Round 3. Basic stuff again, but the kind nobody tells you.
Restaurants shut in the afternoon. Roughly 2 til 5 a lot of places close between lunch and dinner.
Pack about half what you think. Business hotels give you pyjamas (!!!) and most have a coin laundry. Rooms are small too, in one place I couldn't fully open my case without standing on the bed (hated this).
Pokemon Cafe has changed their release timings now. They release on the first of the month, for all dates the following month AT THE SAME TIME!! It seems really hard now since everyone is on the website at once.
I used CafeSnapBot twice because it was easier and hassle free to have them book me a slot whenever one came up.
Send your suitcase ahead. It's called takkyubin, hotel to hotel, about 2000 yen, arrives next day. You do the train with a small bag instead of fighting through Shinjuku with a big case.
Carry a small hand towel. Loads of public toilets have no dryer and no paper. Buy a nice one out there, they're everywhere and they make good little souvenirs.
Portions are bigger than they look and leftovers aren't really a thing. Order less than you want and add more if you're still hungry, that's the normal way to do it.
Buses outside Tokyo work backwards. On at the back, take a numbered ticket, pay at the front when you get off. Tokyo is the other way round. Watch the person in front of you.
Last train is around midnight and there's nothing after it. The bit that got me is the app shows the last train on the line, but your final change might stop earlier. Check the last leg, not the first.
Don't buy the JR Pass on autopilot. It went up massively a couple of years ago and for a normal Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka trip singles work out cheaper.
That's round 3. Ask away :)
