Who writes this site
I'm Shin. I've lived in Tokyo for 18 years, and I'm Japanese.
That second part matters more than it sounds. Most English-language guides to Japan are written by visitors or by residents working from translated material. I read the original: the transport operator's fare tables, the tax agency's notices, the city's own signage rules. When a rule changes in November, I read the Japanese announcement in April and I can tell you what it actually says — not what a press release says it says.
The other half of what I bring is less official. I have friends from the United States, China, France, Austria, Indonesia, Ukraine and Russia, and I have shown a lot of them around this country. I've watched people stand in front of a ticket machine and give up. I've watched someone buy the wrong rail pass. I've been asked the same six questions so many times that this site is, more or less, my answer to them.
And I travel too — I've spent time in more than twenty cities outside Japan. I know what it feels like to be the person who can't read the menu, can't find the platform, and can't tell whether the price is fair. That's the reader I write for.
How I work
I say when I checked. Prices, opening hours and fares in Japan move. Where a price matters, I give the date I checked it, so you can judge for yourself whether it's still good.
I read the primary source. Where a Japanese government or operator page is the authority, that's what I use — not a summary of a summary.
I tell you when something isn't worth it. A national rail pass is a bad deal for a lot of itineraries. Some tickets you can simply buy at the gate. If the honest answer is "don't bother", that's what you'll read here, even when there's a commission attached to the other answer.
I don't publish experiences I haven't had. This site used to carry two customer testimonials I could not trace to a real person. I deleted them. If a quote or a photo is here, it's mine or it's credited.
I use AI for research, not for experience. Drafting structure, checking translations, building comparison tables — yes. Deciding what a place is like, or what a train ride feels like — no. That part has to be lived, and I'd rather publish less.
I fix things. If something here is wrong, tell me and I'll correct it and say that I did.
How this site makes money
Some links here are affiliate links. If you book through one, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Every page that carries them says so at the top, before you read anything.
Two things follow from that, and I want them stated plainly:
- I don't run display ads. They slow the site down and clutter it, and I'd rather the page load fast than earn a few cents from a banner.
- Commission doesn't decide the recommendation. Where the cheaper or free option is better, that's the one I lead with. You can check this against the pages themselves — several of them talk you out of a purchase.
Why there's no photo of my face
I write under my first name and I don't post pictures of my face. That's a privacy decision, not a hedge — the location, the years, the language and the experience above are all real, and all of it is checkable against what's on this site.
Contact
Questions, corrections, or something I've got wrong: contact me here. I read everything.
