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Free travel game
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 questPlay anywhere · Complete quests · Earn points · Screenshot your wins · Challenge your friends
Step 1
Tell us what city you're exploring.
Step 2
Choose a category or let us surprise you.
Step 3
Finish the challenge, earn points and screenshot your achievement.
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.
No location access needed — just tell us the city.
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.
These challenges only work here. Play them in any order — the game will mix them with quests that work anywhere in Japan.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Explore · Easy · 100 points · 45 min
Walk a Tokyo block using only streets too narrow for two cars.
The catch: No main roads and no map for the first twenty minutes.
Bonus +25: Photograph a hand-painted shop sign.
Food & Drink · Easy · 100 points · 45 min
Eat at a standing bar or counter where there are no chairs at all.
The catch: No table, no phone on the counter.
Bonus +50: Order a second thing you cannot name.
Photo Quest · Quick · 50 points · 20 min
Photograph Tokyo neon reflected in something — glass, water, metal, a train window.
The catch: The neon must only appear as a reflection.
Bonus +25: Get a person in silhouette in the same frame.
Local Culture · Adventure · 200 points · 1–2 hrs
Visit a neighbourhood sento and follow every rule properly.
The catch: No rushing and absolutely no phone past the lockers.
Bonus +75: Talk to someone in the changing room, even badly.
Local Culture · Adventure · 200 points · 1–2 hrs
Find a plaque, stone or shrine marking something that stood here before 1945.
The catch: You must find it on foot, not by searching online first.
Bonus +50: Find a tree that survived and photograph it.
Food & Drink · Easy · 100 points · 45 min
Go down into a department store food hall and buy one perfect thing.
The catch: One item only, however tempting.
Bonus +25: Accept a free sample and ask what it is.
Explore · Easy · 100 points · 1 hr
Ride the Yamanote loop and get off at the station whose name you like most.
The catch: You must commit to the first name that appeals.
Bonus +50: Walk twenty minutes from that exit before eating.
Local Culture · Bold · 300 points · 1 hr
Ask someone in a restaurant to recommend what you should order, then order it.
The catch: No substitutions, no matter what arrives.
Bonus +75: Learn how to say the dish name correctly.
Hidden Gems · Adventure · 200 points · 1–2 hrs
Find a free public viewpoint over Tokyo instead of paying for a tower.
The catch: No paid observation decks.
Bonus +75: Identify three landmarks without checking.
Museums · Easy · 100 points · 1 hr
Enter a Tokyo museum and see one room properly instead of all of them.
The catch: You may not walk the whole museum.
Bonus +25: Sketch the object badly in a notebook.
Outdoors · Easy · 100 points · 1–2 hrs
Follow a Tokyo canal or river path until it stops.
The catch: No crossing back to the main street.
Bonus +50: Find someone fishing and watch for five minutes.
Must-Do · Epic · 500 points · 3–4 hrs
Be out in Tokyo before 6am and watch the city start.
The catch: No taxis and no going back to bed.
Bonus +150: Eat breakfast where the market workers eat.
Share your 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
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.
Markets, bakeries, street food and the dish locals order without looking at the menu.
One room, one object, one story — museum challenges that beat drifting past everything.
The landmark experiences, with a twist that stops them feeling like a checklist.
Neighbourhood walks, wrong turns on purpose and streets guidebooks skip.
Small photo missions that train you to notice details other travellers walk past.
Language, music, craft, ritual and everyday life where you happen to be standing.
Parks, water, viewpoints and green detours between the busy bits.
The small, quiet, odd and overlooked corners of a city.
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.
Side Quest is free and always will be. When you want the rest of the trip sorted, the same site covers it:
Country-by-country guides, things to do and short itineraries.
Arrivals, transport, wi-fi, food and connections for major hubs.
Mobile data in 200+ destinations, installed before you land.
A downloadable plan built around your pace, interests and budget.