Every guide tagged etiquette, for a trip to Japan.
Two religions, two sets of buildings and two sets of manners, visited by the same people on the same afternoon without anybody finding it strange.
The old teahouse quarter of Kyoto, its lanes and canal, what a geiko and a maiko actually are, and the etiquette the district now enforces on its private streets.
The Japanese manners a visitor genuinely needs: shoes, chopsticks, trains, queues, cash trays, temples and tipping, plus the ones you can safely ignore.
How onsen actually work: the washing ritual before you get in, the small towel, the tattoo question, what a ryokan night involves, and how to find a bath you can have to yourself.
What to eat in Japan and how to eat it: sushi and conveyor belts, ramen, izakaya, convenience-store gold, plus the table manners and ordering tricks that make it all easy.
A tatami room with no bed in it, a bath everyone shares, a dinner of fourteen small dishes and a robe you are expected to wear to it: how a night in a Japanese inn works.
Planning your first trip to Japan? Here is when to go, how the trains and IC cards work, whether the JR Pass is worth it, how much cash to carry, and the etiquette that keeps you out of trouble.