Tip Sheet For Tokyo

Hello, I was going to write this up after my daily reviews, but a friend will find this info helpful in a few days so I'm writing it up now.

Below is a list of items that I found useful on my trip to Tokyo:

Level 1: Must Have for 1st time visitors to Tokyo.

1) A recently published guidebook. Use the guide book to give you places to see, and places to eat. They suggested destinations may be a bit touristy, but at least you have something to guide you. We used the Lonely Planet Tokyo Book. I found the area summaries to be helpful, and it pointed us to a couple of good shops and restaurants. The Soba noodle place we wrote about was from this book. Our typical usage was: Read about an area, go to the area, go to specific places in the book that interested us, then wander around.

2) Tokyo Atlas
Addresses in Tokyo are arranged differently from address in the US. I won't go into the details, but if you get an address from a guide book that says 2-18-4 Jingumae, Harajuku....you need the Tokyo Atlas to get you there. I'm sure at some point during your stay in Tokyo, you're going to look for an obscure restaurant, or shop that isn't easily located by major streets or subway stations. This book is well printed, and has English and Japanese.

3) If you're staying in Tokyo and plan to take the Narita Express Train to Tokyo, get the N'Ex + Suica Card bonus deal. You can use the Suica card on almost all local Tokyo subway lines, and some restaurants and vending machines. The Narita Express ticket is valid for one way to any Tokyo stop. This deal represents an approximately $15 dollars in train ticket savings. When you're about to leave, and you have some money left on the card, you can go to the office to get a refund (minus a transaction charge), or, you can do what we did: spend the money on ready made food to bring on your flight back home. Look for the Suica Card symbol for machines and shops that take the card.

4) A subway map you are comfortable using. The Tokyo Atlas has one, but we ended up using the map we got on our One Day Tokyo Tour.

5) Change money at the airport, or at the post office for best rates. Your hotel will probably give you one of the worst rates. This is a CASH CASH CASH country. Major stores will accept cards, but cash makes it easy. You can carry lots of cash on you because this is one of the safest countries in the world. Guide books will caution you about pickpockets in heavily tourist areas (especially clubbing districts). Use typical wallet safety precautions and you should be ok.

6) If you plan to travel outside of Tokyo, sign up for the Japan Rail Pass before you land in Japan. This pass is must if you are making more than one distant trip outside of Tokyo. There are also other passes that may suit your needs (I've linked the Odakyu Line, but there are others). We used the Hakone Free Pass for our 1day 1 night trip to Hakone. Do your research before you go, and you may be able to save 100's of dollars.


Level 2: If you have the time.

1) Learn how to read Katakana. Yes, the Japanese use many Kanji characters also. However, knowing Katakana can help you a lot because English words are often phonetically sounded out using Katakana. For example, a puff makeup applicator may be labeled pa-fu in katakana.

2) Learn some Kanji. North, south, east, west, in, out, toilet...etc. Familiarize yourself with Kanji, so that you can at least copy the kanji of your destination down so you can point to it when you're lost on the street.

3) Do a 1 day Tokyo Day Drip early during your stay to get the lay of the land. You will most likely be traveling on the subway. Subways often distort how far apart or how near locations actually are from each other. Check out the Sunrise Tours site, for assorted tours in Tokyo and greater Japan.