First Trip to Japan: The Practical Guide to Getting It Right

Japan is one of the easiest countries in the world to travel — and one of the most disorienting for the first 48 hours. This guide condenses what we tell every first-timer.

How long, which cities?

For a first two-week trip: Tokyo (4-5 days), Kyoto (3-4 days), one night in an onsen town, and one or two stops matching your tastes — Osaka for food, Hiroshima and Miyajima for history, Kanazawa for crafts. Resist the urge to see everything: Japan rewards slowness.

Money, transport, language

• Money: cash still matters; withdraw at convenience-store ATMs. Cards work almost everywhere in cities.
• Transport: an IC card (Suica/ICOCA) handles metro, buses and konbini. The national rail pass only pays off on big multi-city itineraries — do the math before buying.
• Language: big-city English is enough to survive, not to connect. That’s the invisible ceiling of many trips — and the first reason to spend a day with a guide who translates the country, not just the menus.

Classic first-trip mistakes

1. Changing hotels every night and spending your vacation in train stations.
2. Booking every restaurant from abroad — the best neighborhood spots don’t take online reservations.
3. Planning every hour with no room for the unexpected — which, in Japan, is almost always the best part.

The smartest move: a local at the start

A guided day at the very beginning of your trip works as a user manual for everything that follows: you learn to order, to navigate, to read the city. Many of our travelers put it simply: “that was the day that unlocked the other twelve.”