Tokyo: What Nobody Tells You Before You Go

Shinjuku Station has 53 exits. You will get lost.

Shinjuku is the busiest train station in the world — 3.5 million people pass through it every day. It has 53 exits, 36 platforms, and connects 12 different rail lines. No amount of preparation will stop you from emerging from the wrong exit on your first day. Accept this as a rite of passage.

What to do: Screenshot the specific exit number you need before entering. The exits are labelled (South Exit, East Exit, B14, etc.) and Google Maps tells you exactly which one to use. Follow those directions like gospel. If you exit wrong, don't try to re-enter the ticket gates — just walk around the outside of the station to the right exit.

The convenience store food is genuinely extraordinary.

You've heard this, but you haven't believed it yet. Japan's convenience stores — 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, and Lawson — are a different species from what the name implies anywhere else. The food here is prepared fresh daily, priced at ₹110–550 (~$1.30–7 / ¥200–1,000), and genuinely rivals restaurant quality.

What to order

• Onigiri (rice triangle) — ₹110–165 (~$1.30–2 / ¥200–300). Tuna mayo, salmon, pickled plum. Learn to peel the packaging (it's a 3-step origami ritual).
• Hot foods counter — fried chicken (karaage), steamed pork buns, corn dogs. All for ₹110–220 (~$1.30–2.60 / ¥200–400).
• Egg salad sandwich — sounds basic. Will ruin sandwiches everywhere else for you.
• Matcha anything — matcha soft serve, matcha roll cake, matcha milk. All excellent.

Budget travellers can eat every meal from a convenience store for ₹1,100–1,650 (~$13–20 / ¥2,000–3,000) per day without suffering. Not a compromise — an upgrade from most airport restaurants anywhere else.

There are almost no public bins. You carry your trash.

Tokyo is immaculate — not a scrap of litter on the streets — and yet there are almost no public rubbish bins. This isn't a contradiction. Japanese people carry their trash with them until they find a bin (usually at a convenience store or train station entrance).

You'll eat your convenience store onigiri and then walk around for 20 minutes looking for somewhere to put the wrapper. The solution: always dispose of packaging at the convenience store before you leave, or carry a small plastic bag for trash. Follow the locals. Don't be the tourist who leaves rubbish on a temple wall.

Trains are silent. Talking on your phone is rude.

Japan's trains are jaw-droppingly quiet for a city of 14 million. Nobody speaks on the phone. People don't have loud conversations. Music goes through earphones. The PA announcements remind you to switch your phone to silent mode before entering the carriage.

This isn't signage nobody reads — people actually follow it. If you take a loud call, you will feel the weight of the collective disapproval of an entire train carriage without anyone saying a word. The silence itself becomes the message.

Get your Suica card at the airport. Do it first. Do nothing else first.

A Suica card (or Pasmo — they're interchangeable) is a rechargeable IC card that works on every metro line, JR train, and most buses in Tokyo. You tap in at the turnstile, tap out at your destination, and the exact fare is deducted. No buying individual tickets. No figuring out which zone you're in.

It also works at convenience stores, vending machines, and some restaurants as a payment method. It is, without exaggeration, the most useful object you will carry in Japan.

How to get one

• At Narita or Haneda airport — there are JR East Welcome Suica machines for international visitors. Top up with ₹1,650–2,750 (~$20–33 / ¥3,000–5,000) to start.
• Also available on iPhone/Apple Watch (Mobile Suica) if you want to go card-free.
• Top up at any convenience store or ticket machine when the balance runs low.

Cash is still king. Many restaurants won't take cards.

Japan is decades behind on cashless payments despite being one of the most technologically advanced countries on earth. Many ramen shops, izakayas, and smaller restaurants are still cash-only. You will sit down, eat, and then discover this at the end when you try to pay with Visa.

Always carry ₹2,750–5,500 (~$33–66 / ¥5,000–10,000) in cash. 7-Eleven ATMs reliably accept international debit and credit cards. Japan Post ATMs also work. Avoid random bank ATMs — many don't accept foreign cards.

Each Tokyo neighbourhood is essentially a different city.

Most cities have a vibe. Tokyo has twelve. The mistake first-timers make is trying to see all the neighbourhoods in one day, rushing between them, and ending up experiencing none properly.

• Shinjuku — neon chaos, enormous train hub, Golden Gai bar alley, Omoide Yokocho (Memory Lane). Best at night.
• Asakusa — traditional Tokyo, Senso-ji Temple, rickshaws, kimono rentals. Go early morning.
• Shibuya — the famous crossing, youth fashion, huge department stores. Best at 8pm on a Saturday.
• Harajuku — Takeshita Street for wild youth fashion, Omotesando for luxury brands. Two completely different worlds 200m apart.
• Shimokitazawa — vintage shops, live music venues, indie cafes, young locals. Zero tourists. Best afternoon neighbourhood in Tokyo.
• Yanaka — old shitamachi (downtown) atmosphere, narrow alleys, cats everywhere, almost no tourists. What Tokyo looked like 60 years ago.

Pick 2–3 neighbourhoods per day and go deep. You'll get more out of two hours in Shimokitazawa than eight hours trying to tick off ten postcards.

The best ramen is underground — literally.

Tokyo's best ramen shops are in basements. Many are in basement food courts under department stores (called "depachika" — depato + chika, meaning department store basement). The Ramen Street at Tokyo Station B1 has 8 exceptional ramen shops side by side, each with a different regional style.

Don't judge a ramen spot by its exterior. The best bowl I had in Tokyo was from a 6-seat shop with a laminated menu and a ticket vending machine at the door. Order at the machine, hand your ticket to the chef, sit down, don't talk. Your bowl arrives in 4 minutes. You eat in near-silence. You leave having had the best soup of your life.

Jet lag from India works in your favour.

India is 3.5 hours behind Japan. If you sleep on the flight and arrive in the evening, you'll naturally wake up at 5–6am Tokyo time — which is 1:30–2:30am India time. Your body won't be tired. You'll be wide awake.

Use this. The best temples and shrines in Tokyo are magical at 6am. Senso-ji at dawn with incense and no tourists is a completely different experience from the 11am version with 500 people taking photos. Hamarikyu Gardens at sunrise is one of the quietly beautiful things you can do in Tokyo for free.

Tipping is not just unnecessary — it's considered rude.

In India, tipping is appreciated. In most Western countries, it's expected. In Japan, it's actively confusing and can cause offence. Service is considered a professional duty, not something that merits extra reward. Waitstaff may run after you to return money you've left thinking it was a tip.

The service you receive in Japan — the bowing, the precision, the attention — is just how Japan operates. Don't tip. Don't feel guilty about not tipping. Say "arigatou gozaimasu" (thank you very much) on your way out and that is sufficient.

Vending machines are everywhere — and genuinely useful.

Japan has approximately 4 million vending machines — one for every 30 people. They sell hot and cold drinks, ramen cups, eggs, umbrellas, and occasionally things you cannot explain. They are on every street corner, on every train platform, and sometimes in the middle of nowhere on a mountain trail.

A hot canned coffee from a vending machine in winter — ₹110–165 (~$1.30–2 / ¥200–300) — is one of Tokyo's underrated pleasures. In summer, the same machine dispenses ice-cold mugicha (barley tea) and sports drinks at the same price. Suica cards work at most machines. They're faster than a café and equally good.

You will want to come back before you've even left.

This is the thing nobody warns you about. By day three or four, something shifts. The city stops being overwhelming and starts being addictive. You figure out the trains. You find your neighbourhood spot. You start to understand the rhythm — the quiet efficiency, the almost ceremonial politeness, the pride in craft that shows up in the way a shopkeeper wraps a purchase or a chef plates a dish.

Most travellers who visit Tokyo once go back. Not because they didn't see enough — they didn't become enough. Tokyo rewards you proportionally to how slowly you move and how carefully you pay attention. The second trip is always better than the first.