Two areas to be mindful of when travelling in Japan are mobile data and payment options – for just about everything.
SORT OUT YOUR SMARTPHONE
Get a decent roaming pack from your mobile provider, including data if you can. Get a mobile hotspot on arrival in Japan if you can’t.
With smartphones a ubiquitous part of everyday life now for navigation, tap and go payments, finding information on the go, and for many, posting the all-important holiday pics to social media, data connection with a solid allowance is a must. While the thrifty traveller can get away with using hotel and public wifi (both very common in Japan), even without watching movies on the go, data use can add up quickly.
While Japan has roaming agreements with all major international providers, data caps are usually tight on most roaming packs. This is a common issue and there are plenty of companies in Japan who offer short-term hire of mobile hotspots for your phone, usually running on 4G, which can be collected and returned at all international airports.
An unlimited data plan is usually reasonably priced and definitely recommended. Google Maps is certainly a welcome and often called-on traveller’s friend, given Japan’s cities tight winding streets.
CARDS, CASH & COINS
Use your credit or debit card in Japan, but always carry cash. And a coin purse.
Payment options have improved hugely after government and commercial programs to drive uptake of international card settlement systems (in anticipation of huge visitor numbers) for the 2020 Olympics. Despite the bizarre scenes of a Games – eventually run in 2021 – in stadiums empty of fans, the push worked and using your foreign credit card is now much easier.
Almost everywhere in major cities nearly every trader accepts all cards. It’s still an interesting mix of tap and go, signatures (yes, really) and pin numbers though.
Importantly for travellers, there are still the odd occasions that a credit card be declined – despite having been used in Japan for many days and having ample funds to pay for the transaction. Typically, this is due to the remaining legacy card settlement system and can be frustrating and embarrassing when settling a bill at a top restaurant or trying to make a significant purchase. It’s happened to us more than once in restaurants, taxis and retail stores and hasty arrangements had to be made, either through friendly mutual connections, or via a run to the nearest ATM.
To this end, carrying cash is a must in Japan. ATMs in the major convenience stores accept foreign cards, and “kombinis” are more numerous than in any other country we’ve seen. Street theft in Japan is almost unheard of and more rarely involves foreigners, so carrying cash is not the risky game it is elsewhere. At a minimum it is advisable to carry enough cash to cover any critical taxi rides, (like to the airport) big dinner cheques where a failed card payment may cause an issue.
Also important, when paying in many shops, and withdrawing cash at ATMs, you will be given the choice of having the transaction processed in either Yen or your home currency. In our experience, it’s usually a better conversion rate to select Yen for all transactions.
The other crucial money tip for Japan is bring a coin purse! You will use cash in Japan, and you will get change. Japan’s Yen comes in notes from ¥1000 to ¥10000 and coins go right down to ¥1. With a “currency value”, not exchange rate, meaning that prices for goods roughly translate into ¥100 = $1 (give or take depending on the exchange rate), you quickly get into large numbers and lots of notes and coins.
Even if you’re diligent about not breaking notes everywhere, a coin purse makes it easier to quickly find the coins you need to make exact change.
