Daytime. Ohayou gozaimasu in the morning.
Essentials- Capital
- Tokyo
- Currency
- Yen (¥)
- Language
- Japanese
- Best months
- Mar – May, Oct – Nov
- Visa
- 90 days visa-free
- Daily budget
- $95 mid-range
Japan is the most expensive country in this set and the one where the money buys the most. It is also the only one where a small amount of advance planning changes the trip substantially — the best restaurants take reservations a month out, the rail passes have to be bought before certain deadlines, and the accommodation in Kyoto during cherry blossom sells out the previous autumn.
The food logic is worth understanding before you arrive: Japanese restaurants specialise ruthlessly. A tempura place does tempura. A soba place does soba. The great meals are not at places with long menus — they are at counters with six seats and one thing, often run by the same family for three generations. Chasing famous names is the least efficient way to eat well; walking into the small place with a queue of office workers is the most.
And it is cheaper than its reputation if you eat where Japanese people eat. A standing soba bowl is ¥400. A convenience-store onigiri is ¥150 and genuinely good. The ¥30,000 sushi counter exists, and so does a ¥900 lunch set that is better than most restaurants in Europe.
When to go
Jan: Mixed time to visit
Feb: Mixed time to visit
Mar: Good time to visit
Apr: Best time to visit
May: Best time to visit
Jun: Mixed time to visit
Jul: Avoid time to visit
Aug: Avoid time to visit
Sep: Mixed time to visit
Oct: Best time to visit
Nov: Best time to visit
Dec: Good time to visit
Best Good Mixed Avoid
Late March to May and October to November are the two good windows. Cherry blossom peaks in Tokyo and Kyoto around late March to early April — spectacular, and the single most expensive and crowded week of the year. Autumn colour in November is nearly as beautiful and much easier. June is the rainy season, July and August are hot and humid with typhoon risk. Winter is clear and cold and excellent for the north.
What it costs
| Item | Rate | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Business hotel or ryokan, private | $78 / night | $1,092 |
| Food and drink | $34 / day | $476 |
| 7-day JR Pass plus extra tickets | — | $390 |
| Local metro and buses | $6 / day | $84 |
| Temples, museums, entry | — | $95 |
| SIM or pocket wifi, laundry | — | $55 |
| Fourteen days | $2,192 |
The JR Pass rose sharply in price and no longer pays for itself on a simple Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka trip; run the numbers against individual shinkansen tickets before buying. Accommodation is the immovable line — business hotels are small, spotless and around $70–90, and there is very little below that outside hostels. Food, by contrast, can be done well on $25 a day.
What to eat
Standing soba
¥400–700
Buckwheat noodles at a counter with no seats, eaten in four minutes. Every station has one. The best cheap food in the country.
Tonkatsu set
¥900–1,800
Breaded pork cutlet with shredded cabbage, rice and miso, all refillable. The lunch set is where Japanese restaurants are most generous.
Okonomiyaki
¥800–1,500
Osaka’s cabbage pancake, cooked on the griddle in front of you. Hiroshima’s version layers noodles in and is a different dish worth trying too.
Ramen
¥800–1,400
Regional to an extreme degree: Tokyo shoyu, Sapporo miso, Hakata tonkotsu, Kitakata thick-cut. Buy the ticket from the machine at the door before sitting.
Kaiten sushi
¥100–500 per plate
Conveyor sushi is not a compromise in Japan — the good chains are excellent and a full meal is ¥1,500. Sushiro and Kura are reliable.
Konbini onigiri and egg sandwich
¥150–350
Convenience-store food is genuinely good. The egg sandwich at Lawson and 7-Eleven is a cult item for a reason.
Where to base yourself
| Place | Notes | Nights |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | Base near a Yamanote line station — Nippori, Ueno or Shinjuku. Neighbourhoods are the point: Yanaka, Shimokitazawa, Kōenji. | 5 nights |
| Kyoto | Stay near Kyoto station or in Nishijin, not Gion. Temples at 7am, food in the Nishiki market area and the Kamo river side streets. | 3–4 nights |
| Osaka | The eating city. Base in Namba or Tennōji and treat Kobe and Nara as day trips. | 2–3 nights |
| A rural night — Kanazawa, Takayama or Kōya-san | The thing most first trips omit and most people remember best. Kōya-san temple lodging in particular. | 2 nights |
A route that works
Tokyo: arrive, low ambition
Narita Express or Skyliner in. Eat at a station soba counter and go to bed. Do not plan anything.
Tokyo: east side
Tsukiji outer market at 7am for breakfast, then Asakusa and a walk along the Sumida. Yanaka in the afternoon.
Tokyo: west side
Shibuya and Shimokitazawa, then Shinjuku’s Omoide Yokochō for grilled skewers after dark.
Tokyo: museum and neighbourhood
The Edo-Tokyo or teamLab depending on taste. Kōenji or Nakameguro in the evening.
Day trip: Nikkō or Kamakura
Both an hour or two out. Nikkō for the shrines and mountains, Kamakura for the coast and the great Buddha.
Shinkansen to Kyoto
Two hours twenty. Sit on the right-hand side for Fuji. Afternoon at Fushimi Inari, which is best at dusk when the crowds go.
Kyoto: temples at dawn
Kiyomizu-dera at 6am is a completely different place from Kiyomizu-dera at 10am. Then Nishiki market for lunch.
Kyoto: Arashiyama early, east late
Bamboo grove at 7am. Philosopher’s Path and Ginkaku-ji in the late afternoon.
Day trip to Nara
Forty minutes. Tōdai-ji, the deer, and much less pressure than Kyoto.
Train to Kōya-san
Cable car up to the temple complex. Stay in a shukubō — vegetarian temple dinner, 6am prayers if you want them.
Kōya-san: Okunoin
The cemetery among the cedars, ideally early or after dark when it is lit by lanterns. The most memorable place in Japan.
Down to Osaka
Namba by afternoon. Dōtonbori for the spectacle, then a side street for the actual dinner.
Osaka: eating and Kobe
Kuromon market in the morning, Kobe for an afternoon, back for okonomiyaki.
Osaka: last morning, out
Kansai airport is 40 minutes from Namba on the Rapi:t. Konbini breakfast on the train.
Practical notes
| Arrival registration | Visit Japan Web handles immigration and customs declarations in advance and produces two QR codes that skip the paper queues. Register at services.digital.go.jp/en/visit-japan-web. Not strictly mandatory, but it saves twenty minutes at Narita and Haneda. | |
|---|---|---|
| Visa | 90 days visa-free for most Western passports. Japan requires no advance authorisation, but the Visit Japan Web system for customs and immigration QR codes saves real time at the airport. | |
| Money | Far more cash-based than its reputation suggests. Small restaurants, temples and markets are cash-only. 7-Eleven and Japan Post ATMs accept foreign cards; most bank ATMs do not. | |
| IC cards | Suica or Pasmo for all urban transport and convenience stores. Physical cards had supply problems — the mobile version in Apple or Google Wallet is the reliable route. | |
| Rail passes | The national JR Pass is now ¥50,000 for seven days and often does not pay off. Regional passes (JR West Kansai, JR East) frequently do. Calculate against individual tickets on a fare site first. | |
| SIM | eSIM is the easiest option now — several providers sell 10–30GB for $15–25. Pocket wifi still makes sense for groups. | |
| Luggage forwarding | Takkyūbin services send suitcases between hotels overnight for about ¥2,000. On a multi-city trip with trains, this is the single best money you will spend. | |
| Etiquette | No eating while walking, no phone calls on trains, no tipping ever — it causes genuine confusion. Shoes off where there is a step up. Queue precisely. Take rubbish with you; there are almost no public bins. | |
| Reservations | Anything notable takes bookings weeks out, and many places will not accept foreign bookings without a Japanese phone number. Ask your hotel to call — they will, and it works. | |
Where your time is better spent
The Robot Restaurant-style themed venues and the maid cafés, unless novelty is specifically what you came for. Also skip queueing two hours for a famous ramen shop when there is an excellent one with no queue three streets away — this is true almost everywhere in Japan.
Skip Gion as a base and skip the rented-kimono photo circuit in Kyoto. And do not attempt Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and Hakone in ten days; the shinkansen makes it possible and it will still ruin the trip.
Before you book
Visa rules, park fees and prices in this guide were checked in September 2026 and they move. Confirm entry requirements with your own foreign ministry and current fees with the relevant authority before committing money.
Say It Yourself
Back to the route
Twelve phrases in Japanese
Japanese has no tones and a small, regular set of sounds, so the pronunciation is easier than the writing. Every syllable gets equal weight and the final u in words like desu and mas is almost swallowed. Politeness is built into the grammar, so use the full forms below rather than shortening them.
The long form. Worth saying in full.
EssentialsAlso how you call a waiter. Endlessly useful.
EssentialsSay it at the counter. It will be appreciated.
EatingKudasai is please-give-me. Point first.
EatingOr make a small cross with your fingers.
EatingKa turns any statement into a question.
MoneyAsk before you sit at a small place.
MoneyOften no. Never haggle in Japan.
MoneyDoko is where.
Getting aroundPoliter than opening in English.
Getting aroundStation staff will help immediately.
Getting aroundOne to ten, for price tags
1一ichi
2二ni
3三san
4四yon
5五go
6六roku
7七nana
8八hachi
9九kyuu
10十juu
Kanji numerals appear on menus and set-meal boards. Yen prices use 円 — so 円 after a number is the currency, and 千 is a thousand.
Japan Questions
The four I get asked most
Is the JR Pass still worth it?
Only for genuinely rail-heavy itineraries. Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka return is roughly ¥28,000 in individual tickets against ¥50,000 for the pass. Add Hiroshima and a couple of day trips and it starts to work. Regional passes are usually the better buy.
How much cash should you carry in Japan?
More than you expect. Plan on ¥15,000–20,000 in hand at any time, because small restaurants, temple entry and markets are cash-only, and topping up means finding a 7-Eleven.
Can you travel Japan without Japanese?
Yes. Signage is bilingual, station staff are helpful and translation apps handle menus. The friction is in phone reservations and small rural inns — both solvable via your hotel.
When is cherry blossom, really?
Late March to the first week of April in Tokyo and Kyoto, but it varies by up to two weeks year to year and the peak lasts about five days. If you plan a trip around it, build in flexibility and book accommodation the previous autumn.
Never Miss an Adventure
Weekly travel tips, new videos and exclusive guides — straight to your inbox.