Tokyo
You can be here in December for about €1,052, 4 days, direct.
Why now
Good time in December: 12°C days.
Cherry blossom and autumn leaves bring the crowds and the highest hotel rates; the weeks just after each are cheaper and nearly as good. Golden Week and Obon move the whole country at once, so trains and hotels fill; the rainy season and August heat are the honest low points.
Best months here: September, October, November. December is not one of them — the label above measures the month against a fixed bar, not against the rest of the year here. Daytime highs, sea temperature and rainy days from three years of Open-Meteo reanalysis; a rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, which is the WMO threshold and not the same as "it drizzled".
The place
Tokyo is less one city than a ring of them joined by the Yamanote line, each with its own centre, and the pleasure is in the small scale: a ten-seat counter, a shrine between office towers, a bar that fits six. It is quiet for its size and easy to navigate, and it suits anyone who likes to walk, eat and follow their nose rather than tick off monuments.
What you can do
- 01Walk from Meiji Shrine through Harajuku's backstreets to Omotesando and on to Aoyama.
- 02Eat a sushi breakfast in the outer Tsukiji market or at Toyosu's early counters.
- 03Look down from the free observatory at Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku at dusk.
- 04Take the Yamanote to Yanaka for old wooden houses, temples and the cemetery walk.
- 05Drink in Golden Gai's tiny bars, then eat yakitori under the tracks at Yurakucho.
Where to stay · neighbourhoods
Shinjuku or Shibuya for a first visit, near a Yamanote station; Asakusa for a quieter, older Tokyo; avoid anything more than ten minutes' walk from a station.
Unusual things
- ◦The Nezu Museum's garden in Aoyama, with a tea house and a bamboo path behind the galleries.
- ◦Shimokitazawa's vintage shops and small theatres, two stops from Shibuya on the Inokashira line.
- ◦The Sumida Hokusai Museum in Ryogoku, then a chanko-nabe lunch in the sumo district around the arena.
Day trips
Flight options
Routes come from OpenFlights (historical) and a 2026 route reference compiled from public timetables. Durations are the published schedule where we have it, otherwise a block-time model fitted on measured nonstop flights. Verify schedules with the airline before booking.
Entry requirements · IT passport
Source: passport-index-data, March 2026 (coarse indicator), covering 258 of our 268 destinations for each of 199 passports. Always confirm with the destination's official site.
Airports
Distances are centre to airport derived · nonstop counts are our route reference for 2026, not every flight that exists.
Local transport
- Airport to city
- Monorail from Haneda, 20 min, ~€3; Narita Express, 60 min, ~€19
- Car needed?
- No — walkable or good public transport
- Getting around
- A Suica or Pasmo card on the phone covers every train, metro and bus; the last trains leave around midnight and taxis are dear afterwards. Haneda is 20–30 minutes from the centre by monorail or Keikyu line; Narita is an hour by Narita Express or Skyliner.
- Clock
- 1 hour ahead of Kuala Lumpur (Asia/Tokyo) derived
- Daylight
- 9.8 hours of daylight in December · sunrise 06:43, sunset 16:29 derived
- Currency
- JPY
Alternatives at a similar price
Whole trip per person for 4 days from Kuala Lumpur in December, then the flight time; estimates, like the total above.
Hong Kong
Dubai
Abu Dhabi
Muscat
Riyadh
Hurghada