Top 10 Things to Do in Tokyo

Using this list

Ten landmark Tokyo experiences as a tickable checklist. Tokyo is enormous — far larger than most first-time visitors expect — so this works best as a menu you draw from rather than a route you follow.

Distances are the thing to plan around

Neighbourhoods that look adjacent on a map can be forty minutes apart. Group your days geographically: Asakusa and Ueno in the northeast, Shibuya and Shinjuku in the west, Ginza and Tsukiji toward the bay. Two areas a day is a comfortable pace; three is a day spent on trains.

Get a rechargeable IC card (Suica or Pasmo) on arrival — you can add one to your phone before you land — and stop thinking about individual fares.

Book the ones that require it

Some of Tokyo's best-known attractions need advance reservation and sell out well ahead: teamLab's digital art museums, the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, and Shibuya Sky at sunset are the usual ones people miss. Sumo tournaments only run in Tokyo in January, May, and September.

Early morning is the underrated slot

The city is quiet before nine, which is when Senso-ji and Meiji Jingu are at their best. The famous crossings and markets are worth seeing at both extremes — mid-afternoon for the crush, early morning for the atmosphere.

Practicalities

Carry some cash; smaller restaurants and shrines are still cash-only. Trains largely stop around midnight and don't run all night. Convenience store food is genuinely good and a normal thing to eat.

Timing

Run it plain, or add due dates from your arrival date to spread it across the trip.