Japan
Tokyo
The world's biggest city, and somehow its most orderly: neon, temples and obsessive craft, all a train ride apart.
Tokyo is less one city than a chain of dense districts, each with its own skyline, mood and reason to get off the train. Neon crossings and department-store food halls sit minutes from wooden temples, hushed gardens and lanes of six-seat bars, and a rail network of absurd reach makes all of it a short ride apart. It rewards curiosity at every scale, from a counter with one chef and eight stools to an observation deck over the largest urban area on earth.
Suggested stay
4–7 days
Language
Japanese
Currency
JPY
Timezone
UTC+9
Why you'll love Tokyo
Food more restaurants, and more starred ones, than any other city, and the standard at a counter-top noodle shop is just as serious
Districts every hub is a city in itself, from neon canyons to low-rise lanes of shrines, secondhand shops and standing bars
Trains a network so dense and so punctual that distance stops being a factor in what you plan
Contrast a centuries-old temple, a silent garden and a floor of arcade machines can share one afternoon
Best time to visit
Apr-May, Nov-Feb
Cold & dry · 10-24° days
35.677° N, 139.764° E
UTC+9 · Asia/Tokyo
whenywhere contains ads and partner links that we think are helpful and that earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Weather & when to go to Tokyo
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Apr-May, Nov-Feb
Conditions Jan Cold & dry · Feb Cold & sunny · Mar Spring starts · Apr Cherry blossom! · May Warm & green · Jun Rainy season · Jul Hot & humid · Aug Peak heat · Sep Typhoon risk · Oct Autumn begins · Nov Fall foliage · Dec Cold & clear
Watch for Jul-Oct typhoons risk
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Tokyo
June's rainy season and the peak heat and humidity of August are the low points, and September carries the tail of the typhoon season. The other kind of bad timing is cherry blossom season, when the weather is lovely, the parks are extraordinary and every hotel in the city is booked out.
Top things to do in Tokyo
-
Senso-ji and Nakamise-dori - Tokyo's oldest temple
history culture arts 👍 PopularA great red gate, a lantern the size of a car and a shopping street of rice crackers, fans and folding combs leading to the incense cauldron everyone wafts smoke from. Go at dawn or after dark and the precinct is almost yours.
-
Shibuya Scramble Crossing - the world's busiest intersection
scenic 👍 PopularSeveral thousand people cross at once when the lights change. Watch from the station walkway or a cafe window above, then disappear into the department stores and backstreet izakaya behind it.
-
Meiji Jingu - a planted forest behind Harajuku
culture arts history 👍 PopularA gravel avenue under huge cypress torii runs through a forest of a hundred thousand donated trees to the shrine of the Meiji emperor, a few minutes' walk from the loudest teenage shopping lane in Japan.
-
Tsukiji Outer Market and Toyosu - the fish city
food ⭐ Highly recommendedThe tuna auctions moved to the Toyosu halls, where you watch the bidding from a viewing deck at an unreasonable hour. The outer market lanes at Tsukiji kept the good part: grilled scallops, tamagoyaki on a stick, dried bonito and knife shops that will sharpen your blade while you wait.
-
Yanaka and Nezu - the old low city that survived
off beaten path history ⭐ Highly recommendedA pocket the earthquake and the firebombs largely missed: wooden houses, a sprawling cemetery lined with cherry trees, cats on the walls and a shopping street that still serves the people who live there.
-
Tokyo Skytree and Tokyo Tower - two takes on the view
scenicThe Skytree's decks put you above everything in the east of the city; the older orange tower is lower, far better looking from the outside and the better photograph. On a clear cold day either one can hand you Fuji on the horizon.
-
Golden Gai and Omoide Yokocho - six-seat bars in Shinjuku
nightlife music foodTwo surviving blocks of postwar alleyway: one of tiny themed bars stacked two floors high, the other of smoky yakitori counters under the tracks. Some doors welcome visitors warmly and some genuinely do not, and the ones that do post the rules outside.
-
teamLab - digital art you walk into
culture artsRooms of projected light, mirrored water and storms of flowers that respond to where you stand, less looked at than waded through. Entry is by timed slot and the good ones sell out, so pick the time before the day.
-
Ueno Park and the Tokyo National Museum - the culture concentrate
culture arts historyOne park holding the national museum, several more galleries, a zoo, a lotus pond and hundreds of cherry trees. The national collection of Japanese art, armour and swords is the deepest anywhere, and half a day in it is not enough.
-
Imperial Palace East Gardens - the shogun's castle grounds
historyMoats, gatehouses and the bare stone base of the keep of Edo Castle, open to walk through in the middle of the business district. The palace itself stays closed, but the ground plan tells you how the city was laid out.
-
Meguro River and Shinjuku Gyoen - hanami under the cherry trees
scenic nature wildlifeTokyo's bloom usually opens in the last days of March and peaks in the first week of April, and it is brief: roughly a week once it starts, shifting by several days from year to year. The Meguro River is arched over by trees and lit at night; Shinjuku Gyoen is ticketed, bans alcohol and stays far calmer. Hanami itself is a blue tarpaulin, a bento and an unhurried afternoon.
-
Ryogoku Kokugikan - sumo in its own arena
culture artsTokyo holds three of the six grand tournaments each year in a purpose-built hall east of the river. Outside tournament weeks some stables let visitors watch morning practice, and the surrounding chanko-nabe restaurants are run by retired wrestlers.
-
Ginza and Omotesando - shopping as architecture
shoppingGinza stacks department-store basements full of food under a run of famous architects' flagship facades. Omotesando is the low-rise answer, a zelkova-lined avenue of glass and concrete boutiques with Harajuku's teenage lanes and Cat Street running behind it.
Best areas to stay in Tokyo
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Shinjuku
First-time visitors $$Neon hub, bars and every rail line
Explore hotels in Shinjuku →
Shibuya
Nightlife & shopping $$Young, loud, shopping and late nights
Explore hotels in Shibuya →
Ginza
Upscale & central $$$Polished streets and serious dining
Explore hotels in Ginza →
Asakusa
Old Tokyo, cheaper $Low-rise temple lanes, old-city feel
Explore hotels in Asakusa →
Ebisu & Nakameguro
Local & grown-up $$$Grown-up, canal-side and food-led
Explore hotels in Ebisu & Nakameguro →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Tokyo
Getting to & around Tokyo
Getting there
Fly into Haneda for the fastest run into town, or Narita for many long-haul routes; both link to the centre by direct train
Flight
Tokyo Haneda (HND)
About 15 km south of the centre on Tokyo Bay. The Tokyo Monorail runs to Hamamatsucho and the Keikyu line to Shinagawa, both around 20 minutes onto the JR loop, with some Keikyu services continuing through to Asakusa. Narita, the other international gateway, is roughly 60 km east in Chiba: the Narita Express reaches Tokyo Station and Shinjuku in about an hour, and the Keisei Skyliner reaches Ueno in about 45 minutes.
Train
Tokyo Station
Shinkansen from Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kyushu terminate at Tokyo Station; the northern lines to Sendai, Kanazawa and Hokkaido use Tokyo and Ueno
Coach
Busta Shinjuku
Overnight and long-distance highway buses from across Honshu use the terminal above Shinjuku station's south exit, with more from the Yaesu side of Tokyo Station
Ferry
Takeshiba Pier
Overnight ferries to the Izu Islands and the far-flung Ogasawara Islands leave from Takeshiba, southeast of the centre
Getting around
Metro & Toei subway
Two operators and thirteen lines between them, colour-coded and numbered in English; together they reach almost anywhere you would want to go
TBC
JR Yamanote line
The green loop strings Shinjuku, Shibuya, Tokyo Station and Ueno together, and a train turns up every few minutes
TBC
Walking
Each district is walkable and rewarding once you are out of the station; the city as a whole is not, so walk locally and take the train between
Free
Taxi
Spotless, everywhere, with doors that open themselves, but pricey against the trains and slow in daytime traffic; the real use is after the last train
TBC
Bus
Genuinely useful across the low city where subway lines thin out, though the route signage assumes a little Japanese
TBC
Day trips from Tokyo
Nikko
Full dayShrines and waterfalls
Toshogu, the wildly carved mausoleum of the first Tokugawa shogun, sits under cedar avenues in the mountains; a hairpin road climbs on to Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji above it.
Getting there
train | bus
2 hr by Tobu limited express from Asakusa
Kamakura & Enoshima
Full dayCoastal temple town
Japan's medieval capital keeps the open-air Great Buddha, hillside temples linked by forest trails, and a rattling seaside tram out to a shrine island.
Getting there
train | walk
1 hr by JR from Tokyo Station
Hakone
1-2 daysOnsen and Fuji views
A loop of switchback railway, ropeway over the sulphur vents at Owakudani and a mock galleon across Lake Ashi, with hot-spring inns to stop the clock. Fuji shows itself on clear cold days and hides for weeks in summer haze.
Getting there
train | bus | ferry
1.5 hr by Odakyu Romancecar from Shinjuku
Mount Fuji & the Fuji Five Lakes
Full dayLakes below the peak
The postcard view of the cone reflected in the lake, plus a ropeway and lakeside cycling. Note the access rule rather than the weather: the climbing trails and mountain huts only open for a short summer window and the mountain is officially shut the rest of the year.
Getting there
bus | train
About 2 hr by express bus from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko
Kawagoe
Half dayLittle Edo
A street of black kurazukuri clay-walled merchant warehouses, a wooden bell tower still rung by the hour, and an alley of old-fashioned sweet shops.
Getting there
train
30-50 min by express train from Ikebukuro or Shinjuku
Mount Takao
Half dayCity-edge hiking
A cedar-forested mountain at the end of a commuter line, with a working temple partway up, several graded trails and Fuji on the horizon when the air is clear. It gets busy when the maples turn.
Getting there
train | walk
1 hr by Keio line from Shinjuku, then trails or a cable car
Yokohama
Half dayHarbour city
Japan's first treaty port, now a waterfront of parks and towers with the country's largest Chinatown behind it and a superb landscape garden of relocated old buildings to the south.
Getting there
train
30 min by train from Shibuya or Tokyo Station
A little history of Tokyo
Tokyo began as Edo, a marsh-edged castle town that Tokugawa Ieyasu made the seat of his shogunate in 1603 while the emperor stayed on in Kyoto. Two and a half centuries of enforced peace turned it into one of the largest cities on earth: samurai estates spread over the high ground to the west, while merchants, craftsmen, theatres and printers packed the flats by the river into the dense low city whose culture still defines what people mean by old Tokyo.
The Meiji Restoration ended all that in 1868, when the emperor moved east and Edo was renamed Tokyo, the eastern capital. The city has been rebuilt from the ground twice since, after the 1923 earthquake and the firebombing of 1945, which is why so little of it looks old and why the few pockets that survived feel so unlike the rest. The 1964 Olympics brought the first bullet train and the elevated expressways, the 1980s brought a property bubble whose collapse shaped the decades after it, and the central districts have been rebuilding themselves upwards ever since.
Ota Dokan builds the first fort at Edo, on the bluff above the bay
Tokugawa Ieyasu makes Edo the seat of the shogunate; the emperor remains in Kyoto
The Meiji Restoration moves the emperor east and Edo is renamed Tokyo
The Great Kanto Earthquake and the fires that follow destroy much of the city
Wartime firebombing levels large parts of Tokyo
The Summer Olympics arrive with the first shinkansen line and the elevated expressways
Tokyo hosts the Olympics a second time, a year late and without spectators
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Limited
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type A / B
100 V, 50/60 Hz
Dialing
+81
Typhoons risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
A Japan eSIM installs in minutes and works the moment you switch off flight mode. No SIM swap, no roaming bill.
FAQs about Tokyo
▸ When is the best time to visit Tokyo?
April and May, then November and December, are the pick: mild, mostly dry, and the parks at their best, with the autumn colour running from late November into early December. January and February are cold but crisp and clear, and give the year's most reliable views of Fuji. Worth avoiding: June, when the rainy season sets in, August's peak heat and humidity, and September, which carries the tail of the typhoon season.
▸ When do the cherry blossoms bloom in Tokyo?
Usually the last days of March into the first week of April, but the date swings by a week or more from year to year, and once it opens the peak lasts only about a week. It is the busiest stretch of the whole tourist year: book a bed months ahead, and keep a second park in mind because the famous spots fill by mid-morning.
▸ How many days do you need in Tokyo?
Four full days covers the headline districts without sprinting between them. Six or seven lets you drop to one or two neighbourhoods a day, eat properly, and add a day trip out to the mountains or the coast.
▸ Is Tokyo expensive?
Less than its reputation suggests. Trains, convenience-store food and standing noodle counters are famously good value, and eating brilliantly does not require a famous name. Accommodation is where the money actually goes, especially in blossom and autumn-colour weeks.
▸ Can you manage without Japanese?
In central Tokyo, yes. Station signage, ticket machines and most menus carry English, staff will go out of their way to help, and a translation app covers the rest. It thins out quickly away from the main hubs, so a few phrases earn their keep.
▸ Do you need a Japan Rail Pass just for Tokyo?
No. The pass is built for long-distance shinkansen travel and inside the city it covers only JR lines, not the subway or the private railways. For a Tokyo trip with a few day trips, an IC card and ordinary tickets are simpler and usually the better call.
▸ Is Tokyo good for solo travellers?
Exceptionally. Eating alone at a counter is the norm rather than a compromise, the city is safe to walk late, and the rail network means your plans never depend on anyone else's.
More in Japan
Beppu
The hot spring capital of Japan: eight spa quarters, thousands of vents, and steam coming up through the pavement.
✓ best Mar, NovFukuoka
The home of tonkotsu ramen, and the last Japanese city where the food stalls still roll out along the river every night.
✓ best Oct-NovHakodate
Treaty-port streets, Japan's best-known night view and southern Hokkaido's seafood, all within one tram ride.
✓ best May-Jun