Nights out in Tokyo
Summary
What a place – as you walk the crammed streets, ride the insane subway, visit the various bars / restaurants / shops that cater for any niche, you start to realise just how big and varied Tokyo is. It also has so many different centres in their own right that you could spend weeks wandering around and only see a sliver of the place. Instead, best thing to do is just get yourself lost in the mayhem of it all
For each of the 4 times I’ve been to Tokyo, its mainly been for lash / partying, which felt like a blur, so I won’t try and write a review. Instead, I just have a few tips / thoughts:
- Nights out:
- Kick your evening off with the Robot Restaurant. It’s hard to describe – it’s kind of like a robot / giant animals / skaters / burlesque show with booze, and, I think food, added. All very odd, but heaps of fun and is in Shinjuku (next to Golden Gai) so a great place for going out
- Golden Gai is a great spot for drinks – 200 tiny bars crammed into within something like 5 very small streets right next to each other, some with only room for 4/5 people. Quite a unique experience
- Geronimos in Roppongi was great atmosphere. Good fun banging the drum
- Be prepared for lots of taxis – Tokyo is huge and getting from area to another can take a while
- Places I enjoyed:
- The famous Shibuya Crossing is worth a visit
- Tokyo Skytree is good for a view of the city
- Getting up early for the fresh fish market
- Gutted each time I missed the Sumo Wrestling. That looks awesome
- Accommodation – there are so many places to stay in Tokyo that there is something for everyone and really depends on what your itinerary and budget is, so I won’t go into specific recommendations. But, I would recommend the capsule hotels – the ones where you sleep in a capsule rather than a room. The shared services, such as onsens are usually superb, and its just a fun very Japan-style experience
- Short trips from Tokyo. If you do have more time, I really recommend
- Taking the 2.15 hour bullet train to Kyoto for a classical Japan feel, seeing the imperial heart and sampling some of the Japanese whiskies in the famous Suntory distillery – for more details and tips, see the individual travel entry for – Cycling around Kyoto and sampling whiskies in the Suntory Distillery
- Climbing Mount Fuji in Summer – you go from central Tokyo to the summit and back easily within 24 hours for what is a real bucket-list item. For more details, see this individual travel entry – Climbing Mount Fuji in Summer
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Giant City Experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone