Tokyo in 5 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
Five days, entirely inside Tokyo, no day trip out: two classic days, a Toyosu-and-Ginza day, an Imperial Palace/Ueno/Yanaka day, and a fifth day in Shimokitazawa and Shinjuku Gyoen most visitors never get to. Rough total across all five days: ¥29,000-46,000 in attractions, food, and local transit, excluding your hotel. If you’d rather spend that fifth day on a real day trip instead, the gateway 5-day itinerary swaps this for Kamakura and Hakone.
Book these before you go:
- Hotels: check rates on Agoda , ideally on the Yamanote loop.
- teamLab Borderless and teamLab Planets, both online-only, no walk-up.
- Shibuya Sky sunset slots, if you’re skipping the free Shinjuku deck for it.
| Day | Focus | Rough cost per person |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Asakusa, Tsukiji Outer, Skytree, Akihabara | ¥6,000-7,000 |
| Day 2 | Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku’s free view | ¥6,500-11,000 |
| Day 3 | Toyosu sushi breakfast, teamLab Planets, Ginza | ¥8,800-14,200 |
| Day 4 | Imperial Palace, Ueno, Yanaka | ¥3,500-7,000 |
| Day 5 | Shimokitazawa, Shinjuku Gyoen, Golden Gai | ¥4,000-6,500 |
Pick up a Suica or PASMO on arrival, either Welcome Suica Mobile loaded before you fly or a physical card at the airport counter, and use it for every train, bus, and most convenience store purchases from here on.
Day 1: Old Tokyo
Senso-ji in Asakusa is free to enter, with Nakamise-dori’s snack stalls doing brisk business well before 9am (budget ¥500-800 for breakfast there). Head to Tsukiji Outer Market for lunch, the surviving half of the old fish market since the wholesale side with the tuna auction moved to Toyosu in 2018; grilled scallops and a seafood rice bowl run ¥1,500-2,500 grazing the stalls. Spend the afternoon up Tokyo Skytree, ¥1,800-2,100 for the 350m deck booked online, then finish in Akihabara, free to wander, with ramen for dinner at ¥800-1,200.
Day 1: roughly ¥6,000-7,000.
Day 2: New Tokyo
Meiji Shrine, free with an optional donation, is a quiet start before Takeshita Street in Harajuku fills with crepe stands (¥500-700 a crepe). Shibuya Scramble Crossing costs nothing to cross; Shibuya Sky above it runs ¥2,700-3,400 by time slot and sells out days ahead if you don’t book early. A short ride toward Roppongi reaches teamLab Borderless at Azabudai Hills, reopened in 2024 after the old Odaiba site closed, ¥3,600-5,600, also booked online in advance . Close the day at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku: two 45th-floor observatories, free, no reservation, plus a nightly light show on the building’s east face from sunset to around 9pm. Dinner in Omoide Yokocho or Golden Gai runs ¥2,500-4,500 with drinks.
Day 2: roughly ¥9,000-11,000 with both paid attractions, or ¥6,500-8,000 if you skip Shibuya Sky for the free Shinjuku deck.
Day 3: Toyosu and Ginza
A sit-down sushi breakfast near the Toyosu market runs ¥4,000-8,000+, worth it once on a five-day trip. teamLab Planets, the wet and immersive concept in the same neighborhood, runs ¥3,800 weekday, ¥4,200 weekend, booked online in advance. Ride into Ginza for the afternoon: the department stores are free to browse, and the depachika food hall in the basement of Mitsukoshi Ginza sells restaurant-quality bento and desserts for ¥1,000-2,000, a good way to handle a second meal without a sit-down bill.
Day 3: roughly ¥8,800-14,200.
Day 4: Imperial Palace, Ueno, and Yanaka
Start at the Imperial Palace East Gardens, free, no booking needed unless you’re doing the separate interior palace tour. Ueno Park is free to wander in the late morning and early afternoon, with the Ameyoko market nearby for cheap souvenirs and street snacks; museum entry is optional, roughly ¥1,000 if you want to go inside the Tokyo National Museum. Spend the rest of the afternoon in Yanaka: old shitamachi streets, a cemetery walk, and cat cafes, one of the few areas spared WWII bombing and noticeably calmer than Ueno. Dinner anywhere nearby runs ¥2,500-4,000.
Day 4: roughly ¥3,500-7,000 depending on the museum.
Day 5: Shimokitazawa, Shinjuku Gyoen, and Golden Gai
Shimokitazawa, a short hop from Shibuya, is free to wander: vintage shops, indie coffee bars, and none of the crowds you’ve spent four days dodging. Midday, Shinjuku Gyoen is one of Tokyo’s best gardens for about ¥500 entry, a cheap, calm contrast to the free-but-busy parks earlier in the trip. For a last night, skip another sit-down dinner and do a Golden Gai bar crawl instead, tiny counters seating four to six people, drinks and a cover charge typically running ¥1,500-3,000 for an evening, or an izakaya in Omoide Yokocho at ¥2,500-4,500 with drinks if bars aren’t your thing.
Day 5: roughly ¥4,000-6,500.
What to know
Carry some cash regardless of how far into the trip you are: Tsukiji stalls, older Akihabara shops, and some Golden Gai bars don’t all take cards. Last trains stop running around midnight, and taxis after that add a 20% night surcharge, so build a buffer into your last night out rather than aiming for the last departure. Compare Tokyo hotel and hostel rates on Agoda before you lock in a neighborhood; staying on the Yamanote loop keeps every day above within a short, cheap hop.
Book Shibuya Sky and both teamLab sites before you fly. Same-day slots for both sell out often enough that treating them as a backup plan means you’ll probably miss one.