My beginner tips for Japan Everyday life and customs

Recently After 6 years of putting it off I decided to travel to Japan as I noticed I was getting old, I made sure I understood the customs, and that I had every detail planned out so I could just have fun, I had never travelled on my own internationally, or even internationally with someone, so it was instead of a big step more of a giant leap of a cliff.
Let me first say I do not know much Japanese, I can't speak it I can't read it. So with that said my first tip is as such:
1 - Don't worry about the language, most Japanese people can speak a bit of English, the problem I have noticed and I have seen it on here too with you lot, is that you worry about not getting it perfect, it honestly doesn't matter as long as its understandable. I survived 9 days without much Japanese.
2 - The only Japanese I used on my first 9 day trip to Japan was: Sumimasen ( Sumi-Mah-sen ) which is excuse me, this was followed by where I was trying to go (like a hotel) then there's Itadakimasu ( ee-ta-daki-mas ) which is used before you eat something, its a polite way of saying thank you for the food, speaking of thank you remember to use Arigato gozaimasu ( Ari-gah-toh Go-z-eye-mas) which is a polite thank you, then after you have eaten, remember to say Oishi katta desu ( Oy-shi-cat-ta-des ) which is a polite way of saying it was delicious, then there was the hard sentence I learnt, Anatawa eigo o hanashimas ka ( Anata-wa-aa-go-o-han-ash-ee-mas-ka ) which is a polite way of saying Do you speak English ?
aa - as in bay, clay, may
ee - as in meet, greet, feet.
Your probably wondering why you have to say thank you for the food, why you need to say it was delicious and why there's a way of saying certain words ( polite and informal) this is because Japan prides its self on doing the best it can, my advice to see this in action is to go to a 100 yen shop, it blew my mind how good the quality was, my dogs chew teddy is still intact ^_^
3 - Its not really a tip but more of something to help you be less stressed. I picked up an IC card, what is an IC card? its a prepay card for JR lines, you top it up and then use it at the ticket gate. trust me, buying a ticket is a bit hard, you have to know where you are going, find it on the machine, pay, then put it into the gate barrier, and if you miss your stop you have to pay at the next station the extra which means finding another machine to pay the extra. sounds stressful right? Another point to get an IC card is it works all over Japan and depending where you buy it you can use it for other things, I bought Hokkaido's Kitaka card, this allows me to ride the JR trains, the local Sapporo subway and the local Sapporo street cars, imagine trying to buy tickets for them. It does cost 500 yen with a further 1000 yen, you can get this back at the end of your trip, or keep the card as a gift, remember if you come back, you can use it again.
4 - how did I survive? Easy every 2 minutes there's a drink vending machine, my goal was to try all the drinks (which I did lol) and for food there's convenience stores everywhere with everything you can imagine (I got earphones for the plane) including hot local food and free wi-fi. (which is great for free wi-fi calls)
but wait I don't speak Japanese, don't panic its a convenience store, there staff are teenagers, every teenager globally is the same, quite, doesn't want to talk just wants to do there job, put your cash on the tray provided and they will take it and put the change on it. (its rude to hand money to someone unless there okay with it)
5 - but I want to eat at a restaurant or cafe. Simple. This is what I did, every menu has an image of the food, or out side there's a display with plastic food representing it, I took a photo and showed them it. It worked and I had some delicious mind blowing food.

so there you have it 5 tips for beginners travelling or thinking of travelling to Japan. If you want to know more about my trip and enough people ask I will make a post about that.

This is really good, thank you so much for sharing your experience with us! I might have more questions for you when I'm closer to visiting Japan, but for now - one big thanks! 😃 I'm happy to hear you had a good time.

I had such a great time I am returning next week 😃 ask any questions you like I will answer them from my own experiences. This time I am going to Nagoya, Hiroshima and Hakone area. 🙂

Did you only stay in Japan for 9 days? Is it really that expensive what everyone else is saying. And how is the sushi. Is it better than in other countries?

Did you only stay in Japan for 9 days? Is it really that expensive what everyone else is saying. And how is the sushi. Is it better than in other countries?
9 days on both trips, it wasn't that expensive. I spent £2000 for everything on each trip, that's train to airport, insurance flight hotels jr pass and spending money for gifts and sightseeing touristy stuff, but I was budgeting as it was my first time experiencing those areas, I didn't get to eat sushi but I tried onigiri which was weird, its nice but fishy too lol I would bet sushi tastes better in Japan, they did make it first so they must be masters, I know its always fresh and not frozen and that makes a difference. I tried teriyaki burgers which are addictive and I tried pork tonkatsu which I almost got fat on lol. My next trips are going to be much longer and more involved. The convenience stores are amazing they have hot and cold food which people kind up for, they have electronics, magazines, alcohol, sweets/candy which will blow your kind just pick a random one you won't be disappointed. Did this help?

This is a great résumé! It's actualy more difficult for me to resume every important things for a trip in japan, because I'm native there.
And oh! You could also use "gochisousama deshita" -> "gochi-sou-sama-desh-ta" (sou like when you say "souce"), after you'd finished eating. It says that you're grateful for the food itself and the person who made it.
(The "deshita" is added for a polite form, so you can put or not put, it won't change so much)