Japan Basic Tutorial

This blog is a mini tutorial of sorts.  I will be covering what is needed to get to Japan for people who don’t know.  Bear with us because we’ll get to the juicy gems later.
So what is the first thing you’ll need to go to Japan?  Simply put, a passport.  You can go here or to your local post office and pick up an application.  You’ll need to provide some pretty specific forms of ID, here is a quick list of things that you can submit.

You will also need to have one of the following as well:

If you don’t have either any of that there’s something you can do and it’s found here.  You will also need to have a passport photo done of yourself.  It’s a standard photo with NOTHING covering your face.  They are really anal about hats, head coverings, etc.  That being said, my advice is not to play around when it comes to your photo.
The passport is the most important thing because you cannot leave America without it.  It takes quite a bit of time for it to get to you so you will want to either expedite it (which will cost you a good amount of extra cash) or apply for one well in advance.  When I applied for mine it came the weekend right before I left, needless to say I was a bit nervous that I wouldn’t be able to take my trip.
Next is figuring out where in Japan do you want to go and stay.  Most people (myself included) go to Tokyo, so we tend to look for hotels in the various parts of the city.  I usually stay near Roppongi however you might wish to stay in a quieter section of the city.  Remember, if you are not fluent in Japanese, the further outside of Tokyo you go the higher the difficulty in regards to the language barrier.  The good people at the JNTO board have a service that can help you book the hotel in the area of your choice.  If you don’t want to use this service, you could always Google and find hotels. The price depends on the time of the year you go and also the exchange rate (see, I told you paying attention to the economy was important).
After you have your place to say, next on the list is the flight.  This is the trickiest part of the booking because when you are traveling to Japan you are actually going forward or backward a day depending on where you are.  So, if you are in America and make your reservations for a hotel on the 12th, you must book a flight on the 11th to get there on the 12th. More than likely you will be flying into Narita (NRT) airport.  If you are going to another part of Japan you might have to take a connecting flight.  Narita itself is fairly easy to navigate and its website for it contains maps and train schedules.

I won’t bore you any more with this stuff next time we will be looking at the mass transit system ;D