Source: Pexels · free to use, no credit required
Five days in Tokyo is enough for one city and one day trip, and not enough for two of either. The tickets that decide the trip are the two timed ones — Shibuya Sky and the Ghibli Museum — because both sell out on a schedule you have to be awake for. Everything else can be bought the week you fly.
- Base
- Yamanote loopUeno / Asakusa for value, Shinjuku or Shibuya for trains
- Nights
- 4
- Subway
- ¥2,000 / 72h24h ¥1,000 · 48h ¥1,500 — Tokyo Metro + Toei, not JR
- Book early
- Shibuya SkyTimed tickets go on sale 2 weeks ahead, 15:00+ slots first
1Why two tickets decide the whole week
Tokyo's tickets are mostly walk-up: temples are free, the subway pass is sold at any station machine, and the museums take a card at the door. Two exceptions run on a clock, and both are the kind of thing you cannot fix once you are in the city.
Shibuya Sky releases timed tickets only up to two weeks ahead, and once the online allocation for a slot is gone the counter allocation is gone with it — the operator says so on its own ticket page. The expensive band is also the one people want: entry from 15:00 costs ¥3,400 online (¥2,700 before that), against ¥3,700 at the counter. The Ghibli Museum is stricter still: admission is advance-reservation only, sold through Lawson Ticket at 10:00 JST on the 10th of each month for the following month, at a flat ¥1,000 for adults. Both are worth the alarm.
Everything else in this plan is buyable on the day, which is why the five days below hold together even if you move them around.
2The five days
Arrive, Asakusa, the tower after dark
Airport train + ¥1,800–3,000 tower- Morning
- Land and clear the airport. The Keisei Skyliner runs into Ueno; a suitcase-friendly base on the east side (Ueno, Asakusa, Kuramae) saves you a second transfer.
- Afternoon
- Senso-ji and Nakamise-dori. The temple itself is free and never closes; the Main Hall runs 06:00–17:00 (06:30–17:00 October to March).
- Evening
- Tokyo Skytree while you are already in the ward. Tembo Deck alone is from ¥1,800; adding the Tembo Galleria takes it to from ¥3,000 — but buying at the 4th-floor counter adds a ¥500-per-ticket service fee, so buy online.
Trap Skytree moved to variable pricing for admissions from 1 April 2026 — the old flat weekday/weekend and advance/day-of categories are abolished. The price you see today is not the price on your date.
Tsukiji, teamLab, then the sunset slot
¥3,400 Shibuya Sky + ¥3,600–3,800 teamLab- Morning
- Tsukiji Outer Market for breakfast — a standing-sushi breakfast at a place like Uogashi Nihon-Ichi is typically ¥1,000–1,999 a head. Most shops follow the wholesale-market calendar, so many are shut on Sundays and holidays.
- Afternoon
- teamLab Planets in Toyosu (barefoot, in water) from ¥3,800, or teamLab Borderless at Azabudai Hills at ¥3,600 — ¥200 more if you buy on site. Neither sells at the door.
- Evening
- Shibuya Sky, booked for an entry at or after 15:00 so you get daylight, sunset and the city lights in one visit.
Trap The ¥700 cheaper Shibuya Sky window ends at 14:59, and the teamLab water rooms need shoes off — plan socks and skip the skirt-and-heels day.
Disney, or a second city day
¥7,900–10,900 Disney- All day
- Tokyo Disneyland or DisneySea. The 1-Day Passport is ¥7,900–10,900 for adults, priced by date, and a ticket is for one park on one date. Tickets go on sale daily at 14:00 for admissions two months later.
- Alternative
- If you have no Disney in you: Ueno Park and the Tokyo National Museum (¥1,000, closed Mondays), Akihabara, then the Shinjuku evening.
Trap Date-banded tickets mean a weekend or school-holiday visit can cost ¥3,000 more per person for the same park. Fix the date band before you build the rest of the week around it.
The one day trip
¥1,640 Kamakura · ¥3,000–8,000 Nikko- Option A
- Kamakura and Enoshima on the Odakyu Enoshima-Kamakura Freepass: ¥1,640 for adults from Shinjuku, one day, covering the round trip and unlimited Enoden tram between Enoshima and Kamakura.
- Option B
- Nikko on the Tobu NIKKO PASS All Area, ¥8,000 for four days: round trip from Asakusa, unlimited local trains to Nikko and Kinugawa Onsen, and discounted buses and the Lake Chuzenji boat. The tighter 2-day World Heritage version is ¥3,000.
- Evening
- Back for Shinjuku: a ramen bowl (Ichiran runs about ¥1,000–1,999) and the Omoide Yokocho alleys.
Trap Nikko is 2 hours each way — the 4-day pass makes sense only if you actually stay out there or split it over two days. A day return on the same pass is a long, thin day.
Gardens, last shopping, airport
¥500 garden + lunch + airport train- Morning
- Meiji Jingu (free; ¥500 contribution for the Inner Garden) or Shinjuku Gyoen at ¥500 — both inside the city centre, and the second one closes on Mondays.
- Midday
- A department-store lunch: Isetan in Shinjuku averages about ¥2,200 a head, which in Tokyo counts as a cheap sit-down meal.
- Afternoon
- Shopping, then the airport. Leave yourself the last hour of the tax-free counter's opening hours, not the last ten minutes.
Trap Shinjuku Gyoen and the Tokyo National Museum both shut on Mondays; if your day 5 is a Monday, swap them for the Meiji Jingu and Omotesando walk instead.
3What the five days cost
| Item | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo Subway Ticket 72h | ¥2,000 | Tokyo Metro + Toei, unlimited, not valid on JR |
| Shibuya Sky | ¥2,700 / ¥3,400 | Online, by entry time; ¥300 more at the counter |
| Tokyo Skytree | from ¥1,800 / ¥3,000 | Deck alone / Deck + Galleria, date-priced, +¥500 at the counter |
| teamLab | ¥3,600–3,800 | Planets from ¥3,800; Borderless ¥3,600 online |
| Disney 1-Day Passport | ¥7,900–10,900 | Adult, by date, one park |
| Ghibli Museum | ¥1,000 | Adults 19+, advance reservation only |
| Day trip | ¥1,640 / ¥3,000–8,000 | Kamakura / Nikko passes, from Shinjuku and Asakusa |
| Tokyo → Shin-Osaka Nozomi | ¥14,920 | Reserved seat, 2 h 27 min, if you continue west |
Add it up for a sightseeing-heavy week and the tickets alone land near ¥12,000–15,000 per person before hotels, food and the airport train — roughly ¥25,000–35,000 if you do Disney and two viewpoints.
4Book before you fly
Three of these have hard limits (timed entries, monthly release, date bands). The rest are simply cheaper online.
| Ticket | Why book ahead | Buy |
|---|---|---|
| Shibuya Sky | Released 2 weeks ahead; 15:00+ slots go first | Check times KKday |
| Tokyo Skytree | Date-priced; +¥500 at the counter | Check dates |
| teamLab Planets / Borderless | No on-site sales at all | Check dates |
| Tokyo Disneyland / DisneySea | Date band + one park per ticket | Check dates |
| Keisei Skyliner | Cheaper as an advance voucher than at the counter | Check fares |
| Mount Fuji + Hakone day tour | Only if you want the mountain without the planning | Check dates |
5The traps
- The 14:59 cliff. Shibuya Sky's cheap band ends at 14:59 and the sunset band costs ¥700 more. Decide which you are buying before you set your evening.
- Sold out online means sold out at the counter. For Shibuya Sky the counter allocation is not a second chance.
- Ghibli is a monthly lottery, not a booking. 10:00 JST on the 10th, for the following month. Miss it and the museum is gone.
- Skytree's extra ¥500. The service fee applies to counter and vending-machine purchases only, and never to the Tembo Galleria ticket.
- The subway pass does not cover JR. The Yamanote loop, the Chuo line and the Narita Express are all JR — the 72-hour ticket is Metro and Toei only. Budget a few hundred yen of IC top-up for JR hops.
- Date-banded parks. Disney and Skytree both now price by date. A cheap Tuesday and a school-holiday Saturday are different products at different prices.
- Monday closures. Tokyo National Museum, Shinjuku Gyoen — closed Mondays, and both open the following day instead when a national holiday falls on the Monday.
Source: Pexels · free to use, no credit required
Keep reading
- Ten Tokyo hotels a budget traveller can book — from ¥4,700 a capsule to ¥20,200 a room
- Narita vs Haneda vs Kansai — which airport lands you closest
- Tax-free shopping changes 1 November 2026 — the refund rule changes at the airport
- Osaka in five days — if you are continuing west
Sources
- Tokyo Metro — Tokyo Subway Ticket 24/48/72-hour prices, line coverage, PASMO-only IC version and the Metro-only 24-hour ticket (tokyometro.jp).
- SHIBUYA SKY — web and counter prices by entry time, the two-week sale window and the sold-out rule (shibuya-scramble-square.com); Go Tokyo's listing for the counter figures (gotokyo.org).
- Tokyo Skytree — Tembo Deck and Galleria prices, the ¥500 counter service fee, and the 1 April 2026 move to variable pricing (en.tokyo-skytree.jp and the operator's 19 March 2026 release).
- teamLab — Planets and Borderless adult prices, the no-on-site-sales rule and the barefoot locker rules (teamlab.art).
- Tokyo Disney Resort — 1-Day Passport date band and the two-month, 14:00 sale window (tokyodisneyresort.jp).
- Ghibli Museum — admission prices and the Lawson monthly release rule (ghibli-museum.jp).
- Tokyo National Museum (tnm.jp), Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden (env.go.jp) and Meiji Jingu (meijijingu.or.jp) — admission and closed days.
- Odakyu — Enoshima-Kamakura Freepass ¥1,640 (odakyu-global.com); Tobu Railway — NIKKO PASS All Area ¥8,000 and World Heritage Area ¥3,000 from 20 April 2025 (Tobu's release).
- Tsukiji Outer Market — the wholesale-market holiday practice (tsukiji.or.jp).
- JR West My-Dia — Tokyo to Shin-Osaka by Nozomi: ¥14,920 with a reserved seat, 2 h 27 min (jr-odekake.net).
- Typical menu prices from the shops' own listings and Tabelog aggregate spend: Ichiran (ramen), Uogashi Nihon-Ichi (standing sushi), Isetan Shinjuku dining (department-store lunch).
- Every price, time and rule above was read from the operator's own page on 11 October 2026. Ticket links in this guide are affiliate links; they do not change the price you pay.