I’m 29, never left the country. My bucket list is visiting Japan at the very top. I have no idea what you do or if you have to go through travel agencies, how much money you should bring etc
(I’m not disabled in any way) when you say cash do you mean American dollars or yen? Like obviously I’m better off converting my dollars to yen?
Local transactions would be in Yen (also all vending machines such as train tickets - very important for getting around).
I would say you’d want to have at least a few hundred dollars worth of Yen when you arrive, and you could possibly get more when you get there, depending on how your bank works. Another option is to get a prepaid Visa card which you can then use to withdraw money in Yen from their ATMs.
Not OP, not from the US and never been in Japan but I travel a lot in general: always assume local currency, at the very least it’s going to be cheaper and quite probably only very touristy places or airport only might accept $$. Here you can pre-order cash at your local bank and return any excess notes after. Exchange booths are usually a rip-off, and withdrawal abroad might cost extra, check with your bank.
Also don’t assume people speak English. They might, but treat that as a bonus.