Tokyo Travel Tips & Advice

This quarantine has made me reflect on some of my travel experiences and I thought it would be cool to give your guys some insight into my trip to Tokyo from last year. This is stuff we did well and things that we wish we could have known before we got there. I hope this is helpful for your post-quarantine travel plans I know some of you guys are already making.

Lodging: This depends on how much money you are willing to spend and how close you want to be to really popular wards like Harajuku and Shinjuku. If you don't mind being in a further out ward in Tokyo and commuting in then the lodging will be far cheaper, this is generally always the case. Regardless it will honestly be expensive to stay anywhere during a peak travel time like the holiday season and summer which is when my sister and I went and it was not easy on our wallets. For making travel as affordable as possible I would recommend renting an Airbnb as they are becoming more popular. Also, staying at a capsule hotel is something I hear people speak highly of but you should be wary of this options as an extended place to stay because you typically have to check out everyday so they idea of lugging your suitcases around Tokyo may not be too appealing.

Image by Unsplash via @alecfavale

Transportation:  Like I mentioned earlier you can get around on the Tokyo metro and that is most people's preferred mode of transportation as a taxi can be rather costly and buses can be hard to keep track of. While the metro is reliable and fast it can get a bit pricey and very confusing, the picture of the JR Line below shows how easy it is to get lost on certain routes if you are unsure. For these two reasons it is crucial to plan out your intended routes well before you buy your train tickets because it costs extra when you switch lines or if your tickets time limit expires. So plan ahead and save enough for detours you may want to take.

                                 

Image by Tripzilla by Wa-pedia

Wifi: It is easy to get caught up with how much free wifi Japan has everywhere especially in Tokyo however, there is none on the train and in outdoor public spaces. You might not think this is a huge issue (like I didn't) but this will present a challenge if you do not have a international phone plan and get split up from the party that you are with (which happened to me) or get lost. As you will find that you have to go all the way into a store to find wifi to get in touch with your party. To avoid this all together please be smarter than I was and get portable wifi for the trip or call your provider and switch to an international plan for a bit. Quick tip: Make sure to have portable charger with you when traveling because it is so easy to drain your battery while you are out and most tourist areas are not super keen on letting you sit for a long time to charge your phone or just don't have outlets.

Itinerary:  This ties in with all the other advice but it is the most important because it affects the other three tips. Make sure that you have a concrete plan of how you will spend your time! With traveling it is far better to be over booked as you can just not go to certain events if you don't want to but if you decide to do something last minute it's more likely you will not be able to get in or participate in that event. Honestly site seeing is usually the main reason for the trip so plan it well and the rest of you plans should follow. Get out and see beautiful shrines and go to tea house, be a part of the Shibuya scramble. My only advice is that if fly across the world make that experience worth it.