Tax-free shopping in Japan changes on 1 November 2026 Until 31 October you show your passport at the till and simply pay without the 10% consumption tax. From 1 November you pay the full tax-included price in the shop and claim the tax back at…
Author: Miyabi
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Best Japanese Instant Ramen 2026
Ask anyone who has lived in Japan what they miss most after leaving, and instant ramen comes up surprisingly often. Japanese instant noodles are in a completely different league from the 10-cent packets you grew up with — we are talking restaurant-grade tonkotsu broth, chewy…
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Anime Merch Shopping in Japan 2026
Tax-free shopping in Japan changes on 1 November 2026 Until 31 October you show your passport at the till and simply pay without the 10% consumption tax. From 1 November you pay the full tax-included price in the shop and claim the tax back at…
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Best Japanese Fishing Reels 2026
Walk into any serious tackle shop from Florida to Norway and you will find the same two names on the premium shelf: Shimano and Daiwa. Both are Japanese. Both have spent seventy years turning fishing reels into precision instruments, and both build their halo products…
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Best Japanese Makeup 2026: 8 Cult Products Worth Importing
Tax-free shopping in Japan changes on 1 November 2026 Until 31 October you show your passport at the till and simply pay without the 10% consumption tax. From 1 November you pay the full tax-included price in the shop and claim the tax back at…
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Best Japanese Hair Dryers 2026: 5 Models Worth Buying
Tax-free shopping in Japan changes on 1 November 2026 Until 31 October you show your passport at the till and simply pay without the 10% consumption tax. From 1 November you pay the full tax-included price in the shop and claim the tax back at…
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Onsen with Tattoos in Japan (2026)
You have a tattoo. You want to try a Japanese hot spring. And every guide you read gives you the same unhelpful answer: "it depends." Here is the useful version. Tattoo rules in Japan are real, they are inconsistent, and — crucially — there are…
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Gyms in Japan for Foreigners 2026: Costs, Contracts
Joining a gym in Japan looks simple until you are standing at the counter holding a contract written entirely in Japanese, being asked for a bank account you may not have, and discovering that cancelling requires a visit in person before a specific date.The gyms…
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Cycling in Japan 2026
On 1 April 2026, Japan changed the way it polices cyclists. Until then, most bicycle offences were either ignored or, in serious cases, handled as criminal matters — which meant police rarely bothered. Now there is a middle option: the blue ticket (青切符 / ao-kippu),…
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Leaving Japan Checklist 2026
Leaving Japan is not one task. It is roughly fifteen small tasks spread across a ward office, a pension office, a tax office, a bank, a phone carrier, a landlord and a utility company — and several of them cannot be done once you have…