KIRAN GOES PLACES
1. Kabukicho, Shinjuku
Start at night, because this is the Tokyo you picture before you even book the flight. Giant screens, crowds moving in every direction, signs hanging out over the street. Look out for the Godzilla head peering over one of the buildings and a 3D cat billboard on the corner that everyone stops for.
The Tokyo you picture before you've even booked the flight.
2. Golden Gai
Just around the corner, six narrow alleyways packed with over 200 bars, most seating around six people. In the 80s when developers tried to tear it down, the owners took turns guarding the alleyways at night to save it. Jazz dens, punk shrines, manga themed bars, some run by the same person for decades. Bring cash, most places have a small cover charge and don't take card.
3. Omoide Yokocho
Still in Shinjuku, this one tells you exactly where the city came from. Its nickname translates to Piss Alley, and yes that's the real name. After the war it was a rough black market strip with no proper toilets, so people used the alley and the name stuck. Now it's tiny yakitori stalls, skewered meats, charcoal grills, sake heated in teapots. Not the most veggie friendly stop on this list, but worth the walk through.
Otherwise known, honestly, as Piss Alley.
4. Akihabara
Tokyo's gaming and anime district hits you the second you step off the train. Radio Kaikan is floor after floor of anime merch, Gigo is a giant arcade with more driving simulators and crane games than I've ever seen in one place, and Super Potato is stacked with old consoles I haven't seen in about 15 years. This isn't really a place to follow a list. Just wander the side streets and see what you find.
Proper nostalgia, floor after floor of it.
5. Mipig Cafe, Harajuku
Sit down and within 30 seconds tiny pigs are waddling straight towards you. A lap full of mini pigs nuzzling in, which is exactly as good as it sounds.
A lap full of pigs within 30 seconds, guaranteed.
6. Takeshita Street
Harajuku's main strip, famous for quirky street food. Candied strawberries on a stick, giant multicoloured candy floss, fresh bubble tea made in front of you. The highlight, and I know how this sounds, is a banana dipped in chocolate rolled in cornflakes and sprinkles. Insultingly simple, genuinely so good.
Better than it has any right to be.
7. Meiji Jingu Shrine
Cross the railroad at the end of Takeshita Street and the city sounds disappear the second you step through the torii gate. A towering cedar forest, rows of colourful sake barrels donated from breweries, and a Shinto shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji. Do the omikuji fortune sticks while you're here. Pay a coin, shake a wooden box, pull out a stick. Good fortune, you keep it. Bad fortune, you tie it to the rail and leave it behind.
From crowds and noise to a cedar forest, instantly.
8. Shibuya Crossing
The most famous junction in the world, and it still looks breathtaking standing in the middle of it. All the lights stop at once and 300,000 people cross in every direction, every single day. Walk through it first, then head to the Starbucks directly opposite for the aerial view so you actually get the scale. Worth doing in the day and again at night.
The scale only really hits you from above.
9. Go-karting through Tokyo
There's another way to experience the crossing, and that's by road. You can drive an actual go-kart through the streets of Tokyo in costume, weaving through Shinjuku with skyscrapers glowing above you before pulling up to Shibuya Crossing itself. Feels completely surreal, like being inside the video game that invented it. You'll need an international driving permit, sort that before you land.
Like being inside the video game that invented it.
10. Shibuya Sky
229 metres above the crossing you just walked and drove through. Open air rooftop, the iconic shot of the escalators, 360 degree views, digital art on the walls, a DJ in the corner. On a clear day you can apparently see all the way to Mount Fuji. Book ahead, it sells out especially at sunset, and the open rooftop closes in bad weather. We went on a rainy day and got stuck inside.
11. 7-Eleven creme brulee ice cream
Stop at any 7-Eleven, and there are a lot of them, for the creme brulee ice cream. Creamy vanilla custard with an actual creme brulee top you crack with a spoon, for about two pounds. We had this every single day and genuinely discussed how to smuggle it home.
Two pounds and completely unbelievable.
12. Sushi, two ways
Standing sushi bars are quick, cheap and properly authentic, you stand at the counter, order, and they hand it straight to you. We went to Uogashi Nihon-Ichi in Shibuya. Then there's Uobei, a conveyor belt where you order on a tablet and watch your food come flying down the belt to stop right in front of you. Both worth doing.
Order on a tablet, watch it fly down the belt.
13. Tsukiji Market
Tokyo's main wholesale fish market for over 80 years, and the outer market is the best place in the city for fresh fish street food. Grilled scallops with butter straight off the grill, omelette sticks, and a tuna stand that's genuinely famous, the fatty tuna melts the second it hits your tongue. They also do giant strawberries here, expensive and the size of a small apple, but the best strawberry you'll eat all year.
The best tuna sushi I've ever had, no contest.
14. Ginza
A short walk west and the streets get wider, the shops get taller. This is the high end district, flagship stores and some of the most expensive real estate on the planet, over 10 million yen per square metre. The biggest Uniqlo store in the world is here, twelve floors, roughly a quarter of what you'd pay at home, and yes you can get things made to measure. Onitsuka Tiger is down the road too. While you're wandering, get a yakiimo, sweet potato roasted in a clay pot over hot stones, gooey and soft like caramel.
Wide pavements, tall shops, expensive everything.
15. Matcha souffle pancakes
Just up some stairs near the sweet potato stand is the best thing I ate in the whole of Ginza. Matcha Cafe and Studio whisks the matcha at your table properly, with a bamboo whisk, poured over iced soy milk. The souffle pancakes are tall, pillowy and wobbling under matcha vanilla cream. If you try matcha just once in Tokyo, make it here.
Tall, pillowy and wobbling under matcha vanilla cream.
16. Cherry blossom spots
If you're visiting in sakura season, two spots are worth it. Chidorigafuchi is a moat around the Imperial Palace where you can hire a rowing boat and drift underneath branches hanging into the water. Shinjuku Gyoen is one of the biggest parks in the city, a mix of traditional Japanese garden, English lawns and a French section, with enough species of cherry blossom that you've got a good chance of catching some even outside peak season.
Worth timing your trip around, if you can.
17. Sumo experience
Japan's national sport started as a Shinto ritual, a way of entertaining the gods and ensuring a good harvest. There are only six official tournaments a year, and we weren't there for one, so we got the next best thing at Sumo Land. They walked us through the rituals, the stomping to scare off evil spirits, the salt thrown for purification, we pounded and ate mochi, and then came the bit where you actually get to push a sumo wrestler. One of the most genuinely unique things I've done anywhere in the world.
Like trying to push a brick wall.
18. teamLab
There are two teamLabs in Tokyo, Planets and Borderless. Planets is the more physical one, you walk barefoot through water and the walls react to your movement, including a room that's just infinite flowers floor to ceiling. Borderless is a labyrinth of over 50 light and art spaces. I'd done teamLab before so skipped it this time, but both are genuinely unlike anything else in the city. Book ahead, they sell out weeks in advance.
19. Day trip to Lake Kawaguchiko
An hour and a half from Tokyo by train, with Mount Fuji reflected in the water and the iconic shot of the Lawson with Fuji rising behind it. Easy to hire a car or take the train, and sit on the right hand side for views of Fuji on the way. We loved it so much we ended up staying a few extra days. I've written the full guide to the best viewpoints if you want the details.
An hour and a half away, and worth every minute of it.
20. Asakusa and Senso-ji Temple
Back in the city for a glimpse of what Tokyo looked like before the skyscrapers. Legend has it two fishermen kept pulling the same statue of the goddess Kannon out of the Sumida River in 628 AD, kept throwing it back, and it kept coming back to them. The temple was built on that spot and it's been there for nearly 1,400 years. Walk Nakamise Street to get there, touristy but enjoyable, and pass under the huge red lantern of Kaminarimon Gate. Just outside the temple grounds there's a stall doing creme brulee sweet potato, an insane combination that's actually delicious, and a short walk away is Kappabashi Street for specialist Japanese knives if you want a sharp souvenir.
Nearly 1,400 years old, and still the heart of Asakusa.
And to end every night, a vinyl bar. We went to Spin Coaster in Ebisu, one of Tokyo's quieter neighbourhoods, behind an unmarked door in an apartment complex. Request a record, they'll physically go and find it, drop the needle and play it through proper speakers. A whiskey on ice with the room full of music was the perfect way to end each day here.
Request a record, they'll go and find it.
There's a version of Tokyo for everyone, and this one was mine. I've missed so much, so let me know your favourites in the comments, and if you enjoyed this, subscribe for more.