8 Tokyo Days, Each One a Different City

The Yamanote Line loops the city in about an hour. That sounds efficient until you notice that most visitors spend three or four of those hours a day riding between sights that never belonged in the same afternoon. Tokyo rewards a different approach. It is less one city than a federation of villages, each with its own pace, food and sense of time. Give each of them a full day and something happens: you stop commuting and start noticing. Here are eight days, grouped by neighbourhood, so the transit map fades and the streets come forward.

The East Side Remembers Edo

Start where the city still feels oldest. Day one belongs to Asakusa, and it should begin early. Sensō-ji’s grounds never close, and before 8am the incense smoke drifts over a courtyard used mostly by locals bowing on their way to work. By ten, Nakamise-dori fills with shoppers buying ningyo-yaki, small sponge cakes stuffed with red bean paste. Walk west to Kappabashi-dori, the kitchenware street where restaurants buy plastic food models and chefs choose their knives. Then finish beside the Sumida River as the light drops behind the low rooftops.

Day two takes you to Yanaka and Ueno, a short ride north. Yanaka survived both the 1923 earthquake and wartime bombing better than most districts, so its wooden houses and temples feel almost provincial. Wander the cemetery’s cherry-lined lanes in the morning, then drift down Yanaka Ginza for menchi-katsu, the fried minced-meat cutlets sold hot from paper bags. The Yūyake Dandan steps at the top of the street take their name from the sunset, and the neighbourhood cats seem to know it.

Spend the afternoon in Ueno Park, where the Tokyo National Museum could easily fill four hours on its own. Ameyoko market sits just south of the station for dinner. It is noisy, cheap and smoky with grilled skewers, which makes it a fine contrast to Yanaka’s quiet. If you are still deciding where to sleep, our guide to Tokyo neighbourhoods and who each one suits explains why the east side suits travellers who prefer early mornings.

Markets, Marble and Second-Hand Books

The centre of Tokyo does luxury and scholarship within a single subway stop. Day three pairs Tsukiji with Ginza. The wholesale fish market moved to Toyosu in 2018, but Tsukiji’s outer market still trades in tamagoyaki, the sweet layered omelette, and in bowls of sea urchin eaten standing at a counter before 9am. Walk it off in Hama-rikyū Gardens, where a teahouse on the pond serves matcha with a seasonal sweet. Afterwards, cross into Ginza. On weekend afternoons Chūō-dōri closes to traffic, and the department store food halls in the basements, called depachika, are worth an hour of grazing on their own.

Day four covers Akihabara, Kanda and Jimbōchō, three districts close enough to walk between. Begin at Kanda Myōjin, a shrine nearly 1,300 years old that now sells charms blessing electronics and anime-themed votive tablets. Akihabara is next. Its multi-storey arcades and retro game shops are at their liveliest after lunch.

Then walk twenty minutes southwest to Jimbōchō, the largest second-hand book district in the world. Its shopfronts spill art prints and old maps onto the pavement. Locals will tell you the area is equally famous for curry, a habit that grew up among students and booksellers who wanted lunch they could eat quickly between pages. Order the European-style curry, rich with butter and slow-cooked beef. Most of the day costs very little. If you want to see how it fits a wider budget, what a week in Tokyo costs, line by line breaks the numbers down.

The West Side Turns the Volume Up

West Tokyo is where the city puts on its show, though it begins in silence. Day five links Harajuku and Shibuya. Meiji Jingū’s gates open at sunrise, and the gravel path beneath its huge cypress torii is calm before the tour groups arrive. Step out and Takeshita-dori hits like a sugar rush of crêpes, rainbow candy floss and teenage fashion. Escape down Cat Street, a former riverbed lined with independent boutiques, which leads you to Shibuya on foot. Watch the Scramble crossing from above and then join it. Stay for dusk at an observation deck, when the office towers flicker on.

Day six is all Shinjuku, which has enough contrast to fill a weekend. Shinjuku Gyoen is one of the city’s finest gardens, blending French formal, English landscape and Japanese styles, and it closes on most Mondays, so plan accordingly. In the afternoon, take the lift to the free observatories of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government