Hello everyone. Myself and my partner got home a few days ago from a 10 day trip to Tokyo. We stayed in Nishi-Shinjuku so not super central but perfect balance of close enough to the centre but not to close that our hotel area was super busy.
The following things are what I’ve learned, didn’t expect before our trip and what I did expect and glad we planned for.
1. Pasmo/Suica cards aren’t crucial for travel.
Our first few days we struggled to find stations that had them, it was our mistake not getting one when we landed but it was late and we just wanted to get our WiFi and get to our hotel. We found that taking 2 minutes to grab tickets as we needed them wasn’t bad and I can count on one hand the times that we had to queue to get to a ticket machine.
2. Pocket WiFi or ESIMs are a complete must.
We would have been lost without our pocket WiFi. We paid £70 between us for the 10 days and this was more than enough, we got the 5g ninja WiFi package and we only used 1-2g a day so could have opted for the 3g if we’d have known what little we will use. Don’t get me wrong there is free WiFi pretty much EVERYWHERE but whilst exploring we liked to get lost in the side streets and sometimes needed help getting back on track 😂
3. Plan for every weather
I have never experienced changes in the weather as I did this trip. Our first two days it was blaring sunshine and 23 degrees, my partner got sunburnt it was that hot. Then the next few days it was cooler but incredibly humid and we then also had two days of absolute freezing cold jumper weather. Safe to say we did not pack appropriately and Uniqlo saved us with affordable good quality clothes.
4. Language barrier was not an issue.
I learned a little Japanese, basic phrases to get us by if needed and also I wanted to use it for respect and to make the effort while we were away. Other than the more ‘rural’ areas we visited, everyone speaks absolutely fantastic English and I get the vibe that they enjoy speaking English. Whilst in Asakusa, I overheard someone say that they like practising it with tourists.
5. I have never felt so safe whilst travelling before.
Both myself and my partner felt this, even in crowded places I didn’t get the urge to constantly check my bag or keep tight hold of it when going through a crowd. Personally as a woman there were times I was alone at night (for example when my partner had gone for a cigarette) and I still felt completely safe.
6. Speaking of cigarettes, you can only smoke in designated smoking areas.
We didn’t actually know this and with it came a 2000yen smoking fine if you’re caught smoking out of an area. Some buildings had smoking rooms, similar to the ones in airports and then on the street there were areas which I can best describe as bus shelters like we have here in the UK. My partner said they were all well ventilated and clean.
7. Carry a hand towel, hand gel and a carrier bag for rubbish.
We knew this, but some toilets don’t have dryers so carry a little hand towel to dry your hands. Others don’t have soap so hand gel came in handy and there are absolutely no bins anywhere so keep a carrier bag or tote for your rubbish to carry around until you go back to your hotel 😂
8. EVERYTHING IS SO GOD DAMN CHEAP
We completely over budgeted for this trip, we couldn’t believe how cheap everything was. Snacks, drinks, convenience store food, full on evening meals with an alcoholic drink we were astounded at how little we paid. I think the most we paid was 2500 yen for us both to eat at MOS burger in Akihabara, converts to about £12.50 and for two full meals that’s brilliant. We came back with the usual weeby merch, mega cheap and we got loads of clothes which were again so cheap.
9. Japanese people are SUPER kind and helpful, but they are still humans that get pissed at tourists.
Everyone we asked for help were so lovely and helpful, everyone is so polite but my partner had a little run in with someone in the Sunshine City toilets. He was queueing for the toilet and didn’t realise that he cut in front of someone, as he went to go into the cubicle, the guy forcibly grabbed him by his rucksack and dragged him back.
10. No matter how much you plan, it will go out the window 😂
We had our days planned to the absolute hour, but it all changed on a daily basis. Make sure you are ready for wiggle room and changes on your itinerary, we switched things up due to weather, realising that we had more time or less time than we thought on certain days and also realising that certain places were closer to each other than we thought.
11. Every hour is rush hour 😂
The trains are always busy, you have just got to accept that you will most likely be packed on the metro. After the first couple days we got used to it but it’s not an issue at all, no one smells, it’s not too stuffy and people are just trying to get from one place to another so will get themselves on that train by all means possible. We had one occasion were I was somewhat uncomfortably squashed but it was for only two stops. The train system is super easy to navigate once you get the hang of it, Google maps is a must for sussing your journeys and if that is still a struggle the staff are really helpful.
12. Particular tourist spots/some places we visited I want to comment on.
Tokyo Skytree: yes mega touristy but it was worth the 2000 yen, there is a sweet bar on the deck and we got a cocktail in there for £4 each.
Gyoen park: Absolutely beautiful, but it was RAMMED. We literally just wanted to go in to have a picnic breakfast but it was full of people doing sakura photoshoots
Nezu shrine: It was super quiet, we were pleasantly surprised at how little tourists were there… Definitely a hidden gem.
Team labs: OUTSTANDING!! can’t recommend it enough it was the most fantastic one of a kind experiences and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Pokémon cafe: Again, absolutely fantastic and well worth the battle for getting tickets. Food was average as expected but it was super cute and chief pikachu is a legend. We found it funny that there was hardly any children in there and most people were our age (30’s 😂)
Meiji Jingu shrine: Beautiful, we loved exploring the area but my god was this place full of idiot tourists it made my blood boil. Shouting and being just generally obnoxious, one guy sat on a tree stump and did some cringe ass pose pretending to be what looked like Ang from last air bender.
Asakusa/Senso-ji/Nakamise-dori street: Our favourite day of the trip, we actually went back here another day because we enjoyed exploring the area so much. Very busy with tourists but unlike the Meiji Jingu everyone was mega respectful and mindful of the area.
Kabukicho: Not as scary as some people have said! We didn’t get stopped once and we enjoyed exploring the tower and the namco bar.
Akihabara: As good as people say it is, cheap figures (though we did find some cheaper in other places) and other anime merch. We had an amazing day exploring and ended the day walking around Ueno park enjoying the sakura at night.
13. Sakura limited edition items were sparse!
I expected them to be everywhere and was excited to try lots of sakura food items but there actually weren’t that many.
14. Don Quijote was out of this world! We went to every single one in each area we explored, from top to bottom they had everything you ever wanted and didn’t know you needed.
15. Prepare yourselves to have to buy an extra suitcase. We planned space for bringing stuff home, we took two suitcases both half empty so essentially had a full case and an empty case for bringing stuff home, that would be enough right? WRONG 😂 we managed to grab a case in Nakano for £35 and it’s pretty good quality.
16. Cash/cards.
We took quite a bit of cash with us and then both had a Monzo card. We ended up using mostly cash as expected but the Monzo cards were handy for quick payments in places such as Starbucks. As everyone says, Japan is cash focused.
EDIT:
I just remembered something else pretty important!
SHOP AROUND FOR MERCH
My partner found a berserk figure in Nakano Broadway which he was so excited for as berserk stuff in the UK is pretty much non-existent. It was priced at 25,000 yen. In a store I’m not kidding about 10 yards next to it he found the same figure for 19,000 yen!
by MarionberryEvening53