Choose how many days you have and we'll lay out a day-by-day plan built around the experiences and flavors you can only get here. Pick your trip length below.
Jet lag works for you here: eastbound from the US you'll wake early, so the 7:30a market start lands naturally. Den is a 6:00p seating so you can still make Golden Gai without rushing the meal.
This day is deliberately lighter on transit — Yanaka, Nezu, and Ueno sit in one walkable arc, leaving the evening free for the arches. If TeamLab slots are gone, Hokusai is a walk-up.
The auction means a 5:00a alarm — schedule this day mid-trip when you're fully on Japan time, and keep the afternoon deliberately soft. Ryogoku dinner books easily same-week.
17 pinned stops across the route. Tap a pin to open it in Google Maps. Hold Ctrl and scroll to zoom the map.
Tokyo — old Edo — is where much of what the world calls Japanese food was born, from nigiri sushi to tempura, and it now holds more celebrated restaurants than any city on earth.
Every place along the selected itinerary, plus the dishes, ingredients, and goods to take home. Tap any photo to enlarge.
Tokyo runs on an extraordinary rail and subway network — JR lines plus the Tokyo Metro and Toei subways; a rechargeable Suica or Pasmo IC card taps you through all of it and most shops. From Narita, the N'EX or Keisei Skyliner reach the centre; from Haneda, the monorail or Keikyu line. Within a neighbourhood, walking is easy and taxis are excellent if pricey.
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Each of these is a comfortable there-and-back day. Travel times are one way, by the route most visitors actually take.
Hot springs, a lake, and — on a clear day — Mt. Fuji. The loop by train, cable car, and pirate ship is half the fun.
Tours & tickets ›The wildly ornate Toshogu shrine in cedar forest, plus waterfalls. Best in autumn, when the maples turn.
Tours & tickets ›The Great Buddha, coastal temples, and a beach town feel. The easiest escape from Tokyo's density.
Tours & tickets ›"Little Edo" — a preserved merchant street of clay-walled warehouses. Half a day, minimal effort.
Tours & tickets ›Do not tip. It can cause genuine confusion or offence — excellent service is standard and included.
Tap water is safe and good everywhere.
Touts in Kabukichō and Roppongi luring you to bars can lead to enormous, coerced bills. Never follow a stranger to a venue. Otherwise Tokyo is extraordinarily safe.
Dates shift from year to year, so these are anchored to their season — always confirm the exact dates before you book flights around one.
Hanami picnics under the blossom in Ueno and along the Meguro River. The forecast shifts yearly and the peak lasts barely a week — book flexibly.
Twenty thousand fireworks over the river, watched in yukata. Enormously crowded, entirely worth it.
Maples turn crimson in the gardens and temple grounds — the quieter, cheaper counterpart to sakura.
Shrine visits at midnight, and much of the city closes. Atmospheric, but plan around closures.
Tokyo's autumn arrives a week or two later than Kyoto's and trades temple maples for avenues of ginkgo (ichō) turning a uniform, electric gold. The city's parks and garden estates put on a quieter, more urban version of the show, and the cooler air is some of the best weather of the year for walking the neighborhoods.
Timing: Tokyo's ginkgo peak runs slightly later than Kyoto's maples, so the two pair well on one trip — Kyoto's temples mid-November, Tokyo's avenues into early December. The Gaien avenue and Rikugi-en light-up are the must-sees; both are busiest on weekends.
Tokyo works beautifully as part of a multi-city route. These ready-made bundles stitch it into a longer itinerary, with the logistics worked out.
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