City guide
Not one city but about a dozen, joined by the best train network on earth, with more good restaurants than any human could work through.
Japan7 min readUpdated August 15, 2026
Tokyo does not have a centre, which is the first thing to get straight. It has a ring of districts around the imperial palace, each the size of a European city and each with its own character, connected by trains that arrive when they say they will.
Pick two or three areas per day and do them properly. Trying to cross the city four times will cost you the day, and the pleasure here is in the small streets, not the landmarks.
The rule in Tokyo is specialisation: a place does one thing for thirty years. A restaurant with a long menu is usually worse than the one next door with six seats and one dish.
Toyosu
The wholesale market that replaced Tsukiji, with viewing decks over the tuna auction and sushi counters that open at five in the morning.
Local tip: Closed most Wednesdays and Sundays, and it is genuinely a working market. Check the calendar before setting an alarm for 4am.
The tuna auction moved, and so did the queue. The sushi did not get worse.
Tsukiji
The old market's street of food stalls stayed behind when the auctions left. Grilled scallops, tamagoyaki on a stick, knives and dried fish. Best before 10am.
Shinjuku
Two narrow alleys of postwar yakitori counters under the train tracks, thick with charcoal smoke. Six seats per bar, and you will end up talking to someone.
Shibuya
Tonkotsu ramen eaten in a private booth with a bamboo screen between you and the staff. Engineered for solo eating and much better than the gimmick suggests.
Shinjuku and Shibuya for transport and noise, Ginza for calm and shopping, Yanaka or Kuramae for old Tokyo at half the price.
Nishi-Shinjuku
The one from the film, occupying the top fourteen floors of a Kenzo Tange tower. Quiet, dark-wooded and completely detached from the street below.
Ask the concierge to book thisThe bar on the 52nd floor, with the city going on forever below it.
A small hotel on the quiet side of Shibuya, five minutes from the crossing but on a residential street. Good bar, good coffee, sensible size.
Ask the concierge to book thisShibuya
Well-made and mid-priced in the old east side, near the museums and a short walk from Yanaka. Better value than anything equivalent in Shibuya.
Ask the concierge to book thisUeno
Two of these are free and two are ticketed. None of them is a checklist item you can do in twenty minutes.
Asakusa
Tokyo's oldest temple, approached down a long street of stalls. Rebuilt after the war and permanently busy, but go at seven in the morning and it is nearly empty.
Harajuku
A shrine in a forest of 100,000 donated trees, planted from scratch a century ago. Ten metres in from Harajuku station the noise simply stops.
Toyosu
Walk barefoot through knee-deep water and mirrored rooms of projected light. Sounds like a marketing exercise; is genuinely disorientating in a good way.
Local tip: Timed tickets sell out weeks ahead. Wear shorts or trousers you can roll up above the knee.
Shibuya
An open-air roof 230 metres over the crossing, with Fuji visible on a clear winter evening. The best of the city's many observation decks.
All three are reachable on a normal train ticket, and all three are a different Japan to the one outside your hotel.
Shrines carved and gilded to an extent that is almost vulgar, in cedar forest and mountains. Two hours each way, so leave early.
shrines · forest · full day
Ask the concierge to book thisA former capital by the sea, full of temples in wooded valleys and a bronze Buddha sitting outdoors since 1252. An hour on the train.
temples · coast · full day
Hot spring town in the mountains, with a loop of cable cars, a pirate ship on a lake and Fuji behind it if the weather cooperates. Better as an overnight.
onsen · mountains · overnight
Ask the concierge to book thisEverything above, on one map. Colours mark what kind of place it is; tap a dot and its details open beside the map, and you keep your place. Day trips are left off, they sit well outside the city.
Pin positions are approximate: neighbourhood level, not street addresses.
Suica or Pasmo, or the version in your phone wallet. It works on every train, most buses and in convenience stores, and saves you decoding fare charts.
Six to ten seats is normal. Solo travellers do well; groups of four should book or split up.
Carry your rubbish until you find a convenience store. Eating while walking is also mildly frowned on outside market streets.
The things that sell out in Tokyo sell out early: teamLab, Shibuya Sky at sunset, and any sushi counter worth sitting at. Send the Simly concierge your dates and a person will get the tickets and the reservations, including the places whose booking pages are Japanese-only.
Message the conciergeEverything in this guide assumes a working phone: maps between neighbourhoods that follow no grid, ride-hailing instead of flagging taxis, a menu handwritten in Arabic. A Simly eSIM activates before you land, so you step off the plane already connected.
Get a Simly eSIMTokyo, Japan
