Things to Do in Tokyo

Tokyo has a fish market where the day’s best tuna sells at a dawn auction you can watch through a glass gallery, a shrine forest planted from scratch a century ago from more than 100,000 trees donated from across the country, and a neighbourhood of a few hundred tiny bars where the regulars often outnumber the seats. This guide organises the city’s landmarks, markets, museums, nightlife, and day trips into something bookable, not just admirable from a train window. For the wider neighbourhood and timing picture, see the Tokyo destination guide.

Temples, Shrines and Landmark Towers

Senso-ji, Tokyo’s oldest temple, anchors Asakusa and is at its most atmospheric before the Nakamise stalls open for the day, free to enter and busy from mid-morning onward. Meiji Shrine, a short walk from Harajuku, sits inside a forest that didn’t exist before 1920: more than 100,000 trees, donated from every prefecture in Japan and beyond, were planted specifically to mature into old-growth woodland around the shrine. It has since become exactly that.

Tokyo’s two towers answer different questions. Tokyo Tower, a red-and-white lattice structure from 1958 modelled loosely on the Eiffel Tower but built slightly taller, has two decks (the Main Deck around 150m, the Top Deck around 250m and bookable separately) and sits an easy walk from Roppongi and Shiba Park. Tokyo Skytree, at 634m the tallest structure in Japan, has its own two-deck system (Tembo Deck and the higher Tembo Galleria) and stands beside Asakusa, making it the natural pairing with a Senso-ji visit. Pick Tokyo Tower for the nostalgic view and a shorter queue; pick Skytree for the height record and Asakusa proximity.

Parks and Green Space

Shinjuku Gyoen is the park worth knowing about specifically: entry runs around ¥500 (~USD 3), and it’s one of the few places in Tokyo combining French formal, English landscape, and traditional Japanese garden styles inside a single perimeter. It also bans alcohol, an exception to the boisterous hanami picnics that fill most public parks during cherry blossom season, which makes it the calmer option if that’s what you’re after.

Yoyogi Park, next to Meiji Shrine, is free and known on Sundays for informal gatherings of rockabilly dancers near the park’s Harajuku-side entrance, a genuinely local scene rather than a staged tourist show. The Imperial Palace East Gardens, built on the grounds of the original Edo Castle, are free and among the quietest green spaces in central Tokyo; check the official schedule before visiting, as the gardens close on rotating days.

Hamarikyu Gardens, a former shogunate duck-hunting ground on Tokyo Bay, doubles as a departure point for the Tokyo Water Bus, which runs up the Sumida River to Asakusa or out across the bay, a genuinely different way to see the waterfront than any train line offers. Entry to the garden itself runs around ¥300 (~USD 2), separate from the boat fare.

Markets and Food Halls

Toyosu Market took over Tokyo’s wholesale fish trade when Tsukiji’s inner market relocated here in 2018, and its early-morning tuna auction is the reason to set an alarm. A free public gallery with glass walls overlooks the auction floor; arrive by around 5:30am for the clearest view, no reservation needed for general viewing. Sushi restaurants inside the market complex serve the same catch a few hours after it changes hands, worth the early start on its own.

Ameya-Yokocho, the market street running along the elevated tracks near Ueno, is a lower-key, all-day alternative: cheap goods, street snacks, and a working-class energy that survived Tokyo’s redevelopment waves. Tokyo’s depachika, the basement food halls of its department stores, are covered in full in the wider Japan food guide.

Museums and Art

The Nezu Museum in Omotesando pairs a collection of pre-modern Japanese and East Asian art with a garden built around four teahouses and a pond, designed by architect Kengo Kuma. It’s a genuinely different pace from the crowds a few streets over, and the garden alone justifies the roughly ¥1,500 (~USD 10) entry. The Mori Art Museum, on the upper floors of Roppongi Hills, focuses on contemporary work and sells a combined ticket with the building’s observation deck, so the art and the view come as one visit.

TeamLab’s immersive installations, Planets in Toyosu and the reopened Borderless at Azabudai Hills, sell out weeks ahead in peak season and are covered with full booking detail in the Japan activities guide linked above.

Shopping Districts

Harajuku’s Takeshita Street is loud, cheap, and built for a quick browse; Omotesando, one street over, is its opposite: a tree-lined avenue where flagship stores from Prada, Dior, and other names commission the architecture itself as a statement, closer to an open-air design museum than a shopping strip. Akihabara and Shimokitazawa, Tokyo’s electronics-and-pop-culture and vintage-fashion districts respectively, are covered in depth in the Japan shopping guide.

Nightlife

Golden Gai, a warren of alleyways in Shinjuku holding around 200 bars, is the picture most people have of Tokyo nightlife: some bars seat five or six people at most, and a fair number are effectively regulars-only, unmarked and unwelcoming to a stranger who wanders in unannounced. Others post English menus and a cover charge (typically ¥500 to ¥1,500, ~USD 3 to 10) right on the door specifically to welcome visitors. Scan for that sign before sitting down rather than guessing.

Omoide Yokocho, a few minutes away, runs a similar scale but a different mood: narrow, smoke-filled yakitori alleys with standing or tightly packed counter seating, historically known by a far less polite nickname. Shibuya and Roppongi carry Tokyo’s larger-venue nightlife, from techno clubs like WOMB to Roppongi’s later-running international bar scene; Roppongi in particular draws aggressive street touts after dark, worth ignoring outright rather than engaging with. For a quieter option, the Park Hyatt Tokyo’s New York Bar on the 52nd floor pairs skyline views with live jazz most nights.

For Ginza’s exclusive bar scene, Shinjuku Ni-chome’s LGBTQ+ district, hidden speakeasies, and what to do after the last train, see the dedicated Tokyo Nightlife guide.

Sento: Tokyo’s Public Bathhouse Culture

A sento is a neighbourhood bathhouse using heated tap water, distinct from an onsen’s natural mineral spring, and Tokyo still has several hundred of them tucked into residential streets. Jakotsuyu in Asakusa is one of the city’s oldest and, usefully, one of the few that welcomes visible tattoos, a genuine exception to the tattoo bans that cover most bathing facilities in Japan. Koganeyu in Sumida ward went the other direction: a full renovation added a craft beer bar inside the building, drawing a younger crowd that treats the bath as a night out rather than a chore.

Entry runs around ¥500 (~USD 3). Wash thoroughly at the shower stations before entering the communal bath, skip the swimwear, and keep your towel out of the water, the same etiquette that applies at any onsen.

Sumo at Ryogoku Kokugikan

Ryogoku, the neighbourhood built around Tokyo’s sumo stadium, is worth visiting beyond tournament dates. Several sumo stables in the area open early-morning practice sessions (asageiko) to visitors, typically free or low-cost, a far closer view of the sport than a tournament seat provides; check with individual stables, as access and etiquette rules vary and change without much notice. The neighbourhood’s chanko nabe restaurants, serving the protein-heavy hotpot wrestlers eat in bulk to bulk up, are run by and for the sumo community and open to anyone. The Sumo Museum inside Kokugikan is free and worth the detour on a tournament day.

Day Trips and Tokyo’s Wild West

Kamakura and Nikko, Tokyo’s two most popular day trips, are covered with full transport and pricing detail on the destination guide linked above. Less expected: Okutama and Mount Mitake, in Tokyo’s far western reaches, are still technically within Tokyo Metropolis despite looking nothing like it. Around two hours from Shinjuku on the JR Ome Line, Mitake Shrine sits partway up the mountain, reached by a cable car that cuts out the steepest section, and the Mitake Gorge river walk below runs through cedar forest that could pass for a different prefecture entirely. A genuinely different Tokyo from the one most visitors see, and an easy full-day trip for anyone who’s done the temple circuit already.

For the city’s biggest single attraction, Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea run as their own dedicated guide: Tokyo Disney Resort tickets and planning.