Where to stay in TOKYO - Don't make THIS mistake! ¦ Japan Travel Guide

Tokyo is a sprawling city that offers dramatically different experiences depending on where you stay. Are you looking for nightlife and bright lights? High-end shopping? Unique dining experiences? Or maybe a more tranquil time in Tokyo? What's the experience you're looking for? We help you decide. Welcome back to Finding Gina Marie, where we share our lives as full-time travelers and the connections we make along the way. If you're new here, welcome. I'm Judy and I'm Kevin. This is the second episode of our Japan series, so stay tuned for all the rest of them and catch the ones you might have missed. We split our time in Tokyo. We started off our Japan trip in Tokyo and then we went did some more traveling and came back to Tokyo at the end to share some time with our daughter. Our experiences between our first leg and our second were vastly different. The greater Tokyo area has over 38 million people and the central metropolitan area has over 9 million. So our best advice is to book as far in advance as possible, especially when you are visiting an autumn like us or cherry blossom season. So many options for both legs of our trip weren't available because we didn't book early enough. When looking at the different areas of Tokyo for hotels, you need to look at not just what ward an area is in but also the neighborhood because even within a single ward you'll have a variety of experiences. We'll be covering six areas to consider and sharing some food recommendations, spots to find cherry blossoms and beautiful almond leaves, and we'll also mention what we paid for everything. We flew ANA Airlines in premium economy which was a splurge using points since we were arriving after a visit to family in the U.S. We redeemed 184,642 points and paid $226.77 for one-way tickets valued at $2,996 for both of us. We're actually on the plane getting ready for going on our flight to Tokyo and it's been really nice so far. Yeah, it's great and so this was one of the splurges we are in economy plus that we earned with points so that's a nice treat. Yeah, staff's been great, treatment's been wonderful, this plane looks great, excellent seats, excellent foot area and stretch out area. It's always nice when it's a two-two or whatever so you don't have to have somebody next to you. Those are nice. A little bit better than regular and slippers. I think we have reclining seats. We have footrests which is really nice for me. Yeah, so I'm all set for that. Am I cancelling headphones? Yes, because I can't hear you. Chicken teriyaki, sort of bagels. Teriyakis over rice. Wasabi paste. Oh, good. The advantage of the premium economy was that we arrived fresh from a relaxing plane ride with great amenities. So, I am thrilled that we are here. I don't know, I feel like our airplane just really set our airline, set the stage for what awaits us. It was just really a top-notch experience. All Nippon Airways A&A, very nice service, lovely plane, comfortable seats, set the bar pretty high. Yeah, I'm so excited, so excited. I feel very unprepared but it won't take too long for us to get ready for a few mistakes. We had no idea of the overwhelm we'd experience finding the right trains to get to our hotel. All right, last leg here. We just gotta walk to our hotel. This is crazy. There's a lot of trains and a lot of stairs. It has been so much more crowded than I expected it to be and at this point it's 6.18 which we've just gone through rush hour so that is part of the explanation but it made it very hard to just assess where you are and where you're trying to get to. There's a lot of ticket gates too so we didn't want to make the wrong choice. Well and unfortunately not knowing where we're going and having a path but you have to get there by this amount of time so if we missed something then we're starting over and the path that we took based on price also required us to get off at multiple stops so it's been an adventure and we are at the nearing the finish line. A quick walk, right? 500 meters? Yes. All right, let's go. Sounds good. So let's start off with Shibuya. It's southwest of central Tokyo and one of the three large sub centers in Tokyo. The other two are Shinjuku and Aikibukuro area. We were shocked that our first sights in Tokyo were of a highway overpass and could have been lifted out of any part of the world. There were no tall buildings and it didn't look particularly Japanese except for the kanji versus roman lettering on the signage. It turned out that although our first hotel was in the ward of Shibuya it's in the neighborhood of Hatagaya which is an upscale residential area of town and requires you to take an extra train leg to get there. If you're looking to stay away from the hustle and bustle this may be the area for you. We stayed at the Himalayan Cloud Hotel. It was a very nice hotel and great for the price. We paid $635 for four nights which breaks down to $127 per night. We thought we were staying in the area with skyscrapers so you need to understand the neighborhood as well as the ward. When planning your hotel location do a quick directions from the Tokyo airport and see what it looks like on the map app. If you stay near one of the major train stations you'll save time on your first day arriving in Tokyo. You can travel quickly to any other place in Tokyo by train without having to deal with your luggage after that. You'll also save money because you won't have to take these extra arms deep into a neighborhood. And if you're near a major station there's likely going to be more that you can do in that area. So let's skip to the area of Shibuya that you might really want to stay in or be expecting when you think of Tokyo. The most touristy thing you must do is to be part of the Shibuya Scramble. 3,000 people cross the Watch us walk through it and then view it from overhead. Skip the pricey Shibuya Sky Building with its $15 online tickets and rooftop seats costing nearly $28. Instead head to the Magnet for a budget-friendly option. For just 1500 yen which is $10 enjoy a rooftop experience with couches, fewer tourists, a drink, and no reservations needed. The Metropolitan Government Building's 45th floor observation deck offers a free view but it's currently closed. If you have an international driver's permit consider a cartoon character go-karting experience from Street Kart Tokyo Bay where you can dress up in your favorite costume and ride around the streets of Tokyo. Looks like those people were having a lot of fun. And if you have enough patience stand in line for a picture with the bronze statue of the famous loyal Hachiko, a Japanese Akita dog who lived a hundred years ago and is remembered for his remarkable loyalty to his owner. It's a very popular site you can get pictures from the side but if you want to pose with a statue you have to wait in line. It's right in front of the Shibuya Station's Hachiko exit which was named after him. If you want to have amazing sushi but want to make a real experience out of it we recommend Kakaya by the Sea in the Mario Macho neighborhood. It's got traditional Japanese seafood with a contemporary twist. You need reservations but it was our most memorable meal. If you book online you need to order one of their family style course meals. We might not have chosen that left to our own devices but we tried some incredible food that we might not have been ambitious enough to try otherwise. We chose the Yuki course which included nine small courses that we could barely finish at 4,800 yen per person or about 3,250. This is assorted sashimi. Fatty and the red meat of tuna. Fatty and the lean. Oh this one's fatty? Yeah fatty and the lean. Lean. Lean tuna. Okay. Yeah. Red snapper. Snapper. Amberjack. Amberjack. Spanish mackerel. Excellent. Spanish mackerel and the flounder. The waiter and chefs were a hoot and cheered anytime anyone paid them a compliment after each course which was often. And if you're interested in a themed hotel check out the nearby Suites Hotel. Why didn't you book us here mom? Are they free? I found my place. I found my home. On our second visit to Tokyo from Kyoto we were a bit smarter and planned a little bit ahead. Unlike our last hotel in Tokyo this one's right near our main station Shinjuku so should be an easier trip than the last time which was a little bit excessive. Right and hopefully this should be a busier part of town too so we are excited for all the cool things we're going to be doing. Tokyo again. We knew our daughter would be disappointed in the Hatagaya area so we booked a hotel in Shinjuku near the main train station. This area is famous for its flashy neon lights and nightlife. It is a bit more nightlife than maybe we had bargained for because Tokyo's red light district also is here called Kabuchiko. It's not an unsafe area just be mindful to avoid the touts. This is where you want to be if you're looking for some serious night life scene. Because there are parties well into the night the streets can be very dirty until the garbage crews that transform it in the morning. There are several APA hotels in this area and you want to make sure you have the correct address for the one you book. Ask me how I know to do this. And our hotel is right in the middle of all this. The rooms are small but functional and affordable. APA stands for Always Pleasant Amenities. For Kevin and I we paid 73,384 yen or $499 for four nights which is $124.75 per night. We got a separate room for our daughter at the same price since the rooms were way too small and only had one bed which is pretty typical of Japan. This area even has its own four-way scramble but it's much smaller. And we don't mind busy cities but we don't go out partying at night so this area of Shinjuku wasn't a perfect fit for us. We are glad that we got to see some of the popular sites like the 3D cat display near the Shinjuku station's east exit. It spans three stories and runs from 7am to 1am with different videos appearing based on the time of day. Very Instagram worthy and fun to watch. Shinjuku has its own themed hotel but this theme was darker than the suites one. Hotel Malta's exterior is designed to look like it's falling apart. There's also a glamping hotel with a beach vibe allowing the feel of glamorous camping on the seashore with hammocks and beach chairs facing gigantic big screen televisions and a ton of free food. Let's move on to Chuo. One of the areas inside Chuo city is the Ginza where you'll find upscale shopping and a hundred-year-old stationery store. Japan is famous for stationery and fountain pens and this store boasts five stories of joy for anyone with a creative flair. Go past all the fancy stores and you'll come to the Tsukiji market area. It's the largest fish market in the world. Don't go at lunchtime though because the fish is overpriced here. It's better to go to any of the restaurants who purchase their fish in the early morning hours. Stalls typically close at 2pm. If you take a sushi making class a market tour is often included beforehand. Chuo also holds the man-made island of Tsukishima which is famous for monjayaki. You'll know it better as manja. Tokyo's version of the savory pancake called okinamiyaki which is from Osaka. There's an entire street lined with manja restaurants mostly open for dinner. We preferred Hiroshima's version best of all but they are all worth trying. Manja is runnier and well formed compared to the other versions. We split a pork curry pancake which cost 1130 yen or $7.68. It's pretty affordable especially for the amount of food you're served. Across the street you'll also want to stop for melon pan. They are a steal at 200 yen and they are delicious. And that's only $1.36 so you can have two. Okay we were at this place before came back for second round right and we didn't taste it on camera so i thought we would here and it's called melon pan but i think it's just because of the shape not because of any flavors not got melon in it but the top is like a dutch crunch um sweet and it's really fluffy inside it's really good and it's good enough that we came back twice give me that piece there we go i agree this same part of town is famous for manga and anime let's now take a look at the asakusa area it's where tokyo's oldest and most significant temple sensoji temple also known as asakusa canon and if you thought visiting a temple would be a somber experience guess again for many of them the grounds are celebratory high energy and filled with vendors of every sort it's also free to visit the kaminarion gate which means thunder gate in english is the outer of two large entrance gates that ultimately leads to the sensoji temple the gate with its lantern and statues is great for pictures when you come in through this gate you'll walk along the street leading to the temple called nakamatsu dori it's lined with nearly 90 shops selling crafts souvenirs and plenty of sweet and savory snacks seasonal events in july and december are also held on temple grounds it's easy to miss this main gate if you enter through one of the side or lesser gates keep in mind that you're not supposed to eat while you're walking so although there's all these food vendors there aren't always places to put your trash so you may have to carry it with you or give it back to the shop person if the lines aren't too long there are plenty of restrooms here and they all have toilets with built-in bidets our daughter had a laundry list of foods that we needed to try from the food vendors so of course we had to listen to her so this is a milk soft serve i've seen a bunch of these and finally got a chance to snag one while we're by the temple looks fake though yeah it does mr softy or dairy queen or what um i don't know it's a little bit crystallized but i'm a snob when it comes to ice cream looks pretty though right it does the other popular ice cream here is served inside a crepe what do you think it's creamy yeah it's really soft it's really creamy very good since we're talking about ice cream we're excited to share that we've started our own absolutely free community forum that we are calling la familia you can ask questions about trip planning and all things related to travel here we're also giving you a chance to peek behind the scenes and are offering a bunch of other perks we're calling gelato levels if you decide you want to help support us financially as well a video with the details is linked in the description below the ueno area of asakusa has several museums as well including the tokyo national museum which is the oldest and largest museum in japan unfortunately we missed exploring museums on this trip but we think it's still worthwhile for you to visit there so let's talk about chiota we visited the neighborhood of conda in the chiota area to meet up for a great e-bike tour that took us through this area and our guide was really good it was a perfect way to get our bearings especially since tokyo is so spread out we'll put a link in the description below at the end of it we stopped at a standing sushi area for lunch that our guide recommended called ben kai sushi bar this is a very authentic sushi bar with very little english it was a little difficult to figure out what we wanted so we chose to share the special lunch is typically from around 11 a.m to 2 30 p.m so don't wait too long to find a place to eat we preferred the salmon and the shrimp the best and for both of us it was 1800 yen total which is about 12 also in conda is karashibi miso ramen kikombo which we loved and is known for offering spicy ramen this place takes it to the extreme its name translates to ogre's iron club which basically means that the spice level will have you feeling like you got clubbed in the mouth their basic ramen is 980 yen or about 6.66 cents to upgrade to an egg ramen cost 1150 yen or 7.82 cents and you can add additional toppings for extra charge or additional spices it's for owning owning yes the imperial palace which is the main residence of the emperor of japan is here kokyo gai and national gardens also are here as well the most convenient entrance the park is from the kudanshita side through the taya suman gate which is a two-minute walk from the inside the park is the nippon budokan area which hosts rock shows and martial arts tournaments the beatles played five sets here in 1966 during their world tour taya suman gate is famous for its cherry blossoms around the end of march the area is so loaded up with visitors you can't even ride a bike through it a little later in the season it's also famous for its fall colors we visited this area in october so it was a little too early to get one interesting thing about this gate is there's actually an outer gate and then an inner gate and you have to make a pretty hard turn to get through them both which made it harder for the city to be attacked if you're looking for cherry blossoms the british embassy has a lot of them when they're in season everywhere in japan you can find places where you can rent a kimono if you want to walk around in a traditional outfit for the day and that applies for both men and women if you're before we get to our final recommendations we want to talk about the monato area the monado ward is the most expensive area to stay in tokyo it's one of the most international areas and has a concentration of business and diplomatic activity in japan the jingu gaian area has a golden ginkgo tree lined street that you must visit in autumn warning there is a lot of posing and selfies happening there so come early in the morning when it's less crowded we arrived late in the day and it was still worthwhile the trees in the fall are a must-see they are truly jaw-dropping the nezu museum also is here even if you aren't visiting specifically for the art there's a lovely five-star garden if you are looking for some peace and tranquility so with so many areas to stay what are our final recommendations well after some of the mistakes we made we recommend that you stay in a central area of tokyo near a train station because then you can get on whenever you want to and visit other areas you'll still have walking access to the shops and convenience stores and things that you would normally want to access in tokyo so we'd like to know where you would prefer to stay in tokyo leave us a comment below and let us know what resonated most and why if you've enjoyed this episode and you're already subscribed one of the biggest compliments you can give to us is to share our content with your friends and family if you haven't subscribed please do so and give us a like and check out fineengineering.com lots of good articles there and more information on our travels until next time