One first trip. Done right.
Every mistake my mother’s inn guests made in Japan, finally written down for first-time visitors.
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The Japanese way to visit Japan. Travel at a pace you can enjoy, keep your money where it belongs, and learn the quiet customs that make people welcome you. Updated September 2026 for the new departure tax, the tax-free refund rules and the latest Visit Japan Web changes.
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No questions asked. If the book doesn’t make you feel ready for Japan, reply to your delivery email within your first week and you’ll get a full refund.
A note from the author
“My mother could tell how a guest’s stay would go before they had taken off their shoes.”
I grew up in my mother’s small inn in the Japanese countryside. Some guests arrived light, stopped to look at the maple tree, and had a wonderful stay. Others arrived tired, rushed and a little lost, and made the same small mistakes again and again. In her later years, as visitors from abroad found their way up our hill, she watched a whole new set: shoes on the tatami, towels in the bath, chopsticks standing in the rice.
I have lived in the United States for over forty years and helped many friends plan their first trip to Japan. They make the same mistakes her guests did. None of them are dramatic. They are small, and they pile up quietly.
This book is not a list of hotels and restaurants. It is my mother’s front step, written down, so your first trip feels calm instead of rushed.
Teruko Imai
The Japanese way to visit Japan, written down for first-time visitors.
In Japan, a good trip is less about seeing more and more about knowing what to expect. Fourteen chapters, in the order a trip happens: the pace that works, choosing your season, the entry rules that catch visitors out, packing for a country of stairs, your first hour after landing, the trains, where money quietly disappears, shoes and slippers, the table, temples and shrines, the bath, scams to avoid, what to do if something goes wrong, and a night at a Japanese inn. One book. Yours forever.
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Every chapter names the mistakes visitors actually make, in plain words, then shows you the calmer way. Here is one of them, exactly as it appears in the book.
All 42 are collected in one list at the back, to read again the night before you fly.
A visitor, never having worn one, wraps the robe the way a Western bathrobe might go and comes down to dinner dressed the way a Japanese person is dressed for their funeral. Staff will usually fix it quietly, but it is an uncomfortable moment for everyone.
Put the robe on, then take your left hand and pull the left side across your body so it lies on top. Tie the sash. If you are unsure, ask the staff to check. They will be glad you asked.
Part one: Before you leave home, Part two: Arriving and moving, Part three: Manners that open doors, Part four: Staying safe, staying well
Plus the toolkit: every mistake at a glance, the countdown checklist, your first day hour by hour, etiquette dos and don’ts, 20 phrases in Japanese with pronunciation, a year of Japanese seasons, a simple map, daily planner pages, a budget page and a glossary.
A look inside
Before you buy
No subscription, no special app and no tour group required.
It’s a PDF delivered to your email the moment you order. Read it on your phone, tablet or computer, and print the checklists and planner pages you want to keep.
The entry rules were checked in September 2026. Because entry rules, taxes and medicine rules change, the book shows you which official websites to check before you fly, and never asks you to rely on it alone.
No. The book includes 20 phrases in Japanese with simple pronunciation, and shows you how a smile, a small bow and a slow “sumimasen” open more doors than a perfect sentence.
Yes. The chapters on manners, the bath and staying at a ryokan cover the mistakes nobody points out to you, even on a second or third trip.
No. Those change every year. This book is about the things that don’t: pace, seasons, trains, money, manners and customs.
7-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked. Reply to your delivery email within your first week and you’ll get a full refund.
Begin with one calm first day
Visit Japan the way my mother’s best guests did: slowly, calmly, and noticing everything.
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When you enter a village, follow its ways.
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My mother walked every guest to the gate. She never asked them to stay longer. She only bowed and said itterasshai, the word Japanese families say to someone leaving home: go, and come back safely.
So that is what I will say to you. Whether or not you take my book with you, I hope your first trip to Japan is gentle. I hope someone bows to you and you bow back, and that you come home already wanting to return.
And if you would like me beside you on the way, I have written down everything my mother taught her guests.
Teruko
Take the book with me