in this video I'm gonna share with you
the must do things before you fly to
Japan so I've already done a video of
what to do when you arrive in Japan
especially when you get to the airport
but in this video I wanted to focus on
what you need to do before even getting
on the plane so what a lot of people
don't know about coming to Japan is that
it's very much a reservation based
culture meaning that if you want to go
to some of the higher class places or if
you want to go to some like high-end
restaurants or some very very popular
spots here in Tokyo or throughout Japan
you have to make reservations in fact
some of the things that we'll be talking
about in this video it's so difficult to
get in that you have to book months in
advance and by the time you arrive in
Japan it's already too late so I want to
share this information with you so when
you get to Japan you don't have that Ono
moment where you're like I really wanted
to go here but I can't also what you'll
find is if you do a little bit of prep
work you can and save some money so
that's another advantage of planning
ahead and doing all these things before
you fly to Japan overall the whole point
of this video is to help all of you out
so you can maximize your time here in
Japan but before I start like always if
you want to help support the channel
check out the Tokyo merch you're gonna
see what I'm doing on a daily check out
my Instagram account and if you have
questions about your upcoming trip to
Japan or you want to connect with people
who love Japan then have recently
created a discord community for you to
connect links are always in the
description and finally I wanted to give
a quick shout out to our sponsor
Mobile SIM cards without them I couldn't
make all of these videos for all of you
in fact my first tip before coming to
Japan is organizing a SIM card having a
SIM card overseas it makes life so much
easier I'm able to connect to all of my
social media I'm able to connect to all
my emails as well as just be able to
navigate throughout the entire country
what's nice about mobile is that they
offer free shipping all throughout the
world
and once you've ordered it it'll come
within a few days so that when you land
in Japan you'll have your SIM card up
ready to go and for those of you who are
watching this video just before your
trip you can actually make a same-day
orders and pick it up when you arrive in
Japan Mobile has a free pickup spots at
the airport as well there's a free
pickup spots in cities all throughout
Japan making it super convenient all
a little bit more about mobile later on
in this video but for now let's move on
to some more things that you need to do
before flying to Japan well there just
seems to be too many cars here so I'm
gonna move to a quieter spot alright
that's a lot better less cars less noise
alright so let's continue here this
video number two Michelin in a high-end
restaurant so what you'll find with a
lot of these michelin high-end
restaurants is that the seats booked up
for really quickly because a lot of
these restaurants only have maybe 10 to
12 seats available and the fact that
they're already popular means that they
get booked out 3 to 6 months in advance
so just be very very careful my first
recommendation in all of this is just to
kind of know which of the high-end
restaurants Michelin restaurants that
you want to go to and then once you know
then have a look on their website on
their Facebook page and check to see
whether or not you can make reservations
in advance and to see what the
reservation weight is like Oh we'll find
is some of these restaurants and don't
accept online reservations they only
accept phone reservations and even worse
some of the really old-school
restaurants only accept reservations
from regulars so many of these
restaurants that no longer accept
booking directly from foreign travelers
because they've experienced too many
no-shows by travelers but what I wanted
to share with you in this video is
there's kind of a workarounds around
this so the first thing you can do
before you come to Japan is contact your
hotel concierge a lot of the times
although they won't accept reservations
from people overseas some of the
restaurants will accept reservations
from your hotel concierge so give them a
call and see if they can make a
reservation for you and then the second
thing if that's not possible has
actually online websites that will let
you make reservations but if you do
decide to use one of these online
reservation systems be aware that you're
going to have to use a credit card to
make the booking the two Mo's travel
friendly websites are pocket concierge
and table check they're very similar and
what they do but what I found is that
table check is a bit easier to use in
terms of the calendar there's more
request options like what type of room
you want and that kind of sort of thing
and three the booking is secured right
away so that you know you have to see
it's but with websites like pocket
concierge with payment
then later you'll receive a confirmation
whether or not you actually got the
reservation the thing is not all of the
high-class and Michelin restaurants are
listed on these websites so you might
want to check a couple of them
especially the old school ones they're
probably not gonna be listed and finally
one of the last workarounds to getting
into these high-end restaurants is to
actually use your guide if you're having
a private tour and you've scheduled a
private tour guide here in Japan and
they can actually make the calls for you
and since usually they're Japanese or
they're local
it's easier to make those reservations
through them and if you're looking for a
private tour guide in Tokyo I actually
have a friend that does it so I'll leave
a link in the description next is hotel
reservations this one might be pretty
obvious yes before you come to Japan you
need to make Hotel Reservations these
days a lot of people use a goda Expedia
or booking com to make those
reservations those sites are great
especially for English speakers but if
you want more local websites you can use
websites like rocket and travel or jot
on they have better deals and more
options especially when it comes to food
options at the hotel but something to
note about these websites especially
when you're making reservations for like
hotels on sans real cons outside of like
major cities like Tokyo is that a lot of
them are sometimes just on Japanese web
sites and a lot of them offer more deals
on the Japanese web sites in fact a lot
of these onsens and real cons frequented
by Japanese people but you'll find this
that you need to make reservations even
more advanced compared to booking your
hotel in the city in fact a lot of the
higher end ones will get booked up
quicker now let's talk about the junior
pass so for those of you who don't know
that junior pass is basically and all
you can use unlimited ride train pass or
junior trains locally as well as a
Shinkansen bullet trains that go all
throughout Japan so this is kind of a
must especially for travelers who are
looking to travel quite a lot throughout
Japan and not just a say for example in
Tokyo but get so much more of a discount
if you use it wisely a lot of Japanese
people wish they can have but the junior
pass is only for travelers so
definitely he should look into this if
you're gonna be doing a lot of traveling
you can purchase three different
durations you can get a seven-day a 14
day and a 21 day pass and then you can
get a regular car or you can get a green
car pass the green car pass allows you
to get into nicer seats you should
really really consider ordering this
before you get to Japan I'm a lot of
countries have designated places where
you can buy the jr. pass and it's not to
say that you can't buy the jr. pass here
in Japan but you will save 10 to 20
percent if you buy it ahead of time so
definitely if you want to save that 10
20 % buy it beforehand but there looks
like to be some uncertified websites
that you can buy the jr. pass in advance
to reason I say it's uncertified is
because it's not actually listed on the
jr website I'm not saying that these
websites one actually work but just be
careful when you're buying them from
these online websites before buying
these is to make sure that you're
eligible and that you meet the
requirements because even though you buy
the passes you might not be able to
collect the passes or you might not be
able to use the passes if you don't meet
the requirements or you're not eligible
oh and something worth mentioning about
the jr pass is that you can not only use
them on trains but you can also use them
on buses and ferries exceptions that do
apply so definitely check the website to
make sure that you can use it for that
specific location in area also we've
been riding the Shinkansen on the jr
pass you can ride unreserved seats but
if you want to ride reserved seats you
will need to go to the ticket booth in
advance to reserved before you ride also
if you're flying in or out of Narita
Airport and taking the nettie to Express
you can use the jr. pass to ride it and
save 6000 yen round-trip which is about
55 US dollars so quickly I wanted to
talk a little bit more about mobile SIM
cards and all the cool things that they
have to offer Mobile SIM cards are
suitable for short and long term stays
basically all plans come with unlimited
data as a standard you get seven
gigabytes of data at 4g LTE speeds super
super fast but if you do need more data
then you can definitely upgrade to one
of their larger plans and if you need
you can get a real Japanese phone number
which makes it super convenient if you
need to call people here in Japan or if
you need people to call you after
already in the card online it'll come in
a package like this
it up like so so this is the actual SIM
card that they send to you as you can
see it's a soft Bank card in fact it's
on the same mobile network that I use on
a daily basis which covers 99% of
Japan's population so you know you'll be
covered just like me
also Mobile offers English language
support and best of all mobile
guarantees that a majority of their
profits go to charity so if you want to
get your mobile SIM card and be
connected when you arrive here in Japan
check out the link in the description
now let's talk about reservations for
Disney so what you'll find with the
restaurants at Disneyland and Disney Sea
is that's it's really difficult and
extremely hard to get in if you don't
have reservation especially the
higher-end restaurants the good thing
though is all the restaurants can be
booked on the Disney website so if you
want to have dinner at a nice restaurant
in Disney you should definitely book
ahead I mean just to give you an example
Myka and I have been to Disney see so
many times our favorite restaurant is
Magellan and every time we go there try
to look booked a few days in advance and
it's all booked up and like the only
seats we can get are like for really
really hard times maybe like at 4:00
p.m. we have like an early dinner I'm if
you're okay with 4 p.m. that's fine but
if you want to have dinner at say like 6
or 7 p.m. then definitely make a booking
in advance also something to note about
the Disney resorts is that the hotels at
Disneyland and Disney see get booked up
especially like the Ambassador Hotel and
Mira Costa those get booked up at least
like 1 month in advance so be careful if
you want to stay there the good thing
compared to restaurants is that they
have up to 5 months advance of booking
so you do have time and another personal
story Michael and I have tried to stay
at the MiraCosta with a park side view
we try to book one week in advance and
the rooms are all booked or they're just
super insanely expensive like several
times the cost of a normal hotel if you
booked a few months in advance so we
like to end up not doing it because
we're like oh we'll just booked it a few
months and that's the next time and we
never do it so that's kind of another
reason why I wanted to show the Disney
experience with you because if you are
excited to come to Japan and check out
the Disney Resort you're gonna want to
make all of these reservations weigh in
a fan
and I don't want you guys stuck not
getting to actually experience Disney
here in Japan or having to pay through
the roof to get that Disney experience
just plan ahead finally if you want to
get Disney tickets you don't actually
need to buy them in advance but if you
do buy the tickets in advance you are
able to skip the lines at the entrance
and just like scan your ticket so and in
fact if you want more tips about
Disneyland and Disney see I've actually
made a complete video on that for tips
and hacks so check out that video I'll
leave a link in the description next
let's talk about visas now this one is
probably a no-brainer
before coming to any country you want to
make sure you have the proper visa to
get in so if you're currently a citizen
of one of the 68th countries listed here
and you granted a general visa exemption
and you only need to show a valid
passport to enter Japan as a temporary
visitor which allows you up to a 90 day
visit except if you're from Brunei and
Indonesia which gets 15 days for United
Arab Emirates for 30 days but if you're
not from any of these countries and
you're gonna need to formally apply for
a visa it may vary per country so
definitely check on the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs website you may need to
prepare items like photos birth
certificates invitation letters and
guarantor documents which takes time so
be prepared now let's talk about special
events so for sports and related offense
like sumo or baseball you definitely
need to check the season schedule
because it doesn't go all throughout the
year but it has its own season and what
you'll find is that earlier in the
season tickets part easier to get but as
you go through towards the end of the
seasons then the tickets are harder and
harder to get so let me go through sumo
so sumo seasons are a bit different than
your typical sports they run in
tournament forms six times a year called
partial in various locations in Japan
here's the 2020 schedule and the 2021
schedule for reference basically there
are three tiers of seats ringside box
seats and balcony seats ringside being
the most difficult to obtain
there's also juice ecchi which are free
seating tickets but they're not
available for pre-sales and they sell
out quickly from 8 a.m. on each day of
the sumo
so I wouldn't rely on those tickets if
you want to guarantee a viewing so you
can purchase tickets directly online in
English on the official sumo site but be
warned they to sell out quickly at times
until you should mark the dates when the
tickets go on sale so let's go through
baseball baseball is quite popular in
Japan so tickets can be hard to get
sometimes so definitely plan ahead you
can simply go to the team's website for
example the Tokyo Giants which is also
in English just so you know better seats
more popular teams and the end of the
season will make it more difficult to
get tickets so again plan ahead but let
me go through concerts concerts it
really depends on who's performing on
how advanced you need to buy the tickets
the Japanese people usually buy their
tickets online on a site called ticket
PA the site is in Japanese unfortunately
they also have their site available in
English again all of this information is
listed in the description and here are
some other things that you should
probably be aware if you're going to one
of the team lab museums like borderless
or you're going to cup noodles museum
you can usually get tickets while you're
here in Japan but if you have a short
stay and sometimes it's actually best to
book one week in advance and make
reservations what you'll find is that
weekends get really really booked and if
you're only staying here for a few days
and you're arriving on a Friday it may
be too late so that's just something
else to consider when coming to Japan
something that you should make
reservations for before coming here oh
and I should also probably mention this
medicines and prescription drugs first
of all this one we need to be a bit
careful I should note that I'm not a
lawyer and I'm not providing you with
legal advice in this video you
definitely need to check the laws in
Japan before you bring in medicines from
outside of the country many common
medications and over-the-counter drugs
in countries like the United States are
illegal in Japan it doesn't matter if
you have a valid US prescription for a
medicine or drug which is illegal in
Japan if you bring it into Japan you
risk being arrested or detained by
Japanese authorities so you're gonna
need to check with the Ministry of
Health Labor and Welfare whether or not
your prescription medicine is okay to
bring into Japan for example all
medications containing stimulants are
prohibited this includes adderall a
standard medication used
ADHD symptoms in the US you can bring
prescription medicines into Japan with
you without any special procedures on
the condition that one you bring it only
for your own use to it's not any
prohibited drugs such as methamphetamine
in Japan three it's not any especially
controlled drugs such as narcotics in
Japan and for its quantity is up to one
month supply so if you have exceptions
to this rule you need to bring special
medicines we'll have to apply for a so
called you can show me an importation
certificate and receive it before you
leave home and then declare to the
customs officer when you arrive in Japan
this process could take several weeks
depending on your country and
requirements so plan ahead aside from
that if you guys like this video help me
out as always by hitting that like
button and if you guys want to help
support the channel check out the Tokyo
merch and if you guys want to see what
I'm doing on that daily check out my
Instagram account also thank you again
to our sponsor Mobile SIM cards if you
really come into Japan and you want to
be connected just like me definitely
think about getting a plan from mobile
and finally if you want to see more
guides about Japan and then the live
videos definitely hit that subscribe
button and the Bell button and I'll
catch you guys in the next one