Lost items
I left my phone on the train in Japan — what do I do?
Act quickly and contact the specific railway operator's lost property office, because items are transferred to the police after a short period. The obstacle is language — the lost property lines operate mainly in Japanese. YOROZU calls them for you, identifies your item and arranges delivery to your hotel.
How do I contact JR lost and found in English?
JR East's lost property centre can be reached on 050-2016-1601, Tokyo Metro on 0570-033-555 and Toei Subway on 03-3816-5700, but English support on these lines is limited and cannot be relied on. If you cannot get through, YOROZU will make the calls in Japanese on your behalf for ¥3,000, plus ¥2,000 only if your item is actually recovered.
Medical
How do I find an English-speaking doctor in Japan?
Start with the Japan National Tourism Organization's Japan Visitor Hotline on 050-3816-2787, which is free, runs 24 hours a day and can direct you to medical institutions where a foreign language is available. Note that this hotline does not make appointments for you and does not interpret during your consultation. YOROZU finds a clinic that will actually see you, books the appointment, and sends you directions, for ¥3,000.
How do I call an ambulance in Japan if I don't speak Japanese?
Dial 119. It is free, it works from any phone, and it covers both ambulance and fire. Say "kyukyu desu" (救急です) to request an ambulance, and give your location. Operators can often connect an interpreter. For anything urgent, call 119 first and message us afterwards — never wait for us in an emergency.
Language and etiquette
Is it hard to travel in Japan if you don't speak Japanese?
Getting around is easy — signage and ticket machines are extensively multilingual. Talking to people is where it gets hard. Translation apps handle menus and signs well; they cannot make a phone call or negotiate on your behalf, which is the specific gap YOROZU fills.
Can I go to an onsen in Japan if I have tattoos?
It depends entirely on the individual bath. Policies range from a complete ban, through cover-up stickers for small tattoos, to full acceptance — and many facilities do not publish their rule in English. The reliable answer is to ask the specific onsen. YOROZU will phone and confirm the policy in Japanese before you travel there, for ¥1,500.
Using YOROZU
Is asking questions really free? What's the catch?
There is no catch. Directions, recommendations, translations and any "I was just wondering" question are free for your whole trip, with no limit. We earn money only when you ask us to do something that takes our team's time, such as phoning a restaurant. Plenty of travellers will use us for a whole trip and never pay anything, and that is genuinely fine.
Why does the booking fee change from ¥1,500 to ¥5,000?
Because the work does. Calling a place that answers on the first ring takes five minutes. Reaching a counter that releases its seats at a fixed moment each month can take hundreds of redials over several hours, and a table for six is far harder to place than a table for two — which is why the hardest tier is priced per person. We tell you which tier applies, and how long we will spend trying, before you commit.
What exactly is the hold on my card?
It is the same thing a hotel does at check-in. We ask your bank to set aside the restaurant's cancellation-fee amount. No money moves, and it is released as soon as you have had your meal. Your bank may list it as "pending", which looks like a charge but is not one. It only becomes a real charge if you do not turn up and the restaurant applies its policy. On debit and prepaid cards, some banks do reduce your available balance while a hold is active.
What if you can't get my booking?
You pay nothing. The fee is released in full, automatically, without you having to chase us. We also come back with the closest alternatives we could find, at no extra charge.
Is it safe to pay you? I've never heard of YOROZU.
A fair question — you should not hand money to a stranger online. Payments run through Stripe, the same processor used by Amazon and Booking.com, and we never see or store your card details. You always pay after agreeing to a specific task, never as a deposit up front, and every payment is refundable through your card.
How fast will someone reply?
We are open 9:00–18:00 Japan time, seven days a week, and within those hours a human usually replies in minutes. Booking tasks are normally confirmed within the hour. Replies to messages sent outside our hours may take longer. If it is a genuine emergency, call 110 for police or 119 for an ambulance rather than waiting for us.
Do you handle hotels and flights too?
Not yet. Arranging accommodation and transport for a fee requires a travel agency licence in Japan, and we would rather be straight with you than cut corners. We can still call your hotel or airline on your behalf to change, confirm or explain something.
What languages do you speak?
Write to us in English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish or Chinese and we will answer in the language you wrote in. We are a Japanese and English speaking team in Tokyo, and for the other languages we use translation — so please keep it plain and we will do the same. What never changes is that a person reads every message and a person makes every call, and the call itself is always made natively in Japanese. That is the entire point.
What does YOROZU mean?
YOROZU (万) is the Japanese word for "ten thousand", used to mean "all manner of things". A yorozuya was the old general store that handled a bit of everything for its neighbourhood — the shop you went to when you did not know where else to go. That is what we are trying to be for people travelling in Japan.