Tokyo

Tokyo punishes improvisation in a way Bangkok does not. Several of the things people most want to see here cannot be bought at the door at all. The Ghibli Museum releases tickets at 10am Japan time on the 10th of each month for the following month, through one vendor, and admission is by advance reservation only. Plan the booked items first and fill the gaps around them, not the other way round.

The city is expensive to sleep in and close to free to cross. Hotel rates averaged 33,168 yen a night in May 2026, up 12.8 percent on the year, and that figure samples branded hotels, so a business chain room sits well below it. Trains are the opposite. A Tokyo Metro ticket costs between 180 and 330 yen whatever the distance you cover inside the network, and one IC card handles the lot.

Pick your base by train line rather than by district name, because the line decides how long your days actually are. Anything on the Yamanote loop, or one interchange from it, works. Four to five days is the right length: three in the city and one for Hakone, Nikko or Kamakura without moving hotel.

Late March to May and November are the months to come. Tokyo averages 26.9C in August at about 74 percent humidity, which ruins walking days. October is the wettest month of the year here, at 235mm, because typhoon season outlasts the rainy season.