Travling Around
Hotels
While hiking through rural areas I found that at times it was necessary to go into town to pick up hiking supplies. Due to the limited amount of buses that come and go out in the country I found I sometimes I had to stay overnight. I generally stay in either business hotels or capsule hotels. These tend to be in 3000 to 7500 yen a night rate depending on the area. They are usually standard business hotels, and some provide free breakfast. I notice little difference between hotels, I do have a personal favorite brand, Route Inn Hotels. These hotels offer free breakfast, pajamas in the room, wifi in the room and onsens. However, most business hotels are standard fair, and there is not much difference between them.
Wifi
Free public Wifi has become more common place over the ten years I have been traveling in Japan. Comparing the first time I went to Tokyo to 2017, was surprising. I have found more and more train station and prefectures have free public wifi for tourists. Also you can always use free wifi at 7-11 convenience stores. I used a phone plan with my cell phone company while I was in Japan, which gave me access to wifi that I would normally have to pay for. This extends to hotels, older hotels may only have wifi in the public lobby, again this has changed vastly in the ten years I’ve traveled and Wifi in rooms is more common. My suggestion is to check before you book, I had several hotels that only offered Wifi in the lobby during the last trip in 2017.
Money
Japan is still a cash based society, while more stores have begun to accept credit cards, outside of major cities don’t be surprised if that is not an option. From when I first went to Japan in 2009, until my last trip in 2018 I have noticed that more stores are taking cards. That being said cash is still essential in Japan, especially on the trail. Rather than carrying all the cash you might need on the trail I suggest using ATMs. There are two sources for ATM that accept foreign cards, and are easy to locate and use. The first is the convenience store, 7-11. The ATMs in these stores will accept a foreign card. The great thing about 7-11 stores is that they are also a place for free WiFI. The 7-11 website has more information about using the ATM with a foreign card.
https://www.sevenbank.co.jp/intlcard/index2.html
The second is the Japan Post Bank. These ATMs are most commonly found within post offices. Sometimes you can find JP post ATM in areas outside of the post office, I often used the ones in malls while I lived in Nagoya. While on the trail this might be less likely, so I suggest finding a post office. The Japan post website provides more information and a link to the JP ATM finder.
https://www.jp-bank.japanpost.jp/en/ias/en_ias_index.html
https://www.jp-bank.japanpost.jp/en/ias/en_ias_withdrawing.html
This information is taken from tokainaturetrail.com and Hiking the Tokai Nature Trail: A complete guide.