Where to stay in Tokyo: 7 areas, chosen by your airport and your plan

Tokyo has two airports and they sit in opposite directions. Narita (NRT) is not even in Tokyo — it is in Chiba Prefecture to the east, and you need a train or a bus to reach the city. Haneda (HND) is inside Tokyo to the south and much closer in.

From Narita the main options are the Keisei Skyliner express, which runs into the east side of the city (Nippori and Keisei-Ueno), the JR Narita Express (N'EX), which runs to Tokyo Station and then on to Shinagawa, Shibuya and Shinjuku, and the Airport Limousine bus, which stops at many large hotels so you never carry luggage up stairs. From Haneda it is the Tokyo Monorail to Hamamatsucho, where you change to the Yamanote Line, or the Keikyu Line straight to Shinagawa.

The rule of thumb that holds almost every time: land at Narita, lean east (Ueno, Asakusa, Tokyo Station); land at Haneda, lean south or west (Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku). It saves both time and money on the first and last days — the two days most people forget to plan.

Tokyo hotel listings all say "3 minutes from the station", which makes the claim useless — almost every one of them can say it. What actually differs is which line that station is on. The Yamanote Line is the loop that strings the city's big hubs together (Tokyo, Ueno, Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Shinagawa), and the subway lines cut across the middle of the loop.

That turns into a simple decision. If your plan leans Shibuya–Harajuku–Shinjuku, stay west. If it leans temples, museums, Asakusa and Skytree, stay east. If you intend to take a Shinkansen day trip to another city, Tokyo Station or Shinagawa is the answer. And if Hakone or Fuji–Kawaguchiko is on the list, Shinjuku wins clearly, because both the Odakyu line and the highway buses to those places start there.

First, the room size in square metres. Japanese hotels publish it almost everywhere. A standard business-hotel room is meaningfully smaller than a same-priced room in Thailand, and if two of you are travelling with large suitcases that number matters more than the star rating.

Second, the bed type. A room sold as a "double" in Japan often means one extra-wide single bed (semi-double), not two beds. If you want separate beds, look specifically for the word twin.

Third, check-in time and luggage storage. Many flights from Thailand land either early in the morning or late at night. Most hotels will hold bags before check-in, but confirm it — especially at smaller properties whose lobby is not staffed around the clock.

An IC card (Suica or PASMO) is the right default for almost everyone. Tap in and out on JR trains, the subway, buses, and pay at convenience stores with the same card, without working out fares ride by ride. Many travellers now run it from their phone rather than carrying a physical card.

The nationwide JR Pass is generally not worth it for a Tokyo-only trip, because it is designed around long-distance Shinkansen travel. If your plan is Tokyo, or Tokyo plus a short day trip, paying as you go with an IC card usually costs less. (That is general trip-planning knowledge rather than a figure from our dataset — if your plan includes several Shinkansen legs, do the comparison yourself.)

One more thing that wrecks evenings: Tokyo trains do not run all night. Many lines stop around midnight to 1am and start again around 5am. Missing the last train and crossing the city by taxi costs far more than people expect — which is why night owls gain the most from staying in the area they actually intend to go out in.

Tokyo has periods when rooms tighten systematically, not by luck: late November into early December (autumn colour and winter illuminations), New Year, late March into early April (cherry blossom), late April into early May (Golden Week, when Japan travels too), and mid-August (Obon). For those windows, lock the room first and build the rest of the trip around it.

Outside the peaks Tokyo has a lot of hotel supply, so waiting for the right moment still has room to work. Rooms that are naturally scarce — family rooms for three or four, or specific views — are worth booking early regardless.