Visiting Tokyo for the first time: eleven surprising lessons

Lauren and I visited Japan for a month, spanning mid-December to mid-January. (Our other Japan articles are here). We travelled to Osaka, Yokohama, Mt Fuji (Kawaguchiko) and Kyoto but spent most time in Tokyo. Neither of us had been to Japan before, and it was not top of our places to visit. But after some close family relocated from the UK to Yokohama, we had the motivation to go and make this our first time visiting Tokyo.

Researching and discussing it with people before going, I came to realise how lucky we were. Japan is a dream destination for some people. For others it was a transformative experience, they are eager to repeat. By the time Lauren and I flew out of Heathrow I had a long list of expectations and preconceptions. And in this article I write about the eleven most surprising lessons I took away from my first time visiting Tokyo.

Tokyo is even more huge than I imagined

Massive does not nearly go far enough to describe the scale of Tokyo. Lauren and I are big city-walkers, and we always prefer to walk than take the metro or a taxi. For one thing, it saves money, but more importantly, it allows us to better experience the place we’re staying. When visiting a new city we tend to walk with a destination in mind but allow ourselves freedom to improvise along the way.

Tokyo is well suited for on-foot exploration, with well laid-out streets and safe crossing places. However, we found ourselves consistently under-estimating the scale of the city. Walking from our hostel to neighbouring districts could easily take up most of the day. And particularly when allowing ourselves a bit of freestyle exploration along the way.

Online user-experience can be a challenge

One of my big expectations before visiting, was that Japan, and particularly Tokyo, would be a supremely-advanced mecca of high-technology. It is after-all the home of so many house-hold and industrial technology brands. What surprised me however, is that, while undoubtedly filled with technology, Tokyo gave me a feeling of out-dated modernity. It was like Tokyo was a dream of the future as someone from the 1980s might have imagined it.

Cash is still king

In the UK, even the smallest pop-up coffee van or street seller, having a portable credit card reader. Cash has all but died out in UK cities. In Tokyo however, it is safest to assume that cash is the default. Even the metro system is a cash-only enterprise. Its remarkable that it operates so efficiently with people standing in lines counting out coins.

Tokyo’s streets have creativity on every level

Tokyo’s architecture is dominated by massive, concrete, square, buildings with muted colours. It has a serious, 1980s business district aesthetic. But once we got a little closer there was so much creativity and vibrancy.

Many of the bigger pedestrian areas have gigantic screens in the streets. Bright neon signage and various music or spoken-word audio are also broadcast to passers-by. But away from the busiest zones, we found so much going on in almost every narrow, high rise street. Tiny Ramen restaurants hidden behind windowless wooden doors; unassuming coffee-shops; staircases leading to cool underground cocktail bars. In fact, the buildings in Tokyo streets are packed with quirky businesses on every floor. Tall, narrow concrete buildings are very common and easy to ignore. But some of our very best food and drink experiences were had several floors up. Tiny spaces, hidden from view, accessible via only a tiny 2-person lift.

Listening Bars and Jazz Joints are atmospheric places to spend an evening

Before visiting, I read about the jazz bar scene; it became one of the top things I wanted to do. I saw several articles about the best jazz bars accompanied by photos of musicians mid performance. In my head, I pictured bars with, people enjoying a drink, surrounded by low hum of chatter and live music. I imagined standing at the bar with a cocktail, listening to a short set and then moving on.

While seeing live jazz was certainly possible. But to guarantee hearing it, you really needed to book up with one of the bigger music clubs. Cover charges ranged between 2000-5000 yen (£10-£25) and they seemed more like organised concerts. Not the the casual experience I had envisaged.

However, while in Tokyo I discovered another form of music bar. Known as ‘Listening Bars’ they actually came a lot closer to my expectations. Listening bars are informal, and in my experience very small, cosy spaces. A well-stocked bar, a bar tender a HiFi and lots and lots of vinyl records, all over the walls. I loved the vibe of the music bars that Lauren and I visited. They were really intimate places where the bar tender is also the music curator. They would change records every couple of tracks, and the carefully place the sleeve on display.

These bars were frequented by an eclectic range of patrons. An intrepid tourist occasionally visited but more often it seemed to be locals looking to enjoy some good music. Lauren and I witnessed dedicated music fans sit next to the speakers on their own for hours. Nursing a glass of Japanese whisky and just listening, occasionally nodding along.

Civilized opening hours

Our trip was over the Christmas and New year period so we expected opening hours to be dirupted. However, we were told by locals that the narrow opening hours of the smaller, independent businesses was an all-year-round feature. 10am – 4pm seemed to be the average window for many independents. Most surprisingly to me this included the independent coffee shops and cafes, of which there were many. I like to start my morning with a cup of takeout coffee before setting out on a day of exploration. If that’s you, you may need to find a chain coffee house or vending machine, for the day’s 1st caffeine fix.

However, Tokyo also has an impressive distribution of big-chain convenience stores. 7-Eleven, Family Mart and Lawsons are the three most common and were never more than a five minute walk from wherever you happened to be. They are open, 24/7, 7 days a week and normally well stocked with a range of hot and cold food options, as well as magazines, tech accessories and of course, a selection of soft toy corporate mascots. Lauren and I found the 7-Eleven egg-mayo sandwich to be particularly tasty and it became our go-to choice whenever we needed to pack a snack for later (e.g. to keep us going while queuing up outside Universal Studios at 6.15am).

Vending machines…everywhere

Beyond just the common drinks vending machines, there are also the quirkier kind, dispensing ready-meals, umbrellas, fruit and all kinds of bizarre novelty items. These vending machines were however, few and far between, with the most bespoke, novelty machines present in specific areas where they were more relevant to the local passing trade.

Tokyo has unspoken etiquette rules

Despite there being so many people in Tokyo, it is without doubt, the most orderly, respectful and safe city I have visited. This is thanks to an apparently hard-wired sense of community mindedness that seems to result in people behaving in ways that serve the wider society. This sounds like a utopia, and to many people visiting Japan, it can leave you asking ‘why can’t it be like this back at home?’. Certainly every country has its downsides and long-time residents may feel quite differently about Japan, but for the short stay traveller like me, the Tokyo etiquette was a welcome surprise.

Firstly, the streets are immaculate. The pavements are free from discarded rubbish and kept clear by conscientious residents and business owners who carefully bundle up their cardboard and other items ready for collection. A major contributory factor is that no one eats on the go, despite the wide-spread availability of street food and vending machines, walking around and eating is a big, but unwritten no-no. Instead, you eat where you buy or you put it in you backpack and take it at home. I actually felt it added to the charm and ambience seeing small gatherings of people standing and eating right next to the street-food vendors.

Hand in hand with the policy of not eating on the go, is the lack of public rubbish bins. It isn’t that there are some but not enough, they almost entirely do not exist as a concept in Tokyo. If you generate rubbish while you are out and about, you are expected to take it home with you. I frequently finished a long day out with pieces of plastic and paper, even crushed coffee cups, crammed into my jacket pockets.

Overall, it was apparent that people in Tokyo had a strong desire not to interfere in other people’s days and wanted to avoid social awkwardness at all costs. It is very unlikely that anyone would directly confront a transgression in etiquette. You could easily spend your entire trip routinely committing public blunders and never know about it. However, arming yourself with knowledge of some of the common issues is a great way to be a well behaved guest during your first time visiting Tokyo.

Eating vegetarian can be a challenge your first time visiting Tokyo

Lauren tries to eat vegetarian whenever possible which, despite the plethora of food options in Tokyo, proved surprisingly difficult. The vegetarian food scene is certainly well behind other western capital cities we’ve visited but there are still plenty of options if you want to find a dedicated veggie-restaurant.

Things become more challenging, when you want to eat vegetarian at a non-vegetarian restaurant. In the UK, and most of western Europe, we are used to almost all food outlets offering at least a token veggie option. In Tokyo, this was much less common. Even food items that appeared on face value to be meat-free often had an unseen meat-content. Ramen for example was almost exclusively served in a Pork broth.

We found that the best bet for both a meat and veggie friendly meal were okonomiyaki, a noodle based pancake or tempura restaurants. Both offered a genuinely authentic Japanese cuisine while being sufficiently customisable that you could quite easily avoid meat.

Great Craft Beer but you need to know where to find it

With a bit of effort I enjoyed some really excellent craft beer in Tokyo but nothing more special than at the This Brewing brewery and tap room. An architecturally modern, 3-storey building consisting of lots of concrete and heavy glass. Inside is a bar so thick, a canon ball wouldn’t make a dent and an elegant minimalist array of beer pumps. They serve beer in thin wine-glass style containers which seem common in Japan. It can sometimes be hard to tell the difference between hazy pale ales but This Brewing, really is something special. I strongly advise craft beer fans visiting Tokyo for the first time to pay them a visit.

Tokyo has a world-class independent coffee scene

I love good coffee and I enjoy seeking it out. Lucky for me Tokyo has one of the best independent and artisanal coffee scenes of anywhere I’ve been. One of the great things about Tokyo is that a good quality, small business seems to be able to survive just fine without needing to shout from the roof-tops and dominate its competition. It seems affordable to operate an independent business in Tokyo in a way this appears much more difficult in European capitals, particularly London. And this lends itself well to independent coffee vendors, who are prevalent throughout the city.

If you want to go even deeper into the Tokyo coffee scene, then look no further than Tokyo’s very own ‘coffee district’. Kiyosumi-Shirakawa is a mostly residential neighbourhood to the north east of central Tokyo but has sprung up as destination for coffee lovers. Kiyosumi-Shirakawa boasts coffee shops of all shapes and sizes, such as Arise Coffee Roasters, a tiny corner shop that serves only black, pour-over drip coffee from a range of speciality beans. Or for the opposite end of the spectrum is Koffee Mameya Kakeru, an architecturally stunning, light wood and concrete venue offering an exclusive coffee tasting experience, served by your own private, lab coat-clad barista.

Concluding thoughts on the lessons from my first time visiting Tokyo

Tokyo is a phenomenal city that won me over completely. My first time visiting Tokyo will always be a special memory and it was some of the idiosyncrasies that made it truly unique. Knowing some of these lessons before visiting will be genuinely useful to improve your experience and avoid unnecessary frustrations. Although Lauren and I were met with an abundance of friendliness, western tourists have a poor reputation in Japan. So being forewarned with some of these lessons should help you to be a good guest in Japan, and maybe even assist in mending the standing of western tourists.