🇳🇱 Amsterdam → 🇯🇵 Tokyo · 2 weeks

Go to Tsukiji Outer Market at 6:30am for the real Tokyo breakfast — fresh tuna on rice, tamagoyaki rolled egg, and clam soup from the market stalls. The inner wholesale market moved to Toyosu in 2018, but the outer market streets are still the greatest concentration of fresh seafood food stalls in the world. Arrive before 8am to avoid the queues.

Walk the Yanaka neighbourhood (from Nippori station) on a Sunday morning — this is one of the few areas of Tokyo that survived WWII bombing intact. The shotengai (shopping street) sells sembei rice crackers, tofu, and pickles from family shops that have been open for generations. The cemetery is beautiful, not morbid — cats everywhere.

Get a Suica IC card at any airport kiosk (¥2,000 / ~€12 including ¥500 deposit) and use it for every train, bus, and even convenience store purchase. The Tokyo metro system is the finest in the world — every station has English signage, trains run every 2-3 minutes, and it goes everywhere. Never queue for taxis.

Find a standing izakaya (tachinomi bar) in Shimbashi or Yurakucho — the narrow streets under the railway arches fill with salarymen after 6pm. Order yakitori (grilled chicken skewers) and cold Sapporo for ¥500/each. This is the most authentic social ritual in Tokyo, and you will be warmly welcomed as a foreigner.