Hello! I 21F am going solo to Tokyo from the 25th of April to 1st of May, and it’s my first time in Japan. Any advice or suggestions on my itinerary is welcome 🙂
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April 25th: – flight lands at Haneda around 14.00. I’ll get some cash from an atm, and then a Suica card. Then take monorail to Tokyo. My data plan is already covered by my data supplier.
\- If I have time, I’ll do some shopping at Tokyo station character street at the Ghibli store and then Kitkat store ( I only have light carry on, wont be a problem wheeling around).
\- Check into hotel in the evening, go to sleep semi early cause of jetlag.
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26th: – Wake up semi early and visit a shrines in Shinjuku area to avoid tourist crowds. (I want to visit shrines a lot but I wanna try to avoid crowds as much as I can. I’m also young and work odd shifts so I can function even when sleep-deprived haha)
\- A kimono-try on + tea ceremony booked from 13.00-17.00.
\- Maybe Ameyoko street food for dinner, if I make it in time. If not, i’ll grab something from 7/11 or such.
\- Visit Sensoji-temple grounds at night to enjoy the athmosphere / or get there earlier to grab some street food. Does anyone have info on what time the street food stalls around Sensoji close, and if those or the Ameyoko street food is better?
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27th: – Art aquarium booked at 10.00
\- Afterwards head to Akihabara and explore; I want to for sure go to M’s pop adult life store and Gachapon, but other than that just explore and have fun. Explore Shinjuku area in the evening if I have time, if not then just get a good night’s sleep.
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28th: – Day trip to Lake Kawaguchiko, altough mainly I just wanna see OSHINO HAKKAI. How to get there seems confusing though, if anyone has advice on that then pls share it! 🙂
\- Either just go to sleep, or if I’m not too tired then walk around Shinjuku Kabukicho/ some parks or shrines/or whatever I feel like and enjoy the vibes. I love nightly walks and I want to do that some nights, non-negotiable. Timing just depends on when I have the time and energy.
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29th: – Meiji shrine in the morning/ early afternoon. Cleanse myself properly, pray, relax and soak in the atmopshere. I’ve never been religious before, but something about the Shinto religion just fascinates me. I’m going to take my time with this one and try my best to tune out the crowds. No rush.
\- Grab lunch somewhere with japanese cuisine (not 7/11, McDonalds etc.). If you have any suggestions for an intovert with social anxiety and absolutely minimal japanese, do tell 😀
\- In the evening and night, just walk around and explore some of the following depending on the mood: Kabukicho, Golden Gai, Omoide Yokocho, shrines/ parks, night life and such. Grab some drinks from a convenience store, maybe visit a nightclub (definetely not getting wasted, moreso for the vibes and experience)… Go to a love hotel to sleep if I end up too far from Shinkuju area where my hotel is. (I’ll try to stay safe tho; only carry cash or transfer most of my money to my other account not connected to my card, stay around areas where there’s other people, and I have a copy of my passport and a back-up phone at my hotel. )
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30th: Explore Harajuku a bit, other than that I planned this day for free time; go to places that maybe I missed on the other days, do some souvenir shopping or just find a nice park and relax while reading a book. Whatever my heart desires. I’m also aware that I accidentally booked my trip on a time where it overlaps with the Golden week, but I can’t do anything about it now so I figured it’s good to have a full day free of any absolutely-must-do activities.
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1th of may:
\-check out of hotel by 10am, another free day to chill and do some last minute shopping. Head to the airport with lots of time to spare (I’m paranoid like that cause I’ve got work the next day), flight departs around 10pm. Sleep as much as I can for the whole 13hour flight and hopefully be awake for work haha 😀
If you have any suggestions, notes or just general advice, I appreciate it all. I would especially love tips on foreigner friendly restaurants to go to. I know very little japanese ( cant hold a conversation) and I have social anxiety, which makes it hard for me to step into restaurants even in my home country. Restaurants suggestions with english menus/english speaking staff or places where I can order from a tablet etc would be greatly appreciated.
5 comments
Every time I mentioned the word Solo in my post it gets taken down, how did this get thru ?
Itinerary looks good, a lot of ‘Shinjuku at night’ though. The main area of Shinjuku isn’t that big, so consider going further to Shin Okubo or down to Shibuya. Both are close so it’ll be easy to get back to your hotel. One minor correction, you’ll get a Pasmo at Haneda, not Suica since there are no JR lines at Haneda. Works the same though.
As for language, download a recommended translation app. They work quite well. ( I have Google translate and iTranslate)
Also, some you can take a photo of Japanese language and it will translate it for you. That can be a bit clunky and at times amusing, but worthwhile.
I also use a bar code reader (Payke) that gives the products information given you cant read the label.
For travel we used Japan Travel by Navitime.
When at Akihabara have a look around Yodobashi camera. The range of electrical, electronic ,photographic, gadgetry etc is amazing.
Nearby Ueno is good for restaurants and a street market. We spent a few nights there for day trips out of Tokyo.
I have social anxiety and have trouble in certain situations but seriously, if you cant understand or need directions in any situation, take a deep breath and ask someone. We found people so incredibly friendly and helpful in the vast amount of times we needed assistance be it trains, directions, ordering food etc. We struck up conversation with a number of lovely people waiting in lines for admission to restaurants. Many younger people in particular we found speak decent English.
>Grab lunch somewhere with japanese cuisine (not 7/11, McDonalds etc.). If you have any suggestions for an intovert with social anxiety and absolutely minimal japanese, do tell
That could be a vast number of places. You’d be missing out on a lot by eating McDonald’s in Japan, as Japanese food is excellent and quite cheap. 7/11 food is OK for snacks, but it’s obviously not high quality.
Lots of restaurants have signs out the front saying they have English-language menus, so it won’t ever be hard to find one in Tokyo – there’s no real need to plan ahead as a result. Restaurants with menus on tablets generally have them set up to also work in English language mode, which the staff will do for you when you arrive.
If you really need a recommendation, the Ootoya chain is very foreigner-friendly and has touch screens with English language menus, and at at the Ichiran Ramen chain you order using English language paper questionnaires! As I noted though, there are lots of other options easily available, including restaurants where you order from machines at the counter – these usually have photos of the dishes, so even if you can’t read Japanese you can make an educated guess about what you’re ordering.
Note that it’s quite normal for Japanese people to have dinner in restaurants by themselves, especially on weeknights in Tokyo, which is good for solo travellers. Lots of restaurants have booths for privacy if that helps with anxiety.
Kabukicho, Golden Gai, Omoide Yokocho, shrines/ parks, night life and such. – I wouldn’t recommend a young solo female traveller in these areas especially if you look like asian. You’ll get approached a lot.