You are standing in the arrivals hall, phone in hand, and nothing works. No data, because you assumed you would sort a SIM at the airport and the counter queue is forty people deep. No yen, because you thought your bank card would be fine, and the ATM just declined it. No idea whether the train into the city is the Narita Express, the Keisei Skyliner or something else entirely. None of this is hard to solve. The annoying part is that the ten minutes of setup that would have prevented all of it needed to happen last week, at home, on wifi, with a working card in your hand. So let's do it now. Here is the Tokyo phone stack, in the order you should set it up, with what to download before you fly.
Start With the Local Knowledge Layer
Gaido: for hidden gems and a local guide in Tokyo
Tokyo is the rare city where the famous sights are genuinely worth it and also the least interesting thing about the place. The good stuff is vertical and hidden: a six-seat sake bar on the fourth floor of an unmarked building, a standing soba counter inside a station, a neighborhood shrine festival that nobody advertises in English. You are not going to find that by scrolling a top ten list.
That is the gap Gaido fills. It is where you browse curated things to do in Tokyo by neighborhood, save places to a trip, and book private tours in Tokyo led by people who actually live there. A half day with a local guide early in your trip changes the rest of it, because you stop guessing. You learn how to read an izakaya menu, which train exit to aim for at Shinjuku, and why the second-floor places are usually better than the ground-floor ones.
Set up at home: install the app, save two or three neighborhoods you want to explore, and book your guide before you fly. The best Tokyo guides get claimed weeks out, especially in cherry blossom season and autumn.
Money and Costs
Wise: for real exchange rates and a card that works like a local's
Japan will surprise you with how much cash still matters, and it will quietly punish you on every card transaction if you are using a bank that marks up the exchange rate. Wise gives you the real mid-market rate with a transparent fee, plus a card you can spend from directly in yen. Set up an account here: Wise.
The practical win is twofold. You can convert a chunk of money to yen in the app before you leave, so you are not exposed to whatever rate your bank feels like using, and you can withdraw cash from Japanese ATMs without the usual double hit of a bad rate plus a foreign transaction fee. That matters in Tokyo more than in most major cities, because while cards are accepted in most stores and restaurants, cash-only establishments are still extremely common. The tiny ramen counters, the old-school kissaten, the temple stalls: carry yen with you at all times.
One etiquette note that no app will teach you. When paying with cash or card, place your payment in the small tray on the counter rather than handing it directly to the cashier. It is a tiny thing and people notice.
Set up at home: order the physical Wise card at least two weeks before you fly, verify your ID in the app, and pre-convert some yen. If you are travelling in cherry blossom season, also consider travel insurance. Bloom forecasts shift every year and dates move, so insurance that reimburses trip changes is worth the peace of mind.
Getting Around Tokyo
Google Maps: better transit routing than Apple Maps abroad
Use Google Maps in Tokyo, full stop. Outside the US, its public transit data is simply deeper: live departure times, platform numbers, which carriage to board, and reliable routing across the tangle of JR, Tokyo Metro, Toei and private lines. Apple Maps has improved but still lags on local business coverage, opening hours and review volume, and Tokyo is a city where knowing whether a place is open right now is half the battle.
Tokyo is most easily and effectively navigated using the metro and train systems, and Google Maps is the interface for that. Learn to trust it on transfers. It will tell you that the walk between two same-named stations takes nine minutes, which is the kind of detail that saves you a missed connection.
Set up at home: download offline maps for central Tokyo plus any day-trip areas. Offline downloads in Google Maps actually work for search and driving, and they will cover you in the gap between landing and getting data. Star your hotel, your guide's meeting point and a couple of restaurants while you still have wifi.
Your wallet app: Suica or Pasmo
This is the single best pre-trip move for Tokyo. Add a reloadable IC transit card, either Suica or Pasmo, directly to your phone's wallet. Physical passes are not sold, so doing this digitally is the way. You then tap your phone through every metro gate and top it up from the same card you already set up in Wise. It also works in convenience stores and vending machines.
Note the metro hours: service usually ends around 12:00am and resumes around 5:00am. Plan your late nights accordingly, because that last train is a hard deadline and the alternative is expensive.
Set up at home: add the card and load an initial balance before you fly, so you walk off the plane and straight through the gates.
Taxi and rideshare apps
Both taxis and Uber are widely available in Tokyo, so Uber does work here, but be realistic: fares are often very expensive, especially at night once the metro has closed. Locals lean on taxi apps, and GO is the dominant hailing app in Japan. Street-hailing also genuinely works in central Tokyo, which is not true in most big cities.
Set up at home: install Uber and add your payment method while you can still verify it. Keep enough cash on hand for a taxi anyway, since some drivers still prefer it.
The JR Pass question, answered before you go
To ride the JR Line or the shinkansen, you can buy a Japan Rail Pass covering unlimited rides for one, two or three weeks. Buy it in advance at japanrailpass.net and pick it up at a train station on arrival. Be honest with the maths, though. The pass is expensive and is generally only worth it if you are taking the shinkansen to multiple cities outside Tokyo. Run your itinerary through the japan-guide calculator first. If you are staying in Tokyo, skip it. Individual shinkansen tickets are available at all major train stations.
Set up at home: if you are heading to Kyoto or Osaka, book seats on the right side of the train when travelling from Tokyo, for the Mt. Fuji views.
Data, Language and Messaging
Airalo: data the moment you land
An eSIM means you skip the airport SIM counter entirely. Airalo lets you buy a Japan data plan, install the eSIM profile at home, and switch it on when you land.
Set up at home: confirm your phone is eSIM compatible and carrier-unlocked, then install the profile before you fly. Installation needs wifi.
Google Translate with the Japanese pack downloaded
English signage in Tokyo is good. Menus at the small, interesting places often are not. The camera translate function pointed at a handwritten menu is the most useful travel tool of the last decade.
Set up at home: download the Japanese offline language pack. Without it, camera translation fails exactly when you need it most, underground and out of signal.
WhatsApp is not the default messaging app in Japan, where LINE dominates locally, but it is how most guides and international-facing businesses will reach you.
Set up at home: verify your number before you leave, because verification codes go to your home SIM.
Eating Out
Tabelog: what Tokyo actually uses to choose restaurants
Google reviews in Japan skew high and shallow. Tabelog is what locals use, and its ratings run much stricter. A 3.5 on Tabelog is genuinely good. Anything above 3.8 is excellent and probably needs a reservation. Once you recalibrate to that scale, you stop eating mediocre food.
Set up at home: install it, create an account, and shortlist a few places near your hotel. Many top spots take reservations only by phone, so this is another reason to have a local guide or your hotel concierge in the loop.
Your Pre-Flight Checklist
Wise card ordered and yen loaded. Suica or Pasmo in your wallet with a balance. Google Maps offline area for Tokyo downloaded. Japanese language pack downloaded. Airalo eSIM installed. Uber and Tabelog accounts created. Gaido saves made and your guide booked.
That last one is the piece that turns a well-organised trip into a memorable one. Browse private tours in Tokyo and meet the people behind them on the Tokyo local guides page, then pair the booking with our guide to hidden gems in Tokyo so you land with a plan instead of a queue.