Living in New Zealand there are a lot of things that are different from Japan. Here are a few things I have learnt that I will note for future use.
First issue
MONEY
First thing first, don't bather with Travelers Check if you are not staying the whole time in central Tokyo. You find a lot of banks and post offices will reject them unless you are in a central area. I think I costs them money so quite a few post offices don't want to cover the cost.
A lot of shops in Japan Don't take cards. so for things like eating at local shops and buying small items have cash. Up until a few years people hardly used Credit Cards in this country, so this is still the case for most shops. cash cards are only used to get money out at bank or Post Office ATMs.
So use your credit card for big things like paying for the hotel, some clothing shops and upperclass restaurants as well as chemists and some supermarkets if you spend over w certain amount.
Due to Japan being a mainly cash society you will find that people comfortably walk around with a bit of money in their pocket. But if you are not too happy about doing that, you can take your eftpos or debtcard with you. make sure it is visa or it has the PLUS sign on the back. Once you get to your local area you are staying in, ask around for a post office. The ATM machines located here are your friends. These are usually open 9-7 week days and 10-5 weekends. The Post Office usually have a shorter opening hour than this but the ATM's are open longer. The disadvantage of this it that each time you take money out you will be charged about NZD$11. But I find this the most comfortable way of traveling as I don't need to worry about having money on me.
TRANSPORT
Locally
Trains are the most foreigner friendly, with announcements in Japanese and English and trains come very frequently if you are in town. Just the main stations can get very confusing as they are huge with up to 7 or 8 different line crossing over. In stations like Shinkjyuku, Tokyo, Osaka or Shibuya you are bound to get lost at least once. especially of your have to go somewhere. One advise will be if say you are meeting someone at Shibuya Station at 5 at the south exit, make sure you know which line it is. there are a few south exits for different lines as well as there being central, west and east south exits if it a big station.
My advise if you are lost is to ask. if you are confident most people will be able to understand basic English. If you get lost, find the closest station of Convenient store. they have laminated maps you can look at that might give you a hint as to where to go.
Busses are another option but are less friendly unless you know where you are going. it i harder to correct your mistakes if you get it wrong too.
Traveling the country
There are a few options for this. The obvious and most used by foreigners is the train. Bullet trains and local express trains are handy and easy, as they are on time, you just turn up to the station a few minutes before your train and you get on. Ok a few minutes os probably not a good idea as there is the scare of you missing your train, but there is no waiting like you would if you were going to fly. Bullet trains are handy and you can go the distance equivalent to Auckland to Wellington in about 3 hours. Down side of this options is that it is a bit expensive. 13000yen (NZD$190) one way for the distance stated above so that is roughly Osaka to Tokyo.
One good thing is that you can get japanrailpass. This is a service offered only to people who live outside of Japan where you can buy a ticket where you can ride all JR lines as much as you like for the given time you payed for it. this includes most bullet trains and all local JR lines excluding 1st class carriages. for about NZD$1000 you can travel the whole county as much as you like for a month. It sounds expensive but if you think about it if you go there and back between Osaka and Tokyo that is already NZD$400, do the same trip in the opposite direction up north and you have your money back!
I have done this before and it is amazing. If you are wanting to see the country in a small amount of time it is probably the best option. You can get the pass for the amount of time you are staying too so that is an advantage.
Another way to travel the country to one city is to fly. Not an option I have used but say if you want to spend most of your time in one city but visit one for a few days, the Japanese airline ANA do really good deals that include the hotel price or a part of it in the flight price. So this could be a good option if you want to see one specific city for a few days. you are looking at 20000yen one way ore more though so be clear about your decision!
One more sell know option is available. This is the night bus. I think this is not a very common or preferred option. I have done it a few times (being a poor student) but it is not recommended. The seats are smaller than economy (if that is possible) and every time the driver stops for a break he turns all the lights on so you get next to no sleep. Depending on the money you pay and route you chose though you can get the best option. vipliner I used this company. They had options where you could choose a woman only bus, or a bus that only turns on emergency lights when the bus stops. Disadvantage is that you need to know Japanese to book. So unless you are traveling with someone who knows Japanese it is not really recommended.
The advantage is though that you travel both ways for the price of one way on the train or by plane. So if you have friends in the country who you can ask to help you or you are traveling with Japanese abled people this is a great option to save money.
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