Tokyo layover guide

Getting around from the crew hotel

Put a Suica or Pasmo IC card in your phone wallet (Apple Pay sets one up in a minute, no Japanese needed) and top up by card; it works on every train, metro, bus and konbini till in the country. From Narita, the Keisei Skyliner reaches Ueno in 41 minutes (a splurge) while the regular Keisei limited express does Ueno in about 70-80 minutes cheaply; from Narita town's stations you are one stop from the airport and a short walk from the temple street. From Haneda, the Keikyu line and Tokyo Monorail put you at Shinagawa or Hamamatsucho in under 20 minutes.

In the city, the JR Yamanote loop line is the crew compass: it circles every district you have heard of - Shinagawa, Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku, Ueno, Tokyo Station - so you can never be truly lost, only one loop away. The metro fills the gaps. Two warnings: trains stop around midnight until roughly 5am, and a missed last train means an expensive taxi or a capsule-hotel story; and rush hour (7:30-9:30am) is the crush documentaries are made of - ride against it or after it.

• Suica/Pasmo in your phone wallet: one tap for every train, bus and konbini
• Yamanote line: the green loop that touches every major district
• Keisei Skyliner: NRT to Ueno in 41 minutes when time beats money
• Keikyu line: HND to Shinagawa in about 15 minutes
• Last trains around midnight - set an alarm for the journey home, not the bar

The 24-hour plan

For a city-side layover: start at Asakusa's Senso-ji temple before 9am, when the Nakamise shopping street is opening and the incense drifts across a nearly empty courtyard. Yamanote or metro to Ueno for the park and market street (Ameyoko), then across the loop to the west side: Meiji Jingu shrine's forested approach, a wander down Takeshita Street and Omotesando in Harajuku, and finally Shibuya - the Scramble crossing, the Hachiko statue, and the view of it all from Shibuya Sky if you booked, or the Magnet rooftop if you did not.

Evening: eat your way through one district rather than commuting between three. Shinjuku's Omoide Yokocho (smoky yakitori alleys by the station) and the neon canyon of Kabukicho are the maximal option; Ebisu and Nakameguro are the calmer, more local one. Ramen, then a konbini dessert run, then the last train with minutes to spare - the complete Tokyo layover liturgy. Narita-based crews doing this plan should watch the clock: the last convenient trains back leave central Tokyo around 9:30-10pm.

Eat well on a per diem

Tokyo is the best-value great-food city on the roster right now. Ramen shops with ticket machines (Ichiran and Ippudo are the famous chains; the tiny shop with a queue near your hotel is probably better) serve masterpieces for 1,000-1,500 yen. Kaitenzushi (conveyor sushi - Sushiro, Kura, Uobei) runs 120-300 yen a plate. Standing soba at station platforms costs less than a coffee. Gyudon chains (Yoshinoya, Sukiya, Matsuya) will feed you at 4am for pocket change, and no one raises an eyebrow at solo diners - the city is built for them.

Two institutions deserve special crew loyalty. First, the konbini: onigiri rice balls, egg-salad sandwiches, fried chicken, salads, decent coffee - a full jet-lag-hours meal for a few hundred yen, and genuinely good. Second, the depachika: department-store basement food halls (Isetan Shinjuku, Tobu Ikebukuro, Daimaru at Tokyo Station) where immaculate bento, tempura and sweets get discounted 30-50 percent in the last hour before closing, usually from around 7-7:30pm. Time it right and you dine like a director for konbini money.

• Ticket-machine ramen shops: press button, hand ticket, receive masterpiece
• Kaitenzushi chains (Sushiro, Uobei): sushi from 120 yen a plate
• Konbini onigiri and egg sandwiches: the 24-hour crew larder
• Depachika discount hour from ~7pm: department-store bento at half price
• Tsukiji Outer Market for a tamagoyaki-and-tuna breakfast crawl

If you have 48 hours

Day two, go deeper rather than wider. Morning at the Tsukiji Outer Market (the wholesale auction moved to Toyosu, but the outer market's food stalls remain superb) or teamLab Planets in Toyosu if you pre-booked - the wading-through-water digital art museum that photographs like nothing else on your roster. Afternoon in a neighbourhood with character: Shimokitazawa for vintage shops and cafe culture, Yanaka for old-Tokyo temple lanes and street snacks, or Kichijoji for Inokashira Park and the Ghibli Museum if you managed the near-impossible ticket.

Narita-based crews have their own excellent 48-hour hand: Narita-san Shinsho-ji temple and its gardens fill a slow morning, Omotesando street's unagi (grilled eel) restaurants - watch them butcher and grill to order at Kawatoyo - handle lunch, and the AEON mall shuttle covers practical shopping. With more ambition, Sakura city's samurai houses or a Keisei ride to Ueno for museums both fit inside a rest. And for any crew, anywhere: an onsen or sento visit (Oedo Onsen-style complexes or a neighbourhood bathhouse) is the great Japanese fatigue reset - tattoos may need covering or a tattoo-friendly bathhouse, so check ahead.

Crew-specific notes

Etiquette pays for itself here: stand left on Tokyo escalators (right in Osaka), queue at the marked platform lines, do not eat while walking, and keep phone calls off the trains. Cash-only holdouts survive among the best tiny restaurants, so carry 5,000-10,000 yen. Tipping does not exist and attempting it causes polite panic. Don Quijote (open very late, Shinjuku and Shibuya flagships) is the crew souvenir warehouse - KitKat flavours, cosmetics, everything - and tax-free counters need your passport, so bring it shopping. Finally, Tokyo rewards the crew member who plans one thing per layover and does it well; the city will still be here for the other hundred things next month.