Tokyo

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Cheap Flights from Los Angeles to Tokyo, Starting at $399 I booked the wrong week — or so I thought. It was a damp February, I had a few days off work and almost zero interest in sitting at home in LA watching the rain. I searched LAX to Tokyo on a whim, saw $399 on Zipair, and hit purchase before I could talk myself out of it. My colleague booked the same route two months later for cherry-blossom season and paid $980. We both ended up in the same Shibuya ramen shop, slurping from identical bowls of tonkotsu, but only one of us had spent $581 more to get there. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Tokyo, Without the First-Timer Overwhelm The first thing most people do when they land in Tokyo is stand frozen in front of a rail map that looks like someone dropped a bowl of noodles on a circuit board. We did exactly that at Narita — three lines deep into the wrong queue, jet-lagged, trying to buy a paper ticket to a station we couldn’t pronounce. The fix took ninety seconds and we wish someone had told us before we flew: walk past the ticket machines, buy a Suica card, and just tap. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Where to Stay in Tokyo on a Budget — and Why It’s Easier Than You Think The first time I looked at Tokyo hotel prices, I nearly rebooked my flights. A city-center double for ¥40,000 a night stared back at me and I remember thinking: “This is not the trip I planned.” Then a friend who’d lived in Shinjuku for two years messaged me one line: “You’re looking at the wrong category.” ...