Nihon Mode: Japan Etiquette

Japan has rules nobody writes down.

Which way to face in the onsen. Whether to talk on the train. What the konbini
cashier is asking you. Where your chopsticks can and can't go. None of it is in
the guidebook, and locals are far too polite to tell you.

Nihon Mode teaches you one situation at a time — in about a minute, right before
you walk in.

▍ HOW IT WORKS

Tap where you're going. Ramen shop, train, konbini, onsen, shrine, izakaya,
taxi, ryokan — 17 situations in all. Each one gives you:

• 3 things to avoid — the mistakes that make locals wince
• 3 things to do — what to actually do, step by step, with photos
• 1 magic phrase — the words locals love to hear, with audio

That last one is the point of this app. Say "ii yu deshita" to someone leaving
the onsen and watch their face change. You stop being a tourist who got it
wrong, and become a visitor who made someone's day.

▍ YOUR FIRST 72 HOURS

Landing in Japan has a specific order of operations, and getting it wrong
strands you. Six step-by-step routines cover it:

• Send your suitcase to the hotel instead of dragging it through stations
• Get data working before you leave arrivals
• Find an ATM that will actually accept your card (most Japanese bank ATMs won't)
• Buy and charge an IC card — and why cash has to come first
• Pay at the register without freezing
• Photograph Kyoto without breaking the rules

Each step tells you what it costs, what to say, and what goes wrong if you skip
it. Tick them off as you go.

▍ EVERY CLAIM IS SOURCED

Prices, rules and services in Japan change. So every routine links the official
source it came from — JR East, Japan Post, Seven Bank, Yamato Transport, the
Kyoto ward office — and shows the date it was last checked. If something looks
out of date, you can go verify it yourself in one tap.

We would rather tell you "we checked this on this date" than pretend we're
always right.

▍ ALSO INSIDE

• A phrasebook that fills up as you learn, with audio for every phrase
• 10 mini-games to check what actually stuck
• 56 hand-picked places across all of Japan, on a map
• A record of every time you said a phrase for real — and how they reacted

▍ FREE, AND ACTUALLY FREE

No sign-up. No account. No paywall. No ads.

Your progress is stored on your device and never uploaded. We count anonymous
totals (how many people opened the app today) and nothing else — no profile, no
tracking across apps, no personal data.

Some outbound links are affiliate links. If you book something through them we
may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you — that's what keeps this
free. Every essential step in the app works without buying anything.

▍ WORKS WITHOUT SIGNAL

Installed once, it keeps working underground, on the train, and in the parts of
rural Japan where your data quietly gives up.

▍ WHO THIS IS FOR

First-time visitors to Japan who don't want to be the tourist everyone politely
tolerates. Repeat visitors who still aren't sure about the towel in the onsen.
Anyone who has stood outside a restaurant wondering whether to seat themselves.

The more of Japan's small customs you understand, the more the country opens up
to you — and the warmer your welcome gets.

Travel Japan like a local.