Sampling Japan in October 2008

• First weekend: stay at our friend's house
• First week: Tokyo, experiencing the bustling metropolis
• Stay a Friday night at Kawaguchi-ko (lake Kawaguchi) for a quiet and peaceful contemplation of the beauty that is Mt Fuji
• Second weekend: back to our friend's house for the Health and Sports Holiday (体育の日, or たいいくのひ), with a day trip to Nikko
• Second week: Kyoto, with a day trip to Kanazawa to pay respect to the famous garden Kenroku-en.
• Last weekend: relax at our friend's house, gift shopping and other things that we didn't find time to explore in the days prior.

• Bring a good map book and a compass to help orient yourself in a strange setting. Tokyo and Kyoto have many small streets with no names, and the layout of Tokyo especially is not a grid so it's very easy to get lost. Also in the vast JR train stations, a compass helps you orient the direction you are going.
• Cash is still the main way to pay for everything, so don't depend on your credit card. We never used our card the whole time, except for paying the hotel bills.
• There is no tipping in Japan, and in restaurants you pay your bill at the cashier (this is also the norm for Asian restaurants)
• Left is right: people drive on the left, so they also keep to the left when walking.
• Smoking is still prevalent in Japan, so if you are a non-smoker, be very vigilant and check on your reservations to make sure your room is a non-smoking room, and when reserve a train seat, make sure to ask for a non-smoking car. If you are on a non-reserved train, seek out non-smoking cars only.
• Leave your shampoo and soap at home. Unless you are very specific to a brand, the hotels supply very good quality and fragrant soap and shampoo for your use. Recently they switch to liquid soap to cut down on waste (which I like), and so they also include bath sponges. They also have disposable razor and shaving cream, as well as folded hair brushes!
• At both places we stayed, the room has a thermos to boil water for tea and you can use it to boil eggs, blanch vegetables, make ramen, use your imagination.
• The thermos can also be used to boil water that you can use during the day. Boil a pot at night and let it cool through the night and you have some water that you can put into bottles for day use. Then in the morning boil another pot, and let it cool during the day and you'll have drinking water for the evening
• Drink lots of water. In the excitement of exploring and shopping, you tend to forget this. Traveling in a group help us keep each other reminded to drink water frequently. My wife was great on this.
• On rainy days, stores have racks in front for customers to deposit their wet umbrellas so they won't drip all over the store. Some stores and hotels even have wrapping machines which, when you insert your umbrella and push a lever, will wrap your umbrella in a plastic pouch to prevent water from dripping when you have to bring your umbrella indoors. Others just have long and narrow plastic bags specifically for your umbrellas
• Grocery shopping: unlike in America where the cashier will put your groceries in plastic/paper bags, in Japan you do it yourself: When you pay, the cashier asks how many plastic carrying bags you need. Say you need 3, you'll be given 3. After you pay, take your grocery to a bagging station where you find rolls and rolls of plastic bags which you then use to put individual items in if you need to, else you just put everything into the carrying bags that the cashier gave you earlier.
• When time is of the utmost important and you have a schedule to meet, stick with trains/subway if you can. Buses, as is the case anywhere in the world, are dependant on road condition and traffic.
  

• If you use the JR Pass, to go through the ticket gate you just need to show the pass to a station employee in the booth at one end of the ticket gate.
• If you want to see the city from up high, go at dusk or at night, unless you have a really clear sky early in the morning (9:30am is the open time for the Tokyo Metropolitan observation deck). You can take more interesting photos at dusk/night when the city comes alive with lights. This was what we did in Tokyo as well as New York. But beware of glare reflected from inside the observatory, so bring a scarf, a lens hood, or have a helper to help you cover the lens. This was a problem with Tokyo, but in New York since we were allowed outside, it was not.
• Know your camera: flash sometimes is not desirable, such as taking pictures of food, pictures in crowded places like train stations, trains, department stores. Thus use a mode that doesn't utilize flash, manually shut down your flash, set your ISO high enough (400) so that your camera doesn't need flash 
• Set your camera time zone to the time zone in Japan, otherwise all your photos would have US time zone
• Time is of the essence, so don't waste time nitpicking. Try to make the most of your days in Japan enjoying the experience
• Don't be shy to use strangers for help, and don't be shy to try new things
• Coin lockers in train stations are a great way to store your things for up to 3 days at a time. Most of these only accept „100 coins so make sure you have enough of them. There are 3 sizes: „300, „400 and „500, per 24-hour. This is a great way to help you going about light without having to lug around all your stuff if you don't need them. 
• Shopping: in general you are not allowed to try on clothing items, so know your size (the JPN size, not the US size). Some stores may even block you from inspecting handbags etc.
• Public restrooms don't have paper towels and few have air dryers. Carry a handkerchief with you to wipe your hands.
• Trains can be crowded. For train trips longer than an hour, make reservations whenever possible. With JR Pass there really is no excuse not to; if your plan changed or you missed the train you can go on the next train without losing anything.
• Don't assume the North is always on the top when viewing maps.  Look at this one and see where is the North.
  

Never wear shorts, even in hot weather. Shorts are only appropriate on the beach.

Man
Over-dress is better than under-dress. T-shirts should be avoided in general unless it's part of an assemble. Shirts with neck such as a polo shirt is much better.
Pants and shoes.
Sandals again are more suitable on the beach.

Woman
Browse online Japanese fashion websites such as this one for an idea on how women dress in Tokyo if not Japan. It contains strong elements from the 80's, and you can see most women wear skirt and boot with stockings, though I saw several occasions of women wearing business pants. We rarely saw women in T-shirts, and you would see them stand out immediately. Wear what is appropriate for the season, meaning warmer autumn clothes are appropriate even if it's still hot outside.

If you want to learn the culture and the way of life in Japan, follow the crowd and dress nicely. Throw away all advices above if you don't mind standing out everywhere and love doing your own thing your own way. Nothing wrong with either approach, just what you want to achieve.