Tokyo Reflections and Tokyo Travel Tips from Going Local to Using Guidebooks

Our two-week stay in Tokyo, Japan’s capital, was so different to other destinations we settled into on our yearlong global grand tour. There were so many travel lessons we learned in Tokyo for slow travellers and lovers of local travel that we thought the experience warranted a post on our Tokyo reflections and Tokyo travel tips, from learning a little Japanese to doing tours with local experts.

For the first time this year, in Tokyo we got to play at being tourists. It wasn’t because we hadn’t been to Tokyo before (we had), but because it was so long ago (a stopover 17 years ago!) it was as if we were visiting Tokyo for the first time. Experiencing the city as wide-eyed travellers gave us plenty to reflect upon.

Here are our Tokyo reflections, having just spent two weeks in Japan’s capital, and our travel tips to visiting Tokyo.

Tokyo Reflections and Tokyo Travel Tips from Going Local to Using Guidebooks

These are our reflections on two weeks in Tokyo and our Tokyo travel tips on everything from using guidebooks in Tokyo to

Use a Guidebook in Tokyo

In Tokyo, it was the first time we felt the need to carry around a travel guidebook so far on this yearlong global grand tour aimed at inspiring you all to travel more locally, more slowly and more sustainably, more locally, and more experientially.

In Jerez, Ceret, Perpignan and Kotor, all small- to medium-sized villages and towns, which we were also visiting for the first time, we relied on advice from locals and used the travel skills we’d developed as pro travel writers and instincts to settle in, to get around, and to figure out the lay of the land, where we should eat and drink, and what we should do and learn. We didn’t need or miss having a guidebook until we got to Tokyo.

Lesson learned and our top Tokyo travel tip

Take a travel guidebook with you to Tokyo. Guidebooks can be helpful in big cities like Tokyo, especially for their maps (when the maps are accurate, that is), their background, historical and cultural info, and for pointing you to particular areas if not specific places.

When the guidebooks are full of errors, mischaracterisations and poor recommendations, however, as one Tokyo travel guidebook was that we used was, you’re better off without guidebooks and the frustration they cause, so take a Tokyo guide that you trust.

Communication in Tokyo

Why was our Tokyo experience so different to other destinations, even though we’d been before? Well, for one thing, there was the language barrier.

Unlike our first trip to Tokyo 17 years when we don’t recall seeing anything in English at all, but do remember clutching onto the bit of paper bearing the instructions the hotel staff had written down for us for the day in Japanese, nowadays there are helpful bilingual signs everywhere.

However, while we’re trying to pick up as many words as we can wherever we go for Grantourismo, it’s difficult to learn very much at all in Tokyo in two weeks without formal language classes.

I preface this by saying that we don’t expect Japanese to speak English, however, while we met many friendly Tokyoites who spoke English, we also met many warm souls who didn’t speak a word at all.

Most eateries we ate at didn’t have English menus, but that wasn’t a major problem – we could always point to the photo menus or the adorably kitsch and incredibly helpful plastic food replicas in the windows of many restaurants where food is prepared out of sight. Plus we always seemed to meet other diners who made helpful suggestions.

Lesson learned and our best Tokyo travel tip

Do some Japanese language lessons before travelling to Japan. Human beings will always find ways to communicate. But next time we return to Tokyo we’ll enrol in Japanese language classes before we leave, as well as some Japanese lessons as soon as we arrive – and in the interim, we’ll work on our miming skills.

On Sightseeing Versus Going Local in Tokyo

As per Paris and Venice, where we didn’t tick off any major sights this trip, we didn’t visit the Imperial Palace or Tokyo Tower here in Tokyo either. Nor did we do any iconic activities, such as attend a tea ceremony or a sumo wrestling match, apart from visit the Tsukiji fish markets, but then we visited with a local expert, and we shop the local markets in every place we stay.

Perhaps more than any other destination, in Tokyo we really delighted in wandering the streets and taking in the rhythm and colour of everyday neighbourhoods. We still learned things from locals, though in a more informal way.

We visited Tokyo’s famous fish markets with food expert Etsuko Nakamura and talked sake with Tokyo-based food and drink writer Melinda Joe. We got lessons in Japanese pop culture from authors of books on robots and monsters. In all cases, we connected with these locals using social media, via their blogs or on Twitter.

Lesson learned and our Tokyo travel tip

Sign up for guided tours in Tokyo with experts in things that interest you or reach to local experts in a field you work in or have a passion in, whether they’re professional colleagues or friends of friends.

This one was a lesson we learned long ago, and was one of the reasons we embarked on Grantourismo: rather than do the things we feel we should do when we visit places, pursue our own interests in any way that it seems to make sense – it just so happens that for us those ways involve connecting with locals, both in the ‘real’ and social media worlds.

Our Best Tokyo Travel Tips

These are our best Tokyo travel tips after reflecting on lessons we learned.

Rent an Apartment in Tokyo

For us, nowhere does an apartment holiday rental make more sense than an expensive hotel room than it does in Tokyo, but you need to be an independent traveller; see our reasoning here. But if you feel you need a bit of hand-holding and help with booking restaurants etc, then a hotel in Tokyo is probably a better choice for you. See this guide to the best Tokyo hotels.

Take the Airport Limousine Bus Service

If you’re flying into Tokyo, figure out which is the nearest hotel to your apartment, then take a ‘limousine bus’ there. Tickets cost just Y3000 (around £32) compared to a £165 taxi ride – buy them at the desk at Arrivals. Porters take care of your luggage and on arrival hotel staff will organise a taxi to your apartment.

Use PASMO for daily transport

Buy a plastic PASMO card from the ticket machines at your nearest Metro and whack a couple of thousand yen on it. It’s not necessarily cheaper to use the PASMO (although individual rides on the subway are cheaper in Tokyo than, say, in Paris or London), it’s just incredibly convenient.

You swipe the card as you go through the gates leading to the platforms (you see the balance every time) and swipe it on the way out again, with no need to pay supplements when you change between private train lines.

You can use it on trains, buses and even some drink vending machines; it’s easy to re-charge, with cash or credit card; and you can easily get your Y500 deposit back when you leave.

Carry Tokyo Maps

Pick up a free Tokyo Metro map from the station and carry it with you always, and if you’re staying a week or longer, buy a small bilingual Tokyo street directory.

Navigating Tokyo

Identify the nearest Metros and walk to them from your apartment, marking the route on your map. Don’t attempt to walk home from a Metro without having done this (unless you’re using a GPS!) as we guarantee (from experience!) you’ll get lost.

Most minor Tokyo streets aren’t named but are numbered. While there are maps at all Metros the top of the Map is not necessarily north, so the direction you need to go in can be challenging to figure out the first few times.

Eat at Neighbourhood Eateries in Tokyo

It’s a myth that Tokyo has to be an expensive city. Eating in Tokyo doesn’t have to cost more than any other city. But if you’re on a budget you can save lots of money by buying bento boxes for picnic lunches or when you want to eat in, opting for set meals (many for less than £8/US$10), and eating at noodle shops, yakitori stands and izakaya bars. See this post for more tips to eating out in Tokyo.

Do Free Things in Tokyo

There is plenty to do in Tokyo that needn’t cost a thing, from kicking back in the Tokyo’s many beautiful parks to strolling the tranquil grounds of Tokyo shrines. Just walking the streets of Tokyo is a buzz.

Travelling to Tokyo? See our posts on the best Tokyo neighbourhoods, eating on Omoide Yokocho or ‘Memory Lane’, drinking in the tiny Golden Gai bar district.

If you have any Tokyo reflections or Tokyo travel tips you’d love to share from your travels in Japan, please do leave them in the Comments below and share them with our readers. We’d love to know what we missed out on so we can do it next time!