places to stay:

last time i went i stayed in shinjuku at the hyatt regency- there’s a tonnnn of good food especially around the major subway station and the nightlife is fun. getting around is also super easy (by train, bus, walking, or biking!) there’s plenty of subway stops even within shinjuku itself so you can pretty much go anywhere easily.

other popular areas: shibuya, ginza

transportation:

within tokyo, you can get anywhere with a combination of subway/bus/walking. you can also uber if you’re feeling tired 😄 you can buy and load a Suica or Pasmo card at any subway station. one caveat is that most of these machines only take japanese credit cards so try to exchange some cash at a convenience store so you’re prepared! you can also use Suica or Pasmo in osaka and kyoto!

edit 2024: you can now add a suica card on apple wallet and add money/tape through there :D

i relied mostly on google maps to check when busses/trains were coming or what routes to take. it was super accurate and reliable.

FOOD:

now that we got the pesky logistics out of the way, we’re onto the fun part. FOOD.

‼️ Google Maps List - this is so you can import to google maps and easily look up the spots as you walk around! it also serves as a TLDR if you don’t want to read 😄

• Pain Maison (bakery) | Ginza
  • Salt butter bread has taken Korea and Japan by storm and this place does not disappoint. We started smelling the enveloping smell of butter a whole block away and knew we had come to the right place. The bread was fragrant, fluffy, crispy on the outside, …ooooof. It was the perfect way to start the day.
• Udon Shin (lunch/dinner) | Shinjuku
  • Udon Shin was my first meal in Tokyo and it set the bar real. high. it serves dry and broth-style udon, and the highlight is definitely the dry-style butter and black pepper variations. it’s creamy, savory, umami, rich, just the perfect thing to indulge in after a 10+ hour long flight.
  • IMPORTANT: the virtual queue gets REALLY long for this place (i’ve seen 4 hours+) so make sure to get there before it opens and put your name down along with your phone number at the kiosk. they’ll text you when your table is ready.
• Uogashi Niho-Ichi (Standing Sushi bar) (lunch/dinner) | Shinjuku
  • Standing sushi might sound weird at first - yes, you literally stand and eat. But you forget the fact that you’re standing when a $10, 12-piece order of top quality nigiri is placed in front of you. I seriously can’t get over the value and the quality of this place. If my stomach was larger I would have just (stood) here and ate all day.
  • The turnover is pretty fast on this place so you can just show up and they can usually accommodate you quickly.
• The Matcha Tokyo | Shibuya (there’s also one near Shinjuku train station)
  • This is just the best matcha latte I’ve ever had. It was so creamy and the matcha was perfectly mixed in (no sediment at the bottom).
• Fujiya Bakery (bakery) | Yoyogi
  • When you’re jetlagged and hungry, this is the spot to go to in the morning. Even if you’re not jetlagged and hungry, your stomach will make room for this because it’s bomb. The curry bun blew my mind - it’s crispy, warm, umami, hearty … just go.
  • There was no line for this place and it was in a pretty quiet residential neighborhood. Definitely spend some time just walking around the neighborhood while you’re there - it’s not touristy at all but it’s super cute.
• Ebimaru Ramen (lobster ramen) | Taito-ku
  • This place makes amazingly rich lobster broth ramen. It’s a small location so there might be a bit of a wait, but the line moves relatively quickly. There’s a “basic” ramen on the menu which is chicken breast and lobster broth (no lobster meat) for around $10 USD, and there’s a fancier lobster ramen with actual lobster for about 3x or 4x the price. The actual lobster is fun but I think getting the “basic” ramen is a lot more worth and the gold is really the lobster broth.
• zekkocho teppen (dinner) | Shinjuku
  • This spot is a little hard to find - it’s on the 3rd floor of this building in the alley and the only way I found it was checking the sign on the building and matching the japanese characters to the name on google maps. It’s an izakaya place that serves more “traditional” japanese food that I personally haven’t seen as much in the US, and it is so damn good. There’s small plates, fish, grilled meat, onigiris, drinks, the type of place that you feel like you can just eat, drink, and talk into the night. My favorite part is that the seats are tatami style so you take your shoes off before sitting down in the booth!