Short answer: four full days for a first visit. Three is a sprint. Five is comfy. Past six, you're better off adding Kyoto than adding more Tokyo.
That's not a vibe, it's arithmetic — the same math our planner runs on every trip. Here's the working.
Why three days feels like a chase
Tokyo's big sights don't sit near each other. Senso-ji is way out east in Asakusa. Meiji Jingu and the Shibuya crossing are west. teamLab and the bay are south. Crossing between zones eats 30–45 minutes each way, which is fine once and soul-destroying four times a day.
With three days you either skip a whole zone or spend serious hours underground. Those three-day itineraries all over the internet? They quietly assume you're out the door at 8am and never sit down. Real people leave the hotel at 9:30.
The four-day shape that works
- Day 1 — west: Meiji Jingu early (the forest really is quiet before 10), Harajuku, lunch around Omotesando, then Shibuya crossing and SHIBUYA SKY at dusk.
- Day 2 — east: Senso-ji before the tour buses (aim for 8:30), snacks on Nakamise, Ueno's museums or market, Akihabara if that's your thing.
- Day 3 — south: teamLab, Tsukiji outer market for lunch, Ginza, ramen street under Tokyo Station.
- Day 4 — yours: whatever the first three days made you curious about. Shimokitazawa for vintage, Nakameguro for coffee, or a Kamakura day trip.
Notice the trick: no day crosses the city twice. That one rule saves about an hour a day, and it's the same rule our planner enforces on everything it builds.
What changes the number
- Kids: everything takes longer and the 3pm meltdown is real. Four days of stuff needs five calendar days.
- Food-first trip: still four days — food doesn't need daylight, so your evenings just start doing the heavy lifting.
- Been before: the zone problem disappears once you drop the icons. Two or three days in the neighbourhoods you missed beats redoing the hits.
- Day trips: Kamakura, Nikko and Hakone each honestly cost a full day. Add them on top, don't squeeze them in.
The mistake to avoid
Don't book the hotel first. A hotel that's "central" in the abstract can still be 40 minutes from where your actual days happen. Sort the days, then pick the bed that shortens them. That's the order we build plans in, and it's the biggest single time-saver we know.