Guides - Insight Guides Experience Tokyo

How To Use This E-Book

This Experience guide has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With top-quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these highly visual guidebooks are designed to appeal to well-informed, sophisticated travellers looking for fresh insights into their chosen destination.

In the Mood For

The In the Mood for section is filled with suggestions, all grouped by mood, whether youre seeking the best place for lunch or where to get the finest views across the city. Each individual suggestion is cross-referenced to the main selection of recommendations, where they are given full coverage.

Neighbourhoods

Every guide offers a collection of over 100 ideas for a memorable stay in a city, organised by neighbourhood, compiled by writers who know the city inside out. Travellers can browse a city area and find inspiration, with plenty of secret gems in the mix, backed up by clear mapping and a wealth of practical information.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

About Insight Guides

Insight Guides have more than 40 years experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

Insight Guides are written by local authors, whose expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. Each destination is carefully researched by regional experts to ensure our guides provide the very latest information. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide you to the best places to eat, go out and shop, so you can be confident that when we say a place is special, we really mean it.

2017 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Tokyo Overview

After decades of sailing under the radar, the word is out. Arrivals figures are sky rocketing as Tokyo experiences an unprecedented tourism boom and the city sheds its modesty: Governor Yuriko Koike now wants Japans capital to become the worlds number one destination.

4Corners Images

And with good reason. Tokyos blend of traditional and hypermodern, its serene shrines and pulsing nightlife, its mouth-watering cuisine, punctilious service and pleasingly good value and most of all the endless surprises that lie around every corner have put it atop the contemporary travellers list of must-see cities.

This is the city from which the worlds oldest imperial line rules from a hidden palace over one of the planets proudest peoples. Yet its also the place that gave us Sony and anime, Hello Kitty and bullet trains, and a city thats continuously reinventing itself after being destroyed twice in the 20th century.

From the sushi vendors of Tsukiji fish market to the maids at Akihabaras otaku (fanboy) cafs, from the chic boutiques of Shibuya to the scruffy bars of Shinjuku, this giant 13+ million-strong city in a sprawling megalopolis is opening its arms ever-wider to overseas visitors. And yet, even with the 2020 Summer Olympics bringing a building boom thats transforming the skyline, Tokyo remains tethered to a rich and ancient culture that keeps it a place of eternal fascination.

So get off the beaten path, venture down the narrow lanes that define residential Tokyo and discover a city thats not so far evolved from its past as a wide plain of verdant rice paddies, ringed by mountains and the sea occupied by sturdy folk who, by dint of hard work and resourceful creativity, lofted Japan to its spot as the worlds third-biggest economy.

In the Mood for

A foodie extravaganza

4Corners Images

Tokyo is a perfect foodie paradise. With one of the worlds most renowned native cuisines, and the most Michelin stars of any city on earth, Tokyo serves up some exceptional dishes that youll remember for a lifetime.

Japans capital isnt only about multi-course menus or haute cuisine. Theres also an abundance of earthier delights along the lines of the cattail-shaped, pan-fried donuts youll find at Shipoya or tail shop in Yanaka (for more information, ), which makes them from venison and even bear meat.

Tsukiji fish market (for more information, ), which grows its own. Indulge in their carefully crafted onigiri (rice balls) and grilled fish sets.

Head to Roppongis three-star restaurant Ryugin (for more information, ) if youre prepared to really splash out, where chef Seiji Yamamoto specialises in kaiseki ryori multi-course meals conjured from the finest ingredients from across the Japanese archipelago.

Themed spots abound in a city where people view dining as a fun experience to be savoured for hours with flowing drinks and conversation. Try Akasakas Ninja Restaurant (for more information, ), where masked ninja lead you to your table in The Village through a web of hidden doors.

Retail therapy

Alamy

Tokyo is pricy, but no more so than any other megalopolis and the service is punctilious to a fault. Go upscale at swish department stores like Ginzas Wako (for more information, ).

If you prefer small boutiques, eschew the department stores to stroll around Daikanyama (for more information, ), one of Tokyos smartest districts and home to shops featuring the creations of Japans top designers.

Lovely handmade crafts from across the archipelago are available at Bingoya (for more information, ) are all excellent for traditional bric-a-brac.

For J-pop culture, make for Tower Records (for more information, ) is of course the temple for all things toy-like.

A night on the town

Chris Stowers/Apa Publications