Best Things to Do in Tokyo

Tokyo is not one city but hundreds of small ones stitched together by the world's best train network. The trick to enjoying it is to pick a few neighbourhoods each day and explore them properly on foot, rather than racing between landmarks that sit forty minutes apart.

Tokyo rewards depth, not distance. One neighbourhood walked slowly beats four seen through a train window.

Start early at Senso-ji, Asakusa

Tokyo's oldest temple is beautiful at any hour, but before 8am the Nakamise shopping street is empty and incense smoke drifts through quiet courtyards. Walk down to the Sumida River afterwards for views of Tokyo Skytree, then follow the river north to Sumida Park.

Asakusa is also the best place to start a first day because it is unmistakably old Tokyo — low buildings, craft shops, kimono rentals — which makes the contrast with Shibuya later that evening land properly.

Cross Shibuya — then watch it from above

The scramble crossing is the postcard, but the better experience is watching it from above. Three options, in rough order of effort:

1. The free walkway inside Shibuya Station and the windows of the Starbucks in Tsutaya — busy, but costs nothing.
2. Shibuya Sky, the rooftop deck on Shibuya Scramble Square — book a timed slot online, sunset slots go first.
3. Shibuya Stream and the smaller side streets, which are where you actually want to eat afterwards.

Eat your way through a depachika

The basement food halls of department stores — Isetan in Shinjuku, Takashimaya in Nihonbashi, Mitsukoshi in Ginza — are edible museums: wagashi sweets, tempura counters, immaculate fruit, bento of every kind. Buy something and eat it in a nearby park rather than standing in the aisle.

Prices drop on prepared food in the last hour or two before closing. That is a genuine local habit, not a tourist hack.

Get lost in the small neighbourhoods

The Tokyo people remember is rarely the Tokyo on the postcard:

• Yanaka — old wooden houses, a huge cemetery full of cherry trees, temple cats and a shopping street that has barely changed in decades.
• Shimokitazawa — vintage clothing, tiny record shops, independent coffee and a theatre scene.
• Koenji — live music, second-hand fashion, standing bars under the tracks.
• Kichijoji — Inokashira Park, boat rental, and the Ghibli Museum next door (tickets are released monthly and sell out; book well ahead).
• Nakameguro — a canal lined with cherry trees, low-key design shops and good coffee.

teamLab and modern Tokyo

The teamLab digital art venues are ticketed and time-slotted, and they do sell out. Check which venue is currently open before you plan around it — they have moved and rebranded more than once. Pair a visit with the Odaiba waterfront or one of the newer complexes like Azabudai Hills or Toranomon Hills for the full contemporary-Tokyo contrast.

Ramen, yakitori and izakaya nights

Head to Omoide Yokocho in Shinjuku for tiny yakitori counters, or Ebisu Yokocho for a livelier izakaya alley. For ramen, ignore the rankings and look for the queue of office workers at 12:30pm — that is your shop.

Day trips worth the train fare

• Kamakura — coastal temples and the Great Buddha, about an hour away.
• Nikko — mountain shrines and waterfalls, best as a long day or an overnight.
• Hakone — hot springs and, on a clear day, Mount Fuji across the lake.
• Yokohama — Chinatown, the waterfront and a completely different pace, 30 minutes out.

How to structure a first visit

A workable shape for four days: Asakusa and Ueno on day one, Shibuya–Harajuku–Shinjuku on day two, a day trip on day three, and Tsukiji Outer Market plus the smaller neighbourhoods on day four. Keep one evening completely unplanned — Tokyo is at its best when you follow a street because it looked interesting.