Tokyo is the largest city in Japan. We spent only 2 days, while you can spend almost a week covering each area. Prominent places to visit in Tokyo include Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ueno, Asakusa, Odaiba – these were our focus this time. You can extend to Roppongi hills, Akhibara, outer Tokyo if you have more time
Places to visit in Tokyo
Imperial Palace
We saw East Gardens and skipped the Palace tour given average reviews. You anyway can’t enter inside the main building. The gardens had some cherry trees, azalea plants and many other trees, creating a serene atmosphere
Shibuya
You can see the famous scramble crossing that comes to life at every signal. The famous statue of Hachiko is just outside the station. There was a long queue to get a photo clicked with the statue
Meiji Jingu
A peaceful shrine in the middle of the forest amidst the chaos and colors of Tokyo. You will have to walk 20-30 minutes from the nearest station of Harajuku/ Shibuya/ Shinjuku. I was pleasantly surprised and do recommend visiting this shrine
Shinjuku Gyoen Garden
Our first stop was here in Japan, full of cherry trees blooming and petals falling creating a heavenly atmosphere
Nezu Shrine festival
Azalea flower festival is held mid April onwards, when this shrine comes to life in an entirely different way. The queues were humongous, almost reaching the next station. We couldn’t even see the start of the queue after walking for 5 minutes, hence gave up. The view from outside is gorgeous enough. It is a small area and the queues get you to outer layers where you can get a closer look, but there is enough to see from the outside
Yanaka
Known as Cat town for the various stores in Ginza area selling cat themed clothes, cookies etc. The walk from Nezu Shrine was nice, but tiring in the hot sun. Visit if you are a huge cat lover, else skip
Ueno Park
We visited the Zoo inside. It has many unique animals we had never seen before like De Brezza monkeys, Aardvark, and others like Tamarins, Tamanduas, Polar bear and Giant Panda. Expect 50 minute waiting time to see the Giant Pandas. We saw a sneak peak from one of the gates without waiting in
Asakusa shrine
A nice shrine in red, with Sky tree in the background. The temple has a double Wisteria tree in the premise
Team Labs
The attempt is to immerse yourself in digital art. We are generally not art or museum people, but went there more out of curiosity around the hype. Frankly, don’t think it is worth the price, but good to see once on what a digital museum means
The Odaiba area also has other attractions like replica of Statue of Liberty, Fuji TV building with a standout spherical structure, port area, all on reclaimed land
Places we skipped due to lack of time
Asakusa Sky tree: The tower is impressive, but has a steep entry fee of 3k+ yen during weekends
Shinkuju Metropolitan building: Free to access, but could have long 30-60 minute queues. Gives a bird’s eye view of the city and is a good alternative to Skytree
Tokyo Tower: Close to Shimbashi station, popular enough due to old movies in India like “Love in Tokyo”
Ghibli museum: Ghibli art rose to popularity with ChatGPT release. You can visit the museum if you are an ardent fan
Animal cafes: We hardly had time to relax and enjoy this time. Would like to visit in future for sure