Tokyo has no single centre, and that is the key to planning it. The city is organised around major railway stations, each with its own district built on top, and an itinerary that hops between them at random will spend more time on trains than anywhere else.
Four days is the honest minimum for a first visit, and six is where it stops feeling like sampling. Each major district is effectively its own town, and trying to do two of them properly in one day means seeing neither.
The good news is that Tokyo is also the easiest big city in the world to move around: trains are frequent, punctual and comprehensive. The bad news is that they are so good it is tempting to over-schedule, and the transfers add up.
The Yamanote loop line strings together most of the districts you have heard of. Thinking of the city as a ring of separate towns rather than a centre with suburbs is the mental model that makes a day work.
Tokyo's seasons are sharply defined, and two of them are genuinely difficult. The calendar matters here more than in most cities — including two domestic holiday weeks that change prices nationwide.
The best month of the year, twice over
Warm, dry, low humidity and long clear days. Autumn colour arrives in late November in Tokyo — later than most people expect — and the city is far less crowded than in spring.
Cool, dry and cheap, just before the rush
Plum blossom rather than cherry, clear skies, and prices before the spring surge. If you want Japan without the crowd, this is the window most people overlook.
Fresh and green, once Golden Week is over
Comfortable temperatures and long days. Golden Week runs from late April into the first week of May and is one of the busiest travel periods of the Japanese year — trains and hotels fill nationwide. Go after it, not during.
Hanami, and everyone else who wants it
Cherry blossom in Tokyo usually peaks in this window, but it shifts by a week or two every year and only lasts around ten days. It is genuinely worth seeing. It is also the most expensive and most crowded time to be in Japan, and if you are not flexible on dates you may miss it anyway.
The rainy season
Tsuyu, the rainy season, usually runs from around June to mid-July on the main island. Rarely all-day rain, but persistent and very humid, and it makes long walking days unpleasant.
Heat and humidity that shorten the day
Genuinely hard: high temperatures with high humidity, and little relief at night. Mid-August is also Obon, a domestic holiday week when the country travels. Hokkaido is the standard escape.
A trip longer than three days, or one that adds Kyoto and the transport between them, is what Premium is for. The free version covers one destination for up to three days.
