Tokyo Lonely Planet city guide
- stroll through the manicured gardens at the Imperial Palace - once only for the emperor and his family - and climb the base of the keep that was at the centre of Edo Castle.
10 Things to do!
1. Browse some of Japan’s top designers at Dover Street Market Ginza, then continue shopping at Ginza’s poshest shops and department stores.
2. Enjoy contemporary art and Tokyo’s urban panorama from the Mori Art Museum which occupies the top of Mori Tower.
3. Explore the boutiques, cafes and leafy lanes of fashionable Daikanyama & Naka-Meguro, far removed (spiritually, at least) from central Tokyo.
4. Get lost in the tiny alleyways of well-loved, bohemian Shimo-Kitazawa, which offers a picture of how Tokyo might look if hippies – not bureaucrats – ran the city.
5. Stretch out on the grassy lawn or catching a food festival at Yoyogi-kōen, the city’s most popular park, which buzzes with life on weekends.
6. Amble through the woodsy grounds of beloved Inokashira-kōen, past buskers and performance artists, and pay your respects to the sea goddess enshrined here.
7. Explore the crackling neon canyons of Shinjuku, Tokyo’s biggest and most colourful nightlife district, where the vivacity and sheer volume of dining, drinking and entertainment options are something to behold.
8. Slip into the beautiful verdant world of Koishikawa Kōrakuen, a classic traditional garden with a central pond, charming bridges and seasonal flowerings.
9. Get schooled in Japanese art history at the finest collection of Japanese art and cultural artefacts in the world at Tokyo National Museum, home to samurai swords, ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) and gilded screens.
10. See Tokyo’s glittering waterfront and the lantern-festooned pleasure boats glide languidly across the water from the seaside promenade, Odaiba Kaihin-kōen.
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