Etiquette & culture

Everyday manners

• Queue. On station platforms, people line up at marked spots and let passengers off first. Escalators: stand on the left in Tokyo, on the right in Osaka.
• Keep it quiet on trains. No phone calls; set your phone to silent ("manner mode"). Quiet conversation is fine.
• Take your rubbish with you. Public bins are rare. Carry a small bag; convenience stores and stations have bins, and bins next to vending machines are for bottles and cans only.
• Don't eat while walking — especially in Kyoto's historic streets, where some neighbourhoods ask visitors not to. Eat at the stall or step aside.
• Ask before photographing people, and never chase or photograph geiko and maiko in Kyoto's Gion district — the private lanes there are now off limits to tourists.
• Bowing is a greeting, a thank-you and an apology. A small nod of the head is all a visitor needs.

Shoes and slippers

Take your shoes off whenever the floor level steps up — at the entrance to homes, ryokan, many temples, some restaurants and fitting rooms. Slip-on shoes make life easier. Slippers are provided in many places, but never wear them on tatami mats (go barefoot or in socks), and switch to the separate toilet slippers in the toilet — then remember to switch back.

Shrines and temples

Shrines (Shinto, marked by a torii gate) and temples (Buddhist, often with a large gate and incense) each have their own customs:

• Bow briefly as you pass through a torii, and walk to the side of the central path, which is said to be for the gods.
• At the water basin, purify yourself: rinse your left hand, then your right, then pour a little water into your cupped left hand to rinse your mouth. Don't drink from the ladle or touch it to your lips.
• At a shrine: drop a coin in the box, bow twice, clap twice, make your wish, bow once more.
• At a temple: offer a coin and pray with your hands together — no clapping.
• Step over thresholds rather than on them, and look for signs before taking photos inside halls.
• Many shrines and temples sell goshuin, hand-written calligraphy stamps collected in a special book. Pay in cash and treat the book with respect.

Onsen (hot springs) and public baths

Bathing in an onsen is one of the great Japanese experiences, and the rules are simple once you know them.

1. Baths are separated by sex — check the curtain (blue or 男 for men, red or 女 for women).
2. Undress completely in the changing room. No swimwear.
3. Wash thoroughly first, sitting on a stool at the showers, and rinse off all soap.
4. Keep your small towel out of the water — fold it on your head or leave it at the side. Tie up long hair.
5. Enter slowly, keep your voice down, and don't swim or splash. No phones or cameras.

Tattoos

There is no law against tattoos, but many baths, gyms and pools still refuse entry to people with them. Each place sets its own policy. Some accept small tattoos covered with skin-coloured patches (sold in Japanese drugstores and Don Quijote), and many ryokan have private baths (kashikiri) you can book for yourself, which avoids the issue completely. Check before you book.

Staying in a ryokan

A night in a traditional inn — tatami rooms, futons, often its own hot spring, and a multi-course dinner — is worth building into any trip.

• Timing: check-in is usually around 3pm. If dinner is included, arrive by about 6pm; dinner is served between 6 and 8pm, and check-out is around 10am.
• Dinner is often kaiseki, a seasonal sequence of small courses. Tell the ryokan about allergies or dietary needs when you book, not on arrival.
• The yukata (cotton robe) in your room is for wearing around the inn and to dinner. Wrap the left side over the right — the other way round is for the dead.
• Your futon is laid out while you're at dinner or the bath.
• Prices are usually per person, including dinner and breakfast, so they look high next to a hotel room.

Eating out

• Say "itadakimasu" before eating and "gochisōsama deshita" afterwards — staff will be delighted.
• Slurping noodles is normal and fine.
• Chopsticks: never stand them upright in rice, and never pass food from chopstick to chopstick — both echo funeral rites. Rest them on the holder or across your bowl.
• Many restaurants have a ticket machine at the door: buy a ticket, hand it to the staff.
• Pay at the till by the exit, not at the table, and don't tip.
• An otōshi — a small appetiser you didn't order — is a normal cover charge at izakaya.

Five useful phrases