Your FIRST HOUR in Japan - 2025 Travel Guide

There are three critical things to take care of in your first hour after landing in Japan. But first, your pre-departure checklist beginning with the most important visa requirements. According to my YouTube analytics, most of you are from countries that are visa exempt for short stays of up to 90 days. But of course, I'll link Japan's official Ministry of Foreign Affairs page down below and you'll want to double check before booking your trip since things can of course always change. Next up is power. Japan uses type A and type B plugs just like the USA and Canada. However, an important note is that even the newest hotels and at most Airbnbs, you'll only find type A wall outlets with the two prongs and no type B wall outlets with that third grounding pin. So if, for example, your laptop uses a three-pronged plug, you'll still want to pack a travel adapter. Third box to check off your pre-departure checklist is emergency cash. Japan is still quite a cash-heavy place. So with that in mind, my recommendation is to have ¥10,000 of backup emergency cash stored separately from your wallet per week you'll be in Japan. Fourth on the pre-departure checklist is to ensure that your cell phone is indeed unlocked. If you plan on using a local SIM card or if you want to use an eSIM, they're definitely worth checking out if you only need data and don't need to make phone calls. Next up is deciding whether or not you want a Japan rail pass. I'm going to save you some time. The answer is basically a definite no. They recently jacked the price up. So unless you're literally taking the bullet train to a different city or prefecture every single day of your trip, don't even bother with that noise. Even if you find it discounted online. What's more, with several domestic budget carriers, it is often literally way cheaper to fly on budget airlines within this awesome country. And finally, before you depart, you need to decide which airport you'll be flying into. I'm assuming the vast majority of you watching are interested in visiting Tokyo as your primary destination. If so, you can fly into either Narita International or Haneda International. If time is of the essence, it's a no-brainer. Haneda is, as you can see, significantly closer to Tokyo, which is what I will be showing in this video. Personally, if pricing is the same, I prefer flying into Haneda but flying out of Narita. And for those who have been with me for a bit, you know exactly why Narita is my outbound airport of choice. Okay, with the five items on the pre-departure checklist done, let's shoot over to the plane because we just hit cruising altitude a few minutes ago and shortly thereafter, the cabin crew came around to hand out two different cards. A white card, which is a foreigner disembarkation card, and a yellow card, which is a customs declaration card. One interesting thing is that on both forms, they actually want you to write your accommodation name as well as the phone number. And as someone who visits Japan quite frequently, at least once or twice a year, I'm done making that mistake. So now as soon as I book the hotels or Airbnb, I make sure to save that phone number in my phone before I leave just so I can refer to it and fill out this form while I'm on the plane. But you can do all of that ahead of time online. I'll link the easy to use website down below, but you may be wondering why I do not use it. It's because look, you have to create an account. Ugh. So yeah, personally, I just fill the two forms out on the airplane. All right, wheels down, gate anchored, and if you are flying in internationally, you will find yourself here at Terminal 3 of Haneda International Airport. Deplaning, you'll follow the crowd and the yellow arrival signs and once you navigate to the immigration hall, you will pass through a thermal heat signature detection camera kiosk that makes sure that you're not running a fever, after which is a lineup for immigration. I landed at about 10 30 a.m. on a Sunday and the lineup was very long, more than 300 deep when I got there. But surprisingly, it only took 25 minutes for me to get to the front of the line. Getting to the immigration officer, you will hand over your passport and either that white disembarkation card or if you completed your disembarkation card online beforehand, you'd present the QR code along with your passport and jump through all of those standard hoops. Once you're through immigration, right away is baggage claim and if you have checked baggage, you will claim them and immediately pass that baggage carousels is customs. As you can see, you can either scan your QR code if you did it online or submit the yellow paper version you filled out on the plane. Once you're through customs, there are three things to take care of. Money, communications, and transportation into the city. Let's talk money. There are international ATMs freaking everywhere but if you'd like a visual, check it out. After submitting my yellow customs declaration form, going left at the customs back search counter and through the sliding doors is the Tokyo Tokyo welcome wall. For a bird's eye view, that welcome wall is right here. Heading out, my recommendation is to use the 7-Eleven banks ATMs which means you'll hook a left turn where all these people are waiting, hug the wall, and it'll be the ATMs right here. I choose 7-Eleven ATMs because one, they've got all of these languages of the statistically highest number of foreign visitors. Two, they capture the widest possible gamut of global interbank networks like Plus and Sirius. And three, because of the transparency. It first displays their own usage fees and even still before you actually commit, it shows this complete breakdown of all of the accounting including in your local currency. So for me, as a Canadian, I can see in the Canadian currency I'm most comfortable with what is precisely being withdrawn from my Canadian bank account. With cash out of the way, we can move on to communications. Again, if you're roaming or using an eSIM, you are good to go and can skip to this timestamp. But if you want to grab a local SIM card or rent a pocket Wi-Fi unit, heading back to that Tokyo Tokyo welcome sign as our point of reference, instead of going left to the ATM and currency exchange, you'll hang a right and go down this hall. On the right side of that hall are two storefronts, Any Phone Japan and Mobile Center. You can price compare, but both will be essentially the same. After all, they're literally right next door to each other. So I just opt for the one with the shorter lineup. Before heading on, I just want to revisit our lovely level 2 arrivals hall map. Once you exit the Customs Hall into Freedom, if instead of either going left to handle your money or to the right to handle your communications, you simply go straight, you'll see a large lonely kiosk called Information. And the staff here speak fantastic English and can point you in the right direction for everything we've discussed so far, just in case you are still unsure. But continuing on in that same direction, just past that information kiosk on your right hand side, is where you'll find the Keikyu train line, which is where more than 90% of you will be headed in order to get into Tokyo. The Keikyu train line corner has three sections. The real human being customer service counter section, followed by the map and ticket vending machine section, and finally the actual passageway to the train platforms. Here at the ticket vending machines, you can see the importance of getting cash first, since as you can see, train tickets here are indeed cash only. If you're headed to Tokyo, the ticket that you'll want is for the trains headed to Shinagawa Station, which is a station in metropolitan Tokyo. It's a hub that connects to the JR lines, as well as the green Yamanote line that forms a ring which stops at many of the most popular areas of Tokyo. One disappointing thing as of the time of recording this video, is that sales for the incredibly convenient Suica and PASMO cards, have been temporarily halted to visitors. These cards like this Suica card I have here is so convenient, because you just tap in at other train stations, buy things at many places including convenience stores, coffee shops, and many retail shops as well. Unfortunately now, only the so-called PASMO passport is available to visitors. It costs 2000 yen or about 15 dollars at the time of recording this video, where you have a non-refundable 500 yen issuing fee for the card itself, and the remaining 1500 yen is a usable balance. Like a standard Suica or PASMO card, you can top it up as you need at any train station self-service machine. I've linked the official PASMO passport site down in the description below, which will answer every question you may have. But this is naturally guiding us to the last part of this video, which are a few very useful tips, especially for first-time visitors. Tip one is, if for any reason, even the PASMO passport happens to be sold out when you arrive, buying individual tickets every single time you use a train or subway is still very simple. Check it out. You'll see these machines amply available at every train or subway station. Walk up, select your language, use the touchscreen keyboard to search for the station you want to go to, tap to select it, and use cash to pay for that single ride ticket. It'll spit out and you can use it to enter the gates and head to the platform to board. This bleeds directly into tip two, which is do not throw away your ticket after you get through the gate because you will need it to exit the destination station as well. At your home country, you may only need a ticket to get on and can exit any station you please, but at least in Japan, you need the ticket to get in and out of every subway station. Tip three has to do with coins. As mentioned earlier, Japan still has very cash-heavy spots, so naturally you will find yourself with a pocket full of change. The easiest fix? Since you will need snacks or water or even full meals from Japan's incredible convenience stores, when you have a ton of change making music in your pocket or purse, go to specifically any of the thousands of 7-Elevens. Other convenience stores have what I'm about to show you, but 7-Elevens have implemented them at all of their locations. Grab what you want to buy, head to the cashier, and when they scan all of your items, don't even count your change. Literally dump every single coin you have into the coin reservoir and it'll automatically deduct what your items cost and then consolidate the rest into the smallest number of coins it can to return to you into the change bowl. Freaking awesome. My final tip is to consider packing light, because you will be shocked by how few escalators there are throughout their incredible transit system. Check this out. I'm at Shibuya Station, one of the planet's busiest stations, and in many spots, you'll only have stairs. And look at these poor people lugging luggage up and down long staircases. So yeah, traveling with just a backpack is definitely a recommendation, but if you find it a challenge to pack light, you can alleviate those worries by watching this video right up here. This video down here will alleviate even further by showing how not one but two people shared one single backpack for a two-week trip. I'll keep them on screen for a few seconds so you can choose which one to watch, but while you're deciding if you got value, consider subscribing and hitting that bell so you'll be notified the moment new videos just like this one drop.