Tokyo travel guide: What to do, eat & where to stay

Visiting Tokyo for the first time can feel like stepping into the future and the past at once

- VIVIAN MORELLI

THIS VAST, EVER-SHIFTING metropolis is all about contrasts: centuries-old shrines tucked beside glass towers and quiet gardens a few train stops from the neon storm of Shibuya. It is precisely this tension between modern spectacle and quiet tradition that makes Tokyo endlessly captivating.

The city's scale can be dizzying (crossing it can take hours) but each neighbourhood rewards curiosity, with its own rhythm, flavours and gems. This guide offers what you need to know to plan your inaugural trip — and future visits as well — to a city that has drawn a surge of visitors lured by a weak yen and long-postponed wanderlust post-Covid.

The essentials

No first trip to Tokyo is complete without these iconic places and experiences. Shibuya Crossing is Tokyo's most famous intersection, a spectacle of motion and light, which hundreds of pedestrians surge across from all directions beneath vast neon screens. For a sweeping view, head to Shibuya Sky, the rooftop observatory with a dazzling panorama of the city. And for a free vantage point, watch the crossing from the bridge linking Shibuya Station to Mark City.