Japan

The shinkansen is superb, but the JR Pass was hiked about 70% in late 2023 and raised again on 1 October 2026 (to ¥53,000 for 7 days, ¥84,000 for 14), which quietly ended its status as the default buy. A simple Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka trip no longer covers the pass — you now need to add Hiroshima or a lot of rail to break even — so price your actual route against individual tickets or a regional pass. The point-to-point fares make the maths plain:

For city transit you tap an IC card (Suica or Pasmo) — on sale again after the 2023–24 chip shortage, with a Welcome Suica Mobile app for visitors since March 2025. The same card pays at convenience stores, vending machines and most lockers.

The famous windows are cherry blossom and autumn leaves — both stunning, both the year’s most crowded and expensive. Summer is hot and humid (30–35°C in the cities) with a rainy season from June to mid-July and a typhoon peak in August–September; winter is quiet, with world-class powder skiing in Hokkaido’s Niseko and the Japan Alps. Two domestic-travel landmines book everything out: Golden Week (29 April–5 May in 2027) and Obon (around 13–16 August), when reserved train seats can vanish within minutes and hotels double. The New Year period (1–3 January) is a third, quieter shutdown.

Tokyo is less a city than a cluster of them — Shibuya’s scramble crossing, Shinjuku’s nightlife, the old temple quarter of Asakusa around Senso-ji, and the two teamLab digital-art venues (Borderless at Azabudai Hills, Planets at Toyosu). Kyoto is the temple capital: Fushimi Inari’s torii tunnels, the Golden Pavilion, the Arashiyama bamboo grove and the geisha district of Gion. Osaka is the food city (Dotonbori, the castle, Universal Studios), Hiroshima and the floating torii of Miyajima the moving day trip, and Nara the one with the bowing deer.

Beyond the spine, the Japanese Alps and Takayama, the hot-spring valleys of Hakone below Mount Fuji, the garden city of Kanazawa, and the temple lodgings of Koyasan are the traditional-Japan alternative to the crowds. Give Tokyo and Kyoto three days each at minimum; both are destinations, not stopovers.

Mount Fuji is the sharpest example: the Yoshida trail runs only 1 July to 10 September, with a ¥4,000 permit, a 4,000-climber daily cap and mandatory online booking — and for 2026 the quieter Shizuoka-side trails charge the same ¥4,000. Kyoto is the overtourism epicentre, where the ¥700 one-day bus pass has been scrapped (use the ¥1,100 subway-and-bus pass) and the city plans a resident-priority bus fare — roughly ¥200 for locals, ¥350–400 for visitors — by around FY2027.

Dual pricing is the trend to watch: Himeji Castle now charges visitors ¥2,500 against ¥1,000 for city residents, the first big flagship case, with national museums expected to follow by 2031. None of it makes Japan expensive — the point is to plan around the bookings and the crowds rather than be surprised by them.

• Kyoto’s free icons (Fushimi Inari, the Arashiyama bamboo grove)Skiparriving mid-morning, when they’re shoulder-to-shoulderGogoing at dawn — both are open-access and genuinely quiet before 8am
• Gion, hoping to glimpse a geikoSkipthe private side-alleys, where photos now carry a ¥10,000 fineGothe public Hanamikoji thoroughfare, or a booked cultural performance
• Golden Week or ObonSkiptravelling between cities — reserved seats vanish and hotels doubleGostaying put in one base, or shifting your dates a week either side

Carry some cash despite the cashless shift — around four in five small shops still prefer it, and temples, markets and rural inns are often cash-only. A 7-Eleven (Seven Bank) ATM takes foreign cards 24/7 in English, and the QR app PayPay now covers most of the rest. There’s no tipping anywhere, which keeps the headline prices honest.

A separate ¥3,000 international departure tax (tripled from ¥1,000 on 1 July 2026) is built into every air or sea ticket out of Japan — you won’t pay it at a desk, but it’s there in the fare.

The ones visitors most often get wrong: shoes off in homes, ryokan and tatami rooms; no tipping — it isn’t expected and can confuse; keep quiet on trains, no phone calls; don’t eat while walking; and carry your rubbish, because public bins are scarce. Pay by placing cash or card on the little tray, not hand-to-hand, and stand on the correct escalator side (left in Tokyo, right in Osaka).

At an onsen you wash thoroughly, seated, before getting in, bathe naked — no swimwear — and keep the small towel out of the water. Slurping your noodles is fine, even appreciated. None of it is enforced, but following it is the difference between blending in and being the tourist everyone notices.

Most Westerners get 90 days visa-free, and the planned JESTA electronic authorisation is still some way off (now targeted around FY2028) — so for now there’s nothing to apply for. The optional Visit Japan Web QR speeds arrival but paper forms still work. Plugs are Type A at 100V (US plugs fit; check dual-voltage), tap water is excellent, and Japan is among the safest countries anywhere — it ranks in the global top ten for peace, with low crime and a famous habit of returning lost property.

The current draw is money: with the yen near 40-year lows, Japan is unusually affordable right now, even as record tourism brings the new taxes and caps above. Weighing it against the obvious value rival? See Japan vs Thailand, measured.