Things to Do– category –

Leaving Japan by cruise ship after November 1, 2026? If your cruise starts and ends abroad, you do the tax-free customs check at the last Japanese port before you hand over your luggage. On a fly-and-cruise from Japan, you do it once, at the airport you fly home from.

About 80 percent of Japan visits a shrine at New Year, according to the association that runs them. Here is what hatsumode is, the exact bow-and-clap sequence Meiji Jingu publishes, the normal gate hours, and what the shrines have not announced yet for 2027.

Japan's coin laundries are governed by a health ministry guidance note from 1983, amended in 2022 - administrative advice rather than statute. It tells operators to clean the handles daily and to post a named hygiene manager on the wall. Here is what to look for.

Japan requires wheat to be declared on packaged food. It does not require it in restaurants - the Consumer Affairs Agency says so plainly. And the soy sauce on the table is made from wheat, soybeans, salt and water.

Fukuoka's official tourism site lists seven firmness levels, from raw to very soft, and explains why kaedama was invented at all: the noodles are too thin to survive a big bowl. Hakata, Nagahama and Kurume are also three different things.

Getting into Fuji-Q costs nothing - the park says so on its own ticket page. What costs money is the rides, at 2,000 yen each, and the day pass swings from 6,000 to 7,900 yen depending on the date. Two of the four headline coasters also turn you away at 55.

Umi Jigoku's own website gives two different admission prices on two different pages - 500 yen on the fee page, 450 on the facility page. This guide has both, plus the 2,400 yen combined ticket for seven hells, why the water is blue, and the reason the Japanese coach tour was invented here in 1928.

The Mount Hakodate ropeway is closed for statutory inspection from October 20 to November 8, 2026 - which takes out the city's headline attraction for three weeks of autumn. Goryokaku Tower stays open through its own repainting works. Here are both sets of official times, fees and rules, including the free-entry card almost nobody knows about.

Kumamoto Castle reopened on August 13, 2026 after the earthquake closure, and its own status page - last updated August 18 - lists exactly what is still shut. This guide has that list, plus the fees, the weekday gate rule, the no-food policy inside the paid area, and the photography rules for the keep.

Izumo Taisha wants four claps, not two - and on its own FAQ page it flatly denies three of the things English guides tell you to do there, including the five-yen coin and the rope you are supposed to throw money into. Here is what the shrine actually says, plus the 2026 Kamiari-sai dates and the sand ritual you have to do in the right order.

At Ise Jingu you walk on the left at the Outer Shrine and on the right at the Inner Shrine - the shrine asks for both, in the same paragraph. It opens at 5am every day of the year, closes at three different times depending on the month, and will take your dog off you at the gate. Here is what the official site actually says.

Kinkakuji costs 500 yen, opens 9:00 to 17:00, and never closes. It also asks you not to post your photographs of it - the temple permits snapshots for personal enjoyment only, and says so in writing. This guide covers the fees, the parking, the pet rules, the wheelchair route that dead-ends, and the photography policy almost no English guide mentions.