TimeOut

re: Narita

 

We flew into and out of Narita as well.  Very friendly staff at Narita, even more so when you compare them to TSA!  LOL.  Sounds like you got quite a few days.  Akihabara is very interesting.  Lots of neon and lights, they got all kinds of electronics and if you like robots/anime/sci-fi stuff it's all there.  There were girls dressed up like cartoon characters passing out flyers. 

Note: TM and ED-209 were my tour guides...

Yep, TM and ED-209 took me to these places...

We hit up a Ramen shop, perfect as it was a cold and rainy day when we went.  It's inexpensive and really hit the spot plus you got to experience slurping a big bowl of noodles (don't be embarrassed to slurp, everyone there does it!)  You buy a ticket outside and go in (usually it's a narrow place and you grab an open barstool) and eat your food. 

We went to this giant electronics store, stopped by the Nikon boutique, went inside a Pachinko parlor (this is what is inside of the bikini girl statue shown above):

Near the trains run, they have this long row of tiny restaurants, it's where locals go after work to drink and eat bar type food.  One place even had horse meat on the menu.  We were the only non locals around there and just pointed to things on the menu that we wanted to eat and drink, quite the local experience!

For Shabu-Shabu, we also did Rengetsu.  They have different grades of Wagyu beef and it was delicious.  The only thing is finding specific places was a bit difficult.  Even though you have the address, the store or restaurant you are looking for is in the basement or up in the building.  Luckily the subway is convenient to get around.    Downstairs of the department store are where the supermarkets are, it's crazy to see the produce, everything is perfectly wrapped and looks too good to eat.  I wanted to buy some of this and take home to cook:

Master Chef of Kyubey in Ginza:

Meiji Shrine:

Tokyo Tower...

Dang, when searching thru my external harddrive of my Tokyo pics for this post, you make we want to book a trip right now!

Hope this helps.  If it does, you can return the favor and share your travel photos and experiences in Tokyo with the rest of us on the TimeOut forum.  Also, I'm sure others will chime in on their recommendations.  Have fun and enjoy your trip, you're going to have a great time out there!!!

-MW