Tokyo in 7 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
A full week inside Tokyo, no day trip out: six neighborhoods covered in depth, then a slow seventh day built around your flight home. Rough total across the week: ¥32,000-53,000 in attractions, food, and local transit, plus airport transfers on either end, excluding your hotel. If a week with Kamakura, Hakone and Nikko sounds better than a week entirely in the city, the gateway 7-day itinerary is that version.
Book these before you go:
- Hotels: check rates on Agoda , ideally on the Yamanote loop for a week of short hops.
- teamLab Borderless and teamLab Planets, both online-only, no walk-up.
- Shibuya Sky sunset slots, if you’re doing it over the free Shinjuku deck.
| 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 and teamLab Planets | ¥7,800-12,200 |
| Day 4 | Ginza and the Imperial Palace | ¥3,500-6,000 |
| Day 5 | Ueno and Yanaka | ¥3,000-7,000 |
| Day 6 | Shimokitazawa, Shinjuku Gyoen, Golden Gai | ¥4,000-6,500 |
| Day 7 | Second looks, souvenirs, departure | ¥1,500-3,000 |
Get a Suica or PASMO the moment you land, Welcome Suica Mobile loaded before you fly or a physical Welcome Suica at the airport counter, and tap it for every train, bus, and most convenience store purchases for the rest of the trip.
Day 1: Old Tokyo
Senso-ji in Asakusa is free to enter, with Nakamise-dori’s snack stalls busy well before 9am (budget ¥500-800 for breakfast there). Head south 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 at 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 depending on time slot and sells out days ahead without advance booking. 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 projected 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 instead.
Day 3: Toyosu
Give Toyosu a full day. Sushi breakfast near the market runs ¥4,000-8,000+, the closest thing left to the old Tsukiji tuna-auction experience now that the wholesale market has moved here. teamLab Planets, the wet and immersive concept in the same neighborhood, runs ¥3,800 weekday, ¥4,200 weekend, booked online in advance . The waterfront promenade nearby is free for an easy afternoon walk.
Day 3: roughly ¥7,800-12,200.
Day 4: Ginza and the Imperial Palace
Start at the Imperial Palace East Gardens, free, no booking needed unless you want the separate interior palace tour. Ginza next door is worth a walk past its department stores even without buying anything; the depachika food hall in the basement of Mitsukoshi Ginza sells restaurant-quality bento and desserts for ¥1,000-2,000, a solid way to handle lunch. Dinner is an izakaya, ¥2,500-4,500 with drinks, or an all-you-can-drink plan for ¥1,500-2,000 for 90-120 minutes with a group.
Day 4: roughly ¥3,500-6,000.
Day 5: Ueno and Yanaka
Ueno Park is free to wander, with the Ameyoko market nearby for cheap souvenirs and street snacks; museum entry is optional, roughly ¥1,000 for the Tokyo National Museum. Spend the afternoon in Yanaka: old shitamachi streets, a cemetery walk, and cat cafes, one of the few areas of the city spared WWII bombing. Dinner nearby runs ¥2,500-4,000.
Day 5: roughly ¥3,000-7,000 depending on the museum.
Day 6: 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 five days dodging. Shinjuku Gyoen, one of Tokyo’s best gardens, runs about ¥500 entry. Close the day with a Golden Gai bar crawl, tiny counters seating four to six, drinks and a cover typically ¥1,500-3,000, or an Omoide Yokocho izakaya at ¥2,500-4,500 with drinks.
Day 6: roughly ¥4,000-6,500.
Day 7: Second looks, souvenirs, and departure
Keep this one light. Go back to whichever free sight you liked best at a different hour, Senso-ji before 7am is a genuinely different, near-empty place compared to the midday version, and it costs nothing to check. If you haven’t hit your souvenir budget yet, the depachika basements at Isetan Shinjuku or Mitsukoshi Ginza double as an easy place to pick up food gifts to take home, ¥1,000-3,000 covers most lists. Confirm your airport transfer the night before: Haneda’s Tokyo Monorail runs ¥520 to Hamamatsucho, while Narita’s N’EX runs ¥3,070 to Tokyo Station or the Skyliner ¥2,570 to Ueno, so budget accordingly depending on which airport you’re flying out of.
Day 7: roughly ¥1,500-3,000 for food and transit before the airport, plus whatever you spend on souvenirs and your airport transfer.
What to know
The nationwide JR Pass never earns its keep on a Tokyo-only week: at roughly ¥50,000 for seven days, it costs more than this entire table combined, and there’s no Shinkansen leg here to justify it. Carry cash regardless, since 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 few nights out.
Book Shibuya Sky and both teamLab sites as soon as you have dates. A week-long trip with three must-book attractions inside the first three days leaves no slack to reshuffle if a same-day slot doesn’t come through.