HERE ARE YOUR GENERAL TOKYO TIPS FOREVER
The Official Tokyo Tourism Guide
You should find this at your hotel. If you don’t go to the hotel next door. It’s actually pretty good for stuff to do! Also noting here at the top that if you need a good bathroom you can just walk into any hotel and use their lobby.
Buy a Suico/Pasmo
This is a train pass. It takes a 500 yen deposit and you can use it on every rail line. Know that there are about 5 different companies of train lines and while transfering in system, switching companies means a whole new “ticket”. You can get these cards at almost any station from the ticket kiosk.
Go To the World Trade Building in Hamamatsucho
UPDATE 2023 TORN DOWN
Get a drink/coffee outside of Hamamamatsucho station. Buy a 600 yen or so ticket. Get on the elevator. Sit down on a wonderful couch. Enjoy the best view of Tokyo because you can actually enjoy it.
For A Good View
I recommend looking up the nearest high class hotel and finding out if their bar has a cover charge and just going there.
Mikado in Takadanobaba
Assuming you can find Akihabara on a map you don’t need me telling you to go there. You do need me telling you to go to Mikado. Go out the one exit turn left past the traintracks and turn left again and walk south along the tracks. There it is play some god damn video games. Maybe there will be an old man street fighter tournament. There will definitely be some treasures to experience. Maybe plug in your headphones for an ideal shooting experience. Maybe you can make some friends and all play Darius Burst as it is meant to be. Also right near by os Natsuge Arcade by Mikado. This has a lot more 80s games and a full pinball floor. I love Pinball!
Don’t do anything you wouldn’t do in your native country
This includes taking pictures of strangers or kids. I’ve done it before, but it is 2023. It is fucking weird and creepy. If you’re actively trying to not be a jerk-off you are going to be fine. Treat people like people.
If you have money to burn
You can get a helicopter ride from Narita to Shinjuku. This is on my bucket list because it probably rules if you don’t get airsick.
Shimo-Kitazawa
This area is incredibly confusing to walk around and even worse to describe where anything in it is. It’s home to used clothes, a huge Village Vanguard, cafes, and restaurants. There was a large threat for a while that it was going to gentrify and just start sucking. That hasn’t happened (yet). The used clothes stores are a mix of brand new shit for less than new but still stupidly expensive and stuff that was bulk bought from American Thrift Stores. Which if you’re a 110 pound 5’8" guy suddenly you can find stuff that fits. Also some of the used clothes will have a gothic lolita section and as a straight guy I get to admire the outfits and artistry without being a total creepo going in a real Lolita store.
Oedo Monogatari Onsen
UPDATE 2023 CLOSED IN 2021 BECAUSE OF THE PANDEMIC
This is in Odaiba. You cannot go if you have any tattoos. It is a public bathhouse so you’re gonna be nude around a bunch of your gender both young and old. It is kitschy. It is also kind of cool. It is the friendliest and easiest way to get the bathhouse experience without a local’s help in Tokyo. It’s also a decent bathhouse and relaxing. My prefered (insane) method is getting in the cold water until I can’t stand it and then getting in the hottest water. Repeat 3 or 4 times. Then go drink a Coke and eat some slightly-overpriced cafeteria ramen.
Ame-yoko
Ame-yoko south of Ueno Station is pretty cool. It is alive. It’s a food market. It actually has a foreigner element. It has very expensive jeans. It has dozens of food stands and shoe stores and maybe an arcade still. Just walk around and see what you can.
Go to Ueno Park in the morning then head to ame-yoko and walk along the tracks and you will with a tiny bit of effort end up in Akiba! Woahhhhh. Video games. Ueno Park is where the Rockabilly guys hang out now. They gotta be pushing 60!
Buddhist Fire Ceremony
Explanation Here This was interesting. If you want to see some religious fanatics go at for public consumption surrounded by gold. They burned a plaque for a crypto company. I thought that was funny.
Any of the private/pay to enter parks
Whether the absolutely huge Shinjuku Goen or Kiyosumi Gardens or a third different one you’re gonna love seeing these rich people gardens with older Italians. There is probably one close to your hotel! Older Italians not guaranteed.
Jimbocho
This is the old book district. There are plenty of old old coffee shops and you can find all manner of printed material. I went with Booji back in 2018 and we found a store that was all old Pro Wrestling Magazines and Celebrity Tabloids. Delightful.
Kappabashi
The Cooking Supplies District. If you need a knife go here. Seeing all the utilities and how their can just be a shop for the stands for menus in front of shops?
National Film Archive of Japan
Now I haven’t been here but I also haven’t been to a Museum in years. This one sounds cool though. We got like 50 museums. I am sure most of them are great.
I have deliberately left off this list Shibuya, Harajuku, Asakusa, Akihabara, Ginza and other places that occupy every internet list of things to do in Tokyo. I tried to give you stuff that is just slightly off the beaten path and is worthwhile. It feels weird to suggest any specific bar, restaurant, cafe because the city has so god damn many of them (also I don’t drink (lol)).
Now I don’t have to write this list every 3 months.
Update 2018
Fuckkkkkk there are so many tourists in every main city of Tokyo now. Nakano, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza, Harajuku are impossibly thick with them.
Update 2023
Our borders are back open and the tourists have flooded back in.
