3 days in Tokyo: an itinerary built around how the city works

Getting from the airport into the city

Tokyo has two airports and they are not equivalent. Haneda sits inside the city, roughly thirty minutes from central Tokyo by monorail or the Keikyu line, and costs a few hundred yen. Narita sits sixty kilometres east, and the journey takes sixty to ninety minutes depending on which service you take.

From Narita the three realistic options are the Narita Express, which runs direct to Tokyo, Shinjuku and Shibuya in about an hour and costs around 3,000 yen; the Keisei Skyliner to Ueno in forty minutes for roughly 2,500 yen; or the ordinary Keisei line, slower at ninety minutes but under 1,300 yen. Taxis exist and cost upward of 20,000 yen, which nobody should pay unless the trains have stopped running.

Do the practical things at the airport before you leave it: buy or load an IC card, and if you did not sort mobile data before flying, this is the moment you notice. Tokyo without live train navigation is a genuinely stressful place, because Shinjuku station alone has over two hundred exits and choosing the wrong one puts you a fifteen-minute walk from where you meant to be. Our Tokyo connectivity guide covers what the networks are like underground, which is better than almost anywhere on earth.

Where to stay, and why it matters more than usual

Tokyo is a collection of centres rather than one downtown, so where you sleep shapes what your trip feels like. Shinjuku is the transport hub, loud and convenient, with the widest range of hotels and the easiest access to everywhere. Shibuya is younger, walkable to nightlife and shopping, and slightly better for evenings. Both put you on the Yamanote loop line, which is what you want.

Asakusa and Ueno sit on the older east side, cost meaningfully less, and give you a completely different Tokyo of temples, shitamachi streets and early mornings. The trade-off is fifteen to twenty-five minutes on the train to reach the western districts. Tokyo Station and Ginza suit business travellers and people who value polish over character.

Whichever you choose, the rule is to be within a five-minute walk of a station on the Yamanote line or a major Metro interchange. That single constraint saves more time across three days than any other decision, because Tokyo's transport is superb and its taxis are expensive.

Day 1: the east side, temples and old Tokyo

Start in Asakusa, early, ideally before eight. Senso-ji is Tokyo's oldest temple and the approach through the Kaminarimon gate and down Nakamise-dori is the classic image of the city. At eight in the morning it belongs to locals and a handful of photographers. By eleven it is a river of tour groups, and the difference is not subtle.

Walk east to the Sumida river and cross toward Tokyo Skytree if the sky is clear, or skip the tower and wander the Sumida park path instead. Mid-morning, take the Ginza line two stops to Ueno and spend an hour or two in Ueno Park, which holds the Tokyo National Museum, several other galleries, and the Shinobazu pond. If museums are not your thing, the Ameyoko market strip beside the station is a dense, loud, cheap food corridor that rewards aimless walking.

Late afternoon, head to Yanaka. This is the neighbourhood most three-day itineraries omit and most visitors remember: low wooden houses, a long shopping street, cats, and a cemetery of cherry trees that survived the war and the bubble. It is fifteen minutes from Ueno and feels like a different decade.

Evening: eat in Ueno or return toward your base and find an izakaya. The rule for a first izakaya is to sit at the counter, order in rounds rather than all at once, and accept that the menu may defeat you. Pointing works. So does a translation app, which is one of the quiet reasons a data connection earns its cost in Japan.

Day 2: the west side, Shibuya to Shinjuku

Begin at Meiji Jingu, entering through the enormous torii beside Harajuku station. The shrine sits inside a forest of a hundred thousand trees planted a century ago, and the walk in takes ten minutes of gravel path that mutes the city completely. Go early for the same reason as Senso-ji, and because morning is when you may see a wedding procession.

From the shrine exit into Harajuku. Takeshita-dori is the famous narrow street of teen fashion and crepes, worth ten minutes and rarely more. The better streets are the ones behind it: Cat Street running toward Shibuya, and the Ura-Harajuku backstreets, where the interesting shops actually are. Walk south and you arrive in Shibuya on foot in about twenty minutes.

Shibuya deserves the afternoon. The scramble crossing is best seen from above, and Shibuya Sky on the roof of Shibuya Scramble Square is the observation deck worth paying for, an open-air platform at 230 metres. Book a timed slot in advance because sunset sells out days ahead. Below, the district is dense shopping, record stores, and the standing bars under the tracks.

Evening: take the Yamanote two stops to Shinjuku. Omoide Yokocho and Golden Gai are the two famous alley clusters of tiny bars, atmospheric and touristed in equal measure. Kabukicho is the neon district that appears in every film about Tokyo. And the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observation decks are free, open in the evening, and give a view most paid towers cannot match.

Day 3: markets, art, and the bay

Start at Toyosu, the wholesale fish market that replaced Tsukiji's inner market, where the tuna auction can be viewed from observation windows if you arrive before six. If that is too early, the Tsukiji outer market still operates and is the better food experience regardless: rows of stalls selling grilled scallops, tamagoyaki, uni and knives, open from mid-morning.

From there the bay is close. teamLab's digital art museums are the most photographed thing in Tokyo for good reason, and they are genuinely worth the ticket. Book in advance, wear something you can sit on the floor in, and expect to spend two hours minimum. Alternatively, if art is not the draw, Odaiba across the bridge offers the waterfront, the Gundam statue, and the best skyline view of the city at dusk.

Afternoon options depend on what you have missed. Akihabara for electronics, anime and arcades. Ginza for the department store food halls in the basements, which are the finest food shopping anywhere and cost nothing to walk through. Or Shimokitazawa, twenty minutes from Shinjuku, for second-hand clothes, tiny record shops and coffee, which is where Tokyo goes on a slow afternoon.

For the last evening, eat something you have been putting off. Tokyo holds more Michelin stars than any city, but the point is the ordinary level: a good ramen counter, a standing sushi bar, a tonkatsu shop that has done one thing since 1965. Reviews in Google Maps and Tabelog↗ are how everyone finds these, which is one more reason your phone matters here.

What three days in Tokyo actually costs

Tokyo has a reputation for expense that is roughly thirty years out of date. Accommodation and paid attractions are genuine costs; food and transport are surprisingly reasonable, and a good bowl of ramen costs less than a coffee in London.

The figures below are per person per day, and the middle column reflects how most visitors actually travel: a business hotel, trains everywhere, one paid attraction a day, and eating well without seeking Michelin stars.

Transport, money, and the rules nobody explains

Get an IC card on arrival, either Suica or Pasmo. They are functionally identical, work on every train, subway and bus in the region, and also pay at convenience stores and vending machines. Tap in, tap out, top up at any machine. Digital versions load into Apple Wallet, which is the smoothest option if your phone supports it.

Japan is less cash-dependent than it was, but not cashless. Cards work in hotels, chains and department stores; smaller restaurants, older shops and some temples still want yen. Withdraw from 7-Eleven ATMs, which accept foreign cards reliably when bank ATMs often do not.

Etiquette is simpler than the internet suggests. Do not eat while walking. Do not talk on the phone on trains. Stand on the correct side of the escalator, which is left in Tokyo and right in Osaka. Carry your rubbish, because public bins are rare. Tipping is not practised and is mildly awkward when attempted. None of these are tests; they are just the local defaults, and following them is easy.

Staying connected in Tokyo

Tokyo is arguably the best-covered city on earth. Every subway line has full underground coverage, all three networks blanket the twenty-three wards in 5G, and even the outer suburbs and the Tama river districts are seamless. Connectivity is not a question of whether it works; it is a question of whether you have any.

You will use more data here than you expect. Navigation runs constantly because station exits matter, translation runs at every menu, and train transfer apps are how the hundred-plus lines become comprehensible. Budget three to four hundred megabytes a day rather than the one to two hundred that suffices in simpler cities.

The two realistic options are a travel eSIM installed before you fly, or a pocket Wi-Fi rental collected at the airport. For one or two people the eSIM is cheaper and involves nothing to collect or return; for a family of four sharing one router, pocket Wi-Fi can win. We work through that comparison in eSIM vs pocket Wi-Fi, and current Japan plans and networks sit on our Japan eSIM guide. Airport SIM counters at Narita and Haneda charge two to three times online prices for the same data, which is the one option worth avoiding.

When to go, and what changes

Late March to early April brings cherry blossom and the largest crowds and prices of the year. It is spectacular and it is not a relaxing time to see Tokyo for the first time. Late April through May is the sweet spot: warm, clear, and considerably calmer once Golden Week ends in early May.

October and November are the other strong window, with autumn colour through the parks and comfortable temperatures. Summer, June through August, is hot and humid to a degree that surprises people, with a rainy season in June, though it brings festivals and lower prices. Winter is cold, dry and clear, with the best chance of seeing Mount Fuji from the observation decks and the lowest hotel rates of the year.

Whatever the season, three days is enough for a genuine first impression and not enough to feel finished, which is the correct feeling to leave Tokyo with. If you have a fourth day, spend it on a single trip out, and the three options below are the ones worth the train fare.

Eating in Tokyo: the categories that matter

Tokyo food is organised by specialisation rather than by restaurant. A shop makes ramen, or tempura, or unagi, or tonkatsu, and it has usually made only that for decades. Once you understand the categories, ordering stops being intimidating, because each type of shop works the same way everywhere in the city.

Ramen shops usually run on a ticket machine at the door: you choose, pay, hand the ticket to the counter, and sit. There is no service interaction and no tipping, and eating quickly is normal rather than rude. Expect to pay 900 to 1,400 yen, and expect it to be better than almost any ramen outside Japan.

Izakaya are the closest thing to a pub: small dishes ordered in rounds, drinks throughout, and a bill at the end. Many charge a small seating fee, otoshi, which arrives as a snack you did not order and is not a scam. Sushi splits into three tiers: conveyor belt at a hundred to three hundred yen a plate, standing counters at moderate prices, and reservation-only counters where a single meal can cost more than a night in your hotel.

Two categories visitors underuse: department store basements, called depachika, which hold food halls of extraordinary quality where you can assemble a picnic dinner for a fraction of restaurant prices; and convenience stores, where onigiri, egg sandwiches and hot food are genuinely good and cost a few hundred yen. Neither is a compromise, and both are what residents actually do on ordinary days.

Day trips if you have a fourth day

Kamakura sits an hour south on the Yokosuka line and pairs temples with a coastline. The Great Buddha at Kotoku-in has sat outdoors since a tsunami removed its hall in the fifteenth century, and the Hase-dera temple gardens above the sea are among the most photographed in the region. The town is walkable and the local Enoden tram runs beside the water toward Enoshima island.

Nikko is two hours north and a different scale entirely: the Toshogu shrine complex is carved, gilded and deliberately excessive, set among cedar forests in the mountains, with waterfalls and Lake Chuzenji beyond it. It is the strongest single day trip from Tokyo if the weather is clear, and it is worth leaving early because the last useful trains back are earlier than you expect.

Hakone is the hot spring option, ninety minutes southwest, built around a loop of trains, a cable car, a ropeway over sulphur vents and a boat across a lake. On a clear day Mount Fuji appears across the water, and the Hakone Free Pass covers the whole circuit. It is the trip to take if you want the day to feel restful rather than dense.