PS. Any suggestions on what to do and where to go would also be appreciated. Ta.

I think there’s a good youth hostel in Harajuku. I don’t know the name of it, but you ought to be able to find it on the HI website or in a guidebook. Harajuku would make a nice base for seeing Tokyo too — it has pretty good nightlife, good restaurants, and lots of interesting people. Just walking down the main shopping street is an interesting cultural experience. Don’t miss Yoyogi Park (also in Harajuku), which has a pretty shrine and lots of deserted paths that make you feel like you’re in the countryside. Shibuya (one stop from Harajuku) is the Tokyo you see in pictures — all crowds, chaos and neon. The people watching there is amazing. Just set up camp at any coffee shop with a window.

For your second day, you might consider getting out of Tokyo. Nikko and Kamakura are two very nice towns with beautiful temples. Both are about an hour away. The city and the countryside have such a different atmosphere and the temples there are much prettier than the ones in Tokyo.

There are lots of nightclubs in Roppongi, but I personally don’t like it there. There are too many foreigners and the whole place has a sleazy atmosphere. It’s expensive too.

Personally, I don’t find Tokyo earth-shatteringly expensive but I lived in NYC before I came here. Your hostel and public transport will be more expensive than in other countries, but food is actually on the cheap side. There are 100 yen ($1) stores where you can buy dirt-cheap fixings for your own dinners at your hostel and lots of chain fast food restaurants that serve pork and rice bowls for 300-400 yen ($3-4 USD). Sit-down restaurant meals are not staggeringly expensive for a big city, but they might be tough on a backpacking budget. I’d budget $15-20, depending on how much you like to drink with your meals.

Thank-you very much for the tips, Meredith.

The best place to stay would be Hotel New Koyo, not only is it cheaper than any hostel (thats right)in Japan it is close to the airport connections, but has a great staff and is full of travellers and frienships are really easy to make. No curfew either, which is really imnportant, and it is a very affordable area.

It also is close to Ueno and its attractions and a short bike or tube ride from Senso ji and Asakusa jinja which is more worthwhile than a day trip out of the city for such a short visit. Take the water bus from Asakusa down to Odaiba which is a wicked cool area built out of reclaimed land.

Tokyo isn’t that expensive – especially compared to my girlfriends stories about Scandanavia.

For decent nightlife you can meet up with a group of people at the hotel and head out anywhere.

My favourite pub in Tokyo (and Ive been to almost all of them )is the Warrior Celt in Ueno but if you are looking for soemthing more full on than an amazing pub, try Shibuya, Shinjuku, upscale Ebisu or Roppongi.

I totally disagree with Ms opinions on Roppongi. I don:t find it sleazy at all, and recently they outlawed handing out flyers so there are now lesspeople on the street.

Roppongi has some of the best restaurants in the city, and some of the best dance clubs like Velfarre and Yellow.

Roppongi has over 5,000 bars sp your chance of being in a place with too many foreigners is highly unrealistic – I have never been in a place where the forigners have outnumbered the Japanese except sometimes when I go earlier to my friends Nigerian place – which fills up with Japanese after.

If you go to a place like Gas Panic (cheeky name) 911 or Ho town (motown house, to be exact) there will be a lot of foreigners there – but why the heck should ethnicity affect having a good time?

If you want to meet people and are ona short time,Roppongi is the answer – its cool.