Exploring Tokyo: A Complete Guide for First-Time Travelers
Tokyo has quickly become one of our favorite cities! It’s perfect blend of everything you could ever need and want, and it's such a fun city to explore. After spending five incredible days there, we fell in love with Tokyo and are already dreaming of our next visit. But to say we were overwhelmed with planning our first trip to Tokyo would be an understatement.
With a population of around 14 million people, Tokyo is massive, and even the transit system had us confused as local New Yorkers. But don’t worry, in this Tokyo guide we’re going to share everything we did to plan for our trip to Tokyo (and Japan in general) and what you need to know as a first-timer to have the most amazing trip — just like we did!
Things You Need to Know About Tokyo/Japan:
You’re going to want a transit card if you plan on taking the metro. We opted for the Suica card, which we got digitally in our iPhone wallet. In your Apple Wallet just click the + button in the upper right corner, then click transit card, then search for Suica. You’ll have to add an amount of money, we added 5,000 yen (around $30 USD) and then topped up from there. You will use your Suica to tap in an out to use the metro in Tokyo, as well as most other cities in Japan. You may also need to tap your Suica to use other trains (like Shinkansen or local trains in other cities) as well. You can also use your Suica as a form of payment in certain stores if you need to!
Uber does work in Tokyo. We used that to get to/from the airport and to/from the bullet train stations with our luggage.
Google Translate is your best friend! A lot of the signs/menus will have Japanese and English on them, but some of them won’t. Make sure you enable the photo option to be able to easily take a picture of a sign or menu for quicker translation.
Book your bullet trains in advance. We didn’t get the JR Rail pass because our research told us it’s not really worth it. So we booked any bullet train we took separately. We used the Shinkansen website to book in advance.
If you are traveling with luggage, make sure you book the proper seat! The last row of each train car is reserved for luggage, but only if you reserved those seats. I believe there is also a train car with a luggage rack, but we just made sure to reserve the seats meant for oversized luggage to be safe.
All transportation comes and leaves exactly on time. We missed a train by 1 minute once and had to get the next one and buy additional tickets. Don’t be late!
Please follow all signs, directions, and cultural norms. In Japan, train riders wait patiently for the people to get off before boarding, and there are clearly marked signs on the floor of where to stand so you are not blocking the way.
On some of the metro/train, where were women only train cars. Please look out for the signs to be respectful and follow the rules.
Where to Stay in Tokyo
Deciding which neighborhood in Tokyo to stay in was really hard! We wanted to be central but also in an area near the metro, walkable, and was affordable. We opted for Shinjuku and we loved it! We stayed at Hotel Amanek in Shinjuku and thought it was perfect. The location was great (even though the room was small, but that’s expected in Tokyo) and we were in walking distance to restaurants, nightlife, trains, etc. It was also affordable and clean.
If you want to stay in Shinjuku but maybe want to look at other hotel options, you can check here on Expedia. For hotels in other neighborhoods in Tokyo, we recommend checking here on Expedia.
Best Things to Do in Tokyo
Senso-ji Temple
Shibuya Crossing (taken by Cho in Tokyo for Flytographer)
Gotokuji Temple
Akihabara
Explore Asakusa an Senso-ji Temple - This is the oldest established temple in Tokyo and first temple we visited on our trip. It’s very touristy, but worth all the hype. Make sure you explore the street leading up to the temple for delicious food and souvenirs, and get your fortune as well!
Cross at the famous Shibuya Crossing - The busiest intersection in the world! It’s so fun to cross and the people watch as well. We also loved exploring the Shibuya neighborhood as well.
Visit Harajuku - one of our favorite neighborhoods in Tokyo! It was so fun walk around Takeashita Street and go into all the cute shops and photo booths.
Explore Shinjuku - Shinjuku is known for being a vibrant and young area of Tokyo with tons of unique entertainment and nightlife. There’s also great restaurants and food markets here (like Omoide Yokocho) as well as shopping and arcades.
Go to an animal cafe - we visited two cat cafes on our trip — one was Capyneko, a cat and capybara cafe, and the second was a Hayao Miyazaki inspired cat cafe called Temari no Ouchi. We made reservations for both in advance online on their websites.
For anime lovers, don’t skip out on Akihabara - known as the anime neighborhood of Tokyo, here you’ll find lots of anime books, figurines, etc. It’s also a great place to visit an arcade or play a claw machine (even though you’ll see those all around Japan). This was also a really fun neighborhood to explore with unique shops.
Get your nails done! - Japan is famous for it’s nail art technique and design, so for us, getting our nails done in Tokyo was a must. We went to Top Coat Tokyo and were obsessed with how ours came out! Top Coat is advertised as an English speaking salon which we liked because we could explain to them what we wanted. We booked in advance via their website.
Explore Ginza - another great neighborhood to explore in Tokyo. Ginza has a more lux vibe where you’ll spot all the high end shops and luxury brands. Here you’ll also find the famous 12 floor Uniqlo!
Visit Gotokuji Temple - dedicated to the famous lucky cat, this temple is perfect for all cat lovers! We took the metro about 30-40 minutes to get here so it’s a little outside the city, but so worth it if you want to visit a quieter, lesser known temple. Or if you love cats!
For other activities and tours you can do in Tokyo, check out Expedia
Where to Eat in Tokyo (Vegan)
We did a lot of research of where to eat vegan in Tokyo because so many people told us it would be difficult. They were all wrong. There are so many vegan options in Tokyo (and authentic ones too!) you just have to do your research and know where to look. Below is all the vegan places we visited on our trip, but you can find more but searching on HappyCow or other vegan blogs/resources.
T’s Tantan
Asakusa Hatoya
Afuri
Izakaya Masaka
T’s Tantan (a few locations) - authentic vegan ramen and most famous/popular vegan restaurant in Tokyo
Izakaya Masaka (Shibuya) - vegan izakaya
Vegan Bistro Jangara (Harajuku) - all vegan japanese cuisine
Asakusa Hatoya (Asakusa) - vegan fruit sandwich option
Afuri (Shinjuku) - has vegan ramen option
Gonpachi Sushi (Shibuya) - has vegan sushi
Plant More - Shinjuku (vegan cafe)
Ippudo Lumine (Shinjuku) - has vegan ramen & gyoza
Blue Bottle (chain) - for coffee with non-dairy milk
The Matcha Tokyo (a few locations) - for authentic matcha with non-dairy milk
The LGBTQ+ Scene in Tokyo
Goldfinger
Queen Tokyo
Goldfinger
Tokyo has a pretty big LGBTQ+ scene. As a lesbian couple, we felt very safe and felt like we could openly be ourselves. Japanese culture is very respectful, so the locals probably wouldn’t comment on your sexuality either way. We also noticed a lot of queer couples walking around the city.
Most of the queer bars are located in The Ni-Chome area of Shinjuku. We visited a few of the lesbian bars during our trip like Goldfinger and Queen Tokyo. The queer bars in Tokyo (and Japan in general) are very gendered for cultural and safety reasons. Some of the lesbian bars are women only, or have women-only nights and some of the gay bars are men-only, or have men-only nights. Even still, most of the bars seemed like they were making an effort to be inclusive to trans people as well because we saw a few trans flags around as well. Equal Marriage is not yet legal in Japan, but the locals are making an effort to try and change that.
If you want to see how we spent our time in Tokyo, we recommend you check out our YouTbe vlog from our trip!
As always, all opinions are honest and our own. Some links on this post are affiliate links of which we receive a small commission, but the price is the same for you.