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Originally Posted by sonick
Bump, just booked flights to Tokyo for a week in late October.
First things first, which neighborhood should we (fiancee and I) stay in? I had heard Shinjuku is convenient but I saw it was noted it is more of a business district?
We want to roam the small streets and bar/izakaya hop, so something close to those areas would be good. Not big into clubbing.
Also, any recommended hotels? Some we've seen in our search so far are E-Hotel, Granbell Hotel, and Sunroute Plaza hotel, all in Shinjuku. They are a bit on the pricier side (~$130/nt), anything good around $100 or cheaper?
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Where there is a business district there will be Izakaya/bar hops for the average salary man to drink and eat after work. If you want a busy place at night to explore, Shibuya is a short train ride away from Shinjuku and it's got Tokyo's busiest pedestrian crossing. As for food, I honestly think everything is exceptionally good, so good in fact that I kind of regret having the more expensive food, for example, I went to Birdland (literally across from Sukiyabashi Jiro, which is THE Sushi place, I could not go, but at least I was there and I sniffed at their doors like a pervy creepy stalker) where they specialize in yakitori and utilizing different parts of a chicken, it was good, but pricy but I am not enough of a connoiseur to appreciate it, I could have sampled a lot more street food. Yakisoba can be incredibly cheap at 200Y sometimes and still tastes amazing.
Mentioned above is the Robot Cafe is pricey, but the show will blow your mind, although short. Don't think you'll be without something to do in any of the central prefectures in Tokyo, it's busy night and day. I have a strong love for Bic Camera.
If you go for anything cheaper than $100/night I suggest airbnb. I literally used the apartment that I stayed at for the bathroom and to sleep with my stuff stored and the rest of the time I was out anyways, if you are frugal and plan to spend most of your day exploring outside, I don't see why an Airbnb apartment wouldn't do as well, or better than a hotel, unless you really want all the amenities. Every time I go, I get laundry and a mobile wifi device which is indispensible when roaming around.
If you are planning to take the shinkansen and venture far out, the JR pass will be valuable, otherwise if you stay in tokyo, JR pass isn't necessary. Grab a suika card or icoca card and load it to get around. It's very convenient.