Channel 01 · Arrival
Just landed in Japan? Your first 3 hours, step by step
Six moves, in order, that decide whether your first day in Japan is smooth or expensive.
In 30 seconds
Data first, then cash, then an IC card. Leave the airport by train or bus, drop your luggage in a locker or send it ahead, and eat something simple nearby. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.
What to do in your first three hours in Japan
Minute 0
Get connected before anything else
Activate your eSIM on the plane, or collect the SIM or pocket Wi-Fi you reserved at the arrivals counter. Airport Wi-Fi does not follow you to the station, and without data you lose far more time than money.
Minute 15
Take out cash
Use a 7-Eleven or Japan Post ATM in the terminal — those two reliably accept foreign cards, many bank ATMs do not. ¥20,000 comfortably covers the first days in the places that still refuse cards, and those are often the best ones.
Minute 25
Get an IC card
Add Suica or Pasmo to your phone wallet (straightforward on iPhone, patchy on Android outside Japan) or buy a physical card from a station machine. After this you stop calculating train fares for the rest of the trip.
Minute 35
Decide how you're leaving the airport
Narita and Kansai are far from the centre. Compare express train, bus and local train by total door-to-hotel time, not by ticket price. A taxi from Narita into Tokyo costs more than a night in your hotel.
Minute 50
Get rid of the suitcase
If check-in hasn't opened, use coin lockers at the station or a takkyubin luggage-forwarding counter. Dragging a large case through Tokyo rush hour is an expensive way to learn this.
Hour 2
Eat something close to the hotel
Your first meal is not the one to overthink. A convenience store, a station soba counter or a chain gyudon shop is genuinely good food, costs under ¥1,000 and needs almost no Japanese.
Common mistakes when arriving in Japan
- Exchanging a lot of currency at the airport instead of withdrawing yen from a convenience-store ATM.
- Buying a rail pass before checking whether your route actually justifies it.
- Assuming cards work everywhere — small restaurants, shrines, lockers and rural buses are often cash only.
- Booking the first night far from a major station because it looked cheaper.
- Planning a full sightseeing day for arrival day. Jet lag wins.