Hello! I’ll be traveling to Japan in July and need some feedback for my Tokyo itinerary (6 days). If you have any suggestions for what to add/remove or eat, that would be awesome. Regarding the JR pass, will I need it for travel within Tokyo? If not, how much should I load into a Suica/Pasmo card? I think I will definitely need a JR pass after my week in Tokyo since I’ll be traveling to other areas like Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, and Hiroshima the following 3 weeks. Thank you in advance!
July 6: Arrival in Narita @ 4:PM
Check-in at hotel in Shinjuku
Rest or explore area
July 7: Asakusa/Akihabara
Kaminarimon Gate – best time to arrive?
Senso-ji Temple
Nakamise Street for lunch/snacks
Akihabara – looking for suggestions
Skytree in the evening – is it worth it?
July 8: Shibuya/Harajuku/Shinjuku
Meiji Jingu
Shibuya crossing and Hachiko Statue
Explore Shibuya – suggestions?
Owl or mipig cafe
Takeshita Street
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden (if not too hot)
Golden Gai
July 9: Ghibli Musuem (day will change if tickets sell out)
Toho Bakery
Ghibli Museum (tickets to be purchased)
Explore Inokashira Park
July 10: Yokohama
Arrive at Sankeien Garden by 9:00AM
Sankeien Saryo
Cup Noodle Museum around 12:00 PM (noodle class booked for 1:45PM-3:30PM)
Chinatown/Motomachi Street
Sky Garden Tower – is it worth it?
July 11: Tsukiji Fish Market/teamLab
Arrive at Tsukiji Fish Market by 8:00AM – too early?
TeamLab Planets (booked for 11:30 AM)
Lunch
Art Aquarium in Ginza (tickets to be purchased)
Explore Ginza area
5 comments
You don’t need a JR pass within tokyo, you should
Pre-purchase one for when travelling outside of Tokyo. Suica/Pasmo card you can use as a form
Of payment for other things so it’s not a big deal if you load too much etc and it’s easy to load at stations if you run out.
Looks good! As far as recommendations for Shibuya, Shibuya Sky is a beautiful new building with a glass rooftop overlooking the city (including a good view of the crossing), that has just recently opened up a bar on top!
Regarding Tsukiji market, it definitely gets busier as the day goes on, but I think you could get away with arriving at 9 or even 9:30, giving you a good 2-2.5 hrs there before your 20 min ride to Teamlabs. Depends if you’re in the mood for sashimi/seafood that early in the AM too 😛
As for Skytree, idk if I’m in the minority, but I personally think Skytree is worth it! It’s the highest view of one of the largest cities on the planet, it’s insanely cool to see from up there. I’d do it if you never have!
A few tips from my own experience purchasing Ghibli Museum tickets for June. 1) Set an alarm/event for what June 10th 10AM JST(when tickets go live) is for YOUR time zone 2) get a VPN that’ll allow you to set your location to Japan before you access the site at the release time. Good luck! I was 2000+ in line doing both of these things but when I checked the queue on my phone, there were well over 15,000 people in line behind me.
You can load as much as you like on your Suica/Pasmo, as since you are only visiting Tokyo (and therefore I assume, are flying out of the same airport you flew into) you can arrange to have your balance refunded at one of the ticket offices near Narita before you leave.
For Ghibli Museum tickets, you need to click on the link to buy tickets before 10am to get in the virtual queue. We were just sitting on the main ticket page waiting until 10 when someone checked the link at 9:45 and realized we were already 500th in line. I don’t know when the queue opens but I’d try checking a few hours before the tickets actually go on sale.