Thursday, May 2, 2024

Where to Stay in Tokyo: Best Neighborhoods, Hotels & More

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Harajuku is one of Tokyo's biggest draws thanks to the grand 20th-century shrine, Meiji-jingū, and adjacent Yoyogi-kōen, among the city's most popular parks. The lively Ebisu bar scene is particularly popular with young professionals; most places to drink are small (sometimes little more than a service counter) and it's fun to bounce from one to the next. Being close to Japan's parliament in Nagatachō gives Akasaka's watering holes an upmarket cachet. You'll also find a major Shintō shrine here, as well as an imperial palace and several Japanese gardens.

Best neighborhoods for upscale shopping

The surrounding neighborhood gives you easy access to both the Narita airport and Haneda Airport and to a number of subway and train lines, including the city’s central loop, the JR Yamanote line. Ginza is Tokyo's most polished neighborhood, a luxury fashion center resplendent with chic department stores, art galleries and exclusive restaurants. There you have it – those are our tips and recommendations for places to stay in Tokyo during your trip. Tokyo may be huge but it also has options to suit any kind of traveler. Once you figure out where to stay in Tokyo, the rest of your trip will flow out naturally from there. Simply pick an area that most suits your travel style and use the city’s incredibly vast public transportation system take you to see the rest.

Best neighborhoods for museums

They exist in pockets all over the city, so it actually isn’t difficult to find a park or garden for a walk or to simply chill out in. There’s even a tranquil ravine known as Todoroki Valley within the confines of the 23 inner-city wards. If Asakusa feels overwhelming at first, venture away from the highly visitor-frequented Sensoji Temple and the Nakamise shopping street leading up to it. You’ll quickly find a more residential side to Asakusa, one where life goes on at a slower pace and you can find many local shops. The whole city (and country for that matter) has extremely high food standards, but we settled on Asakusa for a few reasons. One is that it is filled with traditional snacks and restaurants where you can sample lots of different Japanese treats and dishes.

Top 10 Most Wanted Destinations

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The latter is a funerary act, as is passing food to another chopstick to chopstick, and should be avoided. For those looking to stay in Tokyo on a budget, Hostel Chapter Two is an excellent choice. If you’re wondering where to stay in Tokyo while also wanting to save money, this is a great spot. The Sotetsu Fresa Inn Higashi Shinjuku is an excellent, solid choice for a mid-range hotel in the epicenter of Tokyo. Ginza is one of the most coveted addresses in the city and home to high-end fashion and dining spots. Think of any of the world’s top luxury brands and they’ll probably have a storefront here, along with Japanese luxury brands you’ve never heard of.

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Ginza, for example, is right next to the Marunouchi neighborhood that contains Tokyo Station. Whether you want to be surrounded by skyscrapers and sleeping in a pod hotel or, close to designer shopping and in a cool hostel, there is a place in Tokyo that is perfect for your trip. The best place to stay in Tokyo for one traveler isn’t necessarily the same for every traveler.

Best Ginza Hotels:

Some travelers like to be in the most convenient neighborhood, close to all the main attractions, while others prefer to stay in less touristy areas. If you step off the main drag though, you'll find fewer tourists and the craft shops and small restaurants that have long defined these quarters. Kōrakuen and Akihabara occupy a swath of central Tokyo running alongside Soto-bōri, the former outer moat of Edo Castle, and the Kanda River, one of the city’s main waterways.

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Tokyo House Sushi and Seafood Buffet

Most visitors are naturally drawn to the city's geographical and cultural centerpiece, the Imperial Palace – you could easily spend a day exploring this historic complex and the surrounding streets. If an immediate family member dies while you’re in Japan, travel insurance will help you get home immediately. A lot of people think travel insurance is an unnecessary expense — that’s far from the truth. Travel insurance is vital, even in a destination as safe as Japan. It’s saved Kate hundreds of dollars and for one of her friends, who slipped and broke her foot while traveling in Italy, her travel insurance bought her a business class ticket home and saved her thousands of dollars.

Best neighborhoods for experiencing the heart of Tokyo

Morning is usually the clearest time of day and thus your best chance to see Mt Fuji from the free observatories atop the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. As these are largely residential districts, there are few splashy must-see sights; exploring this area is more about getting a feel for how Tokyoites see Tokyo. Today they feel like time-capsules of mid-20th-century architecture and urban planning.

Best neighborhoods for nightlife

From here you can take the shinkansen (bullet train) to other popular destinations like Kyoto and Osaka. Deciding on where to stay in the largest metropolis in the world can be overwhelming. However, the sheer size of the city has meant that many neighborhoods offer different looks, feels and points of interest to visitors. Deciding on your priorities for your trip will therefore make it considerably easier to decide on a Tokyo neighborhood that suits your travel style. In central Tokyo, it’s easy to forget this city started as a seaside town. This is not the case in Odaiba, a collection of artificial islands on Tokyo Bay.

The city is huge and while public transport is effortlessly smooth, you don’t want to spend half the day getting around. Even the train ride there (approximately 2 hours from Shinjuku) has many visitors on their feet in the train carriage gasping at the views, especially around Sawai and Kawai Stations. In fact, many people get off around there for hikes and mountain climbing. A popular peak in the area is Mt Mitake and can be accessed from Mitake Station on the same line and a cable car can then take you part of the way up. For those who want to get into the “wild,” so to speak, you simply have to go west.

Bookmark this area for a day when you're looking to take it easy and set aside time for a stroll along the cherry tree-lined canal, Meguro-gawa. Ebisu and Meguro are gateways to a series of residential districts (some artsy, some upscale, some both) where Tokyo takes on a more human scale. The sights here are smaller and generally less crowded than those in the center.

It would be tempting to write these residential neighborhoods off as sleepy; however, they are anything but. Each has its own nomiyagai (eating and drinking area) that draws locals in the evenings. Akano is popular with otaku (fans of anime and manga) while Kōenji, just one stop away, attracts street artists and social activists. As you'd expect from a trendy shopping district, Harajuku and Aoyama have lots of great, inexpensive lunch spots covering a variety of cuisines. Meiji-jingū can get very busy, so the earlier you get here, the more likely you are to experience the kind of serene atmosphere that does the shrine justice. Shopping is, of course, a major attraction for many, locals included.

In fact, this is the one occasion where you may have to contend with crowds – popular restaurants and bars are packed most nights of the week. If high fashion and luxury goods are what you’re after, then Ginza is the perfect place where to stay in Tokyo. While weekdays are preferable for fewer crowds and more personalized service, a great time to enjoy this shopping district is actually weekend afternoons, when Chuo Dori is closed to vehicles and becomes a lively pedestrian street.

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