Tokyo travel guide: sights, food and local favourites

Japan's capital is a string of villages more than one city: shrines and shotengai shopping streets a few minutes from the world's busiest stations. Old Tokyo (shitamachi) lives on in Asakusa, Yanaka and along the Sumida river; locals eat at counters, drink in yokocho alleys and soak in neighbourhood sento baths.

Must-see

The sights to fit in even on a short trip.

History & museums ⁹⁹

Where to eat ²⁹⁹

Night out ⁸⁴

Locals only ⁶⁸

Walking routes ¹¹

01Yanaka and Nezu: old Tokyo from Nippori to Nezu Shrine3.3 km · 4 h · 9 stopsThe best-preserved shitamachi streets in central Tokyo: temple lanes and a cherry-lined cemetery, an artist's house-studio, a bathhouse turned gallery, the lantern-lined Yanaka Ginza shopping street and the winding Hebimichi lane down to Nezu Shrine.
02Asakusa back streets to Kappabashi and Kuramae3.8 km · 3 h 45 min · 8 stopsFrom the Thunder Gate and Senso-ji through the old entertainment streets of Asakusa to Kappabashi, the restaurant-supply street with knives, pottery and plastic food samples, then down the Sumida riverside to quiet Kuramae.
03Basho's Fukagawa: Morishita to Kiyosumi Garden and the art museum3 km · 4 h 25 min · 8 stopsThe walk the Koto Culture Foundation leads along the Sumida: from the Basho Memorial Museum past the shrine and garden on the site of the poet's hut, over Mannen Bridge to Kiyosumi Garden with its stepping stones, the Edo townhouse museum, and on through coffee-roaster streets to the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
04Nihonbashi to Ningyocho: merchant Tokyo3.1 km · 2 h 35 min · 7 stopsKilometre zero of Japan's roads, Japan's first department store and the new Coredo Muromachi district with its rooftop shrine, then east to the money-luck Koami Shrine, the old shops of Ningyocho's Amazake Yokocho, Suitengu and the Meijiza theatre.
05Kagurazaka: geisha lanes and stone alleys2.5 km · 2 h 35 min · 8 stopsFrom the Edo daimyo garden of Koishikawa Korakuen, up the slope from Iidabashi past the red Zenkoku-ji, into the cobbled Hyogo Yokocho and Kakurenbo Yokocho where ryotei restaurants hide behind black walls, to Kengo Kuma's renovated Akagi Shrine.
06Shibuya to Meiji Jingu via Cat Street3.9 km · 3 h 50 min · 8 stopsFrom the scramble crossing and Hachiko up through Miyashita Park and the boutiques of Cat Street to Omotesando, Takeshita Street and the forest shrine of Meiji Jingu beside Yoyogi Park.
07Nakameguro to Ebisu via Daikanyama5.8 km · 4 h 50 min · 8 stopsAlong the Meguro River, up to the hilltop Saigoyama Park, through the 1919 Asakura family house and Daikanyama's low-rise lanes and T-Site bookstore, ending at Ebisu Garden Place and the lantern-lit Ebisu Yokocho.
08Imperial Palace East Gardens to Yurakucho's under-track bars4.9 km · 4 h 15 min · 8 stopsFrom Tokyo Station's red-brick Marunouchi side through the Ote-mon gate into the East Gardens and up to the stone base of the Edo Castle keep, around the moat to Nijubashi and Sakuradamon, through Hibiya Park and finish at the izakaya under Yurakucho's railway arches.
09Jimbocho book town to Kanda Myojin2.6 km · 3 h 35 min · 7 stopsBrowse the second-hand bookshops of Jimbocho, climb to the student quarter of Ochanomizu with the green-domed Nikolai-do, cross Hijiri Bridge over the Kanda River to the black-lacquered Confucian hall of Yushima Seido, visit Kanda Myojin, the shrine of Tokyo's business people, and finish at Yushima Tenmangu.
10Shibamata: Tora-san's town to the Edo River ferry2.3 km · 3 h 45 min · 7 stopsA day in old eastern Tokyo: the Tora-san statue at the station, the dango shops of the temple approach, the unpainted wood carvings of Shibamata Taishakuten, tea in the Yamamoto-tei garden, the Tora-san Museum and the riverbank of the Edo River.
11Mount Takao Trail 1: Takaosanguchi to the summit3.7 km · 4 h · 8 stopsTokyo's sacred mountain on its broad, mostly paved main trail: past the cable car station and the monkey park, the octopus cedar and Yakuo-in temple with its tengu statues, to the 599 m summit with Fuji on clear days. Ride the cable car or chairlift to halve the climb.

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Tokyo

Must-see

History & museums 99

Where to eat 299

Night out 84

Locals only 68

Walking routes 11

History & museums ⁹⁹

Where to eat ²⁹⁹

Night out ⁸⁴

Locals only ⁶⁸

Walking routes ¹¹