Tokyo Travel Tips: 30 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 30 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.

Packing

19. Add your IC card to your phone wallet before you land. Both Suica and Pasmo work as virtual cards in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, and you can load money onto them before departure. If your phone battery dies you cannot tap in, so carry a physical backup card or keep the battery topped up. An IC card in your phone wallet also means one fewer card to juggle at the gate.

20. Think hard about pocket wifi versus a local SIM. Pocket wifi means one device to share between a group and no SIM swap, but the device needs charging and can get lost. A local SIM (or eSIM) goes directly in your phone, keeps your existing number for calls, and is available from ¥2,000 for two weeks of data. If you are travelling alone, an eSIM from a provider like IIJmio or Mobal is the lower-friction choice. Pocket wifi is the better option if you are sharing data across multiple devices.

21. Pack for walking, not for looking. Daniel’s rough calculation from a year in Tokyo: 15,000 to 20,000 steps per day is normal. Shoes that looked fine for city trips in Europe will fail by day three here. Lightweight running shoes or well-broken-in trail shoes beat everything. If you are planning to visit onsens or traditional ryokan, bring a handkerchief or small towel: many do not supply them, and a small waffle-weave travel towel takes up almost no space.

Neighbourhoods and getting around

22. One neighbourhood per day is the right pace. Tokyo’s areas are self-contained enough that you can spend a full day in Shimokitazawa or Yanaka or Akihabara and not run out of things to do. Crossing the city to collect highlights from different areas burns two to three hours of travel and produces shallow memories. The neighbourhood guides give you enough to fill a day in any area, and the walking itineraries do the sequencing.

23. Google Maps’ platform numbers are literal. When Google Maps tells you to board at Car 5 for the fastest transfer at the next station, it is telling you the truth. The doors will open next to the stairs. At big transfer stations like Shinjuku, Shibuya, or Ikebukuro, following this tip shaves five minutes off every connection. It sounds trivial. Over a ten-day trip it adds up.

24. Taxis are a last resort, not a first choice. They are expensive by Tokyo standards, the city is not grid-shaped so routes are rarely direct, and the city’s public transport can get you closer to most destinations faster. The right time for a taxi: you have missed the last train, you are with young children late at night, or you need to reach a residential address with no nearby station. For everything else, trust the trains.

Communication

25. Google Translate’s camera mode handles menus. Open the camera function in Google Translate, point it at Japanese text, and the translation overlays on screen in real time. It is not perfect but it is good enough to navigate a menu, read a sign, or understand a package in a konbini. Download the Japanese language pack before you travel so it works offline.

26. Pointing works everywhere. Plastic food models outside restaurants exist precisely so you can point and say “kore” (this one). Photos on vending machine buttons, pictures on menus, gesturing at the dish the next person is eating: all of these are socially normal and genuinely effective. Japanese service culture prioritises understanding what you want. Staff will work to figure it out.

27. A short list of Japanese is worth learning. Not the whole language, just the words that remove friction. “Sumimasen” (excuse me, to get attention), “kore” (this), “ikura desu ka” (how much), “arigato gozaimasu” (thank you, formal), and counting to three: “ichi, ni, san”. Even heavily pronounced, these signal effort and are received warmly. Nobody expects fluency. A small attempt changes the interaction.

The mindset stuff

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. Embrace the systems. Japan has a system for almost everything: which side of the walkway to use, where to stand on the platform, how to pay at a ramen counter, how to queue for a taxi. The systems are designed to move people efficiently and they work. Following them is not a loss of spontaneity. It is the fastest way to feel at home.

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.

Frequently asked questions

What is the single most important thing to do before flying to Tokyo?

Load an IC card onto your phone wallet. Suica and Pasmo both work in Apple and Google Wallet, and you can top them up before you land. Without one you will spend your first hour queuing for a paper ticket at a machine you do not understand. With one, you walk straight through the gate.

Is Tokyo safe for solo travellers?

Consistently rated one of the safest cities in the world for solo travel, including for women travelling alone. Violent crime is extremely rare, the train system runs to the second, staff in hospitality are genuinely helpful, and it is common to see people leave bags unattended at tables in cafes while they go to the counter. Standard urban awareness applies, but the baseline level of personal safety is exceptional.

How many days do you need in Tokyo?

Seven is the minimum to feel like you have understood the surface. Ten is better. Anything under five days is genuinely not enough, and two weeks is not too long. The city has more than 16 mapped neighbourhoods on this site, each with a full day’s worth of things to do, and that is before you start going back to favourites.

When is the best time to visit Tokyo?

Late March to early April for cherry blossoms (the sakura collection has the best viewing spots). October and November for autumn colour and ideal walking weather. Summer (July to August) is hot, humid, and busy but also festival season. January and February are cold but quiet, cheap, and occasionally stunning when it snows. Avoid Golden Week (late April to early May) if you are sensitive to crowds: it is the peak domestic holiday period and major sites are packed.