General Information

1. General Information on Japan

Japan is a rather huge place - let's get a lay of the land first:

Japan is actually not just one island, but a multitude of different islands. The 5 main islands are called Hokkaido (North), Honshu (the "main body" of the island and where almost all inhabitants live), Shikoku (smallest of the main islands and right West of Osaka), Kyushu (South, where Nagasaki is located) and Okinawa (in the Pacific Ocean to the south of the other main islands).

Since it's a rather elongated country spanning roughly 4.000km from North to South, there are very different climates and things to do across the country. For example, it's very easy to go skiing in January in the mountainous north (Hokkaido), while temperatures can be a nice and warm 25°C in January in the pacific island south (Okinawa). Among other reasons, this makes Japan such a nice place to travel, since you can find something for everyone.

Keep this in mind whenever there's any advice on clothing and weather, since the type of vacation you will have and the type of clothes you need will tremendously depend on what place you're travelling to.

2. Distances

To give you a rough idea of how far apart certain cities and places are, and also to give you an idea of how incredibly fast the fast trains are, here are some examples of how long it takes Station-to-Station when taking the Shinkansen:

Osaka -> Hiroshima: ~90min

Osaka -> Tokyo: ~2 hours 30min

Tokyo -> Hakodate (southern part of Hokkaido): ~4 hours 20min

To the island of Okinawa, you can only take a flight that will take about 2 hours from Osaka.

3. Chiiya's Home: The Kansai Region

As you can imagine, there is a tremendous amount of sights and places to visit in Japan, and not everything is necessarily very easy to reach with a direct Shinkansen connection. That's why we aim at showing you some of our favourites that we've visited before. We'll start with the place that Chiiya calls home, and will include more places throughout Japan in the next couple of weeks.

The Kansai region includes multiple provinces and literally translates to "West of the Tallgate (of Osaka". It includes multiple sights and cities, such as Osaka, Kobe, Nara, Kyoto, Wakayama. As we've mentioned before, Osaka can be a good travel hub for you if you want to visit different places in this region, since most places can be reached via train easily.

Check out the different "Things to do..." pages for the respective travel destinations within Kansai.

4. Money and how to get it in Japan

Currently, about 155 Japanese Yen are equal to 1 Euro. There are bills for 1.000, 5.000 and 10.000 Yen, with the 10.000 Yen bill already being the largest available. There are plenty of coins as well, the biggest of which is worth 500 Yen.

Japan is a very cash-heavy country, so make sure to carry quite a bit of cash with you at all times. Having multiple 10,000 Yen bills in your wallet is absolutely normal and not unusual. Since many local places such as restaurants, cafes, supermarkets, etc. often do not (!) accept any card payments, plan ahead and always keep enough cash on you. Hotels (particularly in the bigger cities) usually accept credit cards.

Cash can be withdrawn at pretty much any ATM, with varying fees. As always: Ideally make sure that your bank doesn't charge any fees for withdrawing cash at an ATM abroad. We use the debit cards from comdirect that allow entirely free cash withdrawals outside of the EU up to 3 times a month, using the current and best exchange rates. Some ATMs/ banks in Japan incur fees on your transaction though. While there might be better options that even don't charge any fees, we tend to use the 7/11 ATMs, since 7/11s are virtually at every single cornor of Japan and every store so far had its own ATM. They charge 110 Yen (~70 Cents) for withdrawals of up to 10,000 Yen, and 220 Yen (~1,40€) for withdrawals of up to 100,000 Yen. 100,000 Yen is often also the maximum you can withdraw in one single transaction. Lastly, depending also on if your bank charges extra for foreign currency translation, it is very likely the way better option for you to NOT accept the Euro amount the Japanese ATM will propose to you. They use way worse exchange rates so that it's highly likely you'll get the way better deal to keep everything in Yen and have your home bank do the evaluation on current exchange rates.

5. Tipping and Paying

This is a straight-forward topic: Tipping does not exist in Japan. Don't try to tip either to be nice or to show appreciation - people might consider this to be rude and an insult to the service they provide. Outside of maybe crazy touristic places where some people might try to rip you off and "expect" or ask for a tip, tipping is not a thing: Not in restaurants, not in bars, not in the taxi.

Instead, what you can do, is to hand over the money properly to show appreciation and cultural understanding: Always hand money flat with both hands holding it, with the faces on the bills pointing to the person you are giving the money to. Anything given in Japan with appreciation is usually handed (and received!!) with both hands gently and kindly, e.g. also business cards, gifts, letters, etc. If there is a small elongated plate on the counter of e.g. a restaurant, you're supposed to put the money there. Still put the money there with both hands, but you can put it there instead of handing it personally to the other person.

Paying is often not done at the table, but rather at the entrance of a restaurant or bar.

6. Cost of Living

This is a rather individual topic based on your living standard, cost of living, and expectations. Japan has the reputation to be very pricey and expensive.

Personally, I (Tim) do not think that reputation is just. Yes, you can spend 75€ on a watermelon at the Ginza in Tokyo and yes, you can easily spend hundreds of Euros on food or one night at a hotel. But you can do that pretty much anywhere around the world (except maybe regarding the watermelon, but we'll get to that later).

As a rule of thumb: If you try to eat, drink, and generally live, exactly the way you are used to in Germany, you will spend more in Japan than you do in Germany. That's simply because Japanese do not eat, drink, and generally live, the way Germans do and hence, many of the products we consider commodities or "cheap", are the exact opposite in Japan and vice verca.

A good example is wine: Yes, Japan does have white and red wine from all across the world. But you'll likely pay a significant premium on the exact same bottle you buy in Europe. However, if you instead drink what Japanese would drink, e.g. local Japanese beer, Sake (Japanese rice wine) or Umeshu (Japanese plum wine), you'll get better quality for less money as if you bought the same Sake or Umeshu in Europe. Particularly high quality sake tends to be vastly cheaper than abroad. Of course this all makes sense since it's all about what is "naturally" locally available and what isn't, but it's still worth to highlight this here.

So, here are some examples of random items and activities and their corresponding cost for one person, if not denoted otherwise:

• Singe train ticket for one connection: ~180 Yen // 1,10€
• Business Hotel rooms off-season in mid-sized towns (such as e.g. Hiroshima, Fukuoka, etc.): ~55-85€
• One onigiri (from an Onigiri shop, not the convenience store): ~ 350-550 Yen // 2,25€-3,54€
• Average "lunch menu" set with multiple smaller dishes next to the main (mains like assorted tempura on rice, maybe some sashimi on rice, Karaage, bowl of udon, etc.): ~900-1,500 Yen // 5,80€-9,70€
• Bowl of decent ramen: ~900-1,800 Yen // 5,80€-11,60€
• Plate for two of fresh and high quality assorted sashimi (bought in higher quality supermarket): 1,000-2,500 Yen // 6,45€-16,12€
• Tall glass of beer (~0,4l) in most bars: 300-550 Yen // 1,93€-3,50€
• Small bottle of sake (~0,15l) in bars: starting at 700 Yen // starting at 4,50€
• Glass of wine (~0,1l) in bars or restaurants: usually 4-digits (>6,50€), but depends on many factors
• Mixed plate of assorted sushi at decent but not crazy sushi restaurant (ca. 10 pieces): ~ 1,500-2,000 Yen // 9,67€-12,90€
• A night out with food and drinks in typical Izakayas: ~ 4,000-6,000 Yen // 25,80€-38,70€
• Japanese BBQ with Wagyu: ~6,000-10,000 Yen // 38,70€-64,50€ (this is not the same as Wagyu steak mind you)

Keep in mind that in Japan often the net prices are displayed (= without tax), but the gross price (= including tax) is often in smaller letters right next to it. This isn't always the case, but often found. VAT is at 10% in Japan. The prices indicated above already include tax.

Also, some bars and restaurants charge seating or placement fees, as sometimes done in e.g. Italy. Usually, you do get some smaller snacks or nibbles though in return. These fees are usually around 200-400 Yen (1,30-2,58€) per person/ seat.

Now lastly, on the topic of the crazy expensive fruit sometimes found in Japan: Yes, you can find fruit for very high prices in Japan. That's usually for absolutely perfect pieces of fruit of exceptional quality meant as a treat and gift to someone. No one in Japan simply buys a watermelon worth 75€ just to eat it by themselves. You can find absolutely stunning looking apples, strawberries, melons, grapes, pears, and much more - it may sound silly, but I've seen some of the most beautiful looking fruit ever in Japan. The taste is absolutely outstanding as well - we sometimes treat ourselves to an apple that costs 5€ or a set of 8 huge strawberries worth 10€. But: There's "normal" fruit as well at the same price range (and often way better quality) as Germany :)