Why I Started Sumimasen Guide

I'm Japanese, and I love traveling abroad myself. Over the years I've visited many countries. Everywhere I went, local people helped me out and treated me kindly, more times than I can count. Those experiences are the biggest reason I started this site.

Not every moment on the road was a good one, though. I've been cautioned for doing something I didn't know was wrong, and I've had my share of being overcharged.

Today, social media puts all kinds of information within easy reach. But correct and incorrect information are mixed together, and it's easy to act on a wrong idea while you're traveling. Something that's perfectly normal in your country can make people in Japan go, "Huh?"

On this site, I check Japan's rules and manners against official sources, such as city offices, the facilities themselves and railway companies, and explain them as simply as I can. If I can save you even one avoidable problem, this site has done its job.

To everyone coming to Japan: I write every page hoping you'll go home thinking, "Japan was a wonderful place. I want to go back, and I want to share this with my friends."

Even when our cultures and ways of thinking differ, I believe the best thing is for all of us to enjoy our time together. That's why this site respects the culture, history, beliefs and religion of people from every country.

About the name: sumimasen is one of the most useful words in Japanese. It comes from sumanai, the negative of the verb sumu, "to be settled", so it carries the feeling of "I can't let this pass without saying something." That's why people in Japan use it both to apologize ("I'm sorry") and to thank someone ("Thank you for going to the trouble"), and also to get attention ("Excuse me"). You'll often hear the two together, too: "Sumimasen, arigatō gozaimasu", which means something like "Sorry for the trouble, and thank you so much." It's a small, warm phrase that people in Japan use every day. If you learn just one Japanese word before your trip, I hope it's this one.

My promise

• We will not criticize visitors to Japan.
• We will not criticize the people who live here.
• We will not criticize any politics, religion, race or nationality.

May this feeling spread to people all over the world.

Peace

How we write

• We check rules, prices and opening hours against official sources and list those sources at the end of each article with the date we checked.
• Rules and prices change. Before you go, please check the official pages linked in each article.
• Some pages contain affiliate links. They never change what we write, and we only place them where they're useful to the reader.