Thank you fo the explanation. I've gotten more and more worried about this trip. Having to wait hours to eat anywhere sounds like a nightmare. I was in London on the bank holiday and there was nowhere where there was a queue. I was also in NYC over the Christmas period and never had to queue to eat.

Regarding eating at Haneda, as my flight arrives at 10:55am, by the time I clear immigration and pick up my luggage, I'll probably be hungry. My thinking was the airport should be easier for me as a 1st timer as they are more used to tourists.

Hopefully in Japan I can walk around and find alternatives easily.

This is more about managing your expectations than managing the trip.

Yes, there are whole zones and areas where you will find long queues and waiting lists at all the restaurants there (Haneda landside is an example as are other multi-storey or underground shopping complexes and department stores) and your preference to eat between 12 and 1pm is widely shared. But remember, you are someone who recently didn’t know the difference between Reimen, Ramen and Somen. It’s always going to be easy to find an enjoyable and satisfying meal, you’ll be in one of the best cities in the world for being rewarded for taking a chance.

As [MENTION=817753]QShoeGuy[/MENTION] pointed out in the “feeling of being in Japan” thread, part of experiencing Tokyo is “turning on a dime”. Sometimes you need to change your plans abruptly and make alternative decisions. It’s a big part of “being” in the city, and for those who give in and embrace unexpected opportunities it’s also a very big part of why we come back.

There is so much choice in Tokyo. If you're a little flexible you can avoid queues for the most part.
(I had a much funnier response here, but this is basically what I wanted to say).

That's good to know, it sounded like the whole of Tokyo is like Disneyworld with queues everywhere!

It's so crowded nobody goes there anymore.

Yeah. My original comment was about how Tokyo resembled Andropov/Chernenko-era USSR, without the good weather and cheerful people that makes Russia tolerable.

There is a midway point between bursting establishments with enormous lines and places that are completely empty. The problem was that your itinerary leans heavily towards empty establishments with instant service.

On one of my previous visits, not so long ago, there were 4 hour waiting times to visit the Nintendo Store in Shibuya Parco. On your spreadsheet you’ve got it down as a half of a 30 minute visit together with a Pokemon Store.

I can’t tell you what you are going to find on your visit. I’d usually assume that the “boom” for that Nintendo shop has eased off substantially, then again, having witnessed the perpetual mega-queue at Shinjuku Southern Terrace for Krispy Kreme Donuts last at least 6 years, I’m not sure I can.
Why would people spend hours queuing for Krispy Kreme Donuts when there are a whole array of Depachika within a 10 minute walk with far more delicious cakes and patisserie offerings? I literally have no idea.

Haha.. been there, done that.
When I was visiting my aunt and grandmother, I asked what was the best local place to grab lunch and buy some gifts for my friends back home. They actually said the airport. (This was in Asahikawa)
I've noticed a lot of airports have spacious food courts/dining areas and gift shops landside attached to publically accessible planespotting decks so some locals may treat the airport shops as a mall than an airport.

Happy to report that the Krispy Kreme at Shinjuku Southern Tower is no more, and that Krispy Kreme is no longer the shiny new object. There are other shiny new objects to distract the great unwashed, both local and from away.

The impression I got from your itinerary is that you chose places to visit from online posts (some are bloggers and influencers) and Michelin Guide. Obviously, you ended up choosing places in Tokyo which are always packed with non-Japanese visitors. Yes, with weak yen and flood of non-Japanese tourists visiting Japan post pandemic places are busy in Tokyo, but there is still area which are not frequently visited by non-Japanese tourists in Tokyo. It will be unlikely to find that kind of place by looking at bloggers/influencers posts or Michelin Guide. I think that is why LapLap is saying that once in a while you have to slow down, look around, and you may end up finding charming places which is not mentioned by bloggers/influencers/guide book and that can turn out to be a surprise event of the visiting Tokyo.

If one of the primary objective of your trip is for you to take pictures of places and food frequently mentioned by bloggers/influencers/guide book and you will post trip report post online, then I understand your itinerary. I think many got impression from looking at your itinerary is that you are focusing more on quantity, and not quality.

It really persisted that one, what was it? 2006 to 2012 I think. Did it go beyond that?

I remember picking up my first Krispy Kreme at Harrods Department Store in London. I was shocked at how much I hated the thing.

I can't ever see myself going into a krispy kreme in Japan when I can do that back home in the US
Give me a Doutors, Komeda or Mister Donut

https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowU...ure_Kanto.html

From a review by a native:

外国人観光客に人気

牛かつ食べたい。おいしいそう。このお店の前を通るたびに思っていました。しかし、いつも行列。それも80 〜90%外国人観光客らしき人々。今回、意を決してその列に並んでみました。12時少し前、外までは並んで いない。

Probably an 1 hour just to wait in line to get inside.

I think the reviewer nailed it:

普通にランチの人はサクッと食べて行きますが観光客の人はゆっくりしている感じです。

Funny bit is that Mister Donut was started in Massachusetts by the brother-in-law of the founder of Dunkin' Donuts. By the mid-1980s they had gone seriously downhill. There was one near where I went to school, that was so decrepit that the lighted sign only had the "ut" lit up. We called it The Ut. When you went in there, it was mostly bums and homeless people, and the lady behind the counter had an attitude that made the waitresses at Durgin Park seem like your sweet ol' grandmother. They were down to four flavors of donut: wood, liver, corn, and vanilla, and they were always out of vanilla.

Not surprisingly, they're all gone in the US (maybe there is one left?), but they're rolling in Japan. It's now a Japanese company, similar story to 7-11. When was the last time you bought one of those three-week old sausages on the roller at a 7-11 in the US?