9:00 AMShibuya Crossing
Activities4.5
Cross it once at street level, then watch from the Starbucks window. Mornings are calmer.
Like this trip? Make it yours — change anything, add your own places.
Planning board
Est. budget ~$185 / person1
Day 1 · Fri, Nov 6
7 stops4.7 km8h planned~61 min walk~$30
9:00 AM
10:00 AMMeiji Jingu
Activities4.6
Forest shrine in the middle of the city. The walk in under the torii is the point.
12:00 PMTakeshita Street
Activities
Teen fashion at full volume. Fifteen minutes if you hate crowds, an hour if you don't.
1:15 PMHarajuku Gyozarou
Food & Drink4.0$
Gyoza, beer, nothing else. Cheap, fast, always a short line.
2:15 PMOmotesando & Cat Street
Activities
Deliberate wandering time: the architecture-lined avenue down to Cat Street's vintage shops, drifting toward Shibuya for your sunset slot.
4:30 PMShibuya Sky
Activities4.6
Open-air rooftop, 229m up. Book the slot 45 minutes before sunset and stay for the lights.
7:00 PMUobei Shibuya Dogenzaka Store
Food & Drink4.3$
Conveyor sushi ordered by touchscreen, delivered on a rail. Genuinely fun, genuinely cheap.
2
Day 2 · Sat, Nov 7
6 stops10.2 km11h planned~133 min walk
8:00 AMFish Market Tsukiji Outer Market
Food & Drink4.2
The inner market moved; the outer one is still the best breakfast in Tokyo. Tamagoyaki, uni, knives.
10:30 AMHamarikyu Gardens
Activities4.5
Edo-era garden ringed by skyscrapers. Matcha in the teahouse on the pond.
12:30 PMGINZA SIX
Food & Drink4.0
Ginza's glossiest mall — but you're really here for the basement depachika and the 6F restaurant floor. This is lunch, disguised as shopping.
4:00 PMTokyo Metropolitan Government Building
Activities4.5
Free observation deck, 202m. On a clear evening you get Fuji.
6:00 PMOmoide Yokocho Memory Lane
Food & Drink4.2
Six-seat yakitori counters in a warren of alleys. Smoky, cramped, exactly right.
8:30 PMShinjuku Golden-Gai
Other4.3
Two hundred tiny bars, each with its own rules. Check for a cover charge before you sit.
3
Day 3 · Sun, Nov 8
6 stops3.5 km8h 30m planned~46 min walk~$120
8:30 AMSensō-ji
Activities4.6
Tokyo's oldest temple. Get there before nine and you'll have the gate almost to yourself.
10:00 AMNakamise Shopping Street
Activities4.3
The approach to Senso-ji, lined with snack stalls. Melonpan and ningyo-yaki.
12:00 PMAsakusa Imahan
Food & Drink4.5$$$$
Sukiyaki cooked at your table in a tatami room. Lunch sets are a fraction of dinner.
2:00 PMTokyo National Museum
Activities4.5
Honkan building only unless you're a completist — samurai armour, swords, screens.
4:00 PMUeno Park
Activities4.4
Walk the length of it out to the pond. Autumn colour peaks around now.
5:30 PMAmeyoko market
Food & Drink4.3
Loud post-war market street under the train tracks. Standing bars and skewers.
4
Day 4 · Mon, Nov 9
5 stops7.6 km6h 45m planned~99 min walk~$35
9:30 AMteamLab Planets TOKYO DMM
Activities4.5
Barefoot, through water, into mirrors. Wear shorts you can roll up. Timed entry, book ahead.
12:00 PMToyosu Market
Food & Drink3.6
Where the tuna auction went. Sushi Dai's queue is real; the smaller counters are just as good.
3:00 PMAkihabara Electric Town
Activities
Eight floors of everything. Go up first, work down — the good stuff is never on the ground floor.
4:00 PMMandarake Complex
Activities4.2
Vintage manga, figures, doujinshi. Each floor is a different obsession.
6:30 PMKanda Matsuya
Food & Drink4.3$$
Hand-cut soba in a wooden building that survived the war. Seiro, cold, with the broth after.
5
Day 5 · Tue, Nov 10
5 stops12.4 km8h planned~161 min walk
9:00 AMShinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Activities4.6
Three gardens in one, and the Japanese section in November color is the payoff. 500 yen. Closed Mondays — that's why it's Tuesday.
11:45 AMImperial Palace East Gardens
Activities4.4
The old castle grounds, free, with the Edo keep's stone base still standing. Closed Mondays and Fridays.
1:30 PMTokyo Ramen Street
Food & Drink4.0
Eight famous shops in one basement corridor of Tokyo Station. Rokurinsha's tsukemen is the line worth standing in.
3:30 PMTokyo Skytree
Activities4.4
634 meters — Fuji on a clear day, and the whole city turning on below you at dusk. Book online and skip a very long queue.
6:15 PMSometaro
Food & Drink4.4
Griddle-it-yourself okonomiyaki in a creaky wooden house, fifteen minutes' walk from Skytree. The east-side dinner this day was missing.