By Harry Nara · Last updated
Yes, and Tokyo is far easier than its reputation suggests, but it catches first-timers in a way Paris or Rome never do: it has no centre. It is a dozen separate downtowns strung along a loop line, and almost every mistake a first visit makes comes from planning it like a city with a middle. Get the shape of it right, sort out how you are paying for trains before you land, and the rest of Tokyo is remarkably forgiving.
The common fear about Tokyo is the language barrier, and it is mostly misplaced. Station signage is bilingual, ticket machines switch to English, restaurants hand over picture menus without being asked, and the city has spent forty years getting good at visitors who do not read Japanese. Nobody will be rude to you.
The things that genuinely go wrong are duller and more expensive than that. People buy the wrong rail pass before they leave home. They load money onto a card that will not give it back. They plan a day that crosses the city three times. They assume one ticket covers every train and find out at a gate it does not. None of these are cultural, all of them are decided before or within an hour of arrival, and all of them are on this page.
How long do you need in Tokyo?
Five days, and that is not padding. Tokyo is not one city you can cover in three days with good shoes; it is roughly a dozen distinct districts, and moving between two of them costs you half an hour each way. Four days works if you accept you are seeing part of it. Three days is a stopover, and worth doing, but plan it as two districts rather than a survey.
Before you go
Narita and Haneda are both called Tokyo and they are not remotely the same journey. Haneda sits inside the city. Narita is out in Chiba prefecture, and the fastest Narita Express takes fifty three minutes to reach Tokyo Station, before you then get to wherever you are actually staying. If you have a choice of flights, that difference is worth real money on both the first and last day of the trip. If you are on Narita and know you will fly out of it, the N’EX TOKYO Round Trip Ticket covers both directions for 5,200 yen and stays valid for fourteen days, which is cheaper than buying the two legs separately.
It is the single most common way a first visit wastes money. The nationwide pass is designed for intercity travel, and it earns its cost through Shinkansen journeys between cities. A trip that stays in Tokyo cannot get near that, because local fares are a few hundred yen at a time. If you are adding day trips, the narrower JR TOKYO Wide Pass covers the surrounding area including Nikko for 16,000 yen over three days, and that is the one worth doing the arithmetic on. Work out your actual journeys first. Buying the pass and then building a trip to justify it is how people end up on trains they did not want to be on.
Two cards do the same job with a difference nobody points out until it is too late. The Welcome Suica is aimed at visitors, needs no deposit, and works for twenty eight days from the day you buy it. It is also non-refundable, completely, regardless of the balance left on it. Whatever you have not spent when you fly home is gone. A standard Suica costs 500 yen as a deposit instead, and you get that deposit back along with the remaining balance when you return the card, less a 220 yen handling fee. So the Welcome Suica is the better card if you will spend the balance down, and a quietly expensive one if you top up 10,000 yen on day one out of caution. Top up in small amounts either way. One more thing worth knowing: the GOOD THRU date printed on the back of a Welcome Suica is not its expiry, which is twenty eight days from purchase and printed on a separate slip you should keep.
Tokyo is far more cashless than the advice from a decade ago suggests, but IC cards are the exception that catches everyone: they cannot be topped up with a credit card at a station machine. It is cash into the slot, and it is the one moment on a Tokyo trip where not having yen actually stops you. Withdrawing is easy once you know where. Foreign-issued cards work at the Seven Bank machines in 7-Eleven stores, of which there are more than 28,000 across the country, and they run day and night, including at both airports.
Once you are there
Tokyo makes sense the moment you stop looking for the centre and start seeing a loop. The Yamanote is a circle, and the places you have heard of sit on it like beads: Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, Ueno, Akihabara, Tokyo Station, Shinagawa. Each is its own downtown with its own character, and the ride between neighbours is a few minutes. The practical consequence is that a good Tokyo day is one or two stops on the loop explored properly, not four scattered pins on a map. First-timers routinely build an itinerary that looks efficient on paper and turns out to be three hours of commuting.
The trains are punctual, clean and easy. Shinjuku, the busiest railway station on earth, is not. It is a multi-level complex with a large number of exits serving several operators, and coming out of the wrong one can leave you a fifteen minute walk from where you meant to be, on the opposite side of a building you cannot walk through. The fix is simple and almost nobody does it: navigate to the exit, not the station. Note the exit number or name your destination gives you, and follow the signs for that inside the station rather than heading for daylight.
Tokyo Metro has introduced tapping through the gates with a contactless credit or debit card, and it works across Toei and a number of other Kanto operators too. It is convenient, and it has exactly one sharp edge: it does not extend onto JR East. So a journey that starts on the Metro and continues onto the Yamanote cannot be made on the credit card, and you will find this out at a gate rather than in advance. This is the practical reason to carry an IC card even in a city that increasingly takes plastic everywhere else.
Public bins were removed decades ago and never came back, so you will carry your rubbish until you reach a convenience store or a station platform. Mildly irritating on day one, unremarkable by day three.
What it costs
Tokyo is expensive where you sleep and much cheaper than expected where you eat. The reputation for punishing prices comes from hotels, and it is deserved. Food is the opposite: a bowl of ramen or a standing-bar plate of something excellent costs less than a mediocre lunch in most European capitals, and quality at the cheap end is unusually high. Convenience store food is genuinely good and nobody thinks less of you for eating it.
Tipping does not exist here and is not a kindness. Leaving money on a table will most likely result in a member of staff following you out to return it, because it reads as something you forgot rather than something you meant. The same applies to taxis and hotels. Service is included in the price and the standard of it does not depend on you.
One timing detail matters if you plan to shop. Until 31 October 2026, tax-free shops deduct Japan’s consumption tax at the till on purchases of 5,000 yen or more per shop per day, with your passport. From 1 November 2026 that switches to a refund system: you pay the full price in the shop, then reclaim the tax at your final departure airport by scanning your passport at a tax-free terminal, before you check your bags in, and possibly showing the goods to customs. If you are travelling across that date, plan for the queue and do not pack your purchases in checked luggage.
Going with children
Tokyo is one of the easiest big cities in the world to bring children to, and the reasons are structural rather than sentimental. Baby-changing facilities and family toilets are standard in department stores and larger stations, convenience stores solve the snack problem on every corner, the city is exceptionally safe, and Japanese restaurants are unbothered by children. The two real constraints are rush hour, which is genuinely crushing on the Yamanote and central subway lines between roughly eight and nine in the morning and again in the early evening and is not something to attempt with a pushchair, and the distances, which are longer than the map suggests. Lifts exist at almost every station but are often at one specific end of a long platform and are signposted for people who already know where they are. Look them up before you travel rather than at the gate with a tired child.
Going alone
Tokyo may be the best large city anywhere for travelling alone, and it is one of the few places where eating by yourself is designed for rather than tolerated. Ramen counters, standing bars, conveyor sushi and the single-seat booths some chains use all assume a solo diner as the default case. Nobody seats you badly or asks if someone is joining you. Safety is genuinely high, including late and including on the trains, and the last-train timetable is more likely to shape your evening than anything else. That is the one thing to watch: services on most lines stop around midnight and do not resume until about five in the morning, taxis at that hour are expensive over Tokyo distances, and the gap has funded a great many capsule hotels. Check the last train for your line before you settle in somewhere.
Mistakes worth avoiding
It pays for itself on long intercity journeys and a Tokyo trip does not make them. This is the most expensive rookie error available, and it is usually made weeks before departure on the strength of an article about travelling around Japan.
There is no refund on that card under any circumstances. Top up in small amounts, and run the balance down deliberately in convenience stores at the end of the trip, where the card also works as payment.
It is excellent value at 1,000 to 2,000 yen for twenty four to seventy two hours of unlimited travel, and it covers Tokyo Metro and Toei subway lines only. The Yamanote is a JR line and is not included, which people discover at a ticket gate. The clock also starts at first use rather than at purchase, so buying it the evening before costs you nothing.
Which station you are near matters more than which district you are in, because in Tokyo your commute is decided by the line, not the distance. Being twenty minutes from central Tokyo on the Yamanote is easier than being ten minutes away on something that makes you change twice.
Every one of them is worth a half day and the transitions eat the difference. The itinerary looks ambitious and delivers a day mostly spent underground.
Most places take cards now, but the smallest and often the best ones do not, and neither do some ticket machines outside ramen shops. A few thousand yen in cash removes the problem entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Tokyo worth visiting for a first-time traveller?
Yes, and it is far more approachable than its reputation. Signage is bilingual, the trains are exceptionally reliable, and the city has long experience of visitors who do not read Japanese. The genuine difficulty is not language or safety but scale: Tokyo has no single centre, and is better understood as a dozen separate downtowns arranged along the Yamanote loop line. Most first-visit mistakes come from planning it as one city with a middle.
How many days do you need in Tokyo?
Five is the comfortable answer and four is workable if you accept you are seeing part of it. The reason is distance rather than quantity of sights: the districts are effectively separate cities and moving between two of them takes around half an hour each way. Three days is a good stopover if you treat it as two neighbourhoods done properly rather than a tour of everything.
Do I need a Japan Rail Pass for Tokyo?
Almost certainly not. The nationwide Japan Rail Pass is built for intercity travel and recovers its cost on long Shinkansen journeys, which a Tokyo-based trip does not make. Local fares here are a few hundred yen at a time. If you are planning day trips out of the city, the narrower JR TOKYO Wide Pass covers the surrounding region including Nikko at 16,000 yen for three days, which is the one actually worth costing out.
Should I get a Welcome Suica or a normal Suica?
It depends on whether you will spend the balance. A Welcome Suica needs no deposit and lasts twenty eight days from purchase, but it is non-refundable in every case, so any money left on it when you fly home is lost. A standard Suica takes a 500 yen deposit, which you get back along with the remaining balance if you return the card, less a 220 yen handling fee. Either way, top up in small amounts rather than loading it once, and note that station machines only accept cash for top-ups.
Can I use my contactless credit card on Tokyo trains?
On some of them. Tokyo Metro now lets you tap through the gates with a contactless credit or debit card, and the same works across Toei and several other Kanto operators. It does not extend to JR East, so you cannot use it to continue onto the Yamanote line, and you will find that out at a ticket gate. That is the main reason to carry an IC card even though the rest of the city increasingly takes cards.
Do I need cash in Tokyo?
Less than you used to, but yes, some. Cards are widely accepted, with two stubborn exceptions: many small restaurants and the ticket machines outside them, and topping up an IC card at a station, which is cash only. Foreign-issued cards work reliably at the Seven Bank ATMs inside 7-Eleven stores, which number over 28,000 nationwide and operate day and night, including at Narita and Haneda.
Is Tokyo good for families with young children?
Unusually good. Family toilets and baby-changing facilities are standard in stations and department stores, the city is very safe, and restaurants are relaxed about children. Plan around two things: rush hour on the Yamanote and central subway lines, roughly eight to nine in the morning and again in the early evening, which is not manageable with a pushchair, and station lifts, which exist almost everywhere but are usually at one end of a long platform. Find them in advance rather than on arrival.
Is Tokyo safe and enjoyable to visit alone?
It is arguably the best large city in the world for it. Eating alone is the assumed default in ramen counters, standing bars and conveyor sushi rather than something to be accommodated, and safety is high including late at night. The thing that will actually shape your evenings is the last train: most lines stop around midnight and restart about five in the morning, and taxis across Tokyo distances at that hour are expensive.
How does tax-free shopping work in Japan?
It changes on 1 November 2026. Until 31 October 2026, tax-free shops deduct the consumption tax at the register on purchases of 5,000 yen or more per shop per day, on production of your passport. From 1 November 2026 you pay the full price in store and claim the tax back on departure instead, by scanning your passport at a tax-free terminal in the departure lobby before you check your bags in, with a customs inspection if you are directed to one. If your trip spans that date, keep purchases in your hand luggage and allow extra time at the airport.
Checked against JR East, Suica, JR East, Welcome Suica purchasing and using, JR East, Narita Express and passes, Tokyo Metro, Tokyo Subway Ticket, Tokyo Metro, Tap to Ride Service, Seven Bank, ATMs for foreign-issued cards, JNTO, Japan’s new tax-free shopping system.
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