3 days in Tokyo, what to know before you book

Cash, cards, and the 7-Eleven rule

Tokyo is the only world capital where cash still beats cards in around 30 percent of restaurants, especially the small izakaya, ramen counters, and old shops. Pull ¥30,000 to ¥50,000 per person from a 7-Eleven ATM on arrival, they take foreign cards 24/7. Most bank ATMs do not.

Cards work at hotels, department stores, big chains, and most restaurants in Shibuya and Shinjuku. American Express is patchy. Contactless is everywhere via Suica or PASMO, add it to Apple Pay on the flight and avoid the physical-card vending machines.

Do not tip, do not negotiate, do not over-thank

Leaving cash on the table is treated as a mistake or as condescension. The bill includes service. If you leave money behind, the server will chase you down to return it. The same applies to taxi drivers and hotel bellhops at chain hotels.

Where it does work: a small envelope (otsumami) at a traditional ryokan for the okami at check-in, never at a business hotel. Sumimasen (excuse me) opens every interaction; arigato gozaimasu closes it. That is the whole vocabulary you need.

The pace mistake foreign groups make in Tokyo

Trying to do Shibuya, Shinjuku, Asakusa, and Ueno in the same day. Each ward is a separate small city with its own transit hub, its own food culture, and an hour of edge-walking before you find the good streets. The internal-Tokyo move is two anchor neighbourhoods per day, with one transit hop between them, plus a 90-minute coffee or onsen reset every afternoon.

On a 3-day trip this means choosing. Realistic split: Day 1, Shibuya and Harajuku/Omotesando. Day 2, Asakusa morning and Akihabara or Ginza afternoon. Day 3, Shinjuku and Shimokitazawa. The crew will want to add Tsukiji breakfast, do it on Day 2 before Asakusa.

Where to base the crew

Shinjuku for transit access (every Tokyo line stops there) and dense food. Shibuya for the after-dark energy and the photogenic chaos. Both work for 3 days; do not split the crew across two hotels.

Asakusa is the contrarian base, calmer, older Tokyo, but it adds 20 minutes to almost every stop. Roppongi sounds central and is a tourist trap for nightlife; the food is mid and the prices are not.

On the high end, look at Ginza or Marunouchi (near Tokyo Station) for shinkansen access if extending to Kyoto. Bigger rooms, calmer streets, the kind of breakfast that justifies the hotel.

Hidden corners worth knowing the names of

Not the headlines. The names locals reach for when the crew has done Shibuya.

Yanaka cemetery walk at dawn, low-rise old Tokyo, almost no tourists, the cherry blossoms arrive a week earlier here.

Standing bars under the JR tracks in Yurakucho, salarymen at 6:30pm, ¥500 highballs, no English menu and that is fine.

Shimokitazawa on a weekday, vintage clothing and tiny live houses without the weekend queue.

Daikanyama T-Site, a bookshop open until 2am with a whisky bar inside. Locals come after dinner.

A public sento in Asakusa, ¥520 for a neighbourhood bath, the grandmas always show up.

A standing sushi counter (tachigui) in Ginza or Shimbashi, the proper omakase for ¥3,000 to ¥5,000 if you eat fast.

The booking timeline

Eight weeks out, hotel for the group. Family rooms and 4-person suites disappear in spring and autumn.

Six to eight weeks out, the headline omakase, any famous kaiseki, and teamLab Planets timed entry.

Two weeks out, Shibuya Sky last-slot for the sunset transition, and the Robot Restaurant successor.

Walk-in, ramen counters, the izakaya alleys in Omoide Yokocho, the standing bars. Do not over-plan dinner.

Getting around without being the lost foreigner

Suica or PASMO via Apple Pay covers every train, bus, vending machine, locker, and 7-Eleven. Top up at any station; the JR Yamanote loop circles the city in 60 minutes. Tokyo Metro day passes (¥800) make sense if you do 4+ rides, otherwise pay-per-ride is fine.

Taxis are clean, plentiful, expensive (¥500 flagfall, ¥100 every 250m), and accept Suica. Uber works through the local app GO; Black taxi vs JapanTaxi makes no real difference. The doors open automatically, do not pull them, that is the giveaway.

From Narita: the Skyliner to Ueno (¥2,580) is the fast option, the Narita Express to Shinjuku (¥3,250) is the comfortable one. From Haneda: the Limousine Bus to your hotel is the no-think option.