Background: I will be travelling solo, I don’t know Japanese, and it will be my first time in an Asian country. I am an experienced domestic traveler in the United States, and I’ve done a couple of international trips in the past several years with friends to Malawi, Spain, France, and Italy. So, not a total rookie, but there are a lot of new experiences coming up with this particular trip. I would appreciate your assistance in making it a good trip, if possible!
**September 18 – Monday**
* 3:20 pm – Arrival at HND
* Buy either PASMO or SUICA card at airport
* Transit to Hotel Century Southern Tower
* Go to 7/11 to pick up various ticket reservations
* 9:00 pm – Tokyo Metro. Gov. Building observatory – no ticket needed
**September 19 – Tuesday**
* 8:30 am – Sumo tournament (Ryogoku Kokugikan) – ticket bought
**September 20 – Wednesday**
* 11:30 am – ARTNIA Cafe – no reservation needed
* Takadanobaba Mikado Game Center
**September 21 – Thursday**
* Work day
* 6:00 pm – Hakushu Teppanyaki – need to make a reservation
**September 22 – Friday**
* Nakano Broadway
**September 23 – Saturday**
* 10:00 am – Tokyo Game Show – ticket bought
* 6:00 pm – Yakult Swallows vs. Hanshin Tigers – ticket bought
* Other ideas if I have time/interest: Namaste India festival
**September 24 – Sunday**
* 10:30 am – DDT wrestling (Korakuen Hall) – ticket bought
* Akihabara
* Other ideas in the area if I have time/interest: Tokyo National Museum, Hanazono Shrine Antique Market, Asakusa Shrine
**September 25 – Monday**
* 10:00 am – teamLab Planets – ticket bought
* Other ideas in the area if I have time/interest: Gundam statue, Daiba Itchome Shotengai, Joyopolis, Madame Tussauds, T.Y. Harbor
**September 26 – Tuesday**
* Shibuya Crossing
* Utrecht bookstore
**September 27 – Wednesday**
* No set plans
**September 28 – Thursday**
* 10:00 am – Ghibli Museum – ticket bought
**September 29 – Friday**
* 6:30 pm – Stardom wrestling (Shinagawa Intercity Hall) – ticket bought
**September 30 – Saturday**
* 7:30 am – Leave for HND (flight at 10:55 am)
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Here’s what I’m wondering, and I would appreciate your insights on as much or as little of this as you have time for:
**1.)** What’s the easiest way to travel between the airport and hotel with my luggage?
**2.)** Is my departure time early enough on the last day for that flight time? I’m not sure how crazy HND is to get through.
**3.)** Aside from a couple of meals, I don’t have food plans mapped out at all. I don’t really travel for food or want to go out of my way too much for it, but I’d love restaurant recommendations in the area around Shinjuku Station, especially foreigner-friendly ones where I wouldn’t need a reservation.
**4.)** Do any of my days look overbooked? My strategy for this trip was to underbook the start and the end of the trip with relatively few events. The reason I underbooked the start was to give myself time to get over jet lag, acclimate, and aimlessly explore. I want to spend some time ambling through parks, shrines, and temples. The reason I underbooked the end was to create flex time in case new ideas come up, I have to push something back, or I want to do something again. I don’t want to feel unnecessarily harried; I think the only complicated day is September 23 since those two events are very far away from one another. The first full day with sumo first thing in the morning will probably also be tough in terms of navigating my way there.
**5.)** Do any of my planned activities (especially the optional ones) kinda suck? For example, I’ve heard pretty mixed things about Joyopolis. Also, in the event that I underbooked too much, I’ve got a decent list of optional activities that could be slotted in most days. Those include Tokyo DisneySea, Gotokuji Temple, Zōjōji Temple, Tokyo Tower, Daikanyama Tsutaya T-Site Bookstore, and Shinjuku concert venues (club SCIENCE, ANTIKNOCK).
**6.)** How strongly would you recommend getting out of the city for a day trip? I’ve thought about doing a trip to Hakone (maybe on September 27), but I’m a little skittish about the added complexity of leaving the city. Going to an onsen solo also feels a little stressful.
**7.)** Are kabuki plays still interesting to watch even if you don’t know the language? I had planned on seeing a one-act kabuki play, but I don’t think they have any shows with English captioning available right now, so I’d be entering with just a plot summary at best.
**8.)** How helpful is it to memorize at least a few dozen key words/phrases? I’m under no illusion that I’m going to learn Japanese in the next month. However, I was thinking of making some flash cards to memorize the super-basics (yes, no, sorry, thank you, where is, my name is, do you speak English, is there a bathroom, I don’t understand, etc). I’m worried I’ll just exasperate everyone I talk to before needing to turn on my phone’s translation app anyway.
Again, any insights or help is appreciated. Thank you for your time and expertise!
5 comments
* Definitely learn some phrases, even the basic ones will save so much time communicating and will be appreciated.
* You can take the Keikyu Airport line and the subway to Shinjuku station, or there’s a limo bus if you prefer.
* Your plans don’t look overbooked to me. Best thing you can do is organise your days around areas close to each other.
* I’m not sure about Hakone as a day trip, it’ll be pretty packed with lots of travel time. Kamakura would make a great day trip though, or maybe even Nikko. It’ll be an early morning but worth it just for getting out of the metropolis.
* Shinjuku has tons of food that doesn’t need reservation. Near your hotel, some ones I saved (I didn’t visit all of them) were:
Tsukemen Gonokami Seisakusho Shinjuku, Fuunji, Tanbo Yoyogi (very nice), Hobo Shinjuku Norengai, Isoji, Tokyo Abura Soba, Shogun Burger. Would recommend researching a bit even if you’re not super interested in the food. Good luck!
I think 12 days is a long time in Tokyo, a night or two in Hakone would be really nice. I’m yet to visit the area, but I’ve heard really good things, you could get to experience going on the Shinkansen going there too, which is fun. The onsens up there are supposed to be great and you don’t need a friend to sit around naked with, you’ll be fine. Having said that, there are plenty of good sento / super sentos in and around Tokyo if you don’t go to Hakone.
If you don’t care about food then just hit up a local restaurant that looks good close to you. The Google Translate app is your friend and does a real good job of translating a japanese menu to english on the fly.
PASMO & SUICA card are not available due to a chip shortage. You can get a virtual card on your phone depending on the phone model:
https://www.japanlivingguide.com/living-in-japan/transportation/mobile-suica/
EDIT: unless you have a Japanese phone the virtual card probably won’t work.
Looks like you are into retro gaming. There are actually a couple other pretty good retro arcades I’ve been to if you want to skip making a trip to takodanobaba just to visit the arcade. One is the Mikado Game Center in Ikebukuro, and the other is the Gigo arcade (top of building #3 – there are multiple buildings) in akihabara.
If you’re into Gundam at all, you might enjoy visiting the moving Gundam in Yokohama.
You can get Passmo/Suica on your phone before going to Japan. I prefer it to a physical card because I can easily top it up from my phone (Mastercard and Amex only if you’re from the USA. Visa doesn’t work). I didn’t want to initially because I thought it would require faceid and take a few second to activate – but it doesn’t. It’s quite literally instantaneous. Just as fast as a physical transit card.
I like your itinerary, not overbooked.
Hakone – definitely do a day tour but book after you land in japan so you can check the weather and book on a sunny day (otherwise you won’t see anything). The tour bus will take care of everything for you, including souvenir shopping, lunch etc which is very handy. i don’t usually enjoy tour groups but hakone day tour was easily a highlight!
Luggage – Unless you have tons it’s easy to take luggage on trains/Shinkansen, failing that there’s luggage forwarding service.
Many restaurants don’t need reservations and especially if you eat outside of peak hour. Be spontaneous, if something interest you just go in, many places now also have English menu or translation via QR code. Also remember large shopping malls have eateries at top floors and bottom floors, rarely encounter tourists at these places which I suspect most people don’t know or don’t bother.
Do try out all the snacks and food in Lawson and 7-11 and convenience stores.
Have wifi because google maps and google translate can come in handy
Hi, may I ask where you able to book your ticket for the sumo tournament?