AFAIK, the bag cannot be opened, so you just have to deal with it.

I thought the airport rules are the same throughout the whole world. You can only bring less than 100ml liquid inside your bag, more than that then sorry you have to dispose it, or put it back into your luggage if you have the luxury of time and if they allow you to do so.

They will rarely check your receipt and your bag. I think it might be the respect of privacy unless your bag contains maybe some drugs or guns.

Tax-free is claimed on the spot at the shop there. When you buy your items, you show your passport and you are paying for the price before tax. There is a reason why they put before tax and after tax price there.

This is the thing I like about Japan, hassle free when checking into the airport, no need go to tax claim counter to do those procedures that take hours.

Oh ya, when you are passing through customs, there is a counter for you to put all the tax free receipt, then you are good to go. I am quite curious why they need to collect all the tax free receipt though. According to my sister, its to help tallying the tax free accounts with the shop itself. So tax evasion cases can be minimized.

http://tax-freeshop.jnto.go.jp/eng/shoppin...de.php?qa_id=12
This is the most reliable source that i can find. It states that you cannot open the package until you leave Japan.

Osaka should be warmer ady, since it is in the nearer towards the center of island. Kyoto and those places near to the sea will be freaking cold, especially arashiyama.

refer to page 1 and 2, there are people sharing their journey to hokkaido, for tokyo wise, you will have to go to http://en.japantravel.com/ to plan your own

My advice
Prepare yourself first before ask for any reference here

This post has been edited by look416: Nov 19 2016, 01:31 PM

You can ask the receptionist over there, usually those famous shop, there will be chinese receptionist to cater the china tourist, so you can just ask them. To eligible for tax free, your minimum purchase need to be over 5k yen. To use credit card, your spending need to be over 10k, iirc. Also make sure its clear whether the promotion can be used with tax free as well.

Actually, personally think that you wont need any sightseeing pass, if you are only planning to go 2 places per day. From my experience, suica/icoca is more than enough to cover your daily expenses for train and bus.
For D2,D3, you can refer to regentcid taikor recommendation on the first page. In his itinerary, he already cover most of the foreigner tourist spots.

In Japan, they have already planned the route nicely for you, so if you ask is it doable, yes it is doable, however, you will have to walk extremely fast/run to the platform, considering few factors
1. you are not familiar with the train station itself, i.e you dont know which platform/where the train stop
2. Malaysian walking speed is like turtle compared to Japanese.

My advice is not to take the risk and go for better one. From my exp, I always missed train during my last trip to Japan, due to wrong platform / walking too slow (although mention 3 min gap, but i took around 5 min to reach there, etc etc)

Then I would suggest must go places
1. Kiyomizu dera - must go cause they are going to shut down for renovation in 2017 March, and will only be opened in 2020 during Olympic

2. Kyoto station - Yes, Kyoto station itself you can spend almost your whole day there doing shopping, not to mention the ramen road in the 10th floor of the station itself, and it has very nice night view as well

3. Kamo river - If you love enjoy air breeze, then this is a must go places for you. Go for a walk during evening as you can enjoy a lot of street singer over there singing, dancing. Then after that you can go to pontocho to have a nice dinner meal

4. Arashiyama - this is a bit far in my concern, it takes around 30-40 minutes to reach there using keihan(maybe hanshin not sure the line name) line. Normal tourist attractions here, prepare to walk for long period if you plan to go to togetsu bridge

http://www.japan-guide.com/event/construction.html

Sry, a bit misleading information here.

Judging from the news, I'm not really sure that you are not allowed to visit the temple itself since its only the main hall being closed down for renovation. I think you still can enjoy the scenery view when you visit there.

Make it to 1 week and prepare all the proposal flow before you are going to there

Not really recommended, but since you are only going to Toei Park, then why not?

It's been discussed in previous thread. Its always cheaper using icoca card than passes if you are traveling in Kyoto area. Tokyo will be a bit different as sometimes you can get cheaper for 1/2 days subway ticket.

If you are traveling to and fro from tokyo to kyoto then it is worth it to get the JR rail pass

If you are traveling only inside Osaka, then you wont need any passes. Even Kyoto, I doubt you will need the passes since round trip is around 1k yen only.

Only if you are traveling out from Osaka to some faraway places, such as Himeji, Kobe, then it is worth it to get one Kansai Thru Pass (KTP) for yourself.

Judging from you itinerary, i assumes you will only need two day pass which is for Kyoto whole day trip and Kobe.
As long as your day trip expenses does not over 1700 yen, it is totally not worth it to get, unless you want to get the privileges where you have to go through 3 pages list of the shops.
Other than that, you just need icoca card will do

You just look at the prime minister, if the prime minister still stays in Japan, then Japan is safe to stay. Simple theory.

First, ask yourself, is it will be the only time you go to Japan?
If yes, then go with the JR Pass,
If no, then just stick to one area, either east - Tokyo, or west - Osaka
Spending 1k+ in JR pass, plus not cover all the transportation expenses is quite funny.
Unless, you like shinkansen and you want to go to and fro between Tokyo and Osaka,
but then its like 30% of your time is spent on the train itself ady.

One more thing, JR Passes are not well supported in Osaka and Kyoto, even in Tokyo, I think most likely you will be using metro passes instead of JR

I think you have a rich friend, should ask him to sponsor you a bit.
Based on most people in this thread, it would be best that you just rely on your suica/pasmo/icoca cards. Those card is like our tng here.
Reasons:
1. Passes is only worth it if you are travelling to more than 3 places per day, or extremely far places.
2. If you bought the passes, you are pretty bound to the trip you planned, because you want to get the most money out from it. No more flexible planning.
3. And you will have headache in planning the routes for yourself, due to fixed railway company you can opt for. E.g. JR Passes = Only JR lines, Metra passes = only metro lines are unlimited usage, except KTP, which covers most of the railway lines in kansai area.

Kiyomizu Dera - take bus, there is no way you can take train over there
Fushimi Inara - should be hanshin/hankyu line
Arashiyama - keifuku line (randen), or you can cycle over there

I would suggest you to get the one day bus ticket for 500 yen, unlimited bus trip. for you day 1. Day 2 and above just rely on the ICOCA will be enough.

There are a few nice choices if you are first time going to these places.

Kiyomizu Dera
Traditional Japanese Course Meal - ranging from 2.5k yen and above

If can eat beef, gyuudon - Sukiya, i think its around 580 yen.

Fushimi Inari Taisha,
There is a very nice unagi shop, one meal cost 2000 yen.