Rainy day ideas

So, the weather in Tokyo looks awful for the near future. Any recommendations for sights that arent ruined by the rain?

Luckily the weather is supposed to get better tomorrow and stay fine for the next few days.

Ghibli Museum. Buy an umbrella and stroll through the many temples and shrines. Don't let the wet weather ruin your stay.

Touring in the rain can be inconvenient and a little messy. If you have a JR Rail Pass, check the TV's weather forecast the night before and early morning. The forecast then by Cities are fairly accurate. If rain is forecasted for Tokyo, look for outer Cities where rain is not forecasted. In our case, we saw that Sendai would be cloudy but no rain. We took the early JR train and spent a day in Sendai and returned to Tokyo's showers.

Note that the Ghibli Museum requires advance reservations. You cannot just go there. You can make reservations at Lawson convenience stores (with some Japanese language skills). The museum is likely to be booked out on weekends, but available on weekdays.

Rain, rain, rain, that's what I exprienced for the past five days in Tokyo. I had to cancel my hiking trip in Kamakura. I couldn't go too far away. But I found strolling in the rain at Ueno Park was quite enjoyable. Fresh air, birds still singing and homeless cats sometimes play hide & seek with you.

Of course the department stores were crowded under the rain. So were the cafes, pubs, bookstores...

It is also time to look for fine-dining in the city. I tried the Korean BBQ black fur Japanese beef (üK–Ń˜a‹)in Ueno and All-you-can-eat Shabu Shabu at Shinjuku's Mo-mo-paradise. Both cost 1980. The food were marvellous and inexpensive.

Visit Miraikan (a museum which features technology - really interesting) - then visit Fuji TV and stroll around PalletteTown/Venus Fort and Aqua City.

If you have a JR-railpass, then do what I've done so far during rainy days on trips to japan: Japan is a big country, and if it rains in Tokyo, maybe it's dry weather in ie Nagoya or Sendai or Nagano or ???, thnx to the JR-railpass it's very easy and fast to go somewhere else on a rainy day. Just check the weather forecast on NHK TV early in the morning, this weather forecast is easy to understand because they use all kinds of symbols (like a umbrella for rainy parts of Japan or a sun for the sunny parts or a snowman if it's snowing,lol). On my trips to Japan, I've succesfully used this 'system' of anticipating on weather conditions and never had many rainy days. Of course, it also depends on the time of year, and preparation of your trip, I mean, I don't go to Japan during the rain seasons, or when it's extemely hot or cold. The best time to go to Japan is late march,early april or the last 3 weeks of november and first week of december. This is also the season of the cherry-blossoms (march,april) and autumn colors (november,december)

If you're a tourist, any museum is fine in rain. Even better in rain, because it's such a waste to stay in a big museum all day long when it's sunny. My favorite museum is the Edo-Tokyo Museum.
http://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/

If you're a resident, go see a movie.

Tokyo Edo Museum absolutely fabulous; Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, but you may get a bit damp getting there: and agree: use your JR pass if you have one: spending time in Tokyo Station alone is amazing for watching the daily hustle and bustle. Ginza department stores. kabuki theatre. Roppongi Hills.....there is loads...