Culture & Daily Life

A sushi-making class in Tokyo is a hands-on morning, not the best sushi of your trip. Whether it earns the slot comes down to four things, in this order: what your group wants, the ages in it, what someone won't eat, and what the class actually lets you make.

What to do at a Japanese shrine or temple in the order it happens — gate, path, basin, hall — how to tell which one you are standing at, and the one step that changes between them.

What a tea-ceremony seat on a first trip actually is — a bowl, a sweet and a host who explains — what it costs per person from ¥800 to ¥16,500, the hour in order, and whether to book it.

Your first izakaya in the order it happens: the door, the small plate you didn't order and what it is, drinks first, ordering in rounds, and why the bill is more than the menu.

Whether to do it at all, then three named shops with what each was displaying on 10 September 2026 and the hour each wants the clothes back — plus the part nobody writes for the person actually wearing it.

Yes — and the advice attached to that yes has conditions nobody states. The days the women-only car is not running, read from five operators' own pages; what the Tokyo police actually tell you to do; and the one number that publishes an English guarantee around the clock.

Convenience stores, your hotel, and the JR network still has bins. The 1995 attack is a real part of the story, but the subway bins you are looking for went in 2022 — and Japan's counter-terrorism policy does not list station bins at all.

Every list of things not to do in Japan gives you twenty rules of equal weight, which is why visitors arrive anxious. Sorted by consequence instead: the three that genuinely matter, the ones that are ordinary courtesy, and the ones the guides have inflated.

What to do at a Japanese hot spring the first time, in the order it happens — reading the curtain, undressing, washing, the towel, how long to soak — plus the tattoo question and the one rule that is not etiquette but law.