Tokyo

A weekend here might look like

• Morning: Sensō-ji - Tokyo's oldest temple, with roughly 1,400 years of history behind it, and the heart of Asakusa. You enter through the Kaminarimon gate and its giant red lantern, then walk Nakamise-dori, one of Japan's oldest shopping streets, lined with traditional snacks and crafts all the way to the Hozomon gate and the main hall. Draw an omikuji fortune, watch the incense smoke, and look for the kimono-clad visitors, which you can rent nearby if you'd like to join them. Free, open from early morning, and lit up at night. Go at dawn for calm or after dark for the lanterns; the middle of the day belongs to the crowds.
• Lunch: Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu - The vast wooden izakaya at Nishi-Azabu crossing that inspired the showdown set in Kill Bill. Three storeys of dark timber, lanterns and balconies, with staff in happi coats, festival music and a full-throated greeting for every arrival. The menu is country-style izakaya cooking: yakitori, grilled pork, soba, tempura, black cod in saikyo miso, share plates and set courses, with a separate sushi restaurant upstairs. It's loud, theatrical and enormous fun with a group. Book ahead, ask for a balcony table, and know that tables run two hours. Open until 3am.
• Afternoon: Meiji Jingu - Tokyo's most venerable Shinto shrine, dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken and opened in 1920. You reach it through a vast forest of 70 hectares, walking a gravel avenue under towering trees from a giant torii gate, and the noise of Harajuku falls away within a minute. The shrine buildings themselves are austere rather than ornate, dark wood and gold against the greenery. Purify your hands at the temizuya, choose an omamori or write a wish on an ema, and if you're there on a weekend you may catch a traditional wedding. Free to enter, and closest to Harajuku Station. Go early: the walk is the point, and the crowds build fast.

More to explore

• Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden - An enormous, immaculately kept garden in the middle of Shinjuku, and one of the calmest places in Tokyo. It was built on the site of a feudal lord's residence, became an imperial garden in 1906, and opened to the public after the war. Three garden styles sit side by side: a traditional Japanese landscape with ponds and teahouses, a formal French garden, and an English landscape lawn, with skyscrapers rising behind the trees. Sakura season is extraordinary and the November chrysanthemum show is worth timing for. Three gates to choose from, a greenhouse, and cafés inside if you want to make an afternoon of it.
• teamLab Planets TOKYO DMM - An immersive digital art museum in Toyosu that you walk through barefoot, wading knee-deep through water and across soft, sinking floors. Four sections of light, water, sound and living plants, with the Infinite Crystal Universe and the koi and flower rooms the ones people talk about afterwards. It's as much sensory experience as exhibition, and it lands with kids and grandparents alike. Allow two to four hours, book online well ahead because tickets aren't sold at the door, and come early in your slot since queues build. Wear shorts or something you can roll up, and skip skirts, because the floors are mirrored.
• Tokyo National Museum - Japan's oldest and largest museum, spread across several buildings in Ueno Park. The main hall walks you through four millennia, from the Stone Age to the Meiji period, with samurai armour, katana, ceramics and scrolls among the national treasures and Important Cultural Properties on display. Behind it sits a quiet garden with five teahouses tucked under the trees, worth the detour. Allow three hours at least, more if you're a history buff. A few minutes from Ueno Station, and a good rainy-day plan, with Ueno Park's other museums right there if you want to make a day of it.
• AFURI Ebisu - The flagship shop that made yuzu ramen famous, two minutes from JR Ebisu station. AFURI opened here in 2011 when heavy tonkotsu ruled Tokyo, and went the other way: a light, clean chicken and dashi broth lifted with fragrant yuzu. The yuzu shio is the one to order, with thin noodles, charcoal-grilled chashu, a soft egg and a slice of citrus, and there's a well-regarded vegan ramen clearly marked in English. Order at the vending machine by the door, hand your ticket to the staff and take a seat. Come before 11:30am or expect a queue.
• Omoide Yokocho Memory Lane - A tangle of narrow alleys beside Shinjuku Station, lit by red lanterns and thick with charcoal smoke. Around sixty tiny izakayas and yakitori counters are packed in here, most seating six or so people, many run by the same families for decades. The draw is the ritual: pick a stall, squeeze onto a stool, order skewers and a beer, then move on to the next. Food is mostly grilled meat, so it's not the place for vegetarians. Bring cash, since most places don't take cards, and expect to come out smelling of smoke. Free to walk through, and best after dark.
• Blue Bottle Coffee - Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Flagship Cafe - Blue Bottle's first store outside the US, opened in a converted warehouse in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa and credited with kicking off the neighbourhood's coffee scene. High ceilings, an open roastery behind glass and a long bar, so you can watch the beans roasted and the drinks made. Light, fruity single origins by drip or espresso, the Gibraltar for something small and strong, plus cheesecake, waffles and pastries. Get there early, since it opens from 8am and the room fills by mid-morning. The street outside is lined with small independent cafés if you'd rather compare.
• Fuglen Tokyo - Oslo's Fuglen opened its first overseas branch here in Tomigaya, and it still feels like a little piece of Norway beside Yoyogi Park. Light-roast Nordic coffee with fruity acidity, brewed properly by filter and Aeropress as well as espresso, in a room of vintage 1960s Scandinavian furniture with jazz on the turntable. Brown cheese on toast if you want the full Norwegian experience, plus pastries and a couple of vegan cakes. It turns into a cocktail bar in the evening and runs late. Weekday mornings and evenings are calm; weekends mean a wait.
• Onibus Coffee - A tiny two-storey wooden house tucked against the Tokyu Toyoko tracks, a short walk from Nakameguro station, and one of the names that defined Tokyo's specialty coffee scene. Light, fruit-forward single origins from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Guatemala, pulled on espresso or brewed as pour-over, with beans to take home. The menu is deliberately short: espresso, americano, latte, filter. Take your cup upstairs and sit by the window where the trains rattle past, or out on the terrace under the tracks. Small, so it's a stop rather than a place to settle in.
• Starbucks Reserve® Roastery Tokyo - Four storeys of coffee theatre on the Meguro River, opened in 2019 and one of only a handful of Starbucks Roasteries worldwide. A towering copper cask sits at the centre with beans travelling overhead between floors. The ground floor is the main coffee bar, with the Teavana tea floor above, the Arriviamo cocktail bar and terrace on the third, and a lounge and workshop space on the fourth. Baked goods come from Milanese bakery Princi, including pizza and cronuts, and there are exclusive drinks and merchandise you won't find elsewhere. The riverside terraces are among Tokyo's best cherry blossom seats. Come early, and expect to queue.

Explore more like this

• Osaka
• Jakarta
• Sapporo
• Yogyakarta
• Melbourne
• Sydney
• Bendigo
• Ballarat
• Bandung