In all seriousness... toothpaste is fine :)

the advice about immigration and customs forms was just FYI... to make a note to have all the information with you, including a telephone number. some officers can be a little over zealous.

that being said... there really is nothing to be cocerned about :) they are on the whole straight forward.

And they do sell toothpaste in Japan! :)

Seriously, if you're coming over to Japan to experience the culture, why would you pass up the chance to sample the local toothpaste?

(and most hotels in Japan will supply you with toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, pajamas, hair dryer, all that good stuff...)

Just keep your passport in your pocket and you'll be fine. Honestly, the Japanese are very hospitable and very friendly to foreigners, you'll have a really great time. No need to worry at all.

I do the Colgate thing too and have never had any trouble at all, but I did get a cavity two years ago.:D

I agree that you will be treated well regardless of your ethnicity, so don't sweat that part. Just avoid blatantly illegal activity, like lying to the authorities, and you should be totally fine.

It all depends on the person but I, and pretty much everyone else I know who lives in Japan have had their bags searched numerous times.

One immigration guy looked quite surprised when I told him he could eat the cookies he insisted on opening up and going through (I clearly told him it was a tin full of cookies I was going to give as a present before he opened it up).

I'm going to echo the majority (indeed unanimous) opinion here and say: don't worry!

I've been through Japanese immigration dozens of times over the past few years and never had any of the customs inspectors open my luggage. Stick away from the obviously illegal things and you'll be perfectly fine; anything "normal" that is technically against the rules would, at worst, simply be confiscated.

In 99.9% of cases, the name of your hotel and its phone number should be sufficient on the immigration card. Sometimes the immigration officer might want to see the full address, so you should have it accessible, but this is, in my experience, a very unlikely scenario. Like some of the other posters, I've occasionally left it blank for various reasons, and this has never prompted anything but simple questioning on my plans.

For reference, I'm a 22-year-old white male with a US passport, often arriving not from the US but from elsewhere in Asia... not the "safest" demographic nor the most suspicious. It may help that am fluent in Japanese and generally use Japanese when communicating with the officers, but I honestly don't feel that this plays much of a role.

Relax and enjoy your trip—there's no need to freak out so much over immigration officials, and you'll almost surely find that the ones you encounter in Japan are far friendlier than those you meet in the US upon your return! :p

I just want to say thank you (again) to those who have responded with kind and reassuring words! I tend to snowball my little anxieties... so of course one vague mention of race or something like that had me googling all these scary scenarios. :o

We leave on the 10th so hopefully this will be a fun and exciting trip! :)

You'll have a great time. Send us a trip report when you get back.