Ueno & Yanesen
If you visit only one museum in Tokyo, make it the Tokyo National Museum. Here you'll find the world's largest collection of Japanese art, including…
Must-see attractions in Tokyo
Tokyo
This museum is the heart of the Studio Ghibli world, a beloved (even 'adored') film studio responsible for classic, critically-acclaimed animated titles…
Shinjuku & Northwest Tokyo
Golden Gai – a Shinjuku institution for over half a century – is a collection of tiny bars, often literally no bigger than a closet and seating maybe a…
Odaiba & Tokyo Bay
Digital-art collective teamLab has created 60 artworks for this museum, open in 2018, that tests the border between art and the viewer: many are…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Rumoured to be the busiest intersection in the world (and definitely in Japan), Shibuya Crossing is like a giant beating heart, sending people in all…
Tokyo
The Imperial Palace occupies the site of the original Edo-jō, the Tokugawa shogunate's castle. In its heyday this was the largest fortress in the world,…
Asakusa & Sumida River
Tokyo’s most visited temple enshrines a golden image of Kannon (the Buddhist goddess of mercy), which, according to legend, was miraculously pulled out of…
Harajuku & Aoyama
Tokyo’s grandest Shintō shrine is dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken, whose reign (1868–1912) coincided with Japan's transformation from…
Ueno & Yanesen
Considered by many to be Tokyo's most elegant garden, Rikugi-en was originally completed in 1702, at the behest of a feudal lord. It is definitely the…
Ginza & Tsukiji
This beautiful garden, one of Tokyo’s finest, is all that remains of a shogunate summer villa next to Tokyo Bay. There's a large pond with an island,…
Kōrakuen & Akihabara
Established in the mid-17th century as the property of the Tokugawa clan, this formal strolling garden incorporates elements of Chinese and Japanese…
Ginza & Tsukiji
Tokyo's main wholesale market may have moved to Toyosu, but there are many reasons to visit its old home. The tightly packed rows of vendors (which once…
Harajuku & Aoyama
If it’s a sunny and warm weekend afternoon, you can count on there being a crowd lazing around the large grassy expanse that is Yoyogi-kōen. You'll…
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
Shinjuku & Northwest Tokyo
Tokyo's city hall – a landmark building designed by Tange Kenzō – has observatories (202m) atop both the south and north towers of Building 1 (the views…
Harajuku & Aoyama
This broad, tree-lined boulevard is lined with boutiques from the top European fashion houses. More interesting are the buildings themselves, designed by…
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Tokyo
Dedicated to interdisciplinary experimentation, Intermediatheque cherry-picks from the vast collection of the University of Tokyo to craft a fascinating,…
Asakusa & Sumida River
Belonging to the esoteric Shingon sect, at this active temple you can attend one of the city's most spectacular religious rituals. Goma (fire rituals)…
Asakura Museum of Sculpture, Taitō
Ueno & Yanesen
Sculptor Asakura Fumio (artist name Chōso; 1883–1964) built his home studio in the early 20th century and it's very much representative of architecture of…
Harajuku & Aoyama
Nezu Museum offers a striking blend of old and new: a renowned collection of Japanese, Chinese and Korean antiquities in a gallery space designed by…
Tokyo
One of Tokyo's best parks, Inokashira-kōen has a big pond in the middle flanked by woodsy strolling paths. A highlight is Inokashira Benzaiten, a shrine…
Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
Roppongi Hills sets the standard for 21st-century real-estate developments in Tokyo. The centrepiece of the office, shopping, dining and entertainment…
National Museum of Modern Art (MOMAT)
Tokyo
Regularly changing displays from the museum's superb collection of more than 12,000 works are shown over floors 2 to 4; special exhibitions are mounted on…
Odaiba & Tokyo Bay
A very popular photo-op, with the Rainbow Bridge in the background, is this 11m-tall replica of Lady Liberty, a fixture on Odaiba's waterfront since 2000.
Asakusa & Sumida River
Tokyo's history museum documents the city's transformation from tidal flatlands to feudal capital to modern metropolis via detailed scale re-creations of…
Ukiyo-e Ōta Memorial Museum of Art
Harajuku & Aoyama
This small museum (where you swap your shoes for slippers) is the best place in Tokyo to see ukiyo-e. Each month it presents a seasonal, thematic…
Kōrakuen & Akihabara
Tracing its history back to AD 730, this splendid Shintō shrine boasts vermilion-lacquered halls surrounding a stately courtyard. Its present location…
Ginza & Tsukiji
If you see advertising as art, this museum is a spectacle. Run by Dentsu, Japan’s largest advertising agency, this fine collection runs from woodblock…
Asakusa & Sumida River
Tokyo Skytree opened in May 2012 as the world’s tallest ‘free-standing tower’ at 634m. Its silvery exterior of steel mesh morphs from a triangle at the…
Tokyo
Crafted from part of the original castle compound, these lovely free gardens allow you to get close-up views of the massive stones used to build the…
Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
One of the most important temples of the Jōdō (Pure Land) sect of Buddhism, Zōjō-ji dates from 1393 and was the funerary temple of the Tokugawa regime. It…
Kōrakuen & Akihabara
Literally ‘For the Peace of the Country Shrine’, Yasukuni is the memorial shrine to Japan’s war dead, around 2.5 million souls. First built in 1869, it is…
Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
Something of a shameless tourist trap, this 1958-vintage tower – painted bright orange and white in order to comply with international aviation safety…
Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
Mori Art Museum is one of Tokyo's leading spaces for contemporary art, taking up a whole floor at the top of Mori Tower. It has no permanent exhibition;…
Odaiba & Tokyo Bay
In 2018, Tokyo's central wholesale market moved from its iconic Tsukiji location to this new facility in Toyosu, a structure clearly dreamed up by…
Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architecture Museum
Tokyo
This fantastic yet overlooked museum is a preserve for historic buildings rescued from around Tokyo during the city's decades-long construction jag. Among…
Ueno & Yanesen
Best known for its profusion of cherry trees that burst into blossom in spring (making this one of Tokyo's top hanami – blossom-viewing – spots),…
Asakusa & Sumida River
The woodblock artist Hokusai Katsushika (1760–1849) was born and died close to the location of this museum, which opened in 2016 in a striking aluminium…
Tokyo
This large park north of the Imperial Palace is home to noteworthy museums as well as the Nippon Budōkan concert hall. The gate at the park’s northern end…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Every evening, Akita dog Hachikō would go to Shibuya Station to greet his companion. It's a practice he kept up everyday for 10 years after the professor…
Ebisu, Meguro & Around
Tokyo's principal photography museum usually holds three different exhibitions at once, drawing on both its extensive collection of Japanese artists and…
