Must Places to Visit in Tokyo for First-Timers (1 Full Day Itinerary)

This is an itinerary for travellers who are only staying for 1 or 2 days. I only highlighted the must places to visit in Tokyo for first-timers.

Table of Contents

Must Places to Visit in Tokyo for First-Timers

First, if you chose Shinjuku as an accommodation, this will be easier cause of amazing public transportation.

In a nutshell :

If you arriving at night, you can start with Omoide Yokocho Shinjuku (Izakaya street).

You can also get things done (i.e. gift shopping) on the first day at Don Quixote.

Second day travel course is :

Option 1: Morning : Senso-Ji | Lunch : Akihabara
Option 2 : Morning : Shibuya | Lunch : Harajuku

At night visit Golden Gai (a.k.a piss alley) for drinks

Third day, have breakfast and back to the airport or train to another city.

Omoide Yokocho Shinjuku

If you arriving at night in Tokyo the first day, go to Omoide Yokocho for aoms beer and some sides.

It is super Japanese vibe.

Also it is not as famous as Shinjuku Omoide Yokocho, Shibuya Nonbei Yokocho or Ebisu Yokocho are also pretty well known.

If you want proper food, you can check my related blog post.

Don Quixote

Don Quixote is a famous discount shop. It is like the 99 cent store or pound land.

It is perfect to buy everything from gifts to souvenirs. I buy everything here. I made a list of things to buy on related post.

Senso-Ji & Nakamise-dori Street

It is located in Asakusa and it is probably the most famous temple in Tokyo.

You will see it on almost every promotional video about Tokyo.

I recommend going in the morning, cause it is busy.

I went in the late morning and it was so busy already.

When you get to Sensoji, there is a place you can write down your wish.

You need 100 Yen (cash). Nobody checks, but you don’t want to be bad at a temple and bring bad luck to your life.

On the way to Sensoji, you will walk pass Nakamise-dori street.

It is 100% a street for travellers to buy gifts and souvenirs.

If you have friends and family that want anything, this is a great place.

You can go to Sky Tree Tokyo which is a tower below picture, but I had to go to Akihabara.

You can also do Sky Tree and then Akihabara (shorten the stay in Akihabara)

Akihabara

For me, if I had to choose one place to go in Tokyo, I would say Akihabara.

It is a mecca for anime / manga, games and electronics. This is where you can experience Japanese culture (a.k.a otaku culture) that we see on TV and movies.

I went to SEGA gaming center.

The biggest reason was to play the flipping table. It is a game flipping tables. The scenario is that how mad you are and how hard you can flip the table.

Ok. I just had to post this, cause it was scary lol.

Home Cafe

Another reason I wanted to go to Akihabara was to go to Maid cafe.

It is where the waitresses cosplay as a maid.

Of course we as a tourists go with curiosity, but there are actually hardcore fans who visit the cafe regularly.

The regulars will have keychains and everything about them. I saw a guy and a maid shake hands and the guy suddenly ran into bathroom for some reason…

If you are a girl, there is also a butler cafe, and you can find it here.

Harajuku & Shibuya

If you choose option 2 :

Another famous town in Tokyo would be Shibuya.

It is like the Time Square of Tokyo and a lot of modern movies feature Shibuya to show it is located in Tokyo.

It is famous for their Shibuya crossing. I was making a gif with the video I took, and I realized there was a mom and a baby walking backwards. Try to find it below.

Shibuya is a great place to start the trip, but like Time Square or Piccadilly Circus in London, there isn’t much to do here.

So after spending some time in Shibuya, slowly walk up to Harajuku.

It is famous for Harajuku girls and Gwen Stephanie’s song as well.

It is the best place for vintage clothing shopping. I accidentally almost spent 6 hours in Harajuku here.

You can check the route I took below.

Walk from Shibuya to Harajuku :

Hichiko Memorial Statue : The statue was created to remember a dog who was so royal to the owner. you can read more about it here.
Shibuya Crossing
Disney Store and Tower Record : I included Tower record cause you can’t really see tower record anywhere in the world anymore.
Harajuku Gyoza : It is a restaurant that only makes gyoza, and it is so interesting to watch the chefs making it (Have lunch here)
Harajuku Vintage shopping : The vintage shops are very specific from 80s, 90s, biker, jeans etc. I almost spent 3 hours just at vintage shops.
Togo Shrine & Meiji Jingu : Then end the afternoon with Meiji Jingu. Eventhough it is not as famous as Sensoji, it is also a great walk before going back to your hotel.