passing through narita airport, and wanting to spend 2 days in tokyo...any suggestions on hotels and the must see/dos?

when?

within the next week and a half to 2 weeks...trying to get info for a friend.

Any idea of interests and budget?
One thing that's free I highly recommend is the fish market very early morning.

because it's such a short period of time, a decent hotel would do - nothing like a dive, but doesn't have to be ritzy either something comfortable. as for interest, i'm thinking something along the lines of the 'red double decker buses' in NY?! hoping to just experience the overall feel of tokyo. is there such a thing as a hotel in the 'heart of it all'? possibly a location that you could take a city tour and then just do some walking around and shopping in the city?

thanks for the suggestion on the fish market. i was just reading another post about it being closed on 7/5. where is it located and is it just called 'the fish market'?

http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/youkoso/welcom_e.htm

We were planning to go to the fish market the morning after we arrived in Japan but it's closed july 5th. Now we need to find something else to do in the way early morning...

that fish market looks interesting! and it seems as though it would be pretty easy to get a taxi there. when traveling in china, it was a must to have the hotel info or destination written in chinese because the taxi drivers don't speak english. is it the same in japan?

It's true that most cab drivers don't speak English. However, they may understand very simple English phrases and are very honest. To be safe, bring a printout of common travel terms and some destination names in Japanese.

Also, bear in mind that, you should wait for the cab driver to open the door for you before you get in the cab. I was told that trying to open the door yourself is considered rude.

Don't try to close it either. They're automatic.

There is no center of town. Tokyo is more like a bunch of different areas that grew together.

Another nice stop that is also free is the shrine in Asakusa and the street with shops leading up to it.

I'd either take the train or the subway to get around. That will depend on where you end up staying. We ended up taking the subway as the stop was much closer to our hotel.

It is very easy to find Japan info online. You can even find the airport map online. There is a train that leaves from downstairs and with only 2or 3 stops goes into Tokyo to Ueno Park. If you stay at that spot it will be very easy to maximize your time by saving on transportation time into Tokyo and back to Narita. There is a half day and full day city tour you could book. Or, on one side of Ueno Park is the Japan National Museum - well worth a few hours or more. The park itself has a temple. Also surrounding the park, are several Dept. stores as well as small shops. Hotels? - you can book at the tourist counter in the airport. It is not a bad thing to stay at Narita. Shuttle buses to and from the airport for surrounding hotels - also to downtown Narita.

Tokyo and surrounding areas are huge and it would take many '2 day trips' to begin to experience the area. Japanese tourist info is abundant and clear on the internet - the most availble I've seen for any country.

Enjoy your visit.

Two days, ok, how many nights?

mrwunrfl...(2 or 3)getting in next tuesday morning, leaving either thursday or friday.

I'd go to Hakone and stay at a nice ryokan. Someplace near Lake Ashi with a view of Fuji-san. Good food, nice bath. Or maybe one of the onsen ryokan in Hakone Yumoto.

Nikko might be nice instead.

how far away is that from narita airport?

We had two free days in Tokyo before starting an organized tour. We had in this two days a private guide and visited with her as much as we could, and the things that were not included in our organized tour. In this way we used at maximum this short time.
I give you below a list of sightseeings, as we agreed with our guide.

April 16th (Saturday)
Tsukiji Fish Market
Namiyoke Shrine
Hamarikyu Garden
Rainbow Bridge and Odaiba bay
Ueno Park
End the tour at Akihabara (electronic town)

April 17th (Sunday)
Shinjuku — TakashimayaTimes Square
Sengakuji Temple
Ginza district
Shibuya (Hachiko statue)
End the tour at Tower Record at Shibuya

Since Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building was located just behind our hotel (Keyo Plaza) and observatory floor opens from 9:30 a.m until 10:30 p.m. , this we visited in the evening.


Meiji Shrine, Imperial Palace and Asakusa (Sensoji temple) - we saw with the tour.

I hope that you will find this list useful.

It is about an hour to Tokyo. From Tokyo it is about 2 hours to Nikko and 1h 20min to Hakone Yumoto.

Also, one night (we went at 11:30PM) take the subway and go to Shibuya.
It's the busiest intersection in the world and it is amazing!
We walked around for a while and HAD to cross the street. Even at that time of night there were at least 1000 people crossing the five crossings at each light change.

I would use a private guide to make the most of your very limited time. We used Jun who has been happily used by others on this board. You can reach her by email... [email protected]. Do a search on my screen name for more info.

wow! thanks everyone for the help! will definitely check into getting a guide to make the most of the 2 days!