Before traveling to Japan, I highly recommend that you do considerable research. Otherwise, you’ll waste a lot of time trying to figure things out. I did a lot of research, but there were still moments when I found myself confused. I can’t imagine the amount of time I would have lost if I’d done no research at all.
This article is my effort to spare you some of the confusion I experienced while there, thus allowing you to spend more time enjoying Japan rather than wandering at random. I also hope to save you some stress!
Japanese currency. In order to negotiate your way in Japan, you first have to understand Yen. The best way I know to compare Yen to U.S. currency is to imagine if the U.S. only traded in cents and no dollars. Therefore, what we now call a dollar would be 100 cents, a $5 bill would be 500 cents, a $10 bill would be 1,000 cents, and so on. This is how Yen works, and one Yen is currently almost equivalent to one U.S. penny. So 100 Yen is about $1US, 500 Yen is about $5, etc. I coped by just knocking off the last two zeroes, and while the exchange rate wasn’t exact, it was very close. You’ll want to check the exchange rate when you go, of course, as this could change, requiring you to make some adjustments.
That said, 1,000 Yen is the smallest paper money you’ll get in Japan. Five hundred Yen and anything smaller will be in coin form. This is actually common in most parts of the world. Few other countries have bills in as small denominations as we have in the U.S.
ATM machines in Japan. Not all ATM machines in Japan work with international cards. It’s counterintuitive, but few cash machines at banks will give you currency unless you have an account in Japan. Instead, use the ATMs in the many 7-Eleven stores, Family Marts, or Lawson stores. (Family Mart and Lawson are convenience stores that are similar to 7-Eleven.) I preferred the 7-Eleven cash machines because I could usually get 10,000 Yen in ten 1,000 Yen notes rather than a single 10,000 Yen note. Nevertheless, even though 10,000 Yen is almost equivalent to $100US, most stores and taxi drivers will take this note from you in payment.
Credit cards in Japan. Japan is still largely a cash society. People don’t use credit and debit cards nearly as much as we do in the U.S. and Europe. So you’ll need to know about the ATMs! Your hotel and some restaurants and big department stores, however, will take your credit cards. I got 30,000 Yen in the U.S. before leaving so that I had some funds upon arrival.
Paying for your subway rides. Before you take the subway in Tokyo, the first thing to do is find a machine in one of the stations that sells “Pasmo” or “Suica” cards. These machines are well-marked and easy to find, and you can press a button on the touchscreen to get the instructions in English. Most subway rides cost 170-300 Yen ($2-$3) depending upon the distance of your ride. Note that you’ll have to insert cash into the machine to purchase your card!
You’ll be charged a small deposit for the card (Pasmo currently charges 500 Yen), which you can get back, along with any remaining balance, if you turn in the card before you leave Japan (more on that in a moment). Since I could get any excess money back, I went ahead and put 10,000 Yen on my Pasmo card immediately so that I wouldn’t need to top it up anytime soon.
How to enter the subway. When you find the subway line you want to take, you’ll see locals putting cards into the entrance machines, and the cards will pop up on top for them to retrieve and take with them. If you have a Pasmo or Suica card, YOU WON’T DO THIS! Instead, you’ll see a large round circle (usually blue with the letters “IC”) on the front of each entranceway (similar to a New York City subway turnstile), and you’ll just tap your card there. The entrance will open for you, and you can walk through and follow the signs to find your subway line.
How to exit the subway. Keep your card handy because you’ll have to tap it again as you exit. This is how the system determines where you began and where you ended in order to calculate the cost of your ride. This is much the same as the systems in London, Washington DC, and San Francisco, but it’s entirely different from the subway system in New York City, which costs a flat rate regardless of the distance of your ride.
If you’re changing trains, you may not have to exit the subway and tap your card until you reach your destination. This varies, however, because different companies run the lines in Japan. In Kyoto, for example, I took a Metro and then a local train that was run by a different company. In order to switch between these trains, I had to tap my Pasmo card to exit the subway and retap it when I passed through the entrance to the second train.
Pasmo and Suica cards don’t just work in the subway. I’ll tell you more about how to find your subway line in a moment, but first I want to tell you a bit more about the Pasmo and Suica cards. Since credit cards aren’t used so much, I loved having a substantial amount of money on my Pasmo card. I was able to use it in taxis, on buses, and even in some stores. When you’re in a taxi, look for the Pasmo or Suica card symbol on the windows. When it’s time to pay, show the driver your card, and he’ll show you how to use it in the taxi.
These cards also work in most Japanese cities. I used mine in Kyoto and Osaka as well. So again, I highly recommend putting at least 10,000 Yen on it right from the start.
Finding out your balance and topping up your Pasmo and Suica cards. There are yellow “Fare Adjustment” machines and other Pasmo/Suica card machines in the subway stations that allow you to check your card’s balance and add more money to it. You can add as little as 1,000 Yen and as much as 20,000 Yen.
What to do if your card stops working for no apparent reason. I walked into the wrong station one day and had to exit just a few minutes later. As a result, the system seemed to think my card had been stolen, and it was deactivated. When I tried to enter the Tokyo Metro again, the card wouldn’t work. So I went to the manned window at the subway entrance and asked them to check the card for me. They reactivated it immediately, and I was good to go.
Getting your money back on your Pasmo and Suica cards. When you’re reluctantly ready to leave Japan and know you won’t need your card anymore, go to the manned window at any subway entrance and ask to turn in your card. You’ll be given your deposit and any amount remaining on the card. I did this at the subway station below the terminals at Narita Airport.
Unlimited Tokyo Metro day passes. If you aren’t staying long in Tokyo, you can also opt to buy an unlimited one-day subway pass for 800 Yen (about $8US). If you’re going to ride public transportation in other cities, however, I still suggest going with Pasmo or Suica.
Finding your subway line. The GPS on my phone was helpful in giving me a subway route to my destinations. It told me which line to take and where to change trains, if necessary. First, you have to determine the line you need to take – notice both the name and the color. Then, you need to detemine the direction.
For example, the Marunouchi line starts at Hosancho station or Ogikubo station (depending on the route – unless you’re taking the train that far out, it won’t affect you) and ends at Ikebukuro station. If you start at the Shinjuku-sanchome station and want to go to Ginza station, you would take the Marunouchi line in the direction of Ikebukuro. For your return trip, you would take the Marunouchi line going toward Hosancho or Ogikubo.
See if you can find that line on this map and follow along with my directions above. If you aren’t accustomed to taking subways, it can be helpful to determine a couple of routes before you leave home. That way, you’ll feel more comfortable figuring it out once you arrive in Japan.
Note that sometimes the train going in the opposite direction will be on the track on the other side of the same platform, so make sure you get on the train going in the right direction. The signs on the wall behind the tracks also include the name of the station just before and just after the station you’re currently in. This is helpful because if you get at all confused as to whether you’re headed in the right direction, check the map or the route on your GPS to see which station should be next on the line you’re taking toward your direction. An arrow on the sign behind the track will also point in the direction the train will go.
You’ll also see electronic monitors overhead in most stations that tell you when the trains will be arriving. You’ll see the Marunouchi line to Ikebukuro at ____ time, for example. This information will switch back and forth between Japanese and English.
Within most cars, there are additional electronic monitors that tell you the next stop. I suggest determining how many stops you’ll have and then following along so that you don’t miss your stop. Announcements are also made on the subways in both Japanese and English to tell you which stop is next and where you have just arrived.
Etiquette when waiting for the subway train. Stand in line behind others at the train entrances. At most stations, you’ll see outer doors on the platform that open before the train doors open. Don’t block the way for exiting passengers!
Exit signs in subway stations. Exits in the Tokyo Metro are marked with black letters on yellow. Many stations will have large signs on the platform with an alphabetical list in English of the main sites and hotels near the subway station, along with the best exit for you to take for the site you want. The exits usually have both a letter and a number, and there can be many exits in any given station. Keep looking for signs until you find your exit. You could save yourself a half hour of walking by taking the proper exit.
If your destination isn’t well-known, I suggest looking on a map beforehand to see what major hotel or tourist attraction is nearby. That way, you can look for the popular destination on the exit list and save yourself excess walking and wasted time by exiting near your desired location.
Try to avoid rush hour. Rush hour in Japan is roughly 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. If you avoid those hours for the most part, you shouldn’t have to deal with horrific crowds.
Don’t get stuck late at night. Most subway lines stop running between 11:00 p.m. and midnight, so if you’re out late and don’t want to take a taxi, double-check the time your line will stop. You can do this through your GPS, or there are signs in the subway with the departure times of your line.
Taking Taxis. You can hail taxis on the street in Tokyo and most other cities in Japan just like you do in New York City. You’ll also find a lot of taxi ranks around major sites, train stations, and hotels. Kyoto has a special fleet of trained “foreign friendly taxis.” You can have your hotel call them for you, or you’ll find them outside the Kyoto train station.
Most of the time, however, your taxi driver in Tokyo and elsewhere will not be fluent in English. For this reason, I printed out maps before I left the U.S. that showed the location of my hotels. I also made sure I had the name of the hotel (and the address, if possible) written in Japanese. If you don’t already have this information before you arrive in Japan, never leave your hotel without asking personnel to write the name and address in Japanese for you. This way, if you get lost or injured and need to take a taxi back to your hotel, you can do it without stress.
Getting around large train stations. Some of the train stations in Tokyo are actually gigantic shopping malls. It’s easy to get lost, and while the signage is good, it’s still insufficient. For example, I needed the West entrance of a station, but when I entered at the East entrance, I saw no signs pointing me west. It wasn’t like the route was a straight shot in one direction. I used the compass on my phone and kept going west as best I could until I finally found a sign that pointed toward the West entrance.
At one point, I needed to find the JR (Japan Rail) office in Tokyo Station, but I got lost trying to locate it with only the help of station signage. My phone’s GPS came to my rescue and helped me find the office within the station.
Japan Rail Pass. The Japan Rail Pass works on trains that go from one city to another. It does not work on subways! It also doesn’t cover every single train line, as Japan has more than I can count. However, it will cover most of the trains you want to take around the country. Be careful, though – there’s also a Japan EAST Rail Pass, but it only covers the eastern portion of the country. Since I planned to go to Kyoto, which is in the west, I needed a basic Japan Rail Pass, which would allow me to use the network anywhere in the country.
Currently, you CANNOT buy your rail pass in Japan, although I hear that might be changing. You can purchase them online or in one of the office locations listed on that website link. What you’ll receive is actually a VOUCHER, not the pass itself. When you arrive in Japan, locate the JR (Japan Rail) office in one of the train stations that accommodates JR trains. (You’ll see the JR sign everywhere.) You may have to wait in line for a bit, but they’ll take your voucher and look at your passport before giving you the actual rail pass. You’ll have to tell them what day you wish to start the pass and what day you wish to end.
I purchased a seven-day pass, but there are different day-lengths that you can buy. I didn’t have to tell anyone in the U.S. what day I wanted to start using my pass, but in Japan, they recorded my beginning and ending dates.
Riding the JR bullet trains. The bullet trains are JR trains called Shinkansen and should be included with your rail pass (just always double-check that the line you want to take is covered by your pass). You can get seat reservations on these trains if you know exactly the time and date of the train you want to take, and I highly recommend that you do this.
If you’re buying individual tickets, you’ll have to pay for your seat reservation. If you have a Japan Rail Pass, however, you can get your reservations for free. You will have to stand in line at a JR office to get them from an attendant, however. It’s one of the few things you can’t do by machine in Tokyo. I suggest that you try to get all of your seat reservations at the same time that you exchange your voucher for your rail pass. This will require that you have a set itinerary, of course. If you don’t want to decide on all of your train trips at the beginning of your stay, just bear in mind that you might end up standing in line at JR offices several times.
If you need to change your seat reservations to a different train time, you can, but again, you’ll probably have to stand in line to do this.
Local JR trains versus Shinkansen trains. One of the things that confused me was that “local” JR trains that are NOT Shinkansen (bullet) trains do NOT allow any seat reservations. All seats on these trains are unreserved. Some of the trains you take with your rail pass may very well be these local trains. So if you ask for a reservation and they tell you, “No, it’s a local train,” what they mean is that there are no reserved seats to be had for those.
See the photo above for an example of a Shinkansen platform. This one shows that you stand within the yellow lines on the right (where you see the suitcase) to wait for Car #8. You’ll see that this entrance to Car #8 is best for Seats 10-17. If your seat is before #10, you would walk left to another entrance for Car #8. I’m not actually sure what the blue sign on the floor indicates. The 6 apparently shows that the next car is the #6. I assume there isn’t a #7 for this particular train, but I’m not certain. The most important information here for my purposes was included in the red square.
Station name confusion. Sometimes, two train stations will have similar names, so make sure you’ve chosen the correct one. For example, Kamakura, a popular tourist destination outside of Tokyo, has both a Kamakura station and a Kita-Kamakura station.
Finding your JR train track and reserved car. The Hyperdia site will be your friend when you want to check JR train schedules and track numbers. Note that each train and schedule has its own name and number (based on the line and the time of departure), so you’ll find it easy to make sure you’re on the right train. The seat reservation ticket you’re given will include the name and number of your train, as well as the car number and seat number of your reservation.
On Hyperdia, you can find out the track number of your train way in advance, which will allow you to scope out the best entrance in the station for your train. This is a good idea since the station sizes can be so daunting. If you don’t scope it out, you’ll find your way to the JR trains eventually, but it might take 20-30 minutes of following signs before you get there. If you’re going to do it blindly, give yourself plenty of time to get to your station. The trains leave right on time!
On the platform and on the overhead monitors, you’ll find the number of the car for your seat reservation. There may even be an indication of which seat numbers will be close to where you’re standing (as you see in the previous photo). You’ll also probably see colored lines painted on the platform, which indicates where people should form a line to wait for that train door to open. If you arrive early, however, don’t stand in line until your train is next. Many earlier trains might leave before yours.
If you don’t get a seat reservation, there are often indicators on the platform as to where the unreserved cars are located. Otherwise, some of the cars with reserved seats include unreserved seats. If you can’t find where to stand in line for an unreserved seat, ask one of the attendants on the platform to help you. They’re usually friendly and can speak enough English to give you the information you need.
Travel light! It’s imperative to travel light in Japan. Try not to take a bag larger than a carry-on. I had a carry-on-sized roller suitcase and a backpack with me. There aren’t many places to keep bags on the Shinkansen, but at the end of each car is a small area for suitcases. A sign will say that you should tell an attendant your bag is there. I recommend doing that and getting permission if your ride is of any length. Otherwise, they reserve the right to remove your bag. There are also racks within the cars above the seats on most trains, and if you can lift your bags, you can store them up there.
If you want to try to put your bag at the end-of-car area, arrive on your platform early to scope out which end of the cars you’ll find that area. In my experience, it varied. I wanted to be the first person in line so that I could make sure there would be room for my bag there. (Theft is possible but not common. I have also left suitcases in these areas on European trains and never experienced a theft.)
If you leave something on the train, there’s a good chance you’ll get it back. I left my backpack on a train in Nara, Japan, and I got it back right away because I realized quickly that it was missing. They had cleared the train before it left the station, and when I went back up to the platform, an attendant was holding my bag. Otherwise, it would have been waiting for me in the lost and found office of the station. There isn’t time to clear every train at every stop, but there’s still a good chance you can get your item back if you report it.
Bicyclists on the sidewalk. This is about navigating as a pedestrian rather than taking the trains or taxis. Watch out for bicyclists on the sidewalks! They’re quiet and fast. I got in the habit of looking behind me before shifting right or left. Before I got in that habit, I was almost hit at least five times by a bicyclist going around me. All it took was one step to the left or right to put me in harm’s way.
Street names. Not every street has a name in Japan. I had read that none of them do, but that isn’t true. The main thoroughfares do indeed have names. But make sure you have data available on your phone so that the GPS is available to you. It will be easier than negotiating a map on the street. My phone’s GPS was my best friend when trying to find my way around. As I mentioned, I was even able to use it to find my way within train stations.
Sometimes, the GPS will be wrong, however, as I’m sure you’ve already discovered while driving in your country. I sometimes checked my GPS a few times en route to see if the directions had changed. For example, I was told by the GPS that I had to walk a half hour to get back to my hotel and that there were no convenient subways available. When I passed a subway station, I checked the GPS again and discovered that I could take a train from there to right under my hotel. It spared me at least ten minutes of walking at the end of the day when my feet were tired.There you have it – my tips for managing Japan. This list is by no means comprehensive, but these hacks should help you as you’re finding your way around.
Melanie Votaw is the Publisher and Executive Travel Writer of LuxuryWeb Magazine. She has visited more than 50 countries on 6 continents and written for such magazines as Executive Travel, Just Luxe, Business Insider, South China Morning Post, Travel Mindset, and more. She is a member of the International Food, Wine & Travel Writers Association, New York Travel Writers Association, and International Travel Writers Alliance. Melanie's photography has won awards, and she has also written 43 nonfiction books as either the author or ghostwriter.
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