Bringing Snack Bars into Japan?

Because of food allergies, we usually travel with snack bars, just in case.

These are typically factory sealed, and often in the factory-sealed box (of bars) as well.

Would there be a problem with something sealed like this, entering Japan (by air)?

We are considering bringing some Kind bars (which we relatively recently discovered), but there are a variety of such bars, from granola bars to energy bars.

Or... are Kind bars sold (and easily found) in Tokyo?

If so, are they identical ingredients to those found in the USA, or might they quite reasonably be quite different, due to varying local tastes?

There might also be some other snacks that we find at the airport, after Security.

We have a one-night stopover at JFK, due to connections that were changed such that the arriving flight that morning no longer arrived in time.

We are *not* trying to smuggle in something that wouldn't be "allowed".

Because we've never flown to Japan before, we don't know what the instructions are on the arrival declarations forms.

(And we know not to bring unsealed food, such as fresh fruit, across borders.)

Thank you.

As a diabetic I generally carry a couple of sealed/wrapped muesli bars in my handbag. Never been questioned at any airports including Narita. Always prepared to give them up if necessary.

You will probably not be able to read the contents if anything you buy in Japan, they have lots of snack bars, but all labelled, naturally, in Japanese.

I am in Japan right now. I did not have any problems bringing food like almonds, crackers and Kind bars into Japan. No one asked at the airport if I was bringing any food into the country.

There are lots and lots of snacks in stores but all the writing is in Japanese and most sales people don't know enough English to translate the list of ingredients for you.

Enjoy your trip.

I am in Japan right now. I did not have any problems bringing food like almonds, crackers and Kind bars into Japan. No one asked at the airport if I was bringing any food into the country.

There are lots and lots of snacks in stores but all the writing is in Japanese and most sales people don't know enough English to translate the list of ingredients for you.

Enjoy your trip.

Thanks very much.

We figure we can find certain kinds of snacks (like nuts??) that we can recognize, but "snack bars/granola bars" tend to have a lot of ingredients, and we won't have much of a chance to understand what they all are.

We are dealing with a food allergy. We'll be at a few places where meals are provided and there is *no* choice. So "just in case", it's best to have something to get through the night, for example. It would be great if we don't need the bars, but we always travel with some (they are great on flights, too). However, this border - entering Japan - seems to be the most "strict" we've encountered yet.

(We've got all the advance permissions for meds, and that was actually quite easy. They just need the proper documentation, which is reasonable.)

A week from today, we'll be waking up on our first morning in Japan :)

Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, and USA, Japan Customs / Immigration procedures are a piece of cake.

Despite whatever stories you hear about strict rules, they are universally not enforced at Japan's International Airports. Having lived in Japan for over 30 years, and traveling into and out of Japan very frequently for 40 years (averaging 12 overseas trips every year), I have never had a single challenge with the sometimes very bizarre and numerous things I carry into and out of the country.

Geezercouple, if you are interested in purchasing a type of snack bar or anything for that matter in Japan if you have a Smart phone download an app called Google Translate. It accesses your camera on your phone and you can just hold it over the Japanese writing and or snap a picture of it and it will translate to English. I have been playing with this app for a few weeks now and found it to be quite easy and appears to be very accurate. I have even used it on my computer screen while research various tours and train schedules.

Geezercouple, if you are interested in purchasing a type of snack bar or anything for that matter in Japan if you have a Smart phone download an app called Google Translate. It accesses your camera on your phone and you can just hold it over the Japanese writing and or snap a picture of it and it will translate to English. I have been playing with this app for a few weeks now and found it to be quite easy and appears to be very accurate. I have even used it on my computer screen while research various tours and train schedules.

Just a word of caution. I haven't use the app for this specific purpose. However, as someone who has advanced proficiency in the language, I often find Google Translate wildly inaccurate.

Just a word of caution. I haven't use the app for this specific purpose. However, as someone who has advanced proficiency in the language, I often find Google Translate wildly inaccurate.

This is also my experience in Danish to English using Google Translate.

Geezercouple, if you are interested in purchasing a type of snack bar or anything for that matter in Japan if you have a Smart phone download an app called Google Translate. It accesses your camera on your phone and you can just hold it over the Japanese writing and or snap a picture of it and it will translate to English. I have been playing with this app for a few weeks now and found it to be quite easy and appears to be very accurate. I have even used it on my computer screen while research various tours and train schedules.

Thank you.

As others mentioned, it might not be accurate enough when dealing with allergies.

But we'll use it on the iPhone for other signs or written materials.

I had played a bit with Translate on my laptop, also.

It was especially helpful for some hotels/inns that are off the beaten path and don't have an English version of their website (which is very understandable, because they are "home" in Japan; we are the foreigners, of course).

We leave tomorrow for our first leg (we have a layover overnight before catching the long-haul flight to Japan.

When we started planning this last August/September, it seems so far in the future, and now "it's here" :D

Thank you.

 

As others mentioned, it might not be accurate enough when dealing with allergies.

But we'll use it on the iPhone for other signs or written materials.

 

I had played a bit with Translate on my laptop, also.

It was especially helpful for some hotels/inns that are off the beaten path and don't have an English version of their website (which is very understandable, because they are "home" in Japan; we are the foreigners, of course).

 

We leave tomorrow for our first leg (we have a layover overnight before catching the long-haul flight to Japan.

When we started planning this last August/September, it seems so far in the future, and now "it's here" :D

Bon Voyage, enjoy your travels, check in if you can to tell us how it is going.

Just a word of caution. I haven't use the app for this specific purpose. However, as someone who has advanced proficiency in the language, I often find Google Translate wildly inaccurate.

I used the app today on a Japanese language website. As my hand wafted/shook a little bit the translation changed from what I would have expected it to read in English to something about transporting monkeys! And the site I was reading didn't really have anything to do with transporting monkeys. So all I would say is make sure you have a steady hand! LOL!