The grand old lady of Japanese street markets, the Boroichi Flea Market fills every street and alleyway for BLOCKS! In classic flea market style, there is loads of crap studded liberally … Continue reading Setagaya Boroichi Flea Market
Experience the legendary cat & coffee thing, sipping a latte and petting the kitties at a real Tokyo cat café! My favorite cat café – the Calico, in Shinjuku – has … Continue reading Calico Cat Cafe
Ebisu is a great place to find hoppin’ bars, eateries & even a beer museum. One of the most fun, authentic and cheap places to get a taste of Tokyo … Continue reading Ebisu Area
The Edo-Tokyo Museum is my favorite museum in town. Half the museum is about everyday life in the Edo Era (during the time of the shōguns, before Japan opened to the West) … Continue reading Edo-Tokyo Museum
Are you ready for a little time travel? One step inside this shitamachi museum, and we’ll find ourseves in the streets of a lovingly recreated Edo-era town. Open: Every day and … Continue reading Fukagawa-Edo Museum
Ginza is so last century, but there are still hidden delights well worth seeking out in the most famous luxury shopping ghetto in Tokyo And the Mitsukoshi department store (exit A7) is … Continue reading Ginza Area
The lucky cat temple with a magnificent wooden pagoda, Gotoku-ji is a serene and uncrowded temple seldom visited by tourists. It’s a great place to see plum blossoms (Feb) and autumn leaves … Continue reading Gotoku-ji Temple
This garden used to be the shogun’s duck hunting grounds, but now it’s an enormous stroll garden that’s beautiful in every season. Famous for its plum orchard, mid-late Feb) and cosmos … Continue reading Hama-Rikyu Teien Garden
Harajuku is home to the beautiful and serene Meiji Shrine, the wacky free entertainment of Yoyogi Park, and more cult fashion shops than you can count. First let’s stop at the Meiji … Continue reading Harajuku Area
Kamakura is stuffed with entertaining shrines and temples, but this is the only one with a hillside of gorgeous hydrangeas, a thirty-foot-tall Kannon figure covered in gold, and a candle-lit … Continue reading Hasedera Temple
Turn down the volume on your squee-meter, unless you want to lose a little more of your hearing! Check out the little prickle monsters you can snuggle up with at Tokyo’s Harry Hedgehog … Continue reading Harry Hedgehog Cafe
I love to wander through a faux Meiji Era town eating savory Japanese dumplings, then roam around the LABI electronics superstore to see all the strange toys and appliances. Inside a huge shopping … Continue reading Ikebukuro Area
I call this the “funeral goods district,” but there’s nothing depressing about the street where they sell intricately-pieced Shinto shrines and Buddhist home altars. First, let me explain why most Japanese describe … Continue reading Inari-cho Area
This place sells handcrafted stuff from all over Japan, at excellent prices. Every part of Japan has its own traditional crafts, and walking around this store is like getting a … Continue reading Japan Traditional Craft Center
I came for the azaleas, then ran back again every month, because this garden’s flower displays are seriously impressive, year round. Many botanical gardens sacrifice landscape design to cram in … Continue reading Jindai Botanical Gardens
Let’s get out of Tokyo for a day, and see some of the most entertaining shrines and temples in Japan. First, let’s go to the Zeni-Arai Benten Shrine and double our … Continue reading Kamakura Day Trip
Kamiya-cho? Why would anyone want to get off the train at Kamiya-cho? Actually, from Kamiya-cho Station, we can walk to that incongruously orange replica of the EiffelTower and a … Continue reading Kamiya-cho Area
Sure, Kanda Myōjin is a gorgeous red and gold shrine, but the best part is that this is the place where comic book artists and anime auteurs come to pray … Continue reading Kanda Myōjin Shrine
I can’t let you leave Tokyo without going to Kappabashi Street. Even if you’re not a big foodie, the kitchenware district is filled with all kinds of entertaining things, including … Continue reading Kappabashi Street
This old-fashioned neighborhood is an undiscovered gem, with a serene (and uncrowded!) garden and the Fukagawa-Edo Museum – a life-sized samurai-era town you can walk around. As you can see, … Continue reading Kiyosumi-shirakawa Area
This is my go-to garden for soul-restoring serenity. Kiyosumi Teien Garden doesn’t put on spectacular flower displays, but a walk around the greenery-cloaked lake dishes up perfect Japanese vistas at … Continue reading Kiyosumi Teien Garden
Komagome has two of the most beautiful Japanese gardens in Tokyo, stores that sell traditional goods, and an old-fashioned Japanese shopping street. Let’s start at Rikugi-en. This garden was built in 1695 by the … Continue reading Komagome Area
Stroll in a 17th century Japanese garden, cheer with the world’s craziest baseball fans, or ride a roller coaster that goes straight through a Tokyo skyscraper. Let’s start at Koshikawa Koraku-en garden, an oasis … Continue reading Koraku-en Area
Shop for big red underwear, squicky snacks & goods from a bygone era. Walking along Koshinzuka Street is like taking a step back in time, and I always see something I’ve … Continue reading Koshinzuka Street Market
This neighborhood is home to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and the magnificent Imperial Palace moat. From an extensive World War II museum to spectacular seasonal festivals, this area is also boasts … Continue reading Kudanshita Area
The Meiji Shrine has the most spectacular weddings, coming-of-age ceremonies, festivals and traditional events in town. Many people find it more beautiful than all the brightly lacquered shrines put together. … Continue reading Meiji Shrine
This Old Tokyo shitamachi neighborhood has a temple where we can watch a fire ceremony with taiko drums, a dragon fountain that grants wishes written on dissolving paper, and is one of the most … Continue reading Monzen-nakacho Area
At Mt. Takao, you can go hiking, monkey-viewing, beer drinking & firewalking just an hour from Tokyo. Hours of cable car/chairlift to the top:8:00 – 21:15. (Note: These change seasonally. Detailed info about first … Continue reading Mt. Takao Area
Nakano Broadway is fast catching up to Akihabara as the cosplay & comic capital of Tokyo, and there’s a great grill-at-your-table restaurant for refuelling when you’ve shopped ’til you dropped. Just a short … Continue reading Nakano Area
Yanaka is one of the best, undiscovered, Old Tokyo neighborhoods in town, filled with traditional shops and excellent shrines and temples. Let’s start at the Nezu Shrine, which is my … Continue reading Yanaka Area
Nihonbashi is home to Tokyo’s most famous bridge, a department store where the best of Japanese culture is on display, and Art Aquarium, a must-see, only-in-Japan summertime event. The Mitsukoshi flagship store … Continue reading Nihonbashi Area
A village of thatch-roofed farmhouses you can go inside! You don’t have to go to Okayama to see traditional Japanese houses – the Nihon Minka-en is a beautiful natural park set … Continue reading Nihon Minka-en Thatch-Roofed Farmhouses
This off-the-beaten-path temple is famous for its peony gardens (April) and its wart-curing shrine, but it’s also a great place for seasonal festivals and markets that are not at all … Continue reading Nishiarai-Daishi Temple
Odaiba is a man-made island out in Tokyo Bay, and it’s home to the kind of experiences you’ll definitely tell your friends about when you get home. The hot spring theme park, the … Continue reading Odaiba Area
This indoor hot springs theme park is a real only-in-Japan experience – it’s like spending a day in Old Edo, with every kind of food and variety of hot … Continue reading Oedo Onsen Hot Springs
Would you like to see how they make origami paper and ogle some amazing examples of the art of paper folding? Let’s go to the Origami Kaikan, where they always … Continue reading Origami Center
If you love Japanese gardens, we have to go to Rikugi-en. This gorgeous stroll garden features 88 real-life views from famous poems, and is artfully designed to look different – … Continue reading Rikugi-en Garden
Roppongi is known for its skeezy nightlife and drunken tourists, but it also has a couple of provocative museums, an interesting art night, and the best holiday illuminations in Tokyo. … Continue reading Roppongi Area
The sumo stadium and the Edo-Tokyo Museum are both right next to Ryogoku Station. If you’re lucky enough to be in Tokyo during the three 14-day sumo tournaments of the year, … Continue reading Ryogoku Area
This venerable garden in Yokohama has a huge pond and a lot of interesting historical buildings, including a spectacular pagoda. It makes for a fine, meandering walk in any season, … Continue reading Sankei-en Garden
Tiny, moss-covered, fox villages make this shrine extra-magical. Walk through the shadowy tunnel of orange torii gates, and you’ll find yourself in another world. The shrine seems to grow out of the … Continue reading Sasuke Inari Shrine
You know the story of the 47 ronin? The samurai who avenged their lord, then were all ordered to commit ritual suicide? Well, this is the temple where they’re actually … Continue reading Sengaku-ji Temple
This is where you’ll find that crazy scramble intersection and the neighborhood where young Tokyo goes to play. Even if you’re not an under-25 shopoholic making a beeline for the … Continue reading Shibuya Area
Looking for a funky and inexpensive evening of bar hopping and live music? Shimo-kitazawa is my favorite place to find decent food, eccentric bars, excellent craft beer, and awesome music … Continue reading Shimo-kitazawa Area
Shinjuku and the adult entertainment district known as Kabukicho are filled with stylish host clubs, bars, and all kinds of entertainment that’s definitely not for kids. But it’s also where … Continue reading Shinjuku Area
There’s a reason that Shinjuku Gyō-en is one of the most-visited gardens in Tokyo – it’s utterly amazing all year long. You can walk for hours, and around every turn … Continue reading Shinjuku Gyō-en National Garden
This spacious park in Tachikawa has something for everyone: a fountain-studded promenade lined with ginkgo trees, a huge Japanese garden with an excellent bonsai collection, spectacular seasonal color, and a bouncy mountain, multiple playgrounds, & lots … Continue reading Showa Kinen Park
Why do guidebooks send people to Ueno for all the wrong reasons? For example, if you go during cherry blossom season, chances are, all you’ll see is this: Ugh! But all … Continue reading Ueno Area
This is a gorgeous, lively, maddeningly nationalistic, must-see Imperial shrine. If you follow Japanese news at all, every year you’ll hear about the Yasukuni Shrine. It’s the place where the … Continue reading Yasukuni Shrine
For a day trip that’s a mix of cutting edge energy and timeless gardens, let’s go to Yokohama. It’s got a big Japanese garden, Pokemon and art that lights up the night. … Continue reading Yokohama
