Tokyo
Tokyo is the easiest big city in Asia, with punctual trains, bilingual signs and almost no scams. It also holds more Michelin stars than any city on earth, and is as good at ramen-counter prices.
Tokyo in a nutshell
Tokyo: what to expect
We read 138,000+ planned stops in the city on Stippl to see how Tokyo really gets planned.
Tokyo is navigated by station rather than by neighbourhood, and that is the thing to get straight first. Twenty-three wards, each with its own character, and one IC card that works on every train, subway and bus is the whole system. The short list is Shibuya Crossing by day and after dark, Senso-ji and the Nakamise approach at seven in the morning rather than at midday, the planted forest behind Meiji Shrine, and the alley bars of Golden Gai and Omoide Yokocho. Most travellers give Tokyo 3 nights on Stippl.
Two in five people sleep in Tokyo twice on the same trip, which is not how anyone plans it. 39.6% of the trips that include Tokyo on Stippl stay in the city more than once, because the airports pull you back through it at the end. Building that return leg in from the start beats discovering it while you are booking the last two nights.
Give it three nights on the way in and keep two for the end. Four or five days is what a first visit wants, and splitting them either side of the country is how most people end up spending them anyway. A food tour on the first day is the highest-value single booking, precisely because it settles how to order for the rest of the trip. Keep a morning for Senso-ji before the crowds and one afternoon for Yanaka, the low-rise quarter that survived both the earthquake and the firebombing.
Plan Tokyo in Stippl
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Foodies
Tokyo holds more Michelin stars than any other city, and the cheap end of ramen counters, conveyor sushi and konbini is genuinely good rather than merely survivable.
First-timers in Asia
Tokyo is on 88.0% of Japan trips on Stippl, and punctual trains, bilingual signage and almost no scams make it the least frictional introduction to the continent.
Art and design travellers
The Roppongi museum triangle, teamLab's two sites and the Nakameguro and Shimokitazawa design scene form a real circuit.
Pop-culture travellers
Akihabara, Nakano Broadway and the arcade floors are a destination in themselves rather than a curiosity to walk past.
Solo travellers
Eating, drinking and sightseeing alone is culturally normal here, and safety is as close to absolute as any big city gets.
Families
Ueno's museums and zoo, Odaiba's attractions and spotless public toilets everywhere lower the friction of a city this size considerably.
Maybe not for you: anyone hoping to improvise, since headline attractions and the best restaurants need booking days to weeks ahead; strict vegetarians, because dashi is in almost everything; and anyone who dislikes crowds in the cherry-blossom fortnight.
When to go to Tokyo
Autumn
October and November
The year's best weather, dry and mild, and the months most travellers choose. September carries the typhoon risk before it.
Blossom and green season
late March to May
Blossom opens about a week before Kyoto and the crowds climb with it until Golden Week closes the season. After the first week of May the city is warm, dry and empty of visitors.
Rainy season and summer
June to August
Tsuyu is humid and grey rather than tropical; then real heat, festival and fireworks season, and Obon in mid-August as the domestic peak.
Winter
December to February
The coldest and clearest stretch, quiet after New Year week, with February the quietest month of the year.
- October is the month most travellers plan Tokyo for on Stippl, about 109 days ahead. Only 9.1% of Tokyo plans are made inside a fortnight; this is a city people book early.
- Golden Week, 29 April to 5 May, empties the city and fills the trains. The country travels at once, so transport and hotels book out even as Tokyo itself goes quiet; the same happens at Obon, 13 to 15 August, in the hottest week of the year.
- Around New Year, 29 December to early January, many attractions and restaurants close for a week. Transport books out for the same days, so a first week of January in Tokyo is a week of shut doors.
- The Sumida River fireworks fall on the last Saturday of July. Japan's oldest and best-known display, on the river behind Asakusa; the riverbanks and the hotels around them fill from the afternoon.
- Sumo tournaments run for fifteen days in January, May and September. Tickets at Ryogoku go early; outside those months the stables let you watch morning practice instead.
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Everything in this guide is already in Stippl. Tell the planner how long you have and what you like: it builds the route, the days and the travel times, and you edit whatever you want.
Things to do in Tokyo
Shibuya Crossing, twice
Cross it once by day and once after dark, then watch it from above: the Shibuya Sky deck is ticketed and the MAGNET rooftop is free with a drink. The Starbucks window is the famous view and the worst one.
teamLab Borderless
Two hours inside the digital-art rooms at Azabudai Hills, about €22, closed the first and third Tuesday of the month. Tickets sell out daily, so book the slot before the flight; Planets in Toyosu is the wetter, barefoot sibling.
Senso-ji and Nakamise, early
Tokyo's oldest temple and its approach street are a different place at seven in the morning than at midday: incense, the odd monk and the shutters still down. The stalls open around nine, and the coaches arrive with them.
Sumo at Ryogoku
Watch a morning practice at a stable that admits visitors, or a tournament day in January, May and September. Tournament tickets go on sale a month ahead and the cheap upper seats are the ones to take; the practices need a booking through a guide.
Meiji Shrine's forest
Walk seventy hectares of planted woodland immediately behind Harajuku's Takeshita Street, the sharpest contrast the city offers. Free, open from dawn, and a Sunday morning may bring a wedding procession across the courtyard.
A food tour on the first night
Book a guided evening through the izakaya alleys of Shinjuku or Ebisu, about €80 with food and drinks. It is the highest-value single booking of a Tokyo trip, because it resolves how to order for the rest of it.
The neighbourhoods of Tokyo
Shinjuku
Neon, towers, every train
The all-in-one district: skyscrapers and department stores by day, Kabukicho's neon and Golden Gai's tiny bars by night, with the garden and Ni-chome in the same ward. For first visits and anyone who wants every line under the hotel.
Every train and every night out, and the busiest station on earth at the door.
Shibuya
Youth culture, the crossing
Ground zero for youth culture around the scramble crossing: fashion shopping, the new towers and Meiji Shrine's forest a few minutes away. For first visits and for people under thirty.
The city's energy at the door, and the priciest beds for the space.
Asakusa
Old Tokyo, cheapest beds
The last district where Edo-era Tokyo is legible: Senso-ji, Nakamise street, rickshaws and the hostels and cheap ryokan of the east side. For budget travellers and anyone who wants the temple at dawn.
The old city and the cheapest central beds, and a longer ride to the west side.
Ueno
Museums, park, market grit
The museum quarter: the National Museum, the science museum and the zoo in one park, plus Ameyoko market's post-war grit and the trains north from the station. For families and museum days, and for the Narita line.
The museums and the market on foot, and a station district's plainness.
Ginza & Tokyo Station
Department stores, shinkansen
The polished centre: the department stores and the flagship shops, the Imperial Palace gardens and the shinkansen under Tokyo Station. For short stays that leave by bullet train, and for a splurge.
Every bullet train at the door, and the highest hotel prices in the city.
Roppongi
Art triangle, expat nights
The art triangle of the Mori, the National Art Center and Suntory by day, and the most international nightlife by night. For art lovers and for people who want an English-speaking evening.
The best museums and late nights, and a district built for expense accounts.
See every Tokyo neighbourhood on one map
Save the areas you like and Stippl plots your days so you're not crossing the city twice.
Where to sleep in Tokyo
Stay in Shinjuku for a first visit: the Yamanote loop, the airport buses and the all-night district are all here, and where you sleep on the loop decides the shape of the day more than in most cities. Most people give Tokyo 3 nights on Stippl. Book early; the beds, the headline attractions and the best restaurants all run on advance booking.
Shinjuku
Business hotels €60 to €120, capsule pods from €43, and the skyline towers from €250.
Shibuya
Design hotels and mid-range chains around the crossing, €80 to €180, with hostels from €25.
Asakusa
The budget quarter: hostels from €20 and old ryokan with tatami and futon, €39 to €120.
Ueno
Business hotels and small ryokan near the park, €50 to €100, handy for the trains north.
Ginza & Tokyo Station
Luxury hotels and polished business chains, €150 to €500, with the shinkansen underneath.
Roppongi
International hotels and serviced apartments, €120 to €350, with the art triangle on foot.
What to eat in Tokyo
Regional broths; Tokyo style is soy-based shoyu
From ¥100 conveyor plates to omakase counters
Breaded pork cutlet with shredded cabbage
Charcoal-grilled skewers, eaten with beer
Tokyo's runnier answer to okonomiyaki
Onigiri, bento, egg sandwiches, genuinely good
Discover food spots in Stippl
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Tokyo customs and what not to do
Silence on trains
Phone calls are not made in carriages and conversation stays quiet; it is the rule visitors break most visibly, and a whole carriage will notice.
Stand left on the escalator
Tokyo stands left and walks right, and the flow at Shinjuku depends on it; Osaka is the inversion.
Nobody eats while walking
People eat standing beside the stall they bought from, and the bin is there; the street outside is not, so nor is the train.
Luggage has its own rules
The subway between seven and nine and five and eight is no place for a suitcase; the coin lockers and door-to-door luggage forwarding, about €15 a bag, exist for this.
Do
- Get an IC card, Suica or Pasmo, on arrival; it taps every train, subway and bus and most convenience stores
- Queue where the paint on the platform says to queue
- Use the coin lockers and the luggage forwarding; they change how a Tokyo day works
- Book teamLab and any well-known restaurant days to weeks ahead
Don't
- Take phone calls in a train carriage
- Ride the subway between seven and nine or five and eight with luggage
- Buy a JR Pass for a Tokyo-only stay; it covers no subway and neither the Hakone nor the Nikko private lines
- Base yourself near Narita to save money; it is sixty kilometres out and the transfer eats the saving twice
What a Tokyo trip costs
Backpacker
€35–50
Hostel dorm €20–32, konbini and ramen, subway pass, free shrines.
Mid-range
€85–260
Business hotel or Airbnb €36–128, restaurant meals, paid attractions.
Luxury
€300–560
A four- or five-star hotel from €200, tasting menus, private guides.
Track what you actually spend
Set a daily budget per country and log expenses in any currency while you travel.
Fun facts about Tokyo
Tokyo has 194 Michelin-starred restaurants, more than any other city. Michelin counted 251 stars in the city in 2025, and the starred counters are as likely to be under a railway arch as in a hotel.
Shinkansen delays average under a minute. Operators issue formal apologies for delays over sixty seconds, on a line with departures every few minutes.
Shibuya Crossing moves up to 3,000 people at once. Every light change sends them across from five directions at the same time, which is why the crossing is a sight rather than a junction.
Meiji Shrine's forest is entirely planted. Around 100,000 trees were donated from across Japan when the shrine was built in the 1920s, and a century on it reads as ancient woodland.
Tokyo streets largely have no names. Addresses nest from ward to block, so locals and travellers alike navigate by the nearest station exit rather than by street.
Tokyo was called Edo until 1868. The city was renamed when the emperor moved from Kyoto, and the two names are the same two characters reversed: 京都 and 東京.
teamLab Planets is scheduled to close at the end of 2027. The digital art installation in Toyosu is a fixed-term show, so it is not a sight to save for a later trip.
Local tips for Tokyo
Get an IC card on arrival
A Suica or Pasmo works on every train, subway and bus and in the convenience stores, and it removes the need to price a single journey. Load it at the airport machine.
The JR Pass is wrong for Tokyo
It covers the JR lines and the shinkansen but not the subway, the Odakyu to Hakone or the Tobu to Nikko. It earns its price on inter-city travel, not on a city stay.
Metro passes beat pay-as-you-go
Tokyo Metro sells 24, 48 and 72-hour tourist passes at roughly €5, €8 and €9.50, and they pay for themselves on a heavy sightseeing day. Buy them at the airport or the big stations.
Avoid the subway at rush hour
The crush runs from seven to nine and again from five to eight. Plan the long crossings for the middle of the day and walk the last kilometre.
How long to stay
Most people give Tokyo 3 nights on Stippl, and one in five stays a single night on the way somewhere else, which is the mistake. Three covers the east, the west and a day trip.
Kabukicho is the one exception
The city is as safe as any on earth, and the Shinjuku nightlife district is the one area to keep your guard up at night: touts, drink-spiking and inflated bar bills rather than violence.
Tokyo questions, answered
Front-load it and keep two nights back for the end. 79.4% of the trips that include Tokyo on Stippl start here, and most come back through the city to fly out. Lay both stays into the route in Stippl rather than treating Tokyo as one block. Then ask people who have done it, in subreddits like r/JapanTravel.
Nearly all of them: 88.0% of Japan trips planned on Stippl include Tokyo. It is the arrival airport for most of the country and the start of the rail corridor everything else hangs off, so a route that skips it is doing something deliberate rather than something normal.
For about one traveller in eight: 13.3% of the trips that include Tokyo on Stippl go nowhere else in the country. That is the city-break version, and it works because the day trips out to Hakone, Nikko and Mount Fuji all come back the same night.
It is what most people take, though a first visit wants four or five. Only 20.3% of Tokyo stops planned on Stippl are a single night, and those are almost always an arrival or a departure. The city is navigated by station, so a day covers one or two areas properly and not more.
Haneda if you have the choice, because it sits close in and the transfer is short. Narita is about sixty kilometres out and costs the better part of two hours each way. Flying into one Tokyo airport and out of Kansai near Osaka is standard, and it saves backtracking the length of the country.
Further ahead than for most destinations. Travellers leave 109 days between planning a Tokyo stop on Stippl and arriving, which is over three months, and Japan is planned earlier than any other country in our data. Beds and the headline attractions both reward that.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Tokyo in Stippl
Day-by-day planning, stays and budget in one app, with every place from this guide already on the map.
Download the app