On May 3rd last year, I stood in front of a ramen shop ten minutes before opening and watched a queue of nearly 50 people already forming.

It wasn't even 10:00 AM yet. A man in a Uniqlo windbreaker was silently reading a newspaper, resigned to the wait. We never got in.

That Golden Week, I fought crowds everywhere I went and came back more exhausted than when it started.

This year, I want to do it smarter. So I wrote down everything I learned the hard way — maybe it saves someone else the same trouble.

1. Work the "Reverse Commute" — but Tokyo has changed

A few years ago, the advice was simple: stay in Tokyo during Golden Week, because everyone leaves and the city gets quiet.

That's still partially true. Business districts do empty out.

But inbound tourism has changed the equation.…