Tokyo: data-only SIMs, the last train from Narita, and tickets by lottery.

Japan's mobile market is dominated by NTT Docomo, KDDI's au, SoftBank and Rakuten Mobile, and network quality is superb almost everywhere including deep underground and on the Shinkansen. What is different is what a visitor can buy. Japanese carriers require identity and residency documentation for a voice-enabled contract, so the products sold to tourists are data-only prepaid SIMs, data-only eSIMs and rented pocket wifi devices. You get excellent data. You do not get a Japanese phone number.

That has practical consequences Indian travellers do not expect. Some restaurant reservation systems, ticketing platforms and taxi apps want a domestic number for confirmation. Calling a ryokan to say you are running late becomes an internet call rather than a phone call. None of this is fatal, but it changes how you plan: book restaurants through platforms that accept an overseas number or through your hotel's concierge, and keep your Indian number active for the OTPs Japanese payment systems will send.

Between the options, an eSIM is now the cleanest. It arrives before you fly, works from touchdown, and avoids the rented-device workflow — pocket wifi means collecting a device, carrying and charging it, and returning it, which is a lot of ceremony for something a profile does silently. Pocket wifi still makes sense for a group sharing one connection or for travellers on handsets that do not support eSIM.

Roaming on an Indian carrier is the third route and generally the most expensive here. If you do use it, check whether your operator's Japan pack throttles after a small daily allowance, because Japan is a navigation-heavy country — the rail transfers alone will consume data.

Japan's healthcare is excellent and its national insurance system does not cover short-term visitors. In practice this means a foreign patient is a private patient, and Japanese hospitals frequently expect payment at the point of treatment rather than billing an overseas insurer directly. Language is a second friction: fewer facilities than you would expect handle international claims routinely, and the ones that do are concentrated in the largest cities.

The consequence for an Indian traveller is specific. Choose a policy with a genuine emergency assistance line that can coordinate with a Japanese hospital, keep a payment method with real headroom available, and understand before you leave whether your insurer reimburses or guarantees. This is the country where the difference between those two models is most likely to be felt.

The activity exclusions cluster around winter and mountains. Skiing and snowboarding in Hokkaido and Nagano are a major reason Indian travellers now visit, and standard policies routinely exclude off-piste skiing, and sometimes exclude the sport entirely without an add-on. Hiking above certain altitudes, including the Fuji climb in season, can also engage clauses.

Finally, Japan is a country where disruption cover is not theoretical. Typhoons in late summer and autumn, heavy snow in the north, and earthquakes all disrupt rail and air travel, and Japan's transport operators handle it well but cannot refund a separately ticketed onward flight. Japan does not impose a general insurance requirement for short-stay visitors, but requirements are the government's to set — verify with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rather than assuming.

The airport on your ticket changes the shape of your arrival day completely. From Narita, the fast options are the Narita Express into Tokyo, Shibuya and Shinjuku, and the Keisei Skyliner into Nippori and Ueno; airport limousine coaches serve the major hotels directly and are the easiest choice with heavy luggage. From Haneda, the Tokyo Monorail to Hamamatsuchō and the Keikyū line to Shinagawa put you in the city quickly and cheaply.

The trap is arrival time. Japanese rail does not run through the night, and a delayed evening arrival at Narita can land after the last useful train. The fallbacks — a late coach, a very expensive taxi, or a night at an airport hotel — are all worse than planning for it. Check your scheduled arrival against the last services before you book an inconvenient hotel across the city.

Two things make the rest of the trip much easier. The first is an IC transit card, either a physical card or the version on your phone, which works on almost all urban transport and in convenience stores; the mobile version avoids any question of physical card availability. The second is Japan's luggage forwarding service, which will send your suitcase from the airport to your hotel, or between hotels, usually for next-day delivery. Given how many stairs a Tokyo station has, sending the large case ahead and travelling with a small bag is one of the best decisions available to a visitor.

If your trip includes long-distance rail, evaluate a rail pass carefully against your actual itinerary rather than by reputation. The rules, prices and where you can buy have all changed, and for a Tokyo-focused trip a pass is frequently not the right purchase.

Japan runs on advance allocation more than any other country here. The lesson is not that everything is hard to get, but that the specific things people fly for are allocated on a schedule you have to be watching. If the Ghibli Museum or a sumo tournament is a genuine reason for your trip, work out the release schedule before you fix your dates.

Season is the other planning axis. Cherry blossom and autumn colour compress the entire country's domestic travel into narrow windows, and accommodation in Kyoto and Tokyo during them is booked far ahead by Japanese travellers as well as foreign ones. If your dates are flexible, moving a week can transform both availability and price levels.

Indian passport holders generally need a visa to enter Japan, applied for through the Japanese embassy or consulate or through the accredited travel agencies that handle applications in India. Japan has also been extending electronic visa arrangements, with eligibility that has typically depended on booking through a registered travel agency. Which route is open to you depends on current policy and on how you are travelling, so start from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Japan also uses an online service for immigration and customs pre-registration, which generates codes you present on arrival. Completing it before you fly turns the arrival queue into a scan. It is free through the official government service.

Verify all current requirements before you book non-refundable travel. Nothing here is an entry guarantee, and admission is decided at the border.