5 Nights Tokyo Itinerary

Here's our draft itinerary for visiting Tokyo in late January 2026. We have been to Tokyo before and loved it. As it's our last stop on our Japanese tour - we want to ensure that it's a truly memorable experience. We're expecting cool temperatures and dry weather - which is more than fine - if that is the weather come the time that we are travelling. We have 4 full days and 5 nights - and want to pack in as much as possible without packing in too much that we don't take time to soak up the experience to the full.

Day 1: Arrival and Initial Exploration

Arrival in Tokyo

Welcome to Tokyo! After a short flight from Okinawa, we'll be landing at Haneda (Tokyo) Airport, at 16:00, collecting the bags, we'll be heading for the hotel, to make the most of our first evening, as the sun will already be setting. We will take the train/metro to the hotel - deciding the route on the day. The Knot Hotel in Shinjuku is a bit of a walk from the station - but I'm sure we can manage, we'd probably be there before we could work out what bus to take to get us closer.

Remainder of Day 1

With a bit of luck we will have made good progress and be ready to get back out again for dinner around 19:00 that evening. We plan to stay close to the hotel - so remaining in the Shinjuku area. I'd like to go to the 45 floor observation deck within the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, and try a little food and drink in the many restaurants and bars in the immediate area. We won't bother with the robot restaurant this time around. As quirky as it is - it feels like something you do only once. I would like to try a Guiness in the Dubliners Irish Pub, or one of the other recommendations I got recently - Beer Bomb and

Watering hole, before turning in for the night.

Day 2: Cultural Immersion & Experiences

Stroll, Sushi, Shopping and Sumo

After a local breakfast, we'll plan a walk through the back streets of Tokyo - just to soak up some sights, aiming to do around 5km before stopping for a well deserved lunch in one of the many sushi restaurants - taking our time to get a good range of different food that will take us through to dinner in the evening. Shopping is next on the agenda - we don't want to leave this too late in the schedule, through I think we will probably take another go at it before we leave. Unfortunately we land on the day after the first sumo show of the year ends. So it was a toss up between watching a serious training session, or opting for something more touristy to include dinner. We chose the latter - we just need to book it closer to the time.

Day 3: Mystery Tour

Leaving this free for son to arrange

Day 4: Last Day in Japan

Breakfast and then a slower start today as we'll be packing to return home.

For lunch today we are going to try either of two experiences that I found on Viator - "Easy Ramen making experience" or "Takoyaki making experience". I'm fine with either.

We'll spend the last afternoon doing any remaining shopping - pretty much anywhere in Tokyo, before returning to the hotel late afternoon or early evening and grabbing our bags to relocate to a hotel out near the airport.

There are a few restaurants near the hotel that I've already identified that we may give a go, otherwise we will eat in the hotel - which is Japanese rather than international

Day 5: Early Departure

Departure from Tokyo

We will skip breakfast, as we will be getting up at 06:00 for a 06:30 move to the airport. We'll get breakfast in one of the lounges in the airport. I'm hoping the early start will prompt a bit of sleeping on the way back to the UK and help with reseting our body clocks. We fly at 09:35, landing in the UK at 15:40.

That's really it...

I think Tokyo will be a blast - it's impossible to be bored there surely - if you are prepared to give anything a go.

As I have already said - I'd rather have too many options and leave some out if it gets too busy to enjoy. We'll commit or change the plans as we go - booking experiences as we go - buying local when we can, which will leave our itinerary nice and flexible.

Let me know what you think.

Happy travels!