Japan is the easiest difficult country in the world to travel in. Nothing goes wrong, everything runs on time, and you will still spend the first two days slightly bewildered because the systems are unfamiliar rather than hard. The two decisions that matter most are made before you leave: the visa, and whether the rail pass is worth buying, which for most itineraries it no longer is.
Visas
Japan is one of the few destinations in this list where the answer is the same for everyone reading.
| Passport | What you need | | --- | --- | | Armenia | Visa required. | | Georgia | Visa required. | | Russia | Visa required. | | EU and Schengen | Nothing, 90 days. | | United States | Nothing, 90 days. |
Tourist visa applications for Japan generally go through the embassy or through a designated travel agency rather than being lodged directly by the applicant, which varies by country and is the first thing to check. Plan on several weeks and prepare a full day-by-day itinerary with flight and hotel bookings, because Japan asks for one and reads it.
Note that whether you enter on a 14-day or 90-day tourist status matters later: the Japan Rail Pass is only sold to visitors holding temporary visitor status, and they check the stamp.
When to go
Late March to early April for cherry blossom, and November for autumn colour. Those are the two famous windows and both are correspondingly expensive and crowded.
May, early June and October are the quiet, comfortable, sensible answer. Warm, dry, and far fewer people.
Avoid mid June to mid July, which is the rainy season across most of the country, and avoid July and August, when Tokyo and Kyoto sit at 35 degrees with humidity that makes walking unpleasant. Hokkaido is the exception and is lovely in summer.
Also avoid Golden Week, roughly 29 April to 5 May, and the Obon period in mid August. These are domestic travel weeks: trains fill, hotels double and everything is booked.
Winter is underrated. Kyoto in snow is extraordinary, the ski season in Hokkaido and Nagano is world class, and prices outside the ski resorts are low.
The rail pass question
This is the single biggest money decision of a Japan trip and the answer changed.
The 7-day Japan Rail Pass costs 50,000 yen now and rises to 53,000 yen on 1 October 2026. The 21-day pass goes to 105,000 yen for ordinary cars and 147,000 for Green Car.
The pass used to be an automatic purchase. Since the 2023 price increase it is not. A Tokyo to Kyoto return on the shinkansen costs around 28,000 yen, so a pass only pays for itself if you are covering serious distance: Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and back, for example, or adding Kanazawa or Hokkaido.
If your trip is Tokyo, Hakone and Kyoto, buy individual tickets. It will be cheaper, and you can take the Nozomi and Mizuho fastest services, which the standard pass does not cover without a surcharge.
Regional JR passes, for Kansai, for the west, for Hokkaido, are often far better value than the national one and get overlooked.
Separately, get a Suica or Pasmo IC card on arrival, or add one to your phone's wallet, which is easier. It pays for metros, buses, non-JR trains, convenience stores and vending machines, and it removes the ticket machine from your life.
What things cost
The yen is weak, which is why Japan feels much cheaper than it did a decade ago. Roughly 150 yen to the US dollar.
- Business hotel room: 9,000 to 16,000 yen
- Hostel bed: 3,000 to 5,000 yen
- Ramen, udon or a set lunch: 900 to 1,500 yen
- Convenience store meal: 500 to 800 yen and genuinely good
- Izakaya dinner with drinks: 3,000 to 5,000 yen a person
- Tokyo metro ride: 180 to 320 yen
- Tokyo to Kyoto shinkansen, one way: around 14,000 yen
- 7-day JR Pass: 50,000 yen, 53,000 from 1 October 2026
Eating well in Japan is cheap. Eating badly is hard. A 1,000 yen lunch at a counter in a train station is often the best thing you eat that day, and convenience store food is a legitimate meal rather than a compromise.
Tax-free shopping refunds the 10 percent consumption tax on purchases over 5,500 yen in the same store on the same day, with your passport. The mechanics of how this refund is processed are being reformed during 2026, so ask at the till rather than assuming it works the way a guide from last year describes.
Tipping does not exist and attempting it causes genuine awkwardness.
Practicalities that trip people up
Cash still matters more than Japan's reputation for technology suggests. Small restaurants, shrines, some ryokan and rural buses are cash only. Convenience store ATMs, particularly 7-Eleven, reliably take foreign cards, which is not true of every Japanese bank ATM.
Luggage forwarding, takkyubin, is the trick nobody tells you. For around 2,000 yen your suitcase goes from hotel to hotel overnight while you travel with a day bag. Shinkansen luggage space is limited and oversized bags now need a reservation. Every hotel front desk arranges this.
Trains are quiet. Phone calls are not made on them. This is the norm most visibly broken by tourists.
Rubbish bins barely exist in public. You carry your litter until you find a convenience store.
Tattoos still exclude you from many onsen and public baths. Some are relaxing about it, many are not, and covering a small one with a patch is usually accepted.
Shoes off at ryokan, temples, some restaurants and any private home. Wear socks without holes, and slip-on shoes make your trip meaningfully easier.
Safety
Japan is one of the safest countries on earth. Lost wallets get handed in with the cash still in them. Walking anywhere at any hour is normal.
The real risks are natural. Earthquakes are frequent and mostly minor, and every hotel has instructions. Typhoon season runs roughly August to October and can shut down trains and flights for a day at a time, which is a planning problem rather than a danger. Summer heat is genuinely dangerous, and heatstroke is a real risk in Tokyo and Kyoto in August.
The one social hazard is scams in Kabukicho and Roppongi in Tokyo, where touts pull people into bars with enormous bills. Do not follow anyone who approaches you on the street.
Tap water is excellent everywhere.
Staying connected
Coverage is complete, including the shinkansen and rural areas. Free wifi exists but is patchy and often requires registration, so it is not a plan.
You need working data more in Japan than in most places, because Google Maps with train times is effectively how you navigate the country. Tokyo's stations are large enough to be genuinely confusing and the transfer directions live on your phone.
Pocket wifi rental at the airport is the traditional answer and means carrying and charging a second device. A physical SIM needs a shop visit. An eSIM installed before you fly is working when the plane lands, which is when you need to find the airport express and figure out which of Tokyo's several stations your hotel is near.
Where to go
Tokyo needs four days minimum and rewards more. Do not try to see it as one city. Pick neighbourhoods: Shibuya and Shinjuku for the scale, Yanaka or Shimokitazawa for the version people actually live in.
Kyoto is three days and should include one early morning. Fushimi Inari at 7am and at 1pm are two different places.
Osaka is an hour from Kyoto, is where the food is, and is a better base for Nara and Himeji.
Hakone or Kinosaki for a ryokan and onsen night, which is the experience most worth adding.
Hiroshima and Miyajima as a pair, and the reason a longer rail pass might make sense.
Kanazawa, the Kiso valley and Takayama are the second-trip Japan and are less crowded than anything on the Tokyo to Kyoto corridor.
If Japan is part of a longer Asian route, the China guide covers the neighbour most often combined with it, and the UAE guide the usual connection point from this region.
Questions people actually ask
Do Armenian, Georgian or Russian citizens need a visa? Yes, all three. Applications usually go through the embassy or a designated agency, and a detailed day-by-day itinerary with bookings is expected.
Is the JR Pass worth it? Only for long distances. Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka alone is cheaper on individual tickets. It costs 50,000 yen for seven days and rises to 53,000 on 1 October 2026.
Do I need cash? Yes, more than you expect. Use 7-Eleven ATMs, which reliably accept foreign cards.
Can I visit an onsen with tattoos? Sometimes. Many refuse, some allow covering with a patch, and private family baths avoid the question entirely.
When is the worst time to go? Golden Week at the start of May, Obon in mid August, and the rainy season from mid June.
Is English enough? In cities and on trains, yes, with signage in English throughout. In small towns, a translation app does the work.
