Where to focus
Tokyo is huge, and it is quite impossible to try and do everything on a first trip. The question is where you should put your focus and what locations are most recommended for people travelling in Tokyo for the first time. In this article I would like to give you my personal recommendations and reasons why. That being said, this is not a do all or nothing guide, take some of the advice and leave the ones you don’t find interesting. This is simply how I would walk around Tokyo if people would have me as their guide through Tokyo.
Disclaimer: The recommendations are usually the tourist heavy spots, and not more unknown locations. This is due to the fact that the tourist heavy spots are usually quite interesting, which is why they are tourist heavy. However, I will include some bits and pieces where I believe there are less tourists, or tips and locations that most tourist don’t know about.
The main locations that I would recommend for you to visit is: Shinjuku, Shibuya (incl. Harajuku), Asakusa, Akihabara and the Tokyo station area. These are very famous locations in Tokyo, big city life, and where most tourists go, for a good reason. There is a lot to explore with many iconic spots. I will have a guide for each location and recommended highlights.
The most dense article will be Shibuya, as this was the location that I spent 80% of my time at, mostly as this was the location that I worked at and where I was located most of the time when I was out for dinner and drinking.
The Tokyo Metropolitan area can be thought of as a circle of around five to six sub-cities, with the imperial palace in the middle. It might be good to keep this mental map in memory to have a vague idea of the directions and where you are located withing the large metropolitan area.
We can go through these sub-cities in this manner: going anti-clockwise starting from the north west (Shinjuku), slightly down to the west (Harajuku) down to the south west (Shibuya), (around to the south east (Shinagawa)), slightly up to the east (Tokyo station), up to the north east (Akihabara, Asakusa) and around again to the north west (Shinjuku). These are the major hubs within the greater Tokyo Metropolitan area. Conveniently, Japan Railway (JR) has a train loop line called the Yamanote line, that goes through all these stations (excl. Asakusa). The Yamanote line might be the train line that you will utilize the most during your stay in Tokyo. As such it is recommended to remember the signage of this line, a green bordred square with the letters “JY”. The trains are also green (not to be confused with the Saikyo Line “JA” that has a darker green hue).
What do I recommend? It depends on the amount of days that you have. However, I can list a few locations, and then you can decide by yourselves what you might be able to fit in your itinerary. First are the obvious tourist attractions. Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, Akihabara, Asakusa, Ginza. However, if you would like to visit the lesser known locations, I would recommend Shimokitazawa, Koenji, Daikanyama, Meguro, Ikebukuro, Nakano and more. This might not help at all, let’s try to break it down.
I would say that if you have never been to Tokyo, the must go locations are the initial list that I listed. Let’s first go through that list.
- Shinjuku
- Shibuya
- Harajuku (Urahara and Omotesando)
- Akihabara (Ameyoko)
- Asakusa (Sky tree)
- Ginza (Tokyo tower)
- Odaiba (Team Labs)
Amongst these, there are multiple smaller spots to see in each location. It might be overwhelming to try and hit all these spots, but I will create posts for majority of these, and you can go through them if you feel like it, no need to hit all the spots. In the posts, I will also list the main priorities that you should hit, and then the lesser known spots (if I have such spots).
Then I will make a post of the other lesser known spots in one post.
How does the trains operate in Tokyo
During your stay in Tokyo, the main transportation you will use are the trains, maybe even exclusively using trains. As such, it might be good to become somewhat proficient in using them. If you have ever seen a map of the train lines and the different operators within the city, you will quite quickly realize that becoming proficient in using the trains might seem impossible. However, there are a few tricks to keep you sane when navigating.
Understanding the different operators. The two main are: JR, aka. Japan Railway and Tokyo Metro (usually underground). Look at the signs and understand how they differ from one another. JR is denoted by the sign “JR”, while Tokyo Metro is denoted by a blue “M”.
There are other operators that you might utilize, but getting around most of the touristy spots, these will be the two that you will most often use
Depending on where you live in the city, you might see that you tend to use one company over the other. If you live close to a JR station, you will many times feel that you use JR quite a lot, and vice versa. Either way, you can use the same IC card regardless of train operators. One thing to keep in mind might be the fact that changing companies mid journey will increase the price of the fare. Usually the lines are setup in a way that you won’t have to change mid journey. The recommended way to find your travel routes are to use Google Maps’ suggestions. They also list the fare amount.