My heart fluttered as I hit the “book now” button – without hotel reservations in place or a proper game plan, I’m headed to Japan in merely hours. I’ll admit it – for some reason the thought of Tokyo always intimidated me because it is so big and foreign to me. The emotions I feel now are a mixture of excitement (80%), OMG (15%), nervousness (3.5%), & Oh-S*!&-Am-I-Really-Doing this? (1.5%)  because this is officially the most impulsive trip I’ve ever booked in my entire life to date… but atleast I know I’ll be in good hands.
My good college friend has been living and working in Osaka, Japan for about 4 years now, and we’ve always loosely talked about me coming to visit because I know he’d be the perfect tour guide. Finally, during a conversation we had a few days ago, he told me he was coming back to the US for good in October and that I better hurry up and get there. I sat and stared at the screen – “hmm”, I thought to myself, “fine, I’ll go. YOLO”. Side note: Ew wait, did I really just say ‘YOLO?’
I booked it.
…then I emailed a copy of my itinerary to him to show him I was really coming. Turns out, he will be taking an 8-hour night-bus from Osaka to meet me in Tokyo – so I guess we can say it makes two of us being impulsive.
Anyway, so I’ll be in Tokyo for 3 days. Though I am counting on him to show me around like a local, I still have a slew of questions running through my head:
- What are some “must-see” attractions in Tokyo? I’ll be only be there for 3 days, and I haven’t done any of my research yet!
- Should I just splurge 22,000 Ultimate Rewards points to stay one night at the extravagant Park Hyatt Tokyo?
- Speaking of hotels, WHERE DO I STAY? Japan is expensive! Should I airbnb it? hostel it? burn SPG/Club Carlson points? Just wing it?
- Where can I find the best food Tokyo has to offer?
Let’s connect:Â 
We were in Tokyo (and Kyoto) last year 6 weeks after the earthquake and tsunami and loved it! Three days is going to be a challenge to see much. Don’t miss the fish market (get up early!) and some of the beautiful temples like the Meiji Shrine. You might consider a half day tour just so you can see a lot in a short period of time. I don’t typically do tours, but we did a half day one and it wasn’t bad. Make sure you eat some good noodles too!
My trip is posted here (incl recs for food):
http://www.wired2theworld.com/our-travels/asia/japan-2011/
I was in Tokyo for my second time this past May and spent two nights (using the two free nights with the Hyatt credit card) at the Park Hyatt. As corny and cliche as it sounds, it truly was an oasis, and I enjoyed every minute of it … including the $85 bottle of red wine that I received in exchange for the Platinum food and beverage certificate. That said, the first time I visited Japan I stayed at the Claska Hotel (in a Naka Meguro) with friends. Somewhat further away from the main tourist areas, staying there felt like being a local. The surrounding neighborhoods are design oriented, with plenty of furniture and design stores, and it was fun to go to local restaurants that were off-the beaten track. The rooms were nicely designed, service was stellar, and while there was no gym, spa, minibar, or other amenities outside of an on-site restaurant, the friendliness of the staff made up for it. I would highly consider seeing if the Claska has availability!
Tokyo’s pretty awesome — I’ve been here for a week and am really enjoying it.
You’re probably too late to airbnb it. Your best bet is likely to be what are locally called “business hotels”. I got a great deal on Agoda for the Agora Place Asakusa, which is right next to a subway station, and has just opened (like, they’re still working on the restaurant kind of just opened), for about 35 GBP, which for Tokyo is INSANE. Tokyu Inn is another decent chain, as are the JR hotels. Not enough room to swing a cat, but don’t bring a cat and you should be fine.
I didn’t think the Park Hyatt was worth it, but you should totally make up your own mind. I feel the real value from that hotel comes from enjoying being in it rather than using it as a base, and if you only have three days you’ll want to be going crazy with sightseeing. You can get identical views from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building just across the way, and the New York Bar has an evening drinks-n-nibbles special that makes hitting the (early!) sunset from the hotel possible.
FYI, it’s bloody hot in Tokyo at the moment — bring summer clothes.
Tokyo is full of all kinds of awesome stuff — check out the Wikitravel article or a guidebook for some headline things to do. I really enjoy travelling, so I’ve loved getting around on the trains. Matsumoto is a couple hours from Shinjuku station and has the closest Japanese castle to Tokyo, and the Super Azusa trains are fast (but not bullet train expensive)
Feel free to hit me up on Twitter (@thatjohn) if you have any specific questions!
I’m excited for you!
One of my favorite places to visit is Tokyu Hands. Words (and the website) don’t do it justice. It’s a great place to do some shopping and to admire the attention given to humble everyday objects. So very Japanese.
Have fun!
I second the Tokyo Hands recommendation!
Renovations to Tokyo station are nearly complete so it’s nice to see also the imperial palace is a 5minute walk away. If you go to the imperial palace website you can sign up for a tour , it’s free.
Tsukiji fish market in the early morning.
Omotesando in Harajuku is nice shopping and people watching , also close to Meiji shrine also free and Yoyogi park.
Tokyo Skytree in Asakusa opened earlier this summer and while I haven’t been up top yet the views are supposed to be fantastic. Roppongi Hills has some good shopping and nice views as well and close to Tokyo tower.
Odaiba has an amusement park, shopping and good city views and the sumida river water taxi from Asakusa can be pleasant.
Asakusa has an important historical shine and the thunder gate as well as the golden turd.
If you have a JR pass try to get out to Hakone for views of Fujisan as well as less crowded areas away from the city. Also if you can go to nikko the trees should be turning fall colors soon and the Tokugawa shrine.
If you like electronics and anime fanboy culture Akihabara or Akiba as we locals call it is a must see.
As for hotels if you are not trying for points weekly mansion may be useful about $225 per week for a studio apartment like experience.
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/week/319.html
1week Tokyo weather forcasts in English you will need to convert from Celsius
You will be fine. Although Japan is a bit intimidatng because it is sometimes hard to comminicate in anything but Japaneese, everything is efficient and people are nice so it is hard to become completely lost.
In my opinion, there are hardly any must see sights in Tokyo. The overall atmosphere and buzz is great in itself. I enjoyed Shinjuku skyscrapers, Shibuya busy all way pedestrian crossings, Asakusa, Odaiba (pretty nice science museum).
Go to karaoke booths with friends, eat great sushi (convoyer belt sushi bars are inexpensive and pretty good), eat something weird (I recommend sea urchin, it’s not tasty but very weird). Go to a restaurant with no English menu and order something random. For something very crazy, go to a maid cafe in Akihabara (google what it is about) even not for own experience but to observe Japansese guys that apparently have genuine fun. Enjoy the strange outfits of the youth riding the Yamanote line or walking in Harajuku. Go to an onsen or sento. Eat a bento, rail stations boxed lunch. It sounds rather bland but surprizingly bentos can be very good.
For hotels, I recommend a night in traditional ryokan (expensive but great atmosphere and the food is a feast) but i have no experience of ryokans in Tokyo. Inexpensive are business hotels, Toyoko Inn brand hotels are no thrill but clean and consistent. They can be booked via their website.
With only 3 days, stay in Tokyo. There a few nice day trips (Nikko, Kamakura, even Kyoto with shinkansen which is fun in itself is doable) but you will miss parts of Tokyo.
Some useful websites:
Imperial Palace and application for tour:
http://www.kunaicho.go.jp/e-event/
Train guide and schedules. Enter where you are and where you want to go and times, and it will give you train and time information with transfer points:
http://www.hyperdia.com/
JR train status information. What trains are delayed and why:
http://traininfo.jreast.co.jp/train_info/e/kanto.aspx
If you are concerned about such things there is an iphone/android app called Namazu (a kind of catfish that fokelore says causes earthquakes) which will add Japan’s earthquake alert functionality to those phones.
I was just there for 3 days the previous weekend, not my first trip though. I stayed at the Conrad Tokyo which is near Ginza – where you’ll find nice department stores – the gourmet section makes for interesting browsing. Mitsukoshi is supposedly the best dept store there.
I decided to wake up really early to go up in the Skytree, the new tower opened this year. It was pretty cool, but I actually preferred the view at sunset from the observation deck at the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills at sunset. Some photos in my flickr set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/migia/sets/72157631541031766/
FYI, a lot of restaurants (especially the ones in the Fish Market) don’t accept credit cards. Just something to keep in mind when you go out to eat.
We were there for 3 nights in August. Stayed at the Westin near Ebisu stop. Asakusa is the “traditional” area with the local neighborhood and the temple. Harajuku is popular if you’re a teenie bopper but I’d just pass through on your way to the Meiji Shrine. Tokyo Tower isn’t worth waiting in line and paying for. The Tokyo skyline isn’t as nice as American cities.
In terms of food, obviously try a sushi place (try the Fish market if you’re jet lagged and can wake up around 5am), definitely try a real ramen place (cheap and so much better than American ramen) and a tempura place. We found a great one on TripAdvisor in Shinjuku called Shinjuku Tsunahachi.
Note: Everyone will try to help you but outside of hotels/restaurants, they don’t speak English. Building #’s are not in order. They are randomly distributed based on when the building came into existence so a GPS phone is pretty important when looking for a specific place.
For a cheap view head up to the sky deck in either of the two metropolitan government towers in Shinjuku. Completely free and walking distance from the Shinjuku hotels (Park Hyatt, Hilton, …). Also if your friend isn’t picking you up at the airport find a limousine bus (friendly airport limousine counter) to take you to your hotel cheaply. You need cash for that – there are citi ATMs in both terminals. One of my favorite restaurants is Gonpachi (google it – the location near Roppongi apparently was the inspiration for the restaurant in Kill Bill) – great food and folks speak English.
Once you arrive at Narita, your two best options to get downtown are the Keisei Skyliner, which will get you to Ueno Station, but one of the best deals out there is the JR Suica+NEX combination, which will 5500 yen will get you a round trip from Narita to the Downtown station of your choice, plus a 2000 yen Suica debit card which you can use to pay for further train travel, or for any purchases at stores where Suica is accepted. I highly recommend you make the trip down to Kamakura (if travelling from Tokyo Station) take the JR Yokosuka line, and I highly recommend the second deck of the green (first class) car for that.
My wife and I were in Tokyo and Kyoto just this August and loved it! Here are some of my suggestions:
-Not sure where you live, but if you are in a large city, try to get some cash before you go – my bank did this for “free” (lower exchange rate, but still better than other places I saw and no extra fees), but it took a couple days so you may be out of luck. They may carry yen if you are in a large city though, I’m not.
– Shibuya is a great place to go and people watch and shop. If you are into fashion, don’t miss Shibuya 109 – some of the styles are just crazy! Heck, go even if you aren’t into fashion – I’m not and I enjoyed it.
– Other things I would do are see the Asakusa district which is reminiscent of Old Tokyo, walk the Rainbow Bridge at night for a great view of the Tokyo skyline, use the free observatories in the Metropolitan Government buildings to see the city, and walk around Harajuku and the Meiji shrine.
– Some things I might avoid (especially with such a short stay) are: Tokyu Hands just felt like a really big Michael’s store. The flagship is in Shibuya so it isn’t like it will be out of your way, but I think there are better ways to spend your time. You will be able to get good views of the new Tokyo Sky Tree from Asakusa, but I believe it is 2000 yen to go up in it. Save the money and use the Metropolitan Government buildings in Shinjuku instead. The Tsukiji market was neat, but I’m not sure if it was worth waking up so early. You basically stand in a cold room watching people poke frozen fish and then you get to see a couple auctions, but probably won’t have any idea what is going on. If you want a sushi breakfast immediately afterwards, good luck. The lines were at least an hour long by the time our tour finished. Keep in mind that the trains aren’t running that early in the morning so you will have to take a cab, which could run 3000 yen or more depending on where your hotel is. The Conrad Tokyo is located in walking distance so that was convenient for us.
– Research stuff on japan-guide.com. We used this site extensively and it gives great information on all the different sights and how to get there.
– We stayed at the Conrad Tokyo and loved it. Not sure if you have enough points for it, but we definitely thought it was worth it.
-If you have a smart phone, use GPS and Google maps. You can download the maps on a wifi connection and use them to navigate. You can also set up “placemarks” which point to places you want to go. We did this and didn’t get lost the entire time we were there. I’m not trying to self promote, but I did just write and article on it that may be useful – http://tiamotravel.blogspot.com/2012/09/useful-travel-tools-google-maps-and.html
– For food it is hard to go wrong, but if you want an experience for dinner Robataya (located in Roppongi) was really good, but a little on the expensive side. They have opened a NYC location (http://www.robataya-ny.com/) and you can get a feel for the type of place on the website. I would ask your concierge to make reservations.
– If you want to save some money on food, convenience stores are a great option for a cheap lunch and breakfast.
– Once again, not to self promote, but I have writeups of all this stuff on my blog if you want to see what I’m talking about. The first post about Tokyo is here: http://tiamotravel.blogspot.com/2012/08/goodbye-kyoto-konichiwa-tokyo.html.
Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions.
Hey Angelina!!! Take a look at some posts from The Points Guy blog about his trip to Tokyo. Enjoy and I look forward to hearing about your experience.
http://thepointsguy.com/2012/06/destination-of-the-week-tokyo/
http://thepointsguy.com/2011/06/my-trip-to-tokyo/
Visit tokyo ramen street at tokyo station, and go to Rokurinsha for some really good tsukemen (dipping ramen). Tokyo Station is central and easy to get to, and there are at least 6 top notch ramen shops to try. If noodles aren’t your thing theres plenty of other quality places in the immediate vicinity.
http://www.tokyoeki-1bangai.co.jp/en
I stayed at a traditional ryokan in the Asakusa district and highly recommend the experience. Also, try to attend a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. I did this in Yokohama even though I do not like tea, but I am certain there are traditional tea ceremonies in Tokyo. It is a very peaceful, relaxing experience. For a quick meal, go to a sushi bar where you pay by the plate as they pass by you on a conveyor belt – but also be sure to visit a more traditional restaurant as well.
If you are in any of the dept stores, make sure you go to the depachikas in the basements- they sell all sorts of gourmet and ready to eat foods. Great for a lunch/picnic. The food (esp the “gift foods”) is beautiful and a feast for the eyes!
In Japanese department stores, the basement floor is a foodstuff market area. These areas go by the nickname “depachika” (a combination of “depato”, meaning department store, and “chika”, meaning basement). The “depachika” of Japan are fun places, kind of like “food theme parks”. The selections in these markets can be broken up into two categories: an area featuring everyday delicatessen style items and an area featuring snacks and treats. And vegetables and fish are also sold at the perishable goods market area.
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/attractions/dining/depachika/
Wow, thats an awfully short time to see Japan. We did Tokyo and Kyoto a couple of years ago- used the bullet train and its really fast! Loved the fish market but i believe i heard that it is no longer open door policy but has to be booked in advance. Just be sure to carry a card from your hotel to show taxi driver where you are staying to get back to your hotel.
Visit Japan-Guide.com, you can get tons of great information quick on Japan. The government towers in Shinjuku will give you a great free skyscraper view of the area.
If arriving into Narita, I’d suggest this deal to get into town: http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/suica-nex/ since you can use your Suica to get around when using JR trains. If arriving into Haneda, use the deal offered by the Tokyo Monorail. If using the subway, I’d suggest a 2 day Tokyo Metro Open Ticket.
The Park Hyatt is DEFINITELY worth it. I was in Japsn exactly a year ago and mostly stayed at ICs as a Royal Ambassador, but spent one free Hyatt Visa night at the PH. It was awesome. I wish I had stayed more nights. They treated me better as Plat than IC as RA. Plus, it’s just an AMAZING experience to spend a few hours in your room watching the sun set over Mt. Fuji.
Anyone here use the pre-paid bullet train pass for around Y-28k? Supposedly you get unlimited travel for a week on almost all high speed lines, and it’s a special low price for tourists only.