Tokyo, Japan 7 Day Itinerary

The Robot Restaurant closed for good in 2020 and its Kabukicho space now runs as the Samurai Restaurant, an 18-plus venue with a different owner-creator team and swordplay instead of robots. Any Tokyo itinerary still sending you to the old address is working from outdated information, and that is the first thing worth fixing here.

Day 1: Arrival and Shinjuku orientation

  • From Narita, the Keisei Skyliner to Nippori plus a Yamanote Line transfer runs about 2,730 yen and takes roughly an hour to Shinjuku. The Narita Express is a single direct ride for about 3,250 yen if you’d rather not switch trains after a long flight. From Haneda, the trip is shorter and cheaper by monorail or the Keikyu line.
  • A hotel around Shinjuku Station puts you within walking distance of the JR Yamanote loop and the Marunouchi subway line, which covers most of what you’ll want to reach this week.
  • Shinjuku Gyoen charges a modest entry fee and is worth the morning for its mix of formal French, English landscape, and traditional Japanese garden sections in one park. Meiji Jingu, by contrast, is free and sits inside genuine old-growth forest despite being minutes from the Harajuku crowds.
  • Kabukicho at night is safe to walk through but treat any tout who invites you into a bar as trying to lock you into a cover charge and inflated drinks bill. Politely decline and keep moving.

Day 2: Toyosu and Asakusa

  • Skip the old Tsukiji inner market entirely; it closed and relocated to Toyosu in 2018, and the tuna auction now happens there. Viewing is free from the second-floor Visitor’s Walkway, though the closer observation deck runs on a lottery system, and the market is closed Sundays, holidays, and most Wednesdays.
  • The Tsukiji outer market still operates on the old site and remains the better stop for breakfast street food, since Toyosu itself is more sterile and spread out.
  • Sensoji Temple in Asakusa and the Nakamise shopping street leading up to it get crowded fast after 10am, so arrive early if you want photos without a wall of tour groups.
  • Tokyo Skytree’s Tembo Deck ticket costs more than most visitors expect for the view alone; if budget matters more than altitude, the free observation floors at Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku give a comparable skyline at no cost.

Day 3: Harajuku and Shibuya

  • Takeshita Street is genuinely small, more of a crowded alley than a boulevard, so manage expectations and treat it as a twenty-minute novelty rather than a half-day stop.
  • Yoyogi Park next door is the better use of time on a clear day, especially on a Sunday when the rockabilly dancers and street performers turn up near the park entrance.
  • The Shibuya Scramble Crossing is worth seeing once from street level and once from an elevated vantage point like the Shibuya Sky observation deck or a cafe window above the intersection, since the scale only registers from above.
  • My take: Shibuya Sky is overpriced for what amounts to a fifteen-minute photo stop, but it is still the single best few minutes of city view you’ll get on this trip, so book it for sunset and treat it as a splurge rather than a daily habit.

Day 4: Odaiba and digital art

  • teamLab Borderless closed its original Odaiba site in 2022 and reopened in 2024 at Azabudai Hills in central Tokyo, a different neighborhood entirely. Adult tickets run roughly 3,800 to 4,800 yen depending on date and season.
  • teamLab Planets, the separate barefoot water-immersion exhibit, is in Toyosu, not Odaiba either, with tickets from about 3,200 yen. The two are run by the same collective but sit in different parts of the city, so pick one rather than assuming they’re next door to each other.
  • Odaiba itself still has the Ferris wheel and waterfront shopping malls if you want a lower-key half day, but don’t build your Tokyo trip around teamLab being there anymore.

Day 5: Akihabara and Ueno

  • Akihabara’s electronics and anime retail is still worth a morning, though prices for used electronics have crept up in recent years as more tourists shop there specifically for deals that no longer exist.
  • Maid cafes charge a cover fee on top of food and drink prices, and the experience is aimed squarely at novelty rather than value, so pick one with clear posted pricing rather than the first tout handing out flyers.
  • Ueno Park holds the Tokyo National Museum, which houses the largest collection of Japanese art and antiquities in the world, and is a far better use of museum time here than the zoo next door.

Day 6: Roppongi and Tokyo Tower

  • Roppongi Hills Mori Art Museum sits on the 52nd and 53rd floors and combines contemporary exhibitions with a city observation deck in the ticket price, which makes it better value than a standalone viewing platform.
  • Tokyo Tower is shorter and older than Skytree, built in 1958 and modeled loosely on the Eiffel Tower, but its lighting design changes seasonally and it photographs better at dusk from the Roppongi side than Skytree does.
  • There is no Hachiko statue in Roppongi. The only one is outside Shibuya Station, where it has marked a meeting point since the 1930s in honor of the dog who kept returning to wait for his deceased owner.

Day 7: Departure

  • Last-minute shopping works better in Akihabara for electronics and figures, or in Shibuya for fashion, depending on what you’re after; both are on the Yamanote loop so neither costs extra transit time.
  • For a farewell dinner, book the Samurai Restaurant if you want the loud dinner-theater experience the old Robot Restaurant used to offer, understanding it’s a different show under different ownership, or choose a proper izakaya instead for a meal that doesn’t require the 18-plus entry.
  • Suica or Pasmo IC cards work on trains, buses, and most convenience store purchases; load one on arrival and you won’t need to buy a paper ticket again all week.