Tokyo: A City That Rewards Slowing Down

Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area in the world at roughly 37 million people across the greater metro region, and it consistently ranks as one of the safest, cleanest, and most logistically functional major cities on earth. The greater Tokyo area has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other city. First-timers tend to over-plan and cover too much ground; the better approach is to pick three or four districts, understand them properly, and let the unexpected encounters happen. Tokyo rewards this method more than almost any other city.

Getting Around

An IC card (Suica or Pasmo, rechargeable contactless cards available at major stations) covers all rail, subway, bus, and many taxi payments. The JR Pass (purchased outside Japan, covers JR lines only) is worthwhile if you are combining Tokyo with day trips to Nikko or Kamakura, or longer trips to Kyoto and Osaka.

Walking between stations is often faster than navigating transfers, particularly within the Yamanote Line loop that circles central Tokyo. The ring of major stations – Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, Ebisu, Shinagawa, Tokyo, Akihabara, Ueno, Ikebukuro – is the most useful mental map of the city.

Neighbourhoods Worth Knowing

Shinjuku is the busiest railway station in the world by passenger count. The east exit leads to Kabukicho (nightlife district, including the Golden Gai bar alley of tiny six-seat bars that has survived development pressure through sheer character) and Omoide Yokocho, a narrow passageway of yakitori and ramen stalls under the train tracks. The west exit leads to the skyscrapers and the free observation deck of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, with views across the city that extend to Mount Fuji on clear winter mornings.

Yanaka, in the northeast of central Tokyo, survived the 1923 earthquake and World War II firebombing, which means it has the intact feel of an old shitamachi (traditional working-class) neighbourhood. The cemetery at its centre is one of the more atmospheric in Asia; the shopping street (Yanaka Ginza) has tofu sellers, traditional craft shops, and confectionery shops that have not changed format in fifty years.

Shimokitazawa, west of Shinjuku, is the student and youth culture neighbourhood: second-hand vinyl shops, independent theatres, small live music venues, and the density of ramen and curry shops that characterise Tokyo’s younger neighbourhoods.

Eating

Tokyo’s food scene operates across approximately 14,000 restaurants in the greater metro area. The practical framework: any neighbourhood with enough foot traffic has excellent food at street level, and the mid-range (lunch at around 1,000 to 2,000 yen) is reliably better in Tokyo than anywhere comparable elsewhere.

Tokyo ramen is shoyu (soy sauce) based, typically cleaner and lighter than the tonkotsu (pork bone) styles of Fukuoka. The depachika (department store basement food halls) at Isetan in Shinjuku and Mitsukoshi in Ginza have the best concentrated selection of prepared food in the city, without booking necessary.

Key Sights

Meiji Jingu is a Shinto shrine completed in 1920, set in 70 hectares of forested parkland deliberately planted around it. The approach through the forest from the Harajuku gate is one of the few genuinely quiet walks available in central Tokyo. The shrine itself is not visually elaborate; the atmosphere comes from the sound of the city disappearing.

Senso-ji in Asakusa is the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo. It is extremely crowded during daylight hours on weekends; arrive at dawn, when the market stalls are closed and the incense smoke from the main censer is visible in the low light.

One frequently missed experience: The Nezu Shrine in Yanaka has a tunnel of torii gates over a hillside path that rivals the famous Fushimi Inari tunnels in Kyoto for atmosphere at a fraction of the crowd level. Visit on a weekday morning.