Good to know you got it worked out.
I meant upgrade the ANA segment. ANA might not permit the 10,000 yen paid upgrade. United might sell you a first/premium class ticket on the ANA flight at a reasonable price. I usually ask for what I want.

We used a tour company and flew from Osaka to Haneda. Good decisions

any suggestions on what to do on our pre-tour day in tokyo - going in early nov a day early to recover from a 14 hour flight but if we are good to go we would want to hit something our tour may not hit or even if they do the tours just give you the quick once over vs anything deep.
in Tokyo we are staying at the hotel new otani garden tower - chiyoda
we could also google "1 day in tokyo what should we do"....but i figured we would ask here also...
thanks.

There are lot so things to do in Tokyo. Your tour only is for one day in Tokyo? Really depends on your interests.

A 14 hour flight is tough. Unless you're good at sleeping on planes, most likely you'll have limited energy. When I fly to Tokyo on the 13+ hour flights, I usually land in the afternoon or early evening, and am only lucid enough to grab some snacks, activate my esim or pocket wifi, and get to the hotel. Your hotel looks really nice. I'd take advantage of walking around their gardens, and head to the nearest 7-Eleven or Family Mart to get some bottles of kirin afternoon tea (red label) and canned coffee, and some pan (sweet bread/pastry) for the room. I need coffee first thing, and I rarely like what's on offer in the room. If you have an appetite, there's a tonkatsu restaurant nearby that looks good. https://www.natural-fs.com/fumizen/

Have fun planning!

I do not know when you are arriving but I am going to guess it will be in the afternoon. If early and the weather is good, I might walk through the Palace grounds to Tokyo station and the underground to the Ginza where you can stroll for a bit then take a taxi back to your hotel. Be sure to take your hotel card with the address so you can show the driver where you want to go. Taxi should cost less then $20, Subway cheaper but more convoluted depending on how you do it.

our tour includes 3 days in tokyo with a total of 11 days in japan , we will be there a day early so will have 1 day to play with before the tour starts....we arrive on a thursday - tour starts on friday but with trafalgar the first day is just a meet n greet at happy hour so we will crash on thur when we get to the hotel, get some dinner later on Thursday and then do some sightseeing on our own on friday.
thanks for all responses.

after returning have a few updates
needed help checking in online to ANA for our short haul flight - United just hands you off, fortunately ANA call center staff is excellent....my tickets were hard to find because they combine first name and middle name or first name middle initial into the first name field, they do the same with suffixes like jr. for last name.

We flew out of ITM to HND at 2pm - great flight, clean, nice pleasant flight attendents, great fast boarding process, high end display screens on back of the seats....wow only 5 times better than United, had our one checked back transfered from Osaka all the way back to EWR no issues.

we loved loved loved japan

Unfortunately our flight out of HND to EWR was delayed 5 hours.....then a 13 hour flight made for a long day....also unfortunately to fly United after being on ANA you see how terrible United is in comparison.....

on the way over in premium plus i give the food and service a 5 out of 10....you could pick at it and maybe eat 20% on the way back from HND to EWR the food was 0 out of 10....inedible overmicrowaved garbage...i did complain after getting home and they did give us united $ credits and some miles but man i would never ever ever fly to asia again unless using ANA, i just have to find an airport that isnt named JFK, the good part was the premium plus seats were essential due to extra space...the flight over was 14h 50m....i can't imagine sitting in regular economy for that long.

i will post a trip report when i can, still recovering from some type of cold i caught in Japan.....what a great country....probably the perfect land, food fantastic and cheap with the US dollar worth 153 yen, no tipping, cleanest public bathrooms youll ever see with heated toiled seats....first bathroom trip after landing in EWR was eye opening.

bottom line -we love japan and can't wait to go back

Thanks for the update! It is an amazing place, isn't it?!?

I bring along a bento box on my flights out of Japan even if I am flying business. if you go to the food floor at any of the department stores you can find a lot of options. If you tell them you are flying out that day they will pack with ice packs. Often skip the lounge in Haneda in favor of a decent meal at one of the restaurants. Lounge at Haneda is ok. There is a new AMX lounge but I have not tried it.

agree with that - we avoided the crazy subways...taxis are so cheap and everywhere and the most polite drivers in the world (we have been to many many countries)...took cabs to the palace and to the tokyo tower and back to the hotel....the tour guide basically herded us successfully thru the busy bullet train stations in Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Osaka but trafalgar handled this flawlessly.....insanely crowded in some markets and shrines in tokyo area so be advised....

It's def. worth it, but the prices keeps fluctating.

Regulated taxis in Japan have green plates with white lettering.

Taxi fares vary depending on wait time and route. On the same route it cost 700 jpy to get there and 1000 jpy to get back due to traffic.

Some taxi drivers get lost (or make a wrong turn), at least when going to Nishi Shinjuku (IME this is easy to do)

also so much misinformation on so many japan travel sites about stuff like the need for mobile wifi and/or simm cards and blah blah blah....all false, all to get clicks, all getting kickbacks.

see if your mobile company has international day pass like AT&T - we use it everywhere and in japan for $12/day or $18/day for 2 .
you only need it if you are on a coach or walking around - everywhere else like the bullet trains have free wifi

my point is....don't hassle with wifi extenders or simm card nonsense.....you might save $30.....just use your mobile company's international day pass feature.

japan-guide.com is a reliable (and excellent) resource for those traveling to Japan.

that happens in every country, have to be on top of things a bit, use an app called GO/Taxi it will give you the price, or if you just flag a taxi down just ask the driver how much to xyz before you get in...obviously if stuck in traffic it could be higher but thats like advising everyone that if its wet outside its raining

We used Go Taxi frequently on our last trip. I like the fact that you didn't have to worry about communicating where your destination was to your driver. I did think it was odd that it gave you the option to tip your driver, which seems very un-Japan like.

As to an Esim, we did a test on this trip in which I got an Esim and my wife relied on T-Mobile international data, which gives you 5 GB of high speed data for free as part of our regular plan. In general, I had somewhat better coverage with the Esim than she had with the T-Mobile service, although in most places there was no difference. That said, the Esim only cost $12 for 15 days and was so easy to set-up, I'd probably do it again since it was a cheap way of making sure we had additional coverage. We mainly used it for Google Maps and Go Taxi.

Except that you can get an eSim with 25 GB/day for 30 days for $32, or unlimited data for 7 days for $25, or ...
I got a physical sim last time for about $30 or maybe 3000 JPY, IDR, with enough data for two weeks.

Worth it: no need to hope to find free, unsecured, public wifi. With a sim, the internet is a click away.

Wifi is more and more available these days in Japan, but those are at locations (hotel, shinkansen, airport). But not when you are out and about, walking around, and need it as you said. Like when I was on a bench near Saga station and found and navigated to an excellent Saga beef restaurant. The map showed it was a block away on the other side of the station. Or like when I tracked the progress of my highway buses. Or when I wanted to translate a sign or conversation.

The point of my taxi post was to mention the green plates. Have read about some pirate taxis in Japan which took advantage of Chinese tourists. Also, wasn't sure what was meant when the previous poster mentioned that prices fluctuate. There are obvious reasons. Surcharges for late-night trips are another reason.

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as you mentioned it is a bit cheaper to use eSim vs mobile carrier but our 13 day Trafalgar classic japan plus an extra day cost us $16k including upgraded premium air and boarding the dog so $80 is a rounding error so it doesnt matter to us, plus japan is unbelievebly inexpensive with the exchange rate 153 yen to $1.....beers at lawson (like a 7-11 but nicer) are $1.20, delicious pastries are $1.10...
you save a fortune in japan on restaurant food, everything so delicious, ramen houses, chinese dumpling houses....with a beer or 2 its hard to spend $30 for 2 people and usually its around $20....and you don't tip....same stuff in the US is $70 after tipping and much worse quality.
i want to go back lol

>> $80 is a rounding error

No, it is $80.

That is an amount that doesn't matter to you, fine. But the difference between your plan ($12/day for 12 days) and a $32 eSim would be $112. Could get a lot of otoro for that instead of cheap ramen.

Getting in esim is about as effortless as getting the mobile company plan. Why on Earth would I want to spend $30 or $80 or $112 for no added benefit. That would be irresponsible of me, imo.

Happy you had a good trip and want to go back. Consider a DIY trip.