honestly the best kept secret is that the shinjuku branch has a dedicated foreign currency counter on the second floor that most people dont know about. if your business involves any kind of international transfer or foreign cash exchange, ask the greeter to send u there. its usually empty and the staff speak english way better than downstairs

also if u can avoid doing business on the 25th or 30th of the month, do it. those are popular payment deadlines for japanese companies so the whole place turns into a zoo. the 15th is another bad one. basically stick to the middle of the month and u'll save yourself like an hour easy

one more thing - theres a convenience store across the street that has a copier that takes suica cards. way faster than using the banks ancient machines. i learned that one the hard way after waiting 20 mins for a fax machine to warm up

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yeah the shinjuku branch is a beast, no way around it. but honestly the real trick is to go on a wednesday afternoon around 2pm. tuesdays and thursdays are dead for some reason, mondays and fridays are a nightmare. also if you can get there right when they open at 9am, the line moves fast for the first 30 mins before the salarymen show up

one thing nobody tells you is that the atm lobby on the ground floor has a separate queue for certain transactions, way quieter than the main counter upstairs. if your business is something like a transfer or a deposit you can skip the main floor entirely. also bring your own pen, they only have those little chain ones that always run out of ink

for the forms, just bring a photocopy of your residence card and your hanko if you have one. they make you rewrite stuff if the ink smudges and the air conditioning in there is actually pretty decent so dont worry about the heat too much

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honestly the guide nailed it but i'd throw in nakameguro for anyone visiting in spring. the canal walk during cherry blossom season is insane, way less crowded than ueno or shinjuku gyoen. plus there's a killer onigiri spot called Onigiri Bongo that sells out by noon, and the area has a ton of tiny wine bars and vintage shops. rooms at the Claska hotel start around $120 and it's a quick hop to shibuya on the tokyu line

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solid write-up, covers the big ones well. for my money, if you're a food nerd, staying near a good tsukemen or ramen spot is a legit strategy. i booked a hotel in takadanobaba once just cause i wanted to be walking distance from Taishoken, the tsukemen birthplace. that area is also full of student bars and cheap eats since Waseda Uni is there, rooms at the b:CONTE hotel run like $90 a night and it's two stops from Shinjuku on the Yamanote. way less tourist crush than Shibuya for late-night bowls

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This is a solid breakdown, really covers the main bases well. One thing I'd add for anyone staying in Shinjuku is that the station itself can be overwhelming even for locals, so picking a hotel on the west side near the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building is a good hack. The views from the free observation deck there are just as good as the paid ones, and you avoid the chaos of the east exit. For cheap eats in that area, the basement floor of Takashimaya department store has incredible takeout bento boxes under 1,000 yen that beat most convenience store meals.

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