6 Days in Tokyo and Beyond
Six days is enough to stop treating Tokyo as the whole trip. Two Tokyo days, then three separate day trips, then a wind-down half day in Yokohama, one destination per day, no doubling up. This carries the 5-day spine forward and closes with the easiest half day of the week.
Book these before you go:
- Your Tokyo hotel on Agoda
- A guided Mt Fuji and Hakone day tour , day 5
- A guided Nikko day tour , day 4
| Day | Focus | Distance/time from Tokyo |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Asakusa/Senso-ji, Akihabara, Golden Gai | In Tokyo |
| 2 | Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku | In Tokyo |
| 3 | Kamakura: Great Buddha, temples, coast | ~1 hr each way (JR Yokosuka Line) |
| 4 | Nikko: Toshogu Shrine, mountain scenery | ~2 hrs each way (Tobu Limited Express) |
| 5 | Hakone: ropeway, Lake Ashi cruise, Fuji views | 1.5-2 hrs each way (Odakyu Romancecar) |
| 6 | Yokohama: Minato Mirai, Chinatown, then home | ~30 min each way (Tokyo/Shinagawa) |
Set up before Day 1
Get Welcome Suica or Welcome Suica Mobile the second you land at Haneda or Narita. It’s the one thing every day of this trip depends on. Skip the nationwide JR Pass here too, and this time the math isn’t even close: of the three day trips below, only the Kamakura leg runs on JR rails. Hakone runs on the private Odakyu line and Nikko’s fastest route runs on the private Tobu line, neither covered by a JR Pass. Paying per trip beats a ¥50,000-plus pass that can’t even ride two-thirds of your itinerary.
Day 1: Old Tokyo
Senso-ji and Nakamise street in Asakusa, early, before the tour groups land. Akihabara in the afternoon for electronics and anime. Dinner at a ramen counter with a queue out the door, that’s your quality signal, not a review score. Cash covers you at the smaller stalls where cards still don’t.
Day 2: Modern Tokyo
Meiji Shrine through Harajuku before 9am, then Takeshita Street’s chaos and Omotesando’s calmer version next door. Shibuya Scramble Crossing once, on foot. For the view, go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building’s free twin observatories in Shinjuku instead of paying for Shibuya Sky , same skyline, zero cost, plus a free nightly light show.
Day 3: Kamakura
JR Yokosuka Line direct from Tokyo Station, about 57 minutes, roughly ¥940 one way, no pass needed. Kotoku-in’s Great Buddha, a temple walk, and the Enoden line out to the coast if you’ve got energy left. Last direct trains back run around midnight.
Day 4: Nikko
Tobu limited express from Asakusa, about two hours each way. A basic return runs around ¥2,800, or get the Nikko Pass World Heritage Area for about ¥3,000, which also covers the local bus out to the shrine cluster. Toshogu Shrine alone earns three to four hours if you go inside the inner sanctuary and treasure museum, so this is a full day, not a half-day add-on. A guided day tour handles the connections if you’d rather not chase two train companies.
Day 5: Hakone
Odakyu Romancecar from Shinjuku, 90 minutes to two hours. Buy the Hakone Free Pass , about ¥7,100 for two days, and it covers the round-trip train, the mountain railway, the ropeway and the Lake Ashi pirate-ship cruise in one ticket. Owakudani and the lake give you a shot at Mt Fuji if the weather cooperates, no guarantees. This is the day trip that eats a full day happily, don’t rush it to squeeze in something else.
Day 6: Yokohama, then go home
Half day in Yokohama, about 30 minutes from Tokyo or Shinagawa: Minato Mirai’s waterfront and Chinatown for lunch. Head back to Tokyo by early afternoon, pack, and transfer to Haneda or Narita. If your flight’s early, skip Yokohama entirely and use the morning as a buffer instead, better a calm departure than a rushed one.
Which day trip gives you the best value for the time it takes?
Kamakura. It’s the shortest ride of the three (about an hour each way versus Nikko’s two and Hakone’s 90 minutes to two), needs no special pass, and rewards even a half day, which makes it the easiest to reschedule if weather or energy runs short.
What actually catches people out over six days?
Tipping isn’t done here, not at restaurants, not in taxis, not on tours. Leaving cash confuses people rather than pleasing them. Cash still matters at older izakayas, shrine stalls and smaller shops even though your IC card and credit card cover most of the trip.
The weak yen, sitting near ¥160 to the dollar through 2026, means a trip like this costs meaningfully less for foreign visitors than it did a few years ago. Tsukiji’s tuna auction left for Toyosu in 2018; if a sushi-breakfast recommendation still points you to Tsukiji itself, it’s outdated, go to Toyosu.