Japan Travel Guide PDF | Tokyo 5 Day Itinerary + Japanese Restaurant Phrase Cards | Japan Trip Planning Digital Download

Japan travel guide PDF for Tokyo: Japanese phrase cards to show at restaurant doors, how to read the signs and the replies, reservation message templates, and a 5 day Tokyo itinerary. 9 PDF booklets, 289 pages, English, instant download.

You are standing outside a small restaurant in Tokyo. It looks exactly right. There is a handwritten sign taped inside the glass that you cannot read, no English menu in the window, and someone behind the counter who has just looked up at you.

Ten seconds later you walk away and eat somewhere with a picture menu instead.

This kit is written for those ten seconds. It gives you the Japanese to hold up on your phone at the door — and the Japanese to read on the door before you even try.

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WHO THIS IS FOR

• First or second trip to Japan, travelling in Tokyo, with no Japanese
• People who want to walk into the small place they just found, not only the places with an English booking page
• People who would like to eat somewhere that takes bookings only in Japanese, and have never had a way in
• People who read on their phone and do not want to fight an A4 PDF on a 6-inch screen

WHO THIS IS NOT FOR

• Anyone who wants us to make the booking. We do not book anything for anyone — see What's Not Included, below
• Anyone who wants a photo book. There is not a single photograph in this kit — it is text and simple diagrams, on purpose
• Anyone who already speaks Japanese comfortably
• Anyone travelling outside Tokyo and Kamakura on this trip. This edition covers Tokyo, plus one day in Kamakura

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WHAT'S INSIDE — 9 PDF booklets, 289 pages

1. Start Here — how the kit is built, and the six timing rules that decide more of a day than the destination does (14 pages)
2. Before You Fly — eSIM, IC card, how much cash to actually carry, Visit Japan Web, arrival-day luggage, what to book in advance (30 pages)
3. Getting In — the core booklet. The Japanese you show at the door (39 pages)
4. Day 1 — Asakusa & Ueno (31 pages)
5. Day 2 — Shinjuku & Shibuya (37 pages)
6. Day 3 — Tsukiji, Ginza & Toyosu (30 pages)
7. Day 4 — Kamakura (31 pages)
8. Day 5 — Akihabara & Ikebukuro (34 pages)
9. When Things Go Wrong — emergencies, earthquakes, typhoons, lost property, pharmacies, cash, rubbish, toilets, Wi-Fi, the manners that actually matter (43 pages)

Each of the five day booklets is built the same way: the day in one line → what to book before you go → morning / afternoon / evening with real travel times → which queues to skip that day → what to do if it rains → the reservation messages for that day's shops → map links.

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THE CORE: THE JAPANESE THAT DOESN'T GO STALE

Opening hours change. Prices change. Restaurants close. The Japanese you say at a door does not.

Getting In is 39 pages of exactly that:

• Eight cards to show at the door. "Two people. Can we come in now?" / "Do we need a reservation?" / "How long is the wait?" / "If tonight is difficult, is 19:00 tomorrow open?" and four more. Each one is English meaning + Japanese script + a rough reading in Latin letters. You hold the phone up. You do not have to pronounce anything.

• How to read the sign on the door. 会員制 (members only) / ご予約のお客様のみ (reservations only) / 本日貸切 (privately booked today) / 準備中 (preparing) / 満席 (all seats taken) / 席料 and チャージ (seat charge) / お通し (the small dish that comes with a set price). Knowing which of these means "not tonight" and which means "ask again" is most of the battle.

• How to read the reply. About twenty stock sentences do almost all the work in a Japanese restaurant's answer, and several polite ones are refusals. 「本日は満席でございます」 is a no. 「キャンセル待ちとなりますが」 is not a booking. Each phrase is given with what it means and what to do next, sorted into yes / yes-but / maybe / no — plus a one-line decoder table.

• Two master templates to book a place you found on the street — one email or web-form message, one phone script — with every bracket labelled, and a full English gloss of what the Japanese actually says.

• Ten habits that improve your odds, including when the books actually open, why offering a second date works, and why silence means no.

Also included: twelve filled-in Japanese reservation messages for Tokyo and Kamakura places that take bookings only in Japanese — no English page, no English form. Five of those twelve take bookings by telephone only, so the kit also gives you the written note to hand to your hotel's front desk, plus the exact words to ask them with.

These twelve are worked examples, not a to-do list. Use none of them and the kit still does the thing it was made to do.

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WHY THIS ONE IS DIFFERENT

It is made in Japan, and the Japanese in it is checked in Japan. The text of this kit was drafted with the help of generative AI and then checked line by line by a Japanese speaker here, before release — the door cards, the reservation messages and the phone script included. The Japanese was composed as Japanese, not pushed through a translation box on the way out. That matters most in the reservation messages, where a translated-sounding request is the easiest thing in the world to politely ignore.

Where we could not confirm something, we say so instead of guessing. Prices, opening hours and booking systems were checked against official sources in August 2026. 54 items that we could not confirm from an official source carry a CHECK BEFORE YOU GO label right there in the text, with the reason. Where a shop has no website of its own, we name the source we used instead. This is deliberate: a travel PDF that states everything with total confidence is telling you something about its checking, not about Tokyo.

It is laid out for the device you will actually be holding. 90 × 160 mm pages — the proportions of a phone screen — so the Japanese at the door is readable at arm's length without pinching and dragging around an A4 page.

Nobody paid to be in here. No affiliate links, no sponsored entries, no paid placements.

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WHAT'S NOT INCLUDED — please read this part

• No booking service. This kit gives you the wording, the method and the timing. You send the message and you hold the reservation. We do not contact any restaurant, hotel or ticket seller on your behalf, and we are not an agent for any business named in these pages.
• No guarantee of a table. A shop that answered last month may be full, may have changed its system, or may decline for reasons it does not have to explain. The phrasebook is written to give you a clear, polite attempt — not a certainty.
• No individual trip planning. We cannot answer "which day should I do first", "what should I do with my free afternoon", or "this place was full, where else?". That is a different service from the one you are buying, and we are not set up to provide it. Everything we know is already in the nine booklets.
• No photographs. Not one. Text and simple diagrams only — which is also why the files are small enough to open instantly on hotel Wi-Fi.
• No map images. Map links open in your own maps app; there are no embedded map graphics.
• No audio, no video, no printed copy. Digital download only — nothing is posted to you.
• Not medical, legal or financial advice. When Things Go Wrong covers what to do in an emergency; it is not a substitute for calling 119 or seeing a doctor.

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FORMAT & COMPATIBILITY

• 9 PDF files, 289 pages total. English. Instant digital download after purchase.
• Page size 90 × 160 mm (9:16) — designed to be read on a phone.
• All Japanese text has its fonts embedded in the PDFs, so the Japanese displays correctly on Windows and Android as well as on iPhone, iPad and Mac. It does not depend on Japanese fonts being installed on your device. This was verified file by file before release.
• Opens in any standard PDF reader. No app, no account, no internet connection needed once downloaded.
• Information as of August 2026. Every booklet says so on its first page.

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UPDATES & SUPPORT

• Found something that no longer matches reality? A closed shop, a moved entrance, a price that went up — tell us and we will correct it in the next revision.
• Free revisions: every revision we publish within 12 months of your purchase, sent to the email address used for the order.
• Support covers corrections to this kit only. We do not answer individual trip questions (see What's Not Included, above).
• This is a digital product. Because it is delivered as an instant download, please read the "Who this is NOT for" section above before buying.

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SELLER & LEGAL INFORMATION

This kit is sold by a sole proprietor (a registered individual business) based in Japan.

Contact: masataka.koizumi.xxx [!at] gmail.com

Seller identity — disclosed on request. Under Article 11 of Japan's Act on Specified Commercial Transactions, the seller's full legal name, address and telephone number are not printed on this page. They will be disclosed to you without delay and free of charge whenever you ask for them — before you buy as well as after. Email your request to masataka.koizumi.xxx [!at] gmail.com and we will send you those details by return email. This inbox is monitored, and requests for seller details are answered ahead of everything else. You can also request these details by using the "Message seller" button on this page.

（日本語）本商品は日本在住の個人事業主が販売しています。特定商取引法第11条に基づき、販売者の氏名・住所・電話番号は本ページには表示していませんが、masataka.koizumi.xxx@gmail.com あてにご請求いただければ、購入前・購入後を問わず、遅滞なく無償でメールにて開示いたします。本ページの「ショップにメッセージを送る」ボタンからもご請求いただけます。

Price: USD 13.00. Delivery: instant digital download on completion of payment. Payment: as handled by this platform at checkout.

Licence: one buyer, personal use. Print it, keep it on your own phones and laptops, and show it to the people travelling with you. Please do not resell it, pass on the download link, upload it anywhere, or repackage any part of it — including the Japanese lines and the reservation messages.

Returns and cancellations, including the statutory right of withdrawal available to consumers in the EU and the UK, are handled under this platform's own returns policy for digital items. Please see the Returns & Exchanges section of this listing.

Shop, venue, product and service names appear in this kit for identification only. No affiliation with, or endorsement by, any of them is claimed or implied.