Internet
During our trip we learned that the most important asset to have during traveling is the solid INTERNET access with you all the time, not just while you are in hotel or in internet cafe. Without internet you have to plan everything very carefully before the trip. You have to book all your lodging in advance. You have to check all time tables beforehand traveling and then you have to follow your planning unless you are willing to have a different kind of adventure that might get a bit chaotic unless you are very familiar about how things go in Japan.
With internet in your pocket, traveling in Japan is much smoother ride. If you use your home country SIM card in japan it will be very expensive if you use a lot of google maps for example...
Luckily there is a very easy solution available. Get a Japanese prepaid SIM card in advance. You can easily order a sim card for your mobile phone or for your tablet. The sim card will be delivered to your arrival airport post office or to your hotel/ryokan where you are going to stay.
I got ours from here https://www.econnectjapan.com/
Just make sure that your phone will work in Japan and make sure that you get the correct type SIM card (standard/micro/nano). Phones that work in EU should work in Japan as well but I am not sure about phones from USA. You can also rent a portable Wi-Fi router if you like or even a Japanese mobile phone. I prefer the to have the internet in my own mobile phone because I can always use it as a Wi-Fi router for my laptop and i have my own app selection set as I like.
You cannot make normal phone calls with Japanese prepaid sim card and if you are foreigner it is not possible you to get a normal SIM card in Japan. It is only for internet. You can use Skype, Whatsapp, Facebook or email to get in contact to friends or home.
I can also recommend that for your travels take the phone that has a very long battery life time if possible. I have Samsung Note 3, Oona has OnePlusOne and her phone had 50% of battery left when my shut down at around 6pm every day... You can buy external backup battery pack easily from any SevenEleven stores in japan which is highly recommended unless you already have one.
If you wonder about what kind of data package you need I recommend that get at least the amount you estimate. A month before your trip just reset your phones mobile data counter and keep using your phone as you would use it during the trip and after a week check how much you have used data. Then multiply that with lets say 1.5 or 2 to make sure because you probably use google maps a lot in Japan and it is rather heavy on data. Our trip was three weeks and i used 2 gigabytes of data. We had 3 gigabyte data for 30 days. The cost was about 40€ per sim card which is quite cheap actually if you think about how much it helps you every day.
Few apps that i can recommend for traveling japan
- Tripadvisor with extras for Osaka and Tokyo
- Google translate helps you in shopping and checking in ryokans
- Google maps is very good help in Japan. Mark your important spots to the map. The electronic compass in your phone is not reliable at all in cities in japan so you must navigate with landmarks and shops such as SevenEleven.
- Japanese phrase book. It really helps a lot if you can say "good morning", "hello", "Good evening" and "Thank you" in japanese.
- HyperDia app is a life saver if you travel with JR railway pass
Japan Railway Pass
The easiest and fastest way to move around in Japan is by train. Foreigners can buy a Japan Railway Pass before entering Japan, so make sure you order it well before (at two weeks in advance) your trip. You can buy it online or from some travel agencies. You will get the JR Pass by mail to your home address.
When you buy the pass you have to select the time how long it is valid in japan. The time period is between one week to three weeks per pass. Japan rail pass is personal, only you can use it. If you stay at one location for a long time and then you start moving again and then you stay again somewhere some time it may make sense to buy more than one pass and then you activate them whenever you need to travel a lot for one week for example. You can easily plan and estimate train travel costs with HyperDia. If you travel just randomly all over it may not be wroth to buy the Japan rail pass as all.
When you get in Japan you have to exchange the Japan Rail Pass voucher to the actual pass in JR train office before you can use it in any train or buss. After it is activated in Japan it is not valid anymore after midnight on its last day. If your last train trip starts before midnight on the last day pass is valid and ends in the next morning the pass is still valid for that whole trip.
Check more information from http://www.japanrailpass.net/
The railway system in Japan is amazing and it's probably the only country where you can travel so comfortably, easily and fast several hundreds of kilometers a day. The trains are always on time and it's easy to find the correct one.
When you have the internet in your mobile phone then download an app called HyperDia and it will tell you all train time tables, train station and dock locations/numbers and absolutely everything you need to know. You can also use the online version but then you always have to click few checkboxes to make sure that the route it gives you is compatible with JR railway pass.
Hyperdia app is Android and iPhone compatible
In my case i could not download it directly from google play because it is sold only in japan but i was able to install it with a bit googling. The language in my version was english so it was easy to use. When you get the app and if you want to use the easy Japan rail Pass search feature then you have to pay 300¥ (2.5€) monthly fee the unlock the feature. This is the best train table app by far i have ever used! The Finnish railway company should really check this one....
Laptop and windows phone users can use the website http://www.hyperdia.com/en/
IC Card
Several vendors offer an IC Card, which you can use in most Japan's largest cities, for traveling in trains, subways and buses. It's easy to add more value on the card from automats found in metro stations. You can also use the card for paying in 7-Eleven style shops.
For me there was a bit confusion in the beginning. In Japan there is several IC cards available such as Suica and Pasmo. I knew that those are compatible together but today most of the IC cards in japan are compatible together. They just have different names in different cities. So if you travel around japan just get the local IC card and it should work everywhere. I really wish if this would happen in Finland as well....
Cash
Cash is still the primary way of payment, but there isn't that many vending machines where you can get cash with foreign cards. During daytime you can get money from the cash vending machines at the post office. From SevenEleven you can get money all the time.
As an advice I want to say that in Japan there is SevenElevens a lot but not in every city. Some cities has mainly FamilyMarts. Even that the concept in SevenEleven and Familymart are exactly same and they even look same and the both have cash vending machines you cannot get money with foreign card from Familymart before 2016. More info