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[Durien]

Hey all,
For those who visited Japan recently, did you use Visit Japan Web. We used it our last trip to Japan (several years ago) but I was wondering if it is still needed or not. From what I read online, I see mixed info so I'd rather ping you all to see what the recent experience was.

Thanks all

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I was in Japan last month. I used the Visit Japan Web site, it let me fill out the entry visa forms in advance of boarding the plane. When I got off the plane, I showed the dude the QR code the site generated, he verified my passport, and I was allowed to enter Japan without any fuss

I would recommend you use it instead of trying to fill out paper card forms on the airplane, why increase your own hassle?

 

[Robot Carnival]

I visited back in Oct last year and I did use it. I won't say it's NEEDED but I would highly recommend using it since it'll save you a lot of time and trouble.

 

[Durien]

Thanks all for the info. I'll just use it again then. I uninstalled the app a while back which is why I was wondering whether to re-install it again or not. Thanks again

 

[Shadowplay1979]

I really wish there was a tourism cap on visiting Japan, Japan wont do it of course because of money even though everyone here wishes the same. At least they are clamping down on those nauseating cringe mario kart street ride shit. Tired of going to some areas and seeing packs of tourists thinking Tokyo is some giant theme park.

 

[Deft Beck]

I really wish there was a tourism cap on visiting Japan, Japan wont do it of course because of money even though everyone here wishes the same. At least they are clamping down on those nauseating cringe mario kart street ride shit. Tired of going to some areas and seeing packs of tourists thinking Tokyo is some giant theme park.

That's what turns me off about the idea of a Japan trip right now. I feel like people took advantage of the weak yen and Japanese politeness to just stomp all over the place and be rude.

Even if you are polite, there's still people who go there to pillage used game/hardware stores to resell on eBay or Whatnot or parade it on their YouTube channels.

 

[Nocty]

I'm not sure if it is different now in 2025, but when I last visited Osaka in 2015, hardly anyone spoke engilsh at all. Like literally none. It's one of the few places I have visited around the globe that was like it.

 

[Durien]

My family and I are going to visit family. My FIL has Alzheimer's so we are thinking this is the last time we may get to go while he still recognizes us. I'm actually only going be in Japan for 3 days before leaving while the rest of the family will be there for about 3 weeks to get stuff straightened out. While I love going to Japan I'm getting to the point where I don't enjoy it as much as when I was younger. Lol my kids want to run all around while I just want to go to an onsen in the middle of nowhere and drink sake

 

[Robot Carnival]

I really wish there was a tourism cap on visiting Japan, Japan wont do it of course because of money even though everyone here wishes the same. At least they are clamping down on those nauseating cringe mario kart street ride shit. Tired of going to some areas and seeing packs of tourists thinking Tokyo is some giant theme park.

That's what turns me off about the idea of a Japan trip right now. I feel like people took advantage of the weak yen and Japanese politeness to just stomp all over the place and be rude.

Even if you are polite, there's still people who go there to pillage used game/hardware stores to resell on eBay or Whatnot or parade it on their YouTube channels.

I completely understand that. I've visited Japan many times over the years, but the trips after the pandemic had been REALLY bad in terms of the over tourism issue. the government is working on dealing with it but with the way economy is right now, I don't think they will do too much. one solution is to go somewhere not that well known by the regular travelers. I know Kyushu and Hokkaido are still not too bad in terms of the amount of tourist visiting there. also can consider the Northeast part of Japan like Sendai, Aomori and Akita. these areas are still not too overflow with foreigners yet and still has plenty to see. and look into renting a car if you're going with family or friends. while trains are perfectly fine, the driving experience is also very fun. I've driven around Japan twice now and as long as it's not in the major cities, it's a really comfortable experience.

I'm not sure if it is different now in 2025, but when I last visited Osaka in 2015, hardly anyone spoke engilsh at all. Like literally none. It's one of the few places I have visited around the globe that was like it.

I would say it's slightly better now a days. at least in the main attraction areas like Tokyo and Kyoto, a lot of the stores and restaurants can handle some basic English. but some degrees of basic Japanese would still be your best bet. the Google Translate app or maybe some other AI variants would definitely help a lot too.


shameless push here. I have a Japan Travel thread that I halfassly created in the Community section which I REALLY should get back to finishing. drop by and ask anything you like or share your experience if you want.

 

[Wilhelm_85]

Not required anymore, but it certainly makes things easier. Would highly recommend using it.

 

[Nocty]

I would say it's slightly better now a days. at least in the main attraction areas like Tokyo and Kyoto, a lot of the stores and restaurants can handle some basic English. but some degrees of basic Japanese would still be your best bet. the Google Translate app or maybe some other AI variants would definitely help a lot too.

Indeed, I'm fluent Japanese myself (and a little Mandarin also) It's just something I always let friends and family who are thinking about visting know about because it can be quite a shock when you get there even if you are an expereinced traveller.

My favourite thing about Japan besides the gaming culture is the food, and if you don't know what the fuck you are ordering you are going to have a very bad time since a lot of the best things in Japanese resteraunts simply do not exist outside of Japan.

 

[Durien]

If I had my way, I'd spend 2 of my 3 days in Hide Takayama. I loved it there but I haven't been back in at least 10 years. Lol Tokyo Disney now takes precedence when I went back about 2 1/2 years ago, we spent 3 days in Kyoto and the number of people was crazy.

 

[dEvAnGeL]

Yes. I was there in April. Not needed since you can fill out a paper by hand at the airport, but certainly speed things up.

 

[Nocty]

something I was considering seriously was buying a house in rural Japan for retirement. I don't know much about how their housing system works to be honest. I suspect much like everything else about Japan that it is some lengthy and convoluted process for a gaijin. It was extremely difficult to find a new apartment to rent in tokyo since most landlords do not like renting to foreigners, I think due to extra taxation or something.

I wanted to stay in Osaka long term but it was an extremely hostile environment to find and rent a place.

 

[p_xavier]

something I was considering seriously was buying a house in rural Japan for retirement. I don't know much about how their housing system works to be honest. I suspect much like everything else about Japan that it is some lengthy and convoluted process for a gaijin. It was extremely difficult to find a new apartment to rent in tokyo since most landlords do not like renting to foreigners, I think due to extra taxation or something.

I wanted to stay in Osaka long term but it was an extremely hostile environment to find and rent a place.

Asians are the most racist people, not surprising.

 

[jshackles]

something I was considering seriously was buying a house in rural Japan for retirement. I don't know much about how their housing system works to be honest. I suspect much like everything else about Japan that it is some lengthy and convoluted process for a gaijin. It was extremely difficult to find a new apartment to rent in tokyo since most landlords do not like renting to foreigners, I think due to extra taxation or something.

I wanted to stay in Osaka long term but it was an extremely hostile environment to find and rent a place.

Do you currently live and work in Japan? Retiring in Japan requires a full-time resident visa or citizenship. This typically requires living and working in Japan for at least 10 years.

You will be able to purchase a house as a gaijin, but you'll only be able to live there three months at a time / six months out of the year if you're staying on a travel visa. I've heard that rural places can be much more hostile to outsiders, but I think the sentiment has changed in recent years as many of these rural locations have become abandoned completely, so people are more receptive to selling to gaijin now (though they'd prefer to sell to native Japanese). Unlike America, there are no anti-discrimination laws lol. And like most legal transactions in Japan, you'll need to be pretty proficient with the language to navigate the paperwork. Of course, if you're independently wealthy, you can hire a legal representative to take care of most of the required paperwork in buying a house.

 

[Nocty]

Do you currently live and work in Japan? Retiring in Japan requires a full-time resident visa or citizenship. This typically requires living and working in Japan for at least 10 years.

You will be able to purchase a house as a gaijin, but you'll only be able to live there three months at a time / six months out of the year if you're staying on a travel visa. I've heard that rural places can be much more hostile to outsiders, but I think the sentiment has changed in recent years as many of these rural locations have become abandoned completely, so people are more receptive to selling to gaijin now (though they'd prefer to sell to native Japanese). Unlike America, there are no anti-discrimination laws lol. And like most legal transactions in Japan, you'll need to be pretty proficient with the language to navigate the paperwork. Of course, if you're independently wealthy, you can hire a legal representative to take care of most of the required paperwork in buying a house.

thanks man! I worked there long term as a nuclear safety technician / security guard type role for almost 15 years, with only 1 year break during that time which allowed me to naturalize and obtain Japanese citizenship. I also maintain ties to my home country, though Japan doesn't formally recognise my dual nationality per-se. Before you ssk, yes, I worked at Fukushima for a bit but long before it melted

I was staying in various work-organized accommodation like most of the contractors but the government suddenly ended the funding, less than a month before my contract was due to renew and I was forced to find a place to rent privately within 6 weeks which was impossible due to before-mentioned 'reasons', I ended up deciding to move back to the UK.

I'm fluent in Japanese and my wife is also half Japanese through her fathers side with dual citizenship, however she hasn't lived there since she was 3 years old... her mother passed from a car accident and her dad moved to the southern cost of the UK where we met, so although she is able to do whstever, we are not sure where we stand exactly, and since she has no family there / was too young to speak fluent japanese (at the time) the government requires you to move back home or reliquish your citizenship by the age of 22. She chose to go back for a few years to keep it, which is when we met during that brief window.

Since she does now speak fluent as well, and is actually half Japanese biologically (she looks more Japanese than her german mother side) we thought it may be easier but turns out.. nope lol

It's hard to explain what it's like as a gaijin, it feels quite rough at times even if you are used to it. People stare at you, laugh and whisper blatently to their friends right in front of you, flat out refuse service sometimes (although that is rare it does happen in more rural areas), they make this weird 'shuffling' gesture / mannerism and 'no' response, hard to explain but If you have been to Japan you will have likely experienced it.

Even friendly Japanese people can be quite abrasive when they are around you and other Japanese people, it's a quite socially accepted thing which is weird as that kind of thing is generally frowned upon outside of Japan, it's almost like a running cultural joke everyones in on but you. The actual word Gaijin itself is a kind of derogative way of saying the longer word 'gaikokujin', though to explain it how my Japanese friends would they would often joke about being 'big man', its kinda like they use Gaijin to joke about some huge foreigner since most Japanese people are small in comparison. lol

 

[Durien]

The actual word Gaijin itself is a kind of derogative way of saying the longer word 'gaikokujin', though to explain it how my Japanese friends would they would often joke about being 'big man', its kinda like they use Gaijin to joke about some huge foreigner since most Japanese people are small in comparison. lol

Oh man, my wife and I have been married for almost 25 years (she's Japanese) and we use gaijin and baka gaijin in daily conversation. When she picks something and it's yellow, I'll say, "of course it's the yellow one." I also refer to myself as "white bread" too so we really don't care. I don't hear people talk about us probably because I'll be with her and they automatically assume the gray hair means I've been there a while and can understand.

 

[Nocty]

Oh man, my wife and I have been married for almost 25 years (she's Japanese) and we use gaijin and baka gaijin in daily conversation. When she picks something and it's yellow, I'll say, "of course it's the yellow one." I also refer to myself as "white bread" too so we really don't care. I don't hear people talk about us probably because I'll be with her and they automatically assume the gray hair means I've been there a while and can understand.

ahah sounds familiar lol.

It never gets old explaining to my friends why my wife gets really angry if I don't wear my bathroom slippers when we have guests over and I use the bathroom..

 

[Porcile]

something I was considering seriously was buying a house in rural Japan for retirement. I don't know much about how their housing system works to be honest. I suspect much like everything else about Japan that it is some lengthy and convoluted process for a gaijin. It was extremely difficult to find a new apartment to rent in tokyo since most landlords do not like renting to foreigners, I think due to extra taxation or something.

I wanted to stay in Osaka long term but it was an extremely hostile environment to find and rent a place.

De-population is killing the countryside so hard though. Yeah, it's all cool and all because it's so quiet, the scenery is nice, and the houses can be massive (but old) but there is basically zero infrastructure except a supermarket or whatever that's a 10-20 min drive away. Depends what you really mean by countryside, but at a certain point it's just another city suburb with almost zero entertainment. So people just end up driving into the nearest city anyway.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

That's what turns me off about the idea of a Japan trip right now. I feel like people took advantage of the weak yen and Japanese politeness to just stomp all over the place and be rude.

Even if you are polite, there's still people who go there to pillage used game/hardware stores to resell on eBay or Whatnot or parade it on their YouTube channels.

Japan was insanely crowded when I was there to look at cherry blossoms but every tourist area I was in, the people were all polite to each other. I rode on the Tokyo train system all over the city and I didn't run into any problems with the locals or the many tourists I was riding with. I went to Akihabara and browsed the video game and anime stores there and nobody was buying entire shelves of shit to sell on eBay so I have no idea what you're on about

Tourism is about going to look at cool things and be nice to people, it's not that hard to be a good tourist no matter where you travel and most people try to be good tourists. I have almost never run into "bad" tourists everywhere I've been around the world

 

[Nocty]

De-population is killing the countryside so hard though. Yeah, it's all cool and all because it's so quiet, the scenery is nice, and the houses can be massive (but old) but there is basically zero infrastructure except a supermarket or whatever that's a 10-20 min drive away. Depends what you really mean by countryside, but at a certain point it's just another city suburb with almost zero entertainment. So people just end up driving into the nearest city anyway.

I'm a fan of Nara personally, places like for example are not too remote from Osaka city and have good facilities.

To be honest with you, these days I would enjoy the remoteness and tranquility. As long as I have a decent ish internet connection and electricity for gaming I would be pretty happy.

The cost of living is also a huge factor, because for our modern life in the countryside of the uk it is extremely expensive, our house here costed £1.4million which in Japan the same house in a similar area would cost maybe 20% of that.. and cost of buying food here is insane, I spend maybe £400 a week on food for 3 people. In Japan I would spend that in 1 month, lol. England is an extremely wealthy country, by far some of the wealthiest people in the world retried here, London especially housing is absolutely crazy expensive. For even a small 1 bed appartment the averge cost is like £500k.

 

[Tams]

I'm a fan of Nara personally, places like for example are not too remote from Osaka city and have good facilities.

To be honest with you, these days I would enjoy the remoteness and tranquility. As long as I have a decent ish internet connection and electricity for gaming I would be pretty happy.

The cost of living is also a huge factor, because for our modern life in the countryside of the uk it is extremely expensive, our house here costed £1.4million which in Japan the same house in a similar area would cost maybe 20% of that.. and cost of buying food here is insane, I spend maybe £400 a week on food for 3 people. In Japan I would spend that in 1 month, lol. England is an extremely wealthy country, by far some of the wealthiest people in the world retried here, London especially housing is absolutely crazy expensive. For even a small 1 bed appartment the averge cost is like £500k.

Come u' North.

 

[Nocty]

Come u' North.

where do you live?

 

[cripterion]

OP I used the app 2 years and so ago and it sped things up for me.

From what I hear they are trying to make arrivals more fluid for tourists and for good reason, the flow is never ending. (I'm a freelance tour guide here).

I echo the sentiment about wanting to live in some remote areas. I'm quite partial to Takatsuki, in between Kyoto and Osaka. I live downtown Kyoto and it's one of the noisiest city I've ever lived in to be honest

 

[Durien]

OP I used the app 2 years and so ago and it sped things up for me.

From what I hear they are trying to make arrivals more fluid for tourists and for good reason, the flow is never ending. (I'm a freelance tour guide here).

I echo the sentiment about wanting to live in some remote areas. I'm quite partial to Takatsuki, in between Kyoto and Osaka. I live downtown Kyoto and it's one of the noisiest city I've ever lived in to be honest

Dude there were a couple of places I went to away from the Nishiki Market that one of the ryokan workers recommended for coffee. The coffee was pretty damn good and ended up buying quite a bit. I got sake from the market but it was definitely priced for tourists. I wanted some local sake though and didn't feel like walking around in 90+ degree weather to find it cheaper.

 

[Durien]

Hey all, just go back yesterday on the longest day of the year. I was only there for 4 days due to calendar flip and arrival time. Couple of things over all.

Visit Japan worked awesome because I was going with my family who all have Japanese passports (wife is citizen, kids have dual citizenship until 20 I think). So I did the visit Japan, put everyone under me, and I got to go with them in the returning citizen's line. This means I saved like an hour standing in line.

Instead of staying with our family, we chose a business hotel in Machida. Instead of sleeping on the floor with a futon, this felt like I was sleeping in a bed meant to simulate the experience. But the people were friendly and they also served all you can eat breakfast which benefitted our son.

Since I was only there 4 days my wife front loaded stuff for us to do together and we were going from first thing in the morning all day long. I actually slept on the plane ride back, which I never do usually because I just can't, but this time I could because I was so freakin' exhausted. This helped as I arrived at 2 in the afternoon so I was able to function and drive. I stopped on the way home and picked up an edible to help put me to sleep and it worked wonders.

I used to fly other airlines, but now I fly ANA. It feels like I have a ton of room especially over my head. The food is OK but I usually bring my own food on anyway. Free sake though. Also we used to fly into Narita all the time then take the Narita express to Yokohama then train hop to get home. The last 2 trips we used Haneda and it works much better for us.

I also used a bus service this time which was awesome. I took a bus from Machida to Haneda, was hmm 1700 yen and took me right to terminal 3. Go up the escalator and ANA check in was right there.

Also, the US is rolling out an equivelant of visit Japan called the MPC app. USE IT!! For those of you who have used the intl gates at Seatac before, the line for those using MPC started at baggage carousel 19 which is the closest baggage to the US customs. No lie, it took me like less than 10 minutes while the regular line was all the way to back of the building. Yes, under the escalator you come down to get to baggage claim. (Multiple intl flights came in at the same time)

Usd to yen was 145.

Most unusual thing I saw? It was 95 degrees and people were wearing jeans and jackets OR black long sleeve dresses at Tokyo Disney. It's funny I enjoy that heat and humidity but my wife hates it. But again I love Florida's weather which is the same.

One earthquake while I was there 6.1 in Hokkaido which was nowhere near me.

Temps were in the 90s, I got back to Seattle and 1st day of Summer? Raining and 54 degrees.

If you have any questions let.me know

 

[Durien]

One other thing to add, we went to an otter café in Harajuku. 2000 yen for 25 minutes and totally worth it if you dig otters. I had one fall sleep on my lap while I was feeding another one. The rest of the family dug it as well.