this online via a website.
I will leave a link for that down below. Make sure that you do that before getting to your flight
because you will waste money otherwise. To get the most out of your trip, you should definitely
get internet. You can just get it at the airport, and the prices are pretty competitive. You can
get either a SIM card or a Wi-Fi egg. A Wi-Fi egg is kind of like a portable router, so if
you're traveling in a group of people, then that can be a really economical option. But keep
in mind, it'll be a little bit slower, and you will have to charge it every night, but the choice
is up to you. This next one's for the Americans: you don't need to tip in Japan. I've heard some
people say that it's like rude to tip in Japan. I wouldn't say it's rude, but I would say it's
unnecessary and just kind of confusing. The main three travel locations in Japan are Tokyo, Osaka,
and Kyoto. They're often referred to as the Golden Triangle, which means that there will be a lot
of people there. So I highly recommend going off the beaten track into lesser-known places,
which brings me to my brand new travel guide, Beyond The Tourist Trail, which is now available
on my website. Japan is constantly rated as one of the top travel destinations in the world, and
places can get insanely busy. What do you think, Andrew? It's my own personal nightmare, which
is why I've created the ultimate travel guide to help you avoid the crowds and have a truly
unique experience in Japan. Beyond The Tourist Trail is an e-book with over 150 pages of 20 top
hidden gems and 100+ extra off-the-beaten-track locations. It includes step-by-step travel tips,
exact location pins, public transport information, and maps presented beautifully in one
easy-to-access PDF. I've been living in Japan for over eight years now, so I know that
there is so much free advice out there already. But one thing that I've noticed with this advice
is that it's hard to know if they're speaking from experience or if they just went to Japan that one
time for a week and threw together a list/video. I've personally seen some very, very big YouTubers
give some inaccurate and frankly just bad advice for traveling to Japan. I've personally traveled
to every single hidden gem listed in this guide, so I know that my advice is accurate, realistic,
and thorough. I'm already giving you a lot of tips in this video, but there's even more
of them in the guide, along with Japanese phrases that you should learn and even a survival
guide for vegans and vegetarians. This is the first time that all of my travel tips and favorite
locations have ever been compiled together in one place. So avoid the crowds, support the
locals, and get ready for a truly unique experience in Japan with Beyond The Tourist Trail,
available now. Link in the description. Thank you so much. I've spent so much time and effort on
this, and I think you're going to love it. Oh, I need a drink of water. There are very few trash
cans around in the city and at train stations and stuff, so just keep your trash with you and
throw it out when you get back to the hotel. Number 11: There are so many staircases in Japan, so try to avoid changing hotels and traveling
with a large suitcase as much as possible. Number 12: There are two times of the
year that you should not travel to Japan: they are Golden Week and Obon. These are
two groups of public holidays in Japan, so that's when all of the
Japanese companies go on holiday, which means that a lot of places will
be shut and everywhere will be busy. So just look up those dates on the internet. They
change every year, but avoid them at all costs. There is a particular scam that happens in Tokyo
that generally targets foreign men. I'm not super familiar with it, but a bunch of YouTubers
have made videos about it already. Basically, the gist of it is that you get lured into
a club, you talk to these pretty girls, and you buy drinks for you and for
them. But what you don't realize is that the drinks are like hundreds of
dollars, and you can walk away with a bill that's like $5,000. So watch those videos
mentioned, and, yeah, avoid them if you can. This next one is less of a tip and more of a
plug, but there are still spots available on my "Travel With Me" trip happening in August this
year. So if you would like to travel to some of the places actually listed in my travel
guide and you'd like to travel with me, go and check out the link in the description
for that.The next category is for transport. Number one, buy yourself a tap-and-go public
transportation card. So, this is either Pasmo, Suica, or Icoca. Very easy, very convenient.
You can use it on buses and on trains, and you can also use it at the convenience store,
which is very, very handy when you're on the train in Japan. Please try to talk as quietly as you
can and don't eat anything because these would be considered rude. Taxis in Japan are quite
expensive, so I avoid them as much as I can, especially to and from the airport because it can
be over a hundred dollars one way. While we're on the topic, Uber, Lyft, ride-share apps, those
are not really a thing in Japan. Like, you can download it and you can still use it, but it won't
send you a ride-sharing-like random dude. It will just hail you a taxi, so it's convenient, but
you're not going to save any money. Personally, I always just use Google Maps to plan my public
transportation trips in Japan. For trains and buses, I've heard a lot of people say that
other apps are better or more accurate. I have never had any issues with Google Maps. It's very
accurate, it's very reliable, it tells you, like, how much it is, the departure time, duration,
what platform you should get on. It even tells you what train carriage to get in for a faster
transfer at your next station. It's great. Big fan of Google Maps. Trains in Japan usually stop
at around 12:30 or 1:00 AM, so plan accordingly. The next category is for driving. If you could
drive in Japan, I highly, highly recommend it. It'll make things a lot easier for you. Not
every country is eligible for an international driver's permit, so go check out the link in the
description to see if your country is. If you are going to drive in Japan, I've heard people
say that they're very nervous about the idea. Personally, I don't think you've got anything to
worry about unless you plan on driving through Shibuya Crossing and the back alleys of Higashi
Osaka, which I did that one time in my Jeep. I found it to be quite normal. Japanese drivers
tend to be quite safe and non-aggressive, so yeah, I haven't had any issues with it. Signs are
often written in Japanese and in English, and yeah, the speed limits are quite lenient. The next category is language barriers. English
proficiency is quite low in Japan, so I highly recommend learning some Japanese phrases for
travel on the go. I have made a whole video about that, so go check it out, and it's also a whole
section in my travel guide, available now on my website. If you don't speak any Japanese at all
and you're speaking to someone who doesn't speak much English, speak very slowly, as few words
as possible, and very simple words. This sounds like common sense, but I swear some people just
have no idea. A lot of Japanese words are English loanwords. For example, "toilet" is pronounced as
"to-i-re" in Japanese. If you're not sure how to say a word, you can slow it down and elongate each
syllable. For instance, "speaker" is pronounced as "su-pee-kah." Wow, fluent. "Hotel" - "Ho-te-ru" Now I can speak Japanese! The Google Translate
camera function can translate any written Japanese text for you, and the Google Translate
voice-to-text function can speed up conversations. If you're a photographer and want to take
a photo of a geisha or a maiko in Kyoto, please try to be courteous and remember
that in the Gion district it's actually forbidden. This is because a lot
of photographers were acting like paparazzi and chased after them,
which got in the way of their work. In some temples and shrines, as well as busy
locations, tripods are forbidden. If you want to fly a drone in Japan, it's not as complicated
as some websites make it seem. Just follow the rules and don't fly in any cities at all, since
it's a no-fly zone due to the high population density. I've made a whole video about it, so
go check it out. Unfortunately, as of June 2022, you now have to register your drone online and
have some kind of remote ID function set up. It's not super complicated, but it is time-consuming.
Unless you're traveling out to the countryside a lot and want to get a lot of drone footage, it
might not be worth it for you. The link is in the description. Also, the 250 gram rule doesn't apply
in Japan; it's 100 grams, so keep that in mind. The next category is food. I think you should
try all of it because it's great! The food hygiene standards are very high in Japan, so it's
unlikely that you'll get sick from it. It's also legal to drink on the streets, and convenience
stores sell alcohol available at any time of the day so have fun. Speaking of drinks, tap water is
safe to drink in Japan. Some people say it's not, but those people would be lying because I've
been drinking it for eight years, and I'm fine. Seriously, it's safe to drink, so you don't
have to buy plastic water bottles all the time. If you're a vegan or vegetarian, it can
be quite tricky but not impossible to travel in Japan. I've made a whole video
about the topic so go check it out, and I also recommend using the Happy Cow app
to find the closest restaurant. Or you could also buy my travel guide that has a
whole section for vegans and vegetarians. In the countryside, it's not uncommon
for restaurants and places to be closed on a random day of the week for no reason. It's
just like that sometimes. Some restaurants also close between 2 PM and 6 PM or 5 PM, so make sure
you have lunch on time to avoid disappointment. This next category is for the ladies. Japan is
quite safe for solo travelers. I do it all the time hence my YouTube channel. However, there
have been many bad experiences that I've had with men here. Yeah, it's a really big topic, and
I don't know what the right answer is. There's so much more I could go into about it, but for now,
I would just say that it's something you should be aware of. I wouldn't trust when people say
Japan is completely safe because a lot of women would disagree with that. In general, I would
say I feel a lot safer walking down a street at night time in Japan than I would in Australia
or America. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that there are a lot of people around in
Japan, so there are a lot of witnesses. But yeah, you know, there are still a lot of things that
I'm quite cautious of. Dressing modestly is quite important in Japan, but the standards
are quite different from what is considered very normal in the West. So, for example, you
can wear shorts and skirts and things in Japan, and that's fine. But if you're wearing a tank top
or like spaghetti straps or showing off your legs, décolletage, that is considered to be
quite revealing in Japan. And I only realized this like six years into
living there. But in saying that, you can still just dress at your own comfort
level. It's just something you should be aware of. Speaking of modesty, another rule that
I only found out in the past couple of years is that apparently, if you're wearing
shorts that are tight against your skin, that is okay. But if you're wearing shorts that
kind of come out a little bit, that's considered risqué or just risky in general because people
could take a photo up your skirt or your shorts, which has happened to me, actually. Yeah, so
that's the reason why if you buy an iPhone in Japan, then you can't turn off the camera
shutter sound even if you put it on silent. Hi, quick editor's note here, I should also
probably add that I don't know this for a fact. This is just something that a Japanese man
has told me in the past, but I don't know. I'm sure everyone has their own different opinions
about it. It's a touchy topic. It just pun, uh, basically I'm not speaking for the entirety of all
of Japan when I say this. Yeah, it's subjective. So, if you would like to curb any of these
unwanted advances when you're catching the train in peak hour, they will have ladies-only
carriages, so that will make you feel a lot safer. Other things that I have personally done
in the past that I think has worked because I haven't been jakant to recently, I dress more
incognito. I don't wear as bright colors. I don't wear spaghetti straps and stuff like
that anymore. I have a less approachable face, and I've also aged, so that has
worked out well for me, actually. In all seriousness, though, I know I'm
joking about it, but this is a very serious and big issue that a lot of women in
Japan have had to deal with, myself included. So, yeah, it's something that you should
be aware of if you're traveling there. It's generally quite safe, but there are
things that you should be aware of. The next category is experiences. If you want
to stay at a Japanese-style hotel or a ryokan, be prepared to pay per person per night. Not every
place will do this, but just be aware of that when you're booking it. Please, please, please try
going to an onsen. They are amazing, and they're like my favorite experience ever. And it's not as
weird as you would think it is to bathe naked with strangers. It's liberating, it's body-positive,
I'm a big fan of it. Speaking of onsens, if you have a very large tattoo, unfortunately,
you won't be allowed into most onsens unless they are specifically like a tattoo-friendly onsen. But
if you have, like, a small tattoo or just, like, a little baby one, you could probably cover that
with a bandage or a Band-Aid plaster, whatever you want to call it. Sports tape and normal notice,
just don't tell them I told you to. Yes, you can wear a kimono in Japan, and nobody will think it's
weird or inappropriate. I've made a whole video about that, so go check it out. Whichever, it's
on the last category, which is culture. So I'm sure that you already know that generally, Japan
is quite a polite and respectful society. So, uh, just be on good behavior, you know, be courteous,
respectful, all of that. I say this, though, I was reminded of it because I'm in Australia at the
moment, and I saw a kid the other day just, like, full on, like, karate kick one of the pedestrian
buttons that you normally press with your hand. He kicked it with his foot, and I was like, oh,
wow, culture shock. And that brings me to my last point, which is, uh, if you, accidentally
break a rule or you do something culturally disrespectful or something like that by accident,
I really wouldn't stress about it. Generally, Japanese people will see foreigners and, if I can
say particularly Caucasian foreigners, they'll kind of give them a free pass just in general
and be like, well, they don't know the rules, even if you have been living there for eight
years. It's a blessing and a curse, so honestly, I just have seen a lot of these videos around,
and they're like, it's so disrespectful to eat while walking, and it's like, eh! I don't
know, people draw these giant conclusions that I don't think are necessary. I think Japanese
people are very polite, and they are hospitable, usually. I think you're gonna have a great time,
and I don't think that you should worry too much about accidentally doing the wrong thing. Just
be polite and courteous, and everything will be fine. And that's it. Holy cow, what a long,
long video. Ah, I hope that this was as helpful and as valuable to you as I hope it was. That
was a bad sentence, but I hope you enjoyed it. Um, go and check out my travel guide if you
haven't already, and yeah, thank you for watching. Bye. In the nick of time, oh my gosh, I've just
run out of space on the SD card. I need a snack.
