Top Ten Things To Do In Japan

Japan is not a checklist. It’s more like a vending machine: you press one button, and suddenly you’re holding hot coffee and questioning your life choices.

These ten things aren’t mandatory, but they’re the kind of experiences that make you nod at strangers and say, “Ah, Japan.”

1. Raid a convenience store at midnight

Japanese konbini are not gas station sad shelves. They are tiny wonderlands where egg sandwiches taste like clouds and onigiri can fix a bad mood.

I once ate a warm melon pan outside a 7-Eleven at 1 a.m., feeling like a raccoon with a credit card. Grab something weird, pay politely, and eat it on the curb like a local night owl.

2. Ride the Shinkansen with an ekiben

The bullet train is Japan’s way of saying, “You’re late, but make it elegant.” Buy an ekiben—a train station bento—and pretend you’re in a travel montage.

If Mount Fuji appears, everyone leans left like a flock of startled pigeons. Miss it? No problem. You still have rice, fish, and a tiny plastic soy sauce fish that never fails to amuse.

3. Soak in an onsen or sento

Public bathing sounds intimidating until you realize everyone is equally awkward and equally naked. It’s like a group chat, but with steam and no phones.

Wash first, keep your tiny towel out of the water, and let the heat melt your subway stress. You’ll leave relaxed, pruney, and weirdly proud of yourself.

4. Solve a ramen ticket machine

At many ramen shops, you order from a vending machine before you sit down. It feels like a video game where the prize is pork broth and the final boss is a button labeled in kanji.

Best Things To Do In Japan

Point, pay, hand the ticket to the chef, and slurp loudly. Slurping isn’t rude; it’s practically a compliment with sound effects.

5. Sing karaoke until you lose your voice

Japanese karaoke isn’t a stage in a crowded bar. It’s a private room where you and your friends can butcher Bohemian Rhapsody in peace.

The golden rule

Order fries, order a melon soda, and never apologize for your vocals. The tambourine is there for a reason, and that reason is chaos.

6. Get lost in a department store basement

The depachika is a food hall so beautiful it makes grocery shopping feel like visiting a jewelry store. Perfect peaches, glossy bentos, and samples that vanish if you make eye contact too long.

Go hungry, bring cash, and accept that you will spend too much on a single grape. It’s not a grape; it’s a tiny luxury apartment for your taste buds.

7. Visit a shrine and shake your fortune

Shrines are calm even when your itinerary is not. Toss a coin, bow, clap, and make a wish that is probably about food or train transfers.

If you get a bad omikuji fortune, tie it to the rack and walk away. That’s the spiritual equivalent of deleting an annoying email.

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8. Take purikura photos

Purikura booths turn your face into a sparkly anime creature with giant eyes. You will look nothing like yourself, and that is exactly the point.

Grab friends, choose the loudest frame, and decorate the photos with hearts, stars, and nonsense. It’s like scrapbooking, but faster and with more screaming.

9. Sleep in a ryokan

A ryokan is a traditional inn where you wear a yukata, sleep on a futon, and feel like a guest in a very polite dream. Dinner may include ten tiny dishes that somehow fill you up.

Take a bath, drink tea, and shuffle down the hallway in your slippers. It’s an adult sleepover with better manners and worse pillow height.

10. Take a night walk and befriend a vending machine

Japanese neighborhoods at night are quiet enough to hear a vending machine hum. They glow like friendly robots, offering hot corn soup, cold coffee, and questionable energy drinks.

Walk without a plan, peek into tiny bars, and let the streets feel like a movie set after everyone went home. You’ll smile at nothing, and that’s the best souvenir.

Japan rewards wandering, snacking, and saying “sumimasen” with confidence. Do these ten things, and you’ll come home with a full stomach, sore feet, and stories that make no sense until you show the photos.