Japan travel, part I: getting the lay of the land

[moof]

edit: more info on the drugs.
Slightly reformatted and expanded for 2015! Huzzah! "Stuff to do" will be in its own forthcoming post.

Getting there

• Japan is extremely wiggy about drugs.
  • Super-duper wiggy. I saw pot there maybe once or twice in two and a half years. Don't try to bring or smuggle anything in, srsly. However…
  • (edited) Do not bring in any

Comments

[randomdreams]

This is incredibly useful.
Are you and thewronghands friends? coz you should be.
I will start playing my learn katakana video game again.

[moof]

Huh, seven mutual friends. Added her.

[randomdreams]

Her tales of travels in Tokyo were similar, and I think you'd enjoy talking about Japanese.

[pir]

Random question, does Suica card credit or the card itself expire? I have one from a while back...

[moof]

Not as far as I can tell; I had 3￥ left on mine that I hadn't used for four years and it worked. (I had to put more money on it before the card reader would recognize it, though, so that may be a small restriction.) I believe that you can also return the card to a JR office and get back the 500￥ deposit + 90% of the stored value on there in cash.

The Android app Farebot (assuming you have functional NFC) can scan the card and tell you what balance you have.

[pir]

Thanks. Not that I have any plans to get back to Japan but good to know. I did look at it with Farebot at some point (I use it for getting the value of my clipper cards too)... don't remember how much was on it.

[autopope]

One ommission: what you say about pseudoephedrine and stimulants goes double for opiates. Including stuff that's sold over-the-counter in the UK, such as dihydrocodeine/ibuprofen tablets.

[moof]

Thanks for the info; updated. I can't say I'm surprised to hear about this; when they get uptight about something, they get super uptight. (They have dimple locks for bikes, and what would be high security keys here are normal for housekeys there.)

[chipadeedoodah]

Thank you for this! I'll put it to good use.

[icis_machine]

The best thing I bought was the Tokyo map book. Though most places use the tiny maps to direct you.