Thank you for reminding me of this because you are right, Mom and Pop shops are cheaper.

Also, thanks for the tip about the Dept. Store sushi. I'll definitely search for it when I get there.

Fantastic. This is the info I'm looking for. Definitely will check out these different areas. Too bad it's not all centralized into some crazy shopping street but I'm very excited


Thanks for the water taxi information! i will probably opt for the cab suggestion as 1200 yen/pp may be worth a taxi back to the hotel or to another area after the trip out.

Cheers


ohmigoodness. Thank you thank you thank you! This is a really great suggestion and I'll definitely use it for our time in Yokohama. It looks pretty fun!

Sounds like Hong Kong MTR stations. They are "underneath" a certain area but really it's a long walk to the turnstile and down steps/elevator to the train platform haha.

And thanks for the Ramen videos and other suggestions. Man, those videos make me so hungry just looking at it. Might have to do some pre-Tokyo research at some Japanese Ramen places here in Vancouver before I depart so I can "taste the difference"

Actually, that is not the right one. It goes over to Odaiba.

The water taxi I was referring to is this one: http://www.tcvb.or.jp/en/infomation/7recom/net5.html .

It goes from Asakusa to Hinode and vice versa, but has an intermediate stop in both directions at Hama Rikyu Imperial Garden. It is also a lot cheaper than the fancy new "glass boat" to Odaiba.

JR

Answer 1: I'm really cheap so I've stayed in Tokyo everywhere but a decent hotel :P

Answer 2: Why don't you try Odaiba, there are a lot of small shops over there. In your example you compared clothing shops, maybe it's my taste but when I lived in Japan I never found a decent Japanese clothing store, except for uniqlo. If you look for souvenirs, in Asakusa there is the souvenirs shopping street where you'll find everything you want. If you see something you like buy it! don't say "I'll find it cheaper somewhere else", it will be really difficult to find it, with some luck you'll find it 10% cheaper at the most and worst case you'll find it more expensive (happened to me )

Answer 3: Maybe you already tried it as you said you had been to Osaka, but, besides also trying good Izakayas that somebody may recomend, good place to go just to know something more are the Japense fast-food restaurants (Sukiya, Yoshinoya) that are everywhere, economical and it's interesting to eat Japanese fast-food. There are also the 180 Yen ramen shops, really nice and cheap ramen, just check the restaurant before hand as there are some really nice and decent (like to stay for a beer and talk with a friend) and some that are just to take the ramen and run :P

Answer 4: As things to do... pff, I've visited tokyo for like 30 days as a tourist and there are a lot of things that I'm missing: my
favorite spots:
-Tokyo Metropolitan Government observatories: completely free and amazing view, I didn't go to to the top of Tokyo Tower but I'm sure I didn't miss anything.
-If you need a rest of 15 minutes, take a coffee at the Starbucks in the Shibuya crossing, get the tables that are in front of the windows and amaze yourself (you can have a Grean Tea creem frappucinno without the watermelon flavor that they put in the US so you don't feel too guilty).
-gift shop of the NHK Studio Park near shibuya, the museum is 150 and entertains you for an hour but the cool thing is the gift shop, great things to be found there although not cheap.
-Ginza by night: this is the neighborhood for all the really cool and fancy stores, really expensive places to see there, but the feeling by night, with all the lights, for me it's just amazing.
-Roppongi Hills: Appartment tower but has a waaaay cool shopping mall inside, loved it!
-Tsukiji Fish Market: Really interesting place, some people say you can have sushi early in the morning from here after walking around the market, it will be expensive though. If not feeling like sushi early in the morning, just go to the market.

Have a great time there!

Aldoman

Thanks for all your tips.

I agree with you about buying souvenirs - but I think your advice is valuable to use worldwide as I have often made the mistake of thinking I'll get something cheaper elsewhere only to find out I miss out altogether

On top of the other suggestions, for a shopping street (particular clothing) you might want to check on Takeshita Dori (street) in Harajuku. It's right next to the train station, and has a wide variety of little independent clothing shops, and is a mecca for "fashion-forward" Japanese teenagers. It's not necessarily cheap, and the stuff that is cheap is sometimes not well-made, but it is a fun experience regardless. And if you are looking for socks, there is a shop on that street where the last time I visited my girlfriend bought 8 pairs.

Personally, I felt like the mall in front of Sensoji was a giant tourist trap. The only worse tourist trap was the level of stands in Tokyo Tower (don't waste your time there). Some people don't mind the tourist traps- you can certainly find lots of gifts- but I did.

Two places for good gifts are the Oriental Bazaar (yeah, still tourist trappy, but a bit better than the other two), and the little shops in front of temples and shrines. All the ones I found were outside of Tokyo, but cool things like a little Hello Kitty in a deer costume charm specifically for Nara- that kind of thing.

Another great source of unique gifts and collectibles are- I kid you not- conbinis (convenience stores): First, there are these series of collectable toys, busts, and mini-models from popular anime series. They range from the normal (mecha and characters) to the bizzare (Ultraman dressed as a salaryman??!!). You can find similar things in 100-yen bubble machines. The second source, and my favorite, are from the plastic bottle drinks in the cooler. Pepsi has these little toys attached to the bottlecap, and they are really cute, unique gifts. On my first trip to Japan, I drank nothing but pepsi and brought home all these little PepsiMan bottle-toppers - one series was the movie monster series, and the other one, he gets into all sorts of accidents! Typically bizzaro Japanese. The next time, I drank nothing but nasty Pepsi Twist (and nastier diet), and Hajime unsweetened green tea. Pepsi Twist had all these Super Mario Bros bottle toppers, and Hajime had these gorgrous little dioramas of traditional Japanese life that connected together.

Again, those make great little gifts, you are going to want something to drink anyways, and they are very time-sensitive (new promotions every few months), so its something unique and non-touristy.

I really enjoyed it when I visited about four years ago. Looking through the brochure from back then, 4 out of 8 restaurants have been changed. I can still recall Fukuchan had pork bone odor, but the soup was so heavenly. Order the small bowl if you want to try more than one restaurants.

My favorite blog on ramen: http://ramen.livedoor.biz
It is all in Japanese but the pictures are worth a thousand word. This blog started in 2004 as a challenge to eat 100 bowls of ramen in a month and snowballed from there. Now he has been to almost 700 restaurants and consumed over 1100 bowls.

Each has their own pluses and minuses. You can see slightly better from Tokyo Tower due to the lack of nearby skyscrapers and dimmed lighting at night. They do charge 820 yen admission fee...

Fantastic! Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions! I love this community! I'm so excited now!