Brief Guide to East and West Tokyo

1. East Tokyo.md

Hi John, Janet - looking forward to seeing you, albeit for only a day. Here's a brief guide to East Tokyo.

See this annotated Google Map. I tried to mark everything below on it.

Your hotel, the Abest, is a "business hotel" in Kyobashi. Business hotel is code here for "functional and basic". When I stayed there in Feb, it was typically clean but cramped, but the duty manager spoke good English and I thought the shower and bed were pretty nice, and wifi worked fine too. I ate breakfast in the Ginza, but the hotel did have a breakfast option. There are several "combini" convenience stores near the hotel, and you can get drinks and meals there. Typical ones are Lawson, 7-11, Family Mart, Mini-Stop. Quality is high at the combini here, so there's no worry about getting ill like you might from a 7-11 burrito in the US.

Kyobashi is east of Tokyo station, extending down to the Ginza area. You can get the Ginza subway line at Kyobashi station, and take it south to the Ginza area, or even further all the way across Tokyo to Shibuya in the South West. Or, take it north to various stations to see Muromachi (Mitsukoshi mae station), Akihabara Electric District (Suehirocho station), Kappabashi Kitchen Street (Tawaramachi station), or the "War temple Sensoji and its lightning gate" at Asakusa (Asakusa station).

You can get on the Asakusa subway line and go one (?) stop to the big Skytree tower. There's a neat long and skinny park extending down from the SkyTree area to JR Kinshicho station. If you like, from JR Kinshicho you can get on the JR Yokosuka line and go back to JR Tokyo. Be sure to get on the train going toward Tokyo, Yokohama Zushi, Kurihama, Yokosuka, not the other direction because that takes you out to Narita.

There's a ton of shopping and eating in Ginza, Kyobashi, and Tokyo station, and I marked a few spots. Let me know if you have anything specific you want to eat or buy.

Tokyo station has a massive underground area starting on the "Yaesu" east side, extending under the station over to the financial district "Marunouchi" west side. If you're interested in Japan crafts besides pottery, the "Kitte" building at the south-west corner of Tokyo station is good for that, as is the Muromachi area at Mitsukoshi Mae on the Ginza line.

There's a 5km (~3.1mi) route around the imperial palace, which a lot of people jog because it's uninterrupted. If you go there, you'll probably see people jogging so you could just go with the flow.

The "International Forum" west of Ginza and just south of Tokyo station is cool architecture. It's like being in the hull of a giant ship. Speaking of Architecture, somewhat near there in Hibiya is the old Imperial Hotel, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Apparently the hotel was opened the day before the massive quake in 1923, and it was one of the only structures to survive it. Some of his work is still visible in a cafe there.

On the east side of Ginza is the old Tsukiji fish market, which is pretty interesting. The main market now is in Toyosu, a bit farther East, but Tsukiji had that role until a few years ago when they opened the new one. Tsukiji's worth an early morning visit, I think. Seafood there is as fresh as it'll get.

The area along the tracks between JR Yurakusho just west of the Ginza, and JR Shinbashi, then again just west of JR Shinbashi, is all cheap drinking spots. There's a fun one near the Imperial Hotel called "Lorelei", which is downstairs on floor "B1", one below street level. It's a german beer and food and singing bar. Cramped little place that holds maybe 10 people but a lot of fun.

Be sure to see the B1 or B2 floors of major department stores. These are where they sell various foods and souvenirs. It's an experience in itself, just to see it. They really have everything. Matsuya in the middle of Ginza, or Mitsukoshi main store up the ginza line to Mitsukoshi-mae are prime examples, as is Daimaru, on the Yaesu side of Tokyo station, right there at the entrance.

A tip, get a business card from the hotel so you can show it to a taxi driver just in case. Note that the subways stop after midnight, then there are queues for taxis. It's basically a walkable city though, and except for a few areas, it's basically safe.

Regarding emergencies, there's an English speaking international clinic on the east side of Tokyo station, the Yaesu side, right across from the Yaesu bookstore. There are also some pharmacies in your hotel area as well, which I'll mark on the map.

2. West Tokyo.md

Ok, regarding West Tokyo, the Shinjuku area, please see this annotated Google Map.

Your hotel, the APA Higashi-Shinjuku Kabukicho Tower, is part of the APA business hotel chain. Confusingly, there are two APA's named similarly, with "Kabukicho Tower" in the name. Since yours is "Higashi" (east) Shinjuku, apparently it's the one at the north end of Kabukicho.

Kabukicho is the red light district, and while there's some seedy strip bars and so on there, there's also a lot of fun stuff to do. I tried to mark some on the map. There's a couple batting centers, a bowling alley, a crazy "samurai restaurant", a "ninja trick house" and even a godzilla head. It's in the news from time to time, regarding scams where someone gets their drink spiked and their card swiped, and they end up a few 1000 USD poorer as of the next morning. I would advise not to pay attention to any of the touts trying to get you to go into the seedier "girls' bars" there.

To the east of Kabukicho is the new Kabukicho Tower building, which has a big game arcade, and an escape room, that might be interesting.

To the east of Kabukicho is "Golden Gai", next to Hanazono Shrine. It's a scruffy home to some 200 bars, and is generally a good place to drink. Some of the bars have signs like Japanese Only, Regulars Only etc, probably because they don't speak English or they're just fed up with tourists (especially the last few years with the yen so weak and so many visitors). Who knows. The ones I marked on the map are supposed to be tourist friendly. Among the bars, there's a bistro, Bistro Pavo.

Another place for drinking is the "omoide yokocho" (basically "memory lane"), which is where the salaried workers drink, north of the west exit of Shinjuku station. You can get all kinds of food here, too.

Just a little walk north of your hotel is the Shin Okubo Korea Town. You can get good Korean BBQ there, and it's authentic and just super.

Shinjuku station proper is a huge maze of a station. It handles 3.5 million passengers a day, and can be disorienting and confusing. If you get separated, maybe best to scout few landmarks so you can meet there.

There's a big electronics district west of the station, with a bunch of home electronics shops, camera shops, watch shops etc. A lot of fun to browse.

Also west of the station is the Tokyo Metropolitan Gov't building. There's an observation platform you can go up to, to see the city. (My daughter is a civil servant and worked here for a couple years before changing departments)

The south area of the station, across the "Koshu Kaido" road, is generally called the Southern Terrace. It's newish, and so has a modern feel. There's a shopping complex aimed at women called "NeWoman" which they inexplicably pronounce "new man". Go figure. Anyway, there's a nice food court area there. I marked one of the restaurants, Sawamura Bakery, which is hearty bistro food and bread, but there were others in there as well.

Near your hotel you can get on the Fukutoshin subway, which goes north-south, and you can get to some of the major parks that way. Like Shinjuku Gyoen national park, Yoyogi park or Meiji Jingu (the big shrine next to Yoyogi park).

Near meijijingu-mae station on the fukutoshin line, you can get to "cat street" which is an interesting narrow little street that you can walk all the way down to Shibuya on. It's full of fashionable shops and places to eat.

Also, I marked a clinic that speaks English, and a couple pharmacies in the area.