Essential Japan Guides
Nine guides to read before your trip
These cover the situations that most often catch visitors out in Japan: moving around with luggage, paying and eating, going inside buildings, dealing with rubbish, and understanding polite answers. Each guide explains the usual pattern and where it changes from place to place.
Getting around
- Train etiquette in JapanWhere to stand on the platform, what to do with a backpack, and why phone calls on board are a problem.
- A large suitcase on Tokyo trains at rush hourRush-hour crowding explained with the government's own figures, plus luggage-delivery and airport-bus options.
Eating and shopping
- Convenience-store foodFrom the register question "Atatamemasu ka?" to the eat-in tax and where the packaging goes afterwards.
- Paying at restaurantsHow to tell whether you pay first, at the table or at the register — and what an otoshi charge is.
- Using a convenience-store restroomWhat Lawson, FamilyMart, 7-Eleven and MiniStop say about restroom use, and where to go when there isn't one.
Going indoors
- When to remove your shoesThe clues at an entrance that tell you shoes come off, and the slipper rules inside.
- Taking photosTemples, museums, trains and people: what to check before you take a photo, and again before you post it.
Rubbish
- Trash when there's no binWhat to do when there's no bin in sight, what the boxes beside vending machines are for, and which labels to recognise.
Talking with people
- Polite answers and indirect repliesModel conversations for "chotto muzukashii" and "kentō shimasu", and how to confirm what happens next.
Also covered
Bowing in Japan · When to wear a mask · Queueing · How loud is too loud
For things the editor has actually done in Japan — Tokyo Tower's outdoor stairs, the Yamanote Line on foot, a day trip up Mount Fuji — see the Why Japan homepage.
How these guides are made: drafted with AI assistance, then reviewed and edited by a Japan-based editor. Customs and rules differ by place, so treat each guide as a starting point and follow local signs and staff. Editorial policy · Why Japan Editorial Team