Kōrakuen & Akihabara
This fascinating neighbourhood of more than 170 new and secondhand booksellers is proof that the printed word is alive and well in Tokyo. Amid tottering stacks of volumes, you'll find everything from antique guidebooks of the Yoshiwara pleasure district to obscure sheet music from your favourite symphony.
Recommended stores to target are Ohya Shobō, purveyor of antique books, maps and original ukiyo-e prints, and Komiyama Shoten for art books, prints and posters.
1.85 MILES
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…
10.63 MILES
This museum is the heart of the Studio Ghibli world, a beloved (even 'adored') film studio responsible for classic, critically-acclaimed animated titles…
3.08 MILES
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…
4.15 MILES
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…
17.9 MILES
This impressively slick attraction is dedicated to, you guessed it, cup noodles. But in reality, its focus is more broad, with numerous exhibitions…
2.53 MILES
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…
0.97 MILES
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,…
2.47 MILES
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…
0.37 MILES
This Russian Orthodox cathedral, complete with distinctive Byzantine-style architecture, was first built in 1891 under the supervision of English…
0.43 MILES
This side gate to the San-no-maru (third compound) of the castle was used mainly by maidservants.
3. National Museum of Modern Art (MOMAT)
0.45 MILES
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…
0.46 MILES
Featuring a wide selection of exhibits aimed primarily at children and teenagers, the Science Museum has little in the way of English explanations, but…
0.46 MILES
Tucked away amid the Sola City development is this exhibition space occupying a relocated 1917 storehouse once used by the area's book distributors. Check…
6. National Shōwa Memorial Museum
0.48 MILES
This museum of WWII-era Tokyo gives a sense of everyday life for the common people: how they ate, slept, dressed, studied, prepared for war and endured…
0.5 MILES
Operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, TOKAS (short for Tokyo Arts and Space) comprises three floors of galleries with the aim of promoting new…
0.52 MILES
Established in 1691 and later used as a school for the sons of the powerful during the Tokugawa regime, this is one of Tokyo’s handful of Confucian…