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Free travel game

Side Quest

Turn Tokyo into an adventure.

Tell us where you are. Pick your kind of adventure. We'll give you something unexpected to do. No account. No app. Just go.

Start a side quest

Play anywhere · Complete quests · Earn points · Screenshot your wins · Challenge your friends

  1. Step 1

    Pick your place

    Tell us what city you're exploring.

  2. Step 2

    Get your quest

    Choose a category or let us surprise you.

  3. Step 3

    Complete + share

    Finish the challenge, earn points and screenshot your achievement.

Playing Side Quest in Tokyo

Tokyo rewards small, precise curiosity far more than big landmark days. The quests here push you into vending-machine streets, one station past your stop and the convenience-store rituals that structure ordinary life in the city.

Best time to play
Weekday evenings between six and nine, when neighbourhoods fill with people who live there rather than visitors.
Local rule
Eating and drinking while walking is quietly frowned on. Finish it beside the machine or the shop.
Honest note
You will see more of Tokyo in one residential backstreet than in an hour queuing for a famous crossing.

Where are you right now?

No location access needed — just tell us the city.

What kind of side quest?

How far do you want to go?

Your side quest score today

0 points

0 all-time

100 points to Explorer

Scores are saved in this browser on this device only. No account, no email, nothing sent anywhere. Clearing your browser data clears your score.

Side quests written for Tokyo

These challenges only work here. Play them in any order — the game will mix them with quests that work anywhere in Japan.

Vending Machine Roulette

Food & Drink · Quick · 50 points · 10 min

Buy a drink from a street vending machine using only the picture on the can.

The catch: No translating the label until the can is empty.

Bonus +25: Find a hot drink option and try that too.

One Station Too Far

Explore · Adventure · 200 points · 1–2 hrs

Ride one station past wherever you were going and explore that exit instead.

The catch: No looking up the neighbourhood before you surface.

Bonus +50: Find a shrine tucked between buildings and stop there.

The Convenience Store Test

Local Culture · Easy · 100 points · 30 min

Build a full meal from a convenience store and eat it properly.

The catch: Everything from a single store, nothing from a restaurant.

Bonus +25: Ask staff to heat something for you in Japanese.

Stacked City

Photo Quest · Easy · 100 points · 30 min

Photograph one frame with at least four layers of Tokyo stacked in it.

The catch: No cropping and no landmark in the frame.

Bonus +25: Get a train into the shot.

Share your Side Quest

Tokyo Side Quest

Send Tokyo side quests to whoever you're travelling with. The link opens this city ready to play.

https://buybeforeyoufly.com/side-quest/tokyo

#BuyBeforeYouFly #SideQuestTravel #TokyoSideQuest

What is a travel side quest?

A side quest is a small, self-contained challenge you can complete wherever you happen to be standing. Side Quest is a free browser-based travel game from Buy Before You Fly: you tell it which city you are exploring, choose the kind of adventure you are in the mood for, and it hands you something unexpected to do. Every quest is built from an objective, a constraint that makes it interesting, and an optional bonus — so instead of another list of the same twenty attractions, you get a reason to walk down a different street, order something you cannot pronounce, or look at one painting for twenty minutes.

There is nothing to install and nothing to sign up for. It works on the phone in your pocket, in the gap between a late checkout and an evening flight, or on a full free day in a city you have never visited.

How Side Quest works

  1. Pick your place. Search for the city you are exploring. No location permission and no precise GPS required.
  2. Choose a category. Food, museums, landmarks, exploring, photography, culture, outdoors or hidden gems — or let the dice decide.
  3. Get your quest. Each one comes with a mission, a catch and a bonus objective worth extra points.
  4. Earn points. Quick quests are worth 50 points and epic ones 500, with bonuses from 25 to 100 on top.
  5. Screenshot and share. Completing a quest turns it into an achievement card built to fit a phone screenshot.

Side Quest ideas for travelers

Food & Drink

Markets, bakeries, street food and the dish locals order without looking at the menu.

Museums

One room, one object, one story — museum challenges that beat drifting past everything.

Must-Do

The landmark experiences, with a twist that stops them feeling like a checklist.

Explore

Neighbourhood walks, wrong turns on purpose and streets guidebooks skip.

Photo Quest

Small photo missions that train you to notice details other travellers walk past.

Local Culture

Language, music, craft, ritual and everyday life where you happen to be standing.

Outdoors

Parks, water, viewpoints and green detours between the busy bits.

Hidden Gems

The small, quiet, odd and overlooked corners of a city.

Play Side Quest with friends

Side Quest has no accounts, no friend lists and no leaderboards to join — which is exactly what makes it easy to play together. Everyone opens the page on their own phone, plays the same city, and compares screenshots at dinner. Agree on a target before you split up: first to 500 points, most quests completed before sunset, or one epic quest each. Points are kept in your own browser, so the only scoreboard is the one you keep between you.

  • 100 Explorer
  • 500 Wanderer
  • 1,000 Adventurer
  • 2,500 Globetrotter
  • 5,000 Side Quest Legend

Explore more with Buy Before You Fly

Side Quest is free and always will be. When you want the rest of the trip sorted, the same site covers it: