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Welcome to Tokyo. I’m Gonza, born and raised here, 25 years in this city and counting.
As your Tokyo senpai, let me tell you one thing: your first 24 hours decide how the rest of your trip goes.
Mess it up, and you’ll be wandering the airport hunting for Wi-Fi, watching a taxi meter destroy your wallet, and losing a wrestling match to a rice ball. I know, because I’ve done all of it. As a local. 🫠
So here are 5 things to do, built entirely on my own disasters.
1. Set Up an eSIM Before You Even Board
Drop the “I’ll just use airport Wi-Fi” plan right now. The second you land, 300 people from your flight will all google “how to get to my hotel” at the exact same moment. The network turns into the Yamanote Line at 8 a.m.
With an eSIM, you’re online the moment you switch off airplane mode.
The first time I flew to Seoul for a design event, I had an eSIM ready. Five seconds after landing, my maps were up, and I strolled past the long line at the pocket Wi-Fi counter feeling like the main character. I want you to feel that power too.
Pocket Wi-Fi isn’t terrible. But carrying it around all day and worrying about its battery is basically pet ownership. With a return deadline. My Shiba is less work than that. Actually no. He eats his own poop, so he’s more work. 💩
2. Take the Train From the Airport. Taxis Are for Oil Barons
On the way home from my college graduation trip, I tried to act cool and took a taxi from Narita Airport to my parents’ place in Setagaya. Every time the meter jumped, I converted it into sneakers in my head. Somewhere around “three pairs,” I stopped looking out the window. The fixed fare to my part of Tokyo is over ¥35,000, plus highway tolls. That’s a couple hundred bucks to sit in traffic. I’ve been a Skyliner loyalist ever since. 🙏
If you land at Narita, the Keisei Skyliner gets you to Nippori in about 36 minutes and Ueno in about 41. If you land at Haneda, the Keikyu Line or the Tokyo Monorail will have you in the city in under 20 minutes.
Buy your Skyliner ticket online before you fly. After a 12-hour flight, you will not have the energy to fight a Japanese ticket machine.
Want every option compared side by side? Check out my full Narita Airport to Tokyo guide.
3. Get a Suica. Game Over, You Win
Suica is a tap-to-pay IC card. Trains, buses, convenience stores, even vending machines. One tap.
On an iPhone, download the Welcome Suica Mobile app and you can set one up before you even land. No sign-up needed, and you top it up with your Apple Pay card. On Android, heads up: most phones sold outside Japan can’t do mobile Suica, so grab a physical Welcome Suica card at the airport instead.
With a Suica, you’ll never have to do the classic tourist pose: staring up at a giant fare map for five minutes, wondering how much it costs to get to a station you can’t pronounce.
Also, the number of vending machines in Tokyo is honestly unhinged. One freezing night after a deadline, I bought a can of hot corn soup from one. I spent five minutes shaking the can trying to get the last corn kernels out, until a police officer walked over and asked if I was okay. I was fine, officer. The corn just wouldn’t come out. 🌽
4. Do Not Underestimate the Konbini
“Convenience store food? Really?” Try a 7-Eleven egg sandwich, then say that again. In public, I claim I only go to third-wave coffee shops. In reality, that egg sandwich is 40% of my diet. 🥚
One warning: rice balls (onigiri) have a trick. Pull the wrapper tabs in order, 1, 2, 3, and the seaweed comes out perfectly crispy.
My friend Jake came over from Portland, and I said, “Watch closely. A Tokyo native will now show you the correct way.” I then left every single piece of seaweed trapped inside the plastic and pulled out a naked lump of rice. Jake opened his perfectly on the first try. He has called me “Rice Ball Master” (sarcastically) ever since. 🍙
5. Book Exactly One Thing for Your First Night
Do not pack your jet-lagged first day. Seriously. But having one fun thing lined up for the evening makes the whole trip feel real.
My pick is SHIBUYA SKY, the open-air observation deck in Shibuya. Sunset slots are popular and sell out fast, so book ahead.
I once took Jake there to “show him how a local shoots Tokyo.” I took about 400 sunset photos, filled up my phone storage, and got zero pictures of the actual night view. Clear some space on your phone before you go. Learn from me. 📱
3 Things Please Never Do
Talking on the phone on the train. Tokyo trains are like a library crossed with a meditation retreat. Take a call on speaker, and the silent stares from the entire car will slowly melt you into the floor.
Hunting for a trash can. Tokyo is spotless, yet public trash cans barely exist. It’s the city’s greatest mystery. 🗿 Jake couldn’t find anywhere to throw away an empty bottle, carried it around for three hours, then declared it “a Tokyo souvenir” and actually took it home to Portland. Just carry your trash back to your hotel.
Leaving a tip. There’s no tipping culture in Japan. When Jake left a tip on the table at a ramen shop, the staff sprinted after him down the street. Jake thought he was in trouble and almost ran. They just wanted to give him his “forgotten” money back. A simple “thank you” is more than enough.
TL;DR
Your first 24 hours, in five steps:
- Set up an eSIM
- Take the train from the airport
- Get a Suica
- Trust the konbini
- Book one thing for your first night
Tokyo looks huge and complicated at first. But once you get the hang of it, it’s the best city in the world to get lost in. Wherever you end up, there’s a vending machine or a convenience store right next to you.
For the record, I still get lost in Shinjuku Station. But I’m not lost. I’m exploring. Totally different thing. 🦅
Gonza’s Japanese Gift 🎁
Every post, I send you off with one Japanese phrase you can actually use. Today’s gift:
マジで疲れた (maji de tsukareta)
Literally, it means “seriously tired.” But nobody says it when they’re just a little tired. You say it when you’re so exhausted your legs have basically left your body and you’re running on vending machine coffee and pure willpower. 🦵💨
“Maji” means “for real” or “seriously,” and young people in Tokyo put it in front of basically everything. “Maji de oishii” (seriously delicious). “Maji de yabai” (seriously insane). Once you start noticing it, you’ll hear it everywhere.
When to use it: You finally drop your bags at the hotel after a 12-hour flight, a train ride, and 20 minutes of wandering around looking for the entrance. Flop onto the bed and sigh, “Maji de tsukareta…” Congratulations. You now sound exactly like a Tokyo local on a Friday night.
For the record, I say this every time I make it out of Shinjuku Station alive. 🫠
Have a great trip. See you in the next post.