3 Days in Tokyo

Start here at opening, before the day-trippers arrive. Tokyo's oldest temple anchors the whole east side, and on a three-day trip the early start is non-negotiable: by 10am the Nakamise approach is shoulder to shoulder. Walk straight through the Kaminarimon gate to the main hall, then double back for a melon-pan or a senbei cracker from the stalls.

The walk over the Sumida River from the temple takes about twenty minutes and keeps the tower in front of you the whole way, so pair them. At 634m it is the tallest tower in Japan; a date-and-time ticket bought online for the 350m Tembo Deck skips the counter queue and the same-day surcharge. If the morning is clear, look west and you can pick out Mt. Fuji before the haze sets in.

Lunch is grazed standing up in this loud open-air market jammed under the JR tracks. Run it from the Ueno end toward Okachimachi: grilled scallops, fruit skewers, and bowls of seafood from stalls that shout their prices at you. Keep cash on you and do not plan on finding anywhere to sit.

Two minutes uphill from the market, a wide green breath in the middle of a packed day. The free walk is the Shinobazu Pond loop and the little Bentendo hall on its island; the museums ringing the park charge separately and mostly close Mondays, so on three days you admire them from outside and move on. In late March the central path is one of the city's great cherry-blossom tunnels.

Two stops down the Yamanote from Ueno, with only Okachimachi in between, the city's electronics-and-anime quarter, best walked toward dusk as the signs flick on. The multi-floor shops stack retro games, model kits, and arcades on top of each other; Yodobashi Akiba is the one-roof giant if you have only an hour. Browsing costs nothing, which is the point on a tight trip.

Open the modern day with its calmest hour. This Shinto shrine sits inside a planted forest of a hundred thousand donated trees, and the gravel approach from the Harajuku-side torii muffles the city within a few steps. The wall of painted sake barrels partway in is the photo everyone takes; the inner garden charges 500 yen and earns it only in mid-June, when the irises are out.

Straight across the road from the shrine, and a hard tonal flip: about 400m of teen fashion, rainbow cotton candy, and crepe stands. Walk it once before noon while it is only busy rather than impassable, get a crepe, and let it spill you out the far end onto the broad, zelkova-lined Omotesando avenue. Lunch is easier on the quieter Cat Street just off it.

One stop south on the Yamanote. Honest take: from the pavement it is just a very large crosswalk, so cross it once with the scramble for the feel of it, then watch it properly from above. The free second-floor window at the station-front Starbucks looks straight down the scramble; the loyal-dog Hachiko statue is in the same square, a 30-second detour and the city's classic meeting point.

The open-air rooftop on top of the station, and the best paid view in the city. On this trip take an afternoon slot rather than the coveted sunset one, because tonight ends under the neon in Shinjuku; book online days ahead either way. Go straight to the corner edge before the queue for it builds, and look west for Fuji on a clear day.

A few minutes north on the Yamanote to Shinjuku, and dinner is a handful of skewers and a beer eaten standing at a smoke-filled yakitori counter in this lattice of postwar alleys by the west exit. Sit where the seat charge is posted outside so nothing surprises you, keep cash ready, and arrive before 6pm to get a stool. If you still have energy, the closet-sized themed bars of Golden Gai are a ten-minute walk east for a nightcap.

Breakfast where Tokyo has shopped for fish for a century. The tuna auction itself moved out to Toyosu in 2018, so come for the food rather than a spectacle: hundreds of stalls sell tamagoyaki on a stick, grilled scallops, and uni straight from the shell. Arrive by 8:30, before the tour groups and the sell-outs, and bring cash because many stalls take nothing else.

A 300-yen Edo-era garden a short walk from the market, built around a tidal saltwater pond that rises and falls with Tokyo Bay. Order the matcha-and-sweet set at the teahouse on the pond's island and drink it with the Shiodome towers stacked behind the pines, the city's tidiest old-meets-new view. A river-bus pier inside the garden runs boats up the Sumida if you would rather float than ride the train back.

Lunch and a wander through Tokyo's grande-dame shopping district, a short ride north of the garden. The free rooftop garden on the 13th floor of Ginza Six is a quiet lawn with skyline views, the opposite of the street below; Itoya is twelve floors of beautiful stationery for light, packable souvenirs. Come on a weekend afternoon and the main Chuo-dori closes to traffic and fills with strollers.

Out across the bay to the man-made island of Odaiba, where a 19.7m Unicorn Gundam stands guard outside the DiverCity mall. It is free, gloriously over the top, and a first-timer favorite; after dark it lights up and, when the mechanism is running, shifts its armor on a set schedule. The display is slated to run through 2026, so check before you go. A few minutes away the waterfront gives you the Rainbow Bridge and a small-scale Statue of Liberty with the skyline behind, and the driverless Yurikamome train out here is half the fun.

End the trip barefoot, wading shin-deep through warm water while koi made of projected light scatter around your legs and a room of mirrored orchids hangs overhead. It sits at the Toyosu end of the Yurikamome line, a scenic elevated ride on from Odaiba over the bay. Book a timed slot well ahead because the evening and weekend windows sell out, wear shorts or trousers you can roll up rather than a long skirt, and give it a full two hours.