Are you seeking an exciting new holiday destination? Do you want a more fast-paced city break than your average Euro-trip? Then Tokyo is the right place for you.

One of the most popular cities in the world, Tokyo is the unique and vibrant capital of Japan, and with a population of over 12 million people it's also one of the busiest. The city's colourful fusion of both ultra-modern and ultra-traditional cultures, the streets and hubs packed at all hours with shoppers, workers, and tourists, and the large scale-downtown architecture decorated with countless flashing neon lights and video screens provide an exhilarating assault on the senses. Exciting stuff of course, but Tokyo's charms could just as easily be a bit of a culture shock for a Brit visiting for the first-time.

Luckily we have Kylie Clare from the Japanese National Tourist Office live in the studio to provide some helpful hints and tips on how to get the most of your city break in Tokyo. She'll be offering advice on how to find the best shops, the places to go for those wild nights out, and the top sightseeing spots to visit during the day. As well as pointing you towards the numerous attractions you won't want to miss Kylie will also offer practical advise for the Brit abroad on subjects such as travel, cost, and where to stay.

So before you pack your bags and head for the Bullet Train why not tune into our webchat and submit your own questions to our expert. Once you've heard this exclusive advice be sure to enter Nurofen Express's amazing giveaway in which you can win a city break to Tokyo.

For more information on how to experience life twice as fast with Nurofen Express and to be in with a chance to win a competition to Tokyo visit www.nurofen.co.uk/tokyo

H: Glenn Thompsett, host
K: Kylie Claire, Japanese National Tourist Office
J: Jon Harding, Virgin Atlantic

H: Hello and welcome to the Travel Show brought to you today by Nurofen Express, I'm Glenn Thompsett.  Now, are you seeking an exciting new holiday destination? Do you want a more fast-paced city break than your average Euro trip? Well, Tokyo is the right place for you then. At the end of the show we will be giving you details on a competition for you to win a trip to Tokyo courtesy of Nurofen Express. More details coming up at the end of the show as to what you will actually get. Well I'm joined today by Kylie Claire from the Japanese National Tourist Office, and Jon Harding from Virgin Atlantic. Welcome to both of you. They're here to provide some helpful tips and hints on how to get the most from your city break in Tokyo – including advice on how to find the best shops, very important, the places to go for those wild nights out, and the top sightseeing spots to visit during the course of the day. Welcome to the show both of you. Starting with you Kylie – we'll talk about Tokyo in just a minute, but why Japan? Why is Japan your place of choice?

K: It's an amazing country, it is so incredibly diverse – people do think of Japan and they think of Tokyo, but there is so much more to Japan than just Tokyo. You've got the amazing traditional aspects of Japan with the Sumo wrestlers and Geisha, and the Japanese gardens, but there's also lots of things like skiing which people don't often realise, Japan's amazing for skiing, it's hosted two winter Olympics, there's beautiful islands for scuba diving and snorkelling, so Japan has something for absolutely anyone

H: So it – it's a place of seasons John isn't it? You've got the four seasons there

J: It is very much so, I think as Kylie says the diversity of the country extends to the climate as well, you can ski up north, and an awful lot of people from all over the world now are coming to Japan for the skiing, increasingly from the UK as well. Equally you can go down to the Okinawa chain of islands, and sun yourself or go snorkelling just off tropical beaches. I mean it's a beautiful, beautiful climate.  They do get all four seasons and a lot of great weather along the way, so no, very, very special in many ways

H: Ok. Kylie, I know you spent what a number of years out there

K: Yes 3 years

H: To learn the culture and everything, because you are from Australia originally

K: Yes that's right

H: From Melbourne, but tell us a little bit about Tokyo, why Tokyo for you – what's so special about it?

K: It is so dynamic, it's changing all the time. There is an amazing range of museums, the shopping's amazing, the restaurant scene is fantastic, Tokyo has more Michelin stars than any other city in the world. It's not just Japanese food, you can get any food in Tokyo done exceptionally well, and despite being a modern city it's still got a lot of traditional Japanese culture there, there's still beautiful temples and gardens, traditional little shops selling all sorts of traditional things

H: It's a real buzz there, I mean we've got some interesting taster pictures coming up for you very shortly, just a little sort of overview if you like of what you can see when you go there, but it's this neon buzz all the time, if you look out of the window of your hotel window I reckon at night time you need sunglasses because of the neon, the neon flashing all the time

K: Yes, it's a city that never sleeps

H: Yes

K: There is something to do at any time of the day, bars are open all night, it's an amazing city, lots of energy, things on all the time, it's great for live music and things as well.  Lots to do

H: Ok, Jon you, as I say, work for Virgin now but you worked out there in a different capacity didn't you a number of years ago? You got a real flavour of the place?

J: That's right, I mean I have a passion for the country. I was lucky enough to be out there for 3 years as well with Virgin and yes absolutely, I met my wife, albeit she's from the UK but we met out there. Our daughter was born there, we love the country, I mean again as Kylie says there's just a huge energy to the place, and this combination of this wonderful, wonderful modern city with the more traditional as well.  It does have something for everyone and you can go and walk through beautiful, beautiful traditional Japanese gardens and temples and stay at beautiful Japanese boarding houses, or riochan as they call them, and at the same time as experiencing this very modern, this very modern country and the world's second largest economy, I mean even now it's just buzzing on so many levels – very special

H: Ok we are giving away one pair of tickets to this wonderful city, Tokyo, in Japan courtesy of Nurofen Express. Now you get of course, as I mentioned those two tickets, you get 4 night's stay there and you get bullet train passes. Talking of the bullet train, James from London has been in touch with us, says "what's the best way to travel in Tokyo?  I believe they have really fast bullet trains over there."

K: They do but the bullet trains go at about 300km an hour, so you don't need to use it in Tokyo. In Tokyo the best thing to use is the Metro, it only costs about £3.50 a day for the pass for the entire day – much cheaper than London. And then for travelling between cities, so if you were going from Tokyo down to Kyoto, it's best to get the bullet train. Very fast, very comfortable ride

H: Ok

K: And a great way to –

H: Exchange rate, how are we doing – what's the exchange rate, asks Sarah Lee, between English and Japanese currency at the moment?

K: It's very favourable for British travellers, it's about 210 Yen to the pound, which is a very good exchange rate

H: Oh ok that's nice, ok.  Shopping – where's the best place to go?  If you're going to Tokyo, you know we look at all the travel guides, we go onto the internet to look at travel tips, where to go – what's the best place in your opinion, somebody who has got first hand experience of Tokyo, where's the best place to shop out there?

K: It depends what you're after, if you're after electronics, Akihabara harbour is fantastic because you get products that aren't released here yet, mightn't ever be released here, and just an amazing array of goods, because all of the big cameras and things, they generally are from Japan – things like Nikon and Sony –

H: And I guess they get the newer models first do they out there?

K: They do

H: So if you want to be ahead of your mates, pop out there to get them

K: That's right – at a cheaper price too

H: And of course the home of Nintendo isn't it?

J: Yes very much so, very much so and it is such a wonderful opportunity to get out, to get your electrical goods, as you say ahead of anybody else, cheaper – you could probably afford the flight with what you would save on the electrical goods you could buy out there, so another sort of great reason to go, and yes I think as Kylie says on the electronic goods side, but in terms of other goods, consumer shopping Omotesando, most of the, if not all of the big brand names are represented in Tokyo. Japanese people, just like people from the rest of the world love fashion, love design, love brand

H: What about the, you know you go out and buy an electrical item out there – is it compatible when you come back here – cameras for instance, I mean video cameras, is it a PAL system, I'm not sure?

J: Very much so, you can buy either or or both, so you can buy PAL or NTSC, whatever, they have the complete range –

K: Because they are made for international manufacturers, they make export models so –

H: Of course, ok. Alright well if you want a little flavour of what to see when you go out to Tokyo, check this out

Video footage

H: You're watching of course the Travel Show with Nurofen, and we're talking Tokyo, and Tokyo is a fabulous place to go if you want something a little bit different. You say earlier Kylie, it's a place for all age groups, young and old alike – what can it offer maybe the older market?

K: For the older market, there's beautiful gardens in Japan, and in Tokyo as well, Happoen is an old imperial garden where you can go and have green tea ceremony, and there's also temples, the most famous temple in Tokyo is Sensoji temple which is a Buddhist temple, the street leading up to the temple has lots of old traditional shops that sell traditional rice cakes and fans and kimonos, you can have your fortune told at the temple, so it's quite a fun temple to go and visit, and they do shrines in a beautiful big garden, just near Omotesando, the shopping street – it's in a huge garden so it's really nice to go and relax in the quiet garden after doing some shopping. Other things – you can go on a river cruise in Tokyo or a Bay cruise – there's lots of things to do for any age group

H: Ok – what about flying time Jon, what are we talking about in terms of getting there?

J: Probably, depending on how strong the wind is, probably about 10 or 11 hours

H: So it's not too bad

J: It's not too bad and you know once you're there there are many things to refresh you, also in Japan massage is very, very popular so Japanese massage, or Shiatsu, something which Japanese people like very ,very much and again I'd recommend that to anyone visiting Japan

K: Yes it's fantastic

J: Very inexpensive and a big part of everybody's life there, so yes I'd certainly recommend doing that

H: We mentioned a little bit earlier the different seasons we have out there, I mean you've got the four seasons – how drastically different are those temperatures? Summer temperatures to winter temperatures for instance?

J: It's reasonably warm, I mean when I was in Japan I'd say early to – it could get up to 30 degrees at its height. It probably goes down generally not much below 5 degrees unless you go up into the north, into the ski resorts where clearly it can get a little bit lower, so it's very very pleasant generally, and you do have the four seasons which I think certainly coming from the UK is very, very popular so it's a lovely climate

H: Sounds an exciting city to go to, we've got lots of questions coming in, thanks for them and keep them coming by the way as well. Clive from London says "in London" – yes Clive from London – "in London we're often complaining about a lack of work/life balance" – I know the feeling – "I know that Tokyo is a hectic place much like London." I would tell you the rest of the question but it's suddenly disappeared from my screen – here we are "it's a very hectic place as London is. So do they have the same problem when it comes to balancing their lives?"  Do they sort of work hard but play hard as well?

K: They certainly do, yes, it's very popular to go to a Japanese izakaya which is like a pub but when Japanese people drink they usually eat as well so you get lots of Tapas-sized dishes to try so they're great for tourists as well because you can try lots of different Japanese dishes in small portions, so they do definitely like to go out for a drink after work and then on weekends the popular thing to do is to go and stay in an Onsen resort so hot springs – so the spa culture is really popular in Japan, has been for hundreds of years, so they're natural hot spring spas, because Japan's volcanic, so there's these hot springs all over the country and it's a great thing to do. You can go and stay in a traditional inn and relax in the spas

H: Sounds very, very enticing doesn't it? Are you tempted yet? We've got a pair of tickets coming up don't forget, we'll direct you to that website towards the end of the program, you've got a four night's stay in Tokyo with a fast train, bullet train passes as well.  That's coming up for you very, very shortly. What about the food out there because we mentioned very exotic, you mentioned before we came on air fish head soup – now that sounds very novel!

K: Very rare, very traditional, very rare – the most famous foods of course are sushi in the UK but once you get to Japan there is so much more on offer in Japan. In winter they have amazing hot pot dishes with things like beef or chicken in them. Great warming, winter food. There's lots of noodle dishes which are fantastic – you can get a big bowl of ramen noodles for about £2.50, really big, filling lunch when you're sightseeing.  Ton Kut Su or scampi-type dishes – there's a huge variety –

H: What about the price, the price of food out there. I mean if you go for a night out, a couple of people, couple of bottles of wine or whatever you want to drink out there – what are you typically looking at Jon?

J: Probably not much more than about £10, I mean if you're going to get a couple of beers and a bowl of noodles or a Ton Kat su it does compare very, very favourably, certainly by comparison to London, I would say it's actually much cheaper

K: Yes

J: So it's you know, your pounds, particularly when you buy your Yen at the favourable exchange rate at the moment, will go a long way

H: Ok, that's good to know

K: And there's no tipping in Japan either so that –

H: No tipping?

K: Yes

H: So what happens if you do offer a tip, do they think it's quite rude?

K: I have had a waiter chase me out of a restaurant to give it back before –

H: Really?

K: Yes, absolutely no tipping

H: Good grief. Amazing.  Ok so no tipping in Tokyo, remember that one

K: That saves as well

H: Ok, Adam Butcher has been in touch with us, he says – he's a younger person from our younger audience. He says "Where's a good place in Tokyo to go partying?" Obviously younger folk go out there, they want to have a night out, let their hair down maybe

K: Yes Shibuya and Shinjuku are very good and Roppongi as well – there's no shortage of bars and clubs

J: There's something for everyone, I mean really the full range – I think Roppongi is particularly famous but again it's close to Shibuya

K: Shinjuku

J: Shinjuku yes would be the places but yes absolutely – I mean again it really is a city that never sleeps, and if you don't want to sleep you don't have to

H: Ok, so to wrap up really Kylie and to summarise – for somebody who's never ever been to Tokyo before, what would you say to them? Obviously you would say go, but why?

K: Because there is so much to see and do, it doesn't matter what sort of age group they are, what their interests are, they would definitely be something for them in Japan, and it is affordable, it is easy, everyone studies English for at least 6 years in Japan so you can get by, language isn't a problem.  You'll have an amazing time – really there's a modern culture, traditional culture, it does have everything

H: And Jon?

J: It is the best kept secret on the planet – go. It's very, very special, you know rich culture, great food, very affordable and very, very friendly and particularly to foreigners, lots of English being spoken so if you haven't been, go and if you have – go again

H: Ok well Kylie Claire from the Japanese National Tourist Office and also Jon Harding from Virgin Atlantic – experts in their own field on Japan and Tokyo particularly – thanks for joining us. For your chance to enter, all you have to do is go to this website www.nurofen.co.uk/tokyo, the prize is for a pair of tickets, staying for four nights and you'll also receive two bullet train passes. Good luck, so it's www.nurofen.co.uk/tokyo, from all of us here good luck in the competition and thanks for joining us. Bye bye