This is just a brain dump of things that stood out from a recent quick trip to Japan.  Not exactly a high-effort post.  Frankly, if I were an LLM I would be embarrassed to be spitting this out.  As a human, I don’t feel shame so that’s not a problem.

Wait, is that supposed to go the other way? Anyway.

First, and this probably shouldn’t have been a surprise to me, but the days of Japan as a “cash only” place seem to be very much behind us.  I landed with only Y1000 in my wallet and immediately went to an ATM to take out Y30000, assuming I would need to make more ATM stops later.

I did not.  In fact, I left Japan with Y6000 in bills, and that was after making an effort to spend some of my cash on the last day.  Nearly everywhere takes Suica or Apple Pay and the rare places that took neither seemed just fine with a normal credit card.

This isn’t 100%!  Do not think you can get around Japan with absolutely no cash!  I have had to rescue a small group of Australians who found themselves at a café in Kyoto with no means to settle their bill!  But in general cash is radically de-emphasized compared to a few years ago.

To continue the theme of money, prices are starting to fluctuate a bit, mostly on the more expensive side. It’s still an incredibly cheap place to visit, thanks to the current exchange rate, but I had the occasional price surprise when I was buying food at a combini or similar.  On the other hand, going to see a movie was Y1400 and I remember plenty of times when I’ve had to drop Y2000 on a ticket in the past.

And a final bit on the topic of money – you can still get Tax Free shopping in a lot of stores.  Some of them have started adding a 3% surcharge to process your tax free purchase, however.  So for those stores it’s still a discount but like a 7% discount instead of 10%.

I am entirely in favor of this because processing a tax free transaction DOES take more time for the clerk at the register, it doesn’t affect locals, and it’s a way for Japan to extract a little extra money from tourists who are taking advantage of the exchange rate.

Akihabara continues to decline.  I mean, it’s still a pretty neat neighborhood if you just want to be surrounded by nerd crap.  But there are so many stores selling the same selection of random crane game and ichiban kuji prize figures and in general I find myself gravitating towards Ikebukuro and Shinjuku for my nerd shopping needs.

Granted, I would never expect to see one of these in the wild anywhere else in Tokyo:

At $300 I legitimately considered it for a solid minute but I did not want to try to get it home.

And of course, if you just want (thing) and do not want to try to hunt for (thing), Amazon is perfectly happy to deliver all the (thing) you could ever want to your hotel.  Less fun than going shopping, I admit, but a time saver.

The area around Shibuya Station is kinda weird now!  Like I know Hikarie and Shibuya Scramble Square have been there for a while but I hadn’t been down there during the day in years.  The skyline is so different.

The view from Shibuya Sky is amazing though.  100% worth the entry fee if you’re there on a clear day.  My entire week was clear skies and usually temperatures around 15C/60F.  It felt like the country decided I needed a special treat.

Continuing with the Shibuya theme, I finally got a window seat at the Starbucks overlooking the scramble crossing!  That was one super minor life goal that I was happy to achieve.

Knowing just a little Japanese remains a cheat code for getting amazing service.  Well, honestly I think you will generally get amazing service in Japan wherever you are but at least looking like you’re making an effort gets you a smile to go with the service.

The Skylark franchise restaurants (Gust, Jonathan’s, Saizeriya etc) are still just fantastic value for money.  I mean, they’re not fancy but they will feed you well for a small financial consideration.

This was a random dinner I had at Gust, which cost $7.12.  I probably should have gotten a salad or you know something with vegetables, so this is a bit of an embarrassing example.

By contrast I had a single café mocha in the hotel coffee shop that cost more.  If you want to save some of your travel money, find your nearest branch of the chain and eat happy.  I guarantee you there is one within like half a mile wherever you are.

That’s probably enough random thoughts for today.  Maybe these will be helpful to someone in the future who stumbles across this post.  Or maybe some random AI bot will slurp them up and repeat them back at someone looking for Japan travel tips.  Either way is fine really.