I spent all of March and part of April 2026 in Japan. These are my notes — small practical things that are good to know before you go. Nothing fancy, just things I wish someone had told me before arriving.
1. Get a Suica or Icoca Card
Get one the moment you arrive at the airport. If you have an iPhone (8 or later, iOS 16+), you can add a Suica or PASMO card directly to your Wallet app — it takes about two minutes and you can top it up with your credit card right there. No need to visit a counter.
If you prefer a physical card, note that JR East has suspended sales of regular Suica cards since 2023. What you can get is the Welcome Suica — a tourist version valid for 28 days, available at Narita and Haneda airport JR ticket offices. ICOCA cards are still available normally at JR West stations and Kansai Airport.
These IC cards can be used on almost all public transport — trains, subways, buses — and also to pay at convenience stores (7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Lawson) where they can also be recharged. You will use this card daily.
2. Vending Machines Are Everywhere
Japan has roughly 5 million vending machines — about one for every 23 people. You will find them everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Even in the most remote villages, on quiet mountain roads, in places where you would not expect any kind of commerce.
The most common items are water and coffee, but there are also machines that sell ice creams, frozen pizzas, soups, fresh juices, cereal bars, and even liquor. This is one of the nicest things about Japan. They are easy to find and surprisingly cheap.
They have both cold and warm items. The ones with the blue label are cold and the ones with the red label are warm. Many machines switch items between hot and cold depending on the season. The low crime rate and reliable infrastructure make these machines viable even in the middle of nowhere — something that would be unthinkable in most other countries.
3. The Trash Situation
You have probably heard that Japan has very few public trash bins. This is true, and there is actually a reason for it — after the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack, bins were removed from public spaces as a security measure, and the cultural habit of carrying your own trash (持ち帰り, mochikaeri) made this permanent.
But it is not as bad as it sounds. Here are the practical ways to deal with it:
a. Eat at the stall or vendor. In Japan it is not considered polite to walk and eat. If you buy something from a street vendor, you are expected to eat it right there, outside the shop. Once you finish, you can return the remaining trash to the vendor and they will happily accept it.
b. Use convenience stores. The same applies to konbini (convenience stores). Buy a sandwich, eat it outside or at their counter, and throw your trash in the bins inside the store. You can even bring trash from a different konbini — they will not mind.
c. Vending machine recycling bins. Next to almost every vending machine there is a small recycling bin for bottles and cans. These are strictly for beverage containers — do not throw other trash in there.
d. Train stations. Most metro and train stations have trash bins, usually near kiosks or on the platform. This is often your most reliable option when walking around the city.
e. Do not throw trash in public toilets. There are signs everywhere asking you not to do this. Respect them.
Once you get used to these options, you will stop carrying trash around and it becomes second nature.
4. The Queueing Culture
The moment you arrive in Japan you will notice: there is a queue for everything. And everyone respects it.
At train stations, the queuing spots are marked on the floor with painted lines and arrows showing exactly where to stand for each train door, and which side to leave open for people exiting. At bus stops, at restaurants, at ticket machines — wherever there is demand, a queue will form naturally and orderly.
This is not something anyone enforces. It is simply how things work. Cutting in line is considered a serious social offense. You will follow it too, and honestly, it makes everything smoother.
5. Restaurant Queues — Strict First-Come, First-Served
Queues at restaurants deserve their own section because they work differently from what you might be used to.
The order is respected not just for who enters the restaurant, but also for who orders first and who receives their food first. For example, it is completely normal to see people standing outside a ramen shop at 17:20, waiting for it to open at 17:30. When the doors open, they enter one by one, sit, order, and receive their food in exactly the order they were waiting outside. If you are last in line, you may wait 30 minutes or more after sitting down before your food arrives — because everyone ahead of you is served first.
Many popular restaurants use a physical sign-up sheet (meibo) or a ticket-number machine at the entrance to keep track of the order.
6. No Queue Jumping — Even If There Is Space
Here is something that will surprise you. Let's say a restaurant is full and you are waiting alone to enter. In front of you is a group of 4. Even if tables for 1 or 2 start opening up, the restaurant will not let you in. Not until there is first an opening that can accommodate the group of 4 ahead of you. The restaurant might be half empty and they will still make you wait — because the group of 4 was there before you.
Only once they are seated will you be allowed inside, and only then will they start filling the remaining empty tables. It is strict first-in, first-out, regardless of group size. Once you understand this, you will stop getting frustrated and simply accept the system.
7. The Forests Are Man-Made
Everyone talks about the beautiful nature in Japan. What most people do not know is that much of it is man-made.
During and after World War II, Japan's forests were heavily logged to fuel the war effort and support the country's reconstruction. Mountains were stripped bare. Japan became a massive industrial zone.
When the government realized the damage, they launched an enormous reforestation program in the 1950s and 60s. The problem is that most forests were planted with just two species of fast-growing timber trees — Japanese cedar (sugi, 杉) and Japanese cypress (hinoki, 檜). Today, about 67% of Japan is forested, making it one of the most densely forested developed countries in the world. But much of it is monoculture plantation.
The result is eerily quiet forests. Walk into a forest in a small village and you will be struck by the silence — not many birds, not much wildlife. The biodiversity is low compared to natural old-growth forests.
And there is an unintended consequence that affects nearly half the population: kafunsho (花粉症), a national pollen allergy crisis. An estimated 40–50% of Japanese people suffer from it, peaking in February to April when cedar pollen blankets the cities. The government has announced plans to gradually replace cedar plantations with low-pollen varieties, but progress is slow. You will see people wearing masks for this reason long before COVID made masks common worldwide.
8. Factories Hidden in Nature
Japan is still the world's third-largest economy and remains heavily industrialized — automotive, electronics, steel, chemicals. But because only about 20–30% of Japan's terrain is habitable flat land, factories and industrial zones are squeezed into narrow coastal plains and valleys, directly next to forested mountains.
What this means in practice: you can be walking through a beautiful forest, and if you look carefully, you will almost certainly spot a factory within a few hundred meters. Sometimes well hidden, sometimes not. Smokestacks rising between green hills. This juxtaposition of heavy industry and dense forest is one of the most distinctive visual characteristics of Japan's landscape, especially along the Inland Sea coast and in prefectures like Okayama, Hiroshima, and Mie.
It is not ugly — it is just surprising. Japan pays serious attention to nature and environmental coexistence, but the industrial backbone is always there, just around the corner.
9. Japan Is Cash-Heavy
Do not assume you can pay for everything with a card. Japan is still one of the most cash-reliant developed countries. As recently as 2023, cash accounted for over 60% of consumer transactions — far higher than comparable economies.
This is changing, especially in big cities where IC cards, credit cards, and QR payments are increasingly accepted. But in smaller shops, family-run restaurants, rural izakayas, local buses, temple admission counters, and ryokans — cash is often the only option.
Carry at least 10,000–20,000 yen with you, especially when heading outside major cities. ATMs at 7-Eleven and post offices reliably accept international cards.
And here is a broader point worth making: Japan is not "in the future" in terms of technology the way people often imagine. What Japan is, is a society that has already solved many of the problems we are still struggling with. Things work efficiently because problems have been thought through, solutions implemented, and people follow the rules. The convenience is not about cutting-edge tech — it is about systems that have been refined over decades and a population that respects them.
