Tokyo rewards a simple system: stay near the JR Yamanote loop, buy the Tokyo Subway Ticket (JPY 1,000 for 24 hours), and split your days between the free giants (Senso-ji, Meiji Jingu, the Imperial Palace East Gardens all cost nothing) and the paid icons that must be booked ahead (Shibuya Sky, teamLab, the Ghibli Museum). Haneda airport is 15 to 30 minutes from the centre; Narita is an hour and worth the right train choice. Give the city at least four days, then take a day trip: Nikko or Kamakura.
Tokyo is not one city but a federation of neighbourhoods, each with its own centre of gravity, and first trips go wrong by treating it as a checklist of sights scattered across a map. This guide is organised the way the city actually works: airports, the transport passes as priced in 2026, the sights with their real opening hours and fees (checked against the official sites), neighbourhoods in plain terms, and the day trips that are genuinely worth a day. For the country-wide picture, start with our guide to the best places to visit in Japan; this page is the Tokyo layer of it.
Tokyo at a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Airports | Haneda (HND): 15-30 min to the centre, trains about JPY 330-520. Narita (NRT): 41-60 min by fast train, JPY 1,500 by budget bus |
| Best pass | Tokyo Subway Ticket: JPY 1,000 / 1,500 / 2,000 for 24 / 48 / 72 hours (Metro + Toei lines; not JR). Prices rose in March 2026 |
| Free icons | Senso-ji, Meiji Jingu, Imperial Palace East Gardens, Toyosu tuna auction viewing |
| Book-ahead icons | Shibuya Sky (tickets 14 days out), teamLab Planets and Borderless (timed entry), Ghibli Museum (Lawson sale on the 10th) |
| How long | 4 days minimum for the city; add a day each for Nikko, Kamakura or Hakone |
Getting in: Haneda and Narita
Haneda is the easy arrival. The Keikyu line reaches Shinagawa in about 11 minutes from Terminal 3 (JPY 330); the Tokyo Monorail reaches Hamamatsucho, on the Yamanote loop, in about 13 minutes (JPY 520). Both run from around 5:10-5:30am to just after midnight. Unless your flight lands in the small hours, there is no reason to take a taxi from Haneda.
Narita, 60 km east, needs a decision. The Narita Express runs to Tokyo Station in about 53 minutes (JPY 3,140; the round-trip visitor ticket is JPY 5,200 for 14 days). The Keisei Skyliner is faster to the north side: about 41 minutes to Ueno for about JPY 2,500. The Access Express serves Asakusa and the east more cheaply. On a budget, the TYO-NRT airport bus reaches Tokyo Station and Ginza in about 65 minutes for JPY 1,500. A fixed-fare taxi from Narita runs JPY 23,500 to 35,500 by zone plus tolls, which is why everyone takes the train.
Getting around
Tokyo has two subway operators, and the visitor pass covers both: the Tokyo Subway Ticket gives unlimited rides on all 9 Tokyo Metro and 4 Toei lines for 24, 48 or 72 hours at JPY 1,000 / 1,500 / 2,000 (raised on 14 March 2026). It does not cover JR lines, so pair it with the JR Yamanote loop, the green circle line through Tokyo, Ueno, Ikebukuro, Shinjuku and Shibuya stations, paid per ride by IC card. For the card itself: regular physical Suica sales fully resumed in March 2025; visitors can also buy the red Welcome Suica (28 days validity, no deposit, but no refunds and cash top-ups only) or the Welcome Suica Mobile app on iPhone (180 days). Taxis start at JPY 500 for the first kilometre. And the detail that prevents escalator collisions: in Tokyo you stand on the left and let people pass on the right; Osaka does the opposite.
The sights, with real prices and hours
The free three
Senso-ji in Asakusa, Tokyo's oldest temple, costs nothing: the grounds are open around the clock and the main hall opens 6:00am to 5:00pm (6:30am from October to March). Arrive before 8am and you will share it with worshippers instead of crowds; the Nakamise shopping street behind the Kaminarimon gate opens later in the morning. Meiji Jingu, the great Shinto shrine in its own forest beside Harajuku, is also free, with gates that follow the sun (roughly 5:00am to 6:30pm in June, 6:40am to 4:00pm in December). The Imperial Palace East Gardens are free too, and closed on Mondays and Fridays, the closure that ambushes more itineraries than any other in Tokyo.
The paid icons
| Sight | Price (adult) | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo Skytree | Tembo Deck from JPY 1,800; Deck + Galleria from JPY 3,000 online | Date-variable pricing since April 2026; buying at the counter costs JPY 500 more. Go on a clear winter morning for any hope of Mt Fuji |
| Shibuya Sky | JPY 2,700 before 15:00; JPY 3,400 after (web) | The rooftop above the Scramble crossing. Tickets release 14 days ahead at midnight JST and sell out; counter tickets cost more and are often simply gone |
| teamLab Planets (Toyosu) | JPY 3,800, dynamic | Timed entry, not sold on site. You walk barefoot, and the water areas reach knee height, so wear trousers you can roll up |
| teamLab Borderless (Azabudai Hills) | From JPY 3,600 | The mapless museum; allow 2-3 hours and book the first slot of the day for the emptiest rooms |
| Tokyo Tower | Main Deck JPY 1,500; Top Deck Tour JPY 3,300 (web) | The 1958 original in Shiba Park, still the warmer of the two towers at night |
| Shinjuku Gyoen | JPY 500 | Tokyo's best garden; closed Mondays, and alcohol is prohibited, which keeps it serene |
| Tokyo National Museum (Ueno) | JPY 1,000 regular exhibitions | The Honkan's Japanese gallery is the single best hour of art history in the country for the price |
| Ghibli Museum (Mitaka) | JPY 1,000 | Reservation only, no exceptions: tickets go on sale via Lawson at 10:00 JST on the 10th of the month for the next month, and popular dates vanish in minutes |
Two early starts deserve their own lines. The Toyosu Market tuna auction begins around 5:30am: anyone can watch free from the second-floor visitor corridor from 5:00am, while the floor-level observation deck (about 100 people a day) is allocated by an online lottery roughly a month ahead. The old Tsukiji Outer Market still thrives as a food street, and breakfast there after the auction is the classic pairing. And if your dates touch January, May or September, sumo holds a 15-day tournament at the Ryogoku Kokugikan; buy only through the official Ticket Oosumo route, and note the Edo-Tokyo Museum next door reopened in March 2026 after its long renovation.
Neighbourhoods, plainly
- Asakusa: old Tokyo, Senso-ji, ryokan and budget hotels, the Sumida river. Best first base for traditional atmosphere.
- Shinjuku: the transport hub of the city, department stores, Golden Gai's tiny bars, the free observatory of the Metropolitan Government Building. Best all-round base.
- Shibuya: the Scramble, youth retail, Shibuya Sky. Stay here for nightlife, not for sleep quality.
- Harajuku and Omotesando: Meiji Jingu's forest, then fashion's two faces, street style and flagship architecture, on one walk.
- Ginza: polished, expensive, quiet at night; kabuki at Kabuki-za and the city's classic department stores.
- Akihabara: electronics, anime and arcades; go in the evening when it is fully lit.
- Ueno: the museum cluster and the park, Ameya-Yokocho market under the tracks; good value hotels.
- Yanaka: the preserved shitamachi old town of temples and lanes, Tokyo's best slow afternoon.
- Shimokitazawa and Kichijoji: vintage shops, small theatres, local life; where Tokyo residents go on their own days off.
- Odaiba: the bay island of malls and museums (teamLab moved to Azabudai Hills in 2024; the life-size Unicorn Gundam's display ended in August 2026, though its shop remains).
Day trips that earn the day
| Trip | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Nikko | About 1h50 by Tobu limited express from Asakusa | Toshogu shrine and the Kegon Falls/Lake Chuzenji heights. Tobu's Nikko Pass World Heritage Area costs JPY 3,000 (All Area JPY 8,000) |
| Kamakura | 57 min by JR Yokosuka line from Tokyo Station | The Great Buddha (JPY 300), Hasedera, and the Enoden tram along the coast. Pair with Enoshima if the day is clear |
| Yokohama | About 30 min | Minato Mirai waterfront, Chinatown, the Cup Noodles Museum; the easiest half-day out |
| Mt Takao | About 50 min by Keio line from Shinjuku (JPY 430) | A sacred mountain with a cable car for the steep half; Tokyo's own residents' escape hike |
| Hakone | About 85 min by Odakyu Romancecar from Shinjuku | The loop of trains, cable car, ropeway and lake boat, covered by the 2-day Hakone Freepass (JPY 7,100 from Shinjuku; Romancecar surcharge extra) |
When to go, and staying comfortable
Cherry blossom in Tokyo typically peaks in late March to early April; autumn colour runs late November to early December. The rainy season covers June into early July, typhoons brush the city from August to October, and high summer is genuinely hot and humid: plan museums for midday and shrines for the early morning. The festival calendar's giants are the Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa (third weekend of May, 1.5 to 2 million visitors across three days) and the Sumida River Fireworks (last Saturday of July, about 950,000 expected spectators; arrive hours early or watch from the river's east bank). The Tokyo Game Show in September is held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, not in central Tokyo.
Three practical notes. Tax-free shopping still works at the till in 2026 for purchases of JPY 5,000 or more with your passport, but Japan switches to an airport refund model on 1 November 2026, so trips after that date follow the new customs-confirmation process we detail in our Fukuoka city guide. Safety information: install the Japan Tourism Agency's Safety tips app (it pushes earthquake early warnings, tsunami alerts and weather warnings in English) and JNTO's Japan Official Travel App before you land; Tokyo's buildings and stations are engineered and drilled for earthquakes, and the visitor's job is simply to follow the announcements. And when Tokyo is done, the rest of the country opens up: our Japan beyond Tokyo guide covers the places most itineraries miss.
