Usual airfare comparison sites like KAYAK or Expedia should make it easy to find cheap tickets.
If you fly from United States and don't need the business class upgrades or don't have a favorite airline, consider HIS-USA. They sell crazy cheap tickets like 5/12-19 United Airlines SFO-NRT in $600. It's a packaged discount value and there might be some regulations like you'll only get 60-70% of the flight miles or no date changes, but it's still a good deal.
Japan is still a cash based country. Most hotels, restaurants and shops accept credit cards but there still are lots of places that only accept cash. Finding international bank compatible ATMs is sometimes hard.
Don't forget to exchange your money to JPY (Yen) before leaving your country. Or you can do that at Narita Airport at least.
If you need to withdraw cash, you need to find ATM of Japan Post Office or Seven Bank. You can get cash using your PLUS or Cirrus bank cards, while most other bank ATMs don't.
If you're Citibank customer, visit their ATM map.
Suica (or Pasmo) is an useful pre-paid card to get a ride on all public transportations (JR, subway, buses) around east Japan. You can charge money anytime you want, and get back the deposit when you leave Japan. With Suica you don't need to get in line to buy train tickets anymore. Just one touch on the RFID device of the gate and you're set.
Visit http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/suica-nex/index.html for more information.
バージョン 1 保存日時 08/02/07 21:45 作業者 Tatsuhiko Miyagawa (miyagawa)
