Tokyo Travel Tips: 21 Things to Know Before You Go

Daniel moved to Tokyo knowing the guidebook version of the city and spent the next year unlearning half of it. These are the 21 things that would have saved him time, money, or embarrassment, in roughly the order they will matter to you.

Trains and getting around

1. Get an IC card before you do anything else. Suica or Pasmo, from any station machine, or added straight to your phone wallet. Tap in, tap out, works on every train, bus, and most convenience stores. Do not buy individual paper tickets, ever.

2. The station exit matters more than the station. Big stations have dozens of exits that surface hundreds of metres apart. Check the exit number before you climb the stairs. Shinjuku station alone has over 200, and picking the wrong one costs you fifteen minutes.

3. Trains stop around midnight. The last train is a hard deadline that reshapes Tokyo nights. Miss it and your options are a long taxi, a capsule hotel, or staying out until the 5am first train, which is a very Tokyo rite of passage.

4. You probably do not need the JR Pass. For a Tokyo-centred trip it almost never pays off. The city runs on metro and private lines the pass does not cover, and the best day trips are mostly on private railways too. Do the maths before buying.

5. Google Maps is genuinely excellent here. Platform numbers, exit numbers, which train car to board for the fastest transfer. Trust it over your instincts for the first week.

Money

6. Carry more cash than you think you need. Tokyo has modernised fast, but plenty of the best places, tiny ramen counters, izakayas, temple stalls, remain cash only. Around ¥10,000 in your pocket is the comfortable baseline.

7. 7-Eleven ATMs are the answer. They take foreign cards, have English menus, and there is one within 300 metres of you at all times.

8. Lunch is the luxury hack. High-end restaurants commonly serve near-identical food at lunch for 30 to 40 percent less. Eat your fancy meals at noon, then go cheap and atmospheric at night, the Tokyo food guide is built around exactly this.

9. So much of the best stuff is free. Shrine forests, observation decks, entire neighbourhoods that function as open-air museums. There is a whole free things to do collection on this site and it is not a short list.

Etiquette that actually matters

Forget the 40-point lists. These are the ones locals notice:

10. Stand left on escalators (Tokyo-specific; Osaka inverts it). The right side is for walkers.

11. Do not eat while walking. Buy the street food, then stand and eat it by the stall. You will notice everyone else doing the same.

12. Queue for the train doors at the marked spots, and let people off first. The platform markings tell you exactly where the doors will stop.

13. Keep phone calls off the train. Texting is fine, conversations are not. The quiet carriage culture is real and it is wonderful.

14. No tipping, anywhere. It does not read as generous, it reads as confusing.

Planning your days

15. Use jet lag instead of fighting it. You will be awake at 5am for the first few days regardless. That is exactly when Senso-ji, the fish markets, and the shrine forests are at their best. The early morning collection is effectively a jet lag itinerary.

16. Plan by neighbourhood, not by attraction. Tokyo distances are deceptive, and criss-crossing the city eats whole afternoons. Pick one area per day and go deep, the neighbourhood guides are organised for exactly this, and the walking itineraries handle the sequencing.

17. Build in a rain plan. It rains more than the brochure photos suggest, especially in June. Tokyo is arguably better in the rain if you know where to go: the rainy day list is the one Daniel built from experience.

18. Book the big three ahead. Ghibli Museum tickets (released on the 10th of each month, gone in minutes), teamLab Planets, and any serious sushi counter. Almost everything else can be spontaneous.

The mindset stuff

19. Convenience stores are not a compromise. A 7-Eleven egg sandwich, onigiri, and canned coffee is a legitimate Tokyo breakfast that locals eat daily. The food quality floor in this city is higher than most cities’ ceiling.

20. Get lost on purpose, once a day. The best finds from Daniel’s year there, the standing bars, the six-seat curry counters, the shrine between office towers, were never destinations. Pick a side street and follow it. The map will catch you when you are done wandering.

21. Do less. The biggest first-timer mistake is treating Tokyo as a checklist. The city rewards sitting in the park with a conbini coffee, watching one neighbourhood wake up, taking the slow route. You cannot finish Tokyo. Stop trying, and it gets much better.

If this is your first trip, start with the interactive map, pick the neighbourhood that sounds most like you, and build from there. The city does the rest.