Guides to Akihabara & Tokyo
Practical answers to the questions my tour guests ask me most, written and checked by a guide who is in Akihabara every week.
Akihabara4 guides
Is Go!Go!Curry in Akihabara worth eating at? A Straight Answer from an Akihabara Tour Guide
I ate here on 1 August 2026 at 20:19 and photographed the whole menu board. Prices below are what the machine was charging that night.
Akihabara Etiquette: Anime Shops, Maid Cafés, and Secondhand Culture — An Akihabara Tour Guide's Rules of the Floor
In Akihabara, assume no photography inside shops, do not photograph staff, maids or street promoters, handle secondhand goods gently and put them back e…
Where can you store luggage in Akihabara? A Straight Answer from a Local Tour Guide
Two options: coin lockers inside the stations, or shops that hold your bag and can be booked ahead through an app. Lockers are cheaper and need no plann…
How Do You Use Book Off in Akihabara If You Can't Read Japanese? A Teacher's Shelf Guide
Yes — you can shop Book Off with zero Japanese, using three things: the twenty shelf labels below, the fact that books are filed by the sound of the aut…
Japanese Etiquette10 guides
Japanese Etiquette: A Complete Guide for First-Time Visitors, Written by a Tokyo Teacher and Tour Guide
One idea covers nearly all of it: shared space belongs to everyone in it, so you keep your noise, smell, mess and hurry small. Quiet trains, shoes off i…
Japanese Dining Etiquette: Chopsticks, Slurping, and Eating in Public — Explained by a Japanese Teacher in Tokyo
The rules that actually matter are short: do not stand your chopsticks upright in rice and do not pass food from chopsticks to chopsticks, because both …
Why There Is No Tipping in Japan — and What to Do Instead: A Straight Answer from a Tokyo Tour Guide
Do not tip in Japan. It is not customary in restaurants, taxis, hotels, bars or salons, and leaving cash on a table will usually cause confusion or a st…
Why Japan Has No Bins, and What to Do With Your Rubbish — From a Guide Who Carries One Every Day
Public bins are genuinely rare in Japan, so plan to carry your rubbish until you reach a convenience store, a station, a vending machine, or your hotel.…
Onsen and Sento Etiquette: The Rules, Step by Step, from a Tokyo Guide Who Uses Them
You bathe naked, you wash and rinse completely at the seated shower stations before you enter the bath, and the bath itself is only for soaking — no soa…
Photography Etiquette in Japan: Where You Can Shoot, and Where You Really Can't — From a Tour Guide Asked This Every Week
Outdoors in public spaces, photography is generally fine. Of identifiable individuals, ask first. Inside shops, assume no unless a sign says otherwise —…
Shrine and Temple Etiquette in Japan: How to Visit Without Guessing — A Tokyo Tour Guide's Step-by-Step
Shrines are Shinto and temples are Buddhist. The visible difference in behaviour is that at a shrine you clap, and at a temple you do not. At both, you …
Where You Take Your Shoes Off in Japan, and How to Do It Smoothly — Explained by a Japanese Teacher in Tokyo
Take your shoes off wherever you see a step up, a row of slippers, or a shoe shelf or locker at the entrance. That covers homes, traditional restaurants…
Train and Subway Etiquette in Japan: What Locals Actually Do — From a Guide Who Rides These Lines Every Week
Keep phone calls off and your voice low, take your backpack off your back in a crowded carriage, queue on the painted marks and let people off before yo…
Convenience Stores and Shops in Japan: How to Pay and What Staff Are Asking You — Explained by a Japanese Teacher in Tokyo
Put your items and your money on the small tray at the register rather than into the staff member's hands, answer the bag question (plastic bags carry a…
