We’re back! We were awake for about 22 hours for the trip home, I slept 11 hours last night! I’ve uploaded my best photos to a Flickr album here, although I’m still working on the captions.

I posted most of them to Instagram as I went, here they are:

The fact that Adam speaks some Japanese made a huge difference in terms of how friendly people were and what we were able to do! But as a first-time traveller to Japan, here’s what I learned from this trip and would tell other first-timers:

  • Outside the big cities, many places are cash only. Many places that take credit cards require a plastic card (not phone pay).
  • Wear comfortable shoes that you can walk 20K-30K steps a day in. This is our typical travel style, but I think even people who don’t typically walk a lot will walk a lot in Japan. Make sure they can slip on and off easily for no-shoes areas. I wore APL TechLoom Travelers, and I later saw a Skechers knockoff on sale for $50 so I bought those too, and BOY could you tell the difference at about 15K steps in a day. The APLs were comfortable even on hiking/long walk days.
  • It rained more than we expected. Bring a good umbrella and waterproof shoe covers if you’re going during a somewhat rainy season!
  • Get a Suica card and add it to your Apple Wallet (NOT the Suica app). Go to Apple Wallet —> + —> add transit card —> Japan —> Suica. Then download the Suica app (NOT the Suica mobile app). Add some money to the Suica card before you get there, so you’re ready to take the train from the airport. Then you’ll be set up to tap your phone to pay for all local transit systems throughout Japan.
  • Once you have the Suica Card, get the SmartEx app for Shinkansen tickets (it requires a Suica number).
  • In Kyoto, expect many popular sites to be crowded. Don’t go to Arayashima bamboo forest, which is PACKED, look up the locations of other bamboo forests that are just as nice. There isn’t really anything special about Arayashima.
  • Japan has almost no animal welfare laws. The number of animal cafes have expanded, and no matter how well a cafe promises to treat their animals, there is no universe in which a wild animal, such as an owl, hedgehog, or otter being handled by strangers all day is a humane environment for that animal. Resist the temptation to patronize them.
  • Related: Be prepared to see pet stores selling puppies and kittens. I didn’t expect this and it was jarring and upsetting.
  • Carry a small container of hand soap, or sheets of paper soap, as many public bathrooms don’t have soap.
  • In Nara, raise both empty hands in the air to show the deer you are out of crackers. Otherwise they may bite you! They understand the “hands up” gesture very well.
  • Stairs and escalators have specific rules about where to walk and stand, and it’s not consistent. Look for signs.
  • No walking and eating. If you buy food at a street food stall, you’re expected to stand next to the stall and eat it.
  • If it’s your first time in Tokyo, stay in Shibuya or Shinjuku where you’ll be near all the major rail lines, which you’ll take everywhere.
  • If you’re not from a city, don’t be intimidated about taking transit everywhere. Google Maps has good directions, and things are color-coded and signed well in English.
  • As in Europe, many double-occupancy hotel rooms only have a “full” size bed (NOT enough room for 2 people!). I like to use Booking.com to sort for hotels where the bed is either a Queen or King.
  • Carry a plastic bag for garbage, as trash cans are few and far between and you may need to carry it for a long time.
  • Bring a coin purse or something to keep coins in, you’ll end up with a lot.
  • At food establishments, each person is expected to order an item, and they can be very persnickety about insisting on the rule. For example, Adam and I went to a mostly-empty dessert pancake shop on a weekday afternoon, and wanted to share a very large pancake set with ice cream. We were required to order a drink (I got coffee) so we would each be ordering one item. We also encountered a “1 drink minimum” rule at a nicer restaurant where we spent about $50 pp.
  • Don’t let reports that Japan is overtouristed stop you. Some of the most popular spots in Kyoto were packed at midday, but that was the only place we encountered uncomfortable crowding. It’s a beautiful and interesting country that’s worth visiting. With the weak yen, it’s also surprisingly cheap if you are used to living in San Francisco!