Things to Do in Tokyo

Asakusa is Tokyo’s oldest quarter, and it's full of some of its more striking ancient monuments such as the Sensoji Temple and the Chingodo Shrine.

Koishikawa Korakuen and Rikugien are amongst the more important landscape gardens in Japan, and are havens of peace and calm away from the mania of Tokyo’s streets. Created several hundred years ago, they’re now made up of an array of cherry trees, pools and elegant bridges.

If you’ve got up early only to be defeated by the crowds at Tsukiji fish market, try Ameyoko Market instead. Ameyoko is admittedly a different sort of market, but it’s no less fun browsing the many, many different types of product (from cheap clothing to confusing foodstuffs) on display.

If the sight of thousands upon thousands of human beings squashed together at Hachiko exit (perhaps the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing) isn’t bizarre enough, then Harajuku certainly is. The spiritual home of Japan’s extreme fashion crazes, Harajuku is a Tokyo ‘sight’ in its own right.

Tokyo’s nightlife is exceptional, not just for its dazzling bright lights, but for the enthusiasm with which the locals (and visitors) throw themselves into an evening out in Roppongi. If that gets a bit tame, Kabukicho – a sleazy warren of sex shops and karaoke joints – displays Tokyo’s seedier side.