4-Day Tokyo Itinerary — Senso-ji, Shibuya Sky & teamLab Planets

Senso-ji

📍 Asakusa, Taito City

Tokyo's oldest temple, and worth the early start — the Hozomon gate and the main hall are close to empty before 09:00, and the incense cauldron in the forecourt is still being lit.

Nakamise-dori Shopping Street

📍 Asakusa, Taito City

The 250m approach back down from the temple. Stalls open around 09:30 — ningyo-yaki cakes cooked in the window and senbei crackers grilled to order are the two things worth queuing for.

Kappabashi Dougu Street

📍 Matsugaya, Taito City

Ten minutes' walk west: the restaurant-supply street where Tokyo's kitchens buy their knives, ceramics and the plastic food models in every window. The best-value souvenir street in the city.

Ueno Park

📍 Ueno, Taito City

Two stops up on the Ginza line. Enter from the south and walk past Shinobazu Pond, where the summer lotus covers the water completely.

Tokyo National Museum

📍 Ueno Park, Taito City

Japan's oldest and largest museum. If time is short, the Honkan building alone — samurai armour, swords and ukiyo-e — is the hour that matters.

Ameyoko Shopping Street

📍 Ueno, Taito City

The market strip under the Yamanote tracks between Ueno and Okachimachi. Standing seafood bars and grilled-skewer counters get loud after 18:00 — dinner without a reservation.

Meiji Jingu

📍 Yoyogi, Shibuya City

A forest of 100,000 donated trees around the shrine to Emperor Meiji. The gravel approach from the Harajuku entrance takes about ten minutes and drops the city noise almost entirely.

Takeshita Street

📍 Jingumae, Shibuya City

400 metres of teenage Tokyo directly opposite the shrine exit — crepe stands, purikura booths and the loudest shopfronts in Japan. Go early; by afternoon it is shoulder to shoulder.

Nezu Museum

📍 Minami-Aoyama, Minato City

Fifteen minutes down Omotesando: pre-modern Asian art in a Kengo Kuma building, with a strolling garden and teahouses behind it that almost nobody on Takeshita Street knows exists.

Shibuya Scramble Crossing

📍 Dogenzaka, Shibuya City

Cross it once at street level, then watch a cycle from the second-floor window of the Tsutaya building on the north side.

Shibuya Sky

📍 Shibuya Scramble Square, Shibuya City

Open-air deck 229m up. Book the 16:30-17:00 slot online in advance — you get the city in daylight, sunset over Fuji on a clear day, and the neon coming on, in one ticket.

Omoide Yokocho

📍 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku City

Two lanes of six-seat yakitori counters beside Shinjuku Station. This is the one night Shinjuku earns its reputation — smoke, charcoal, and no English menu in half the shops.

Tsukiji Outer Market

📍 Tsukiji, Chuo City

The wholesale auction moved to Toyosu, but the outer market did not. Breakfast is tamagoyaki on a stick, grilled scallops and a standing bowl of uni — most shops shut by 14:00, so this is a morning.

Hamarikyu Gardens

📍 Hamarikyu, Chuo City

A ten-minute walk south. A former shogunal duck-hunting estate with tidal ponds fed from Tokyo Bay, and a 300-year-old pine, ringed by Shiodome's towers.

Ginza Six

📍 Ginza, Chuo City

Lunch and the basement food hall. On Saturdays and Sundays Chuo-dori outside closes to cars from noon and the whole avenue becomes a pedestrian street.

teamLab Planets TOKYO

📍 Toyosu, Koto City

Barefoot, knee-deep, through water rooms and a mirrored infinite garden. Timed entry only and it sells out — book the moment you know your dates.

Odaiba Seaside Park

📍 Daiba, Minato City

End on the bay: Rainbow Bridge lit up across the water, with the skyline behind it. The Yurikamome line back into the city runs over the bridge itself.

Imperial Palace East Gardens

📍 Chiyoda City

Free, opens at 09:00, and built on the foundations of Edo Castle — the stone keep base you climb is all that survived. Closed Mondays and Fridays, so check before you plan the day around it.

Tokyo Station

📍 Marunouchi, Chiyoda City

The 1914 red-brick Marunouchi facade, restored to its original domed roofline in 2012. Best seen from the Kitte building's sixth-floor terrace directly opposite.

Hie Shrine

📍 Nagatacho, Chiyoda City

A tunnel of vermilion torii climbing the hillside behind the government district — the same effect as Fushimi Inari, twenty minutes from Tokyo Station and almost empty.

Zojo-ji

📍 Shiba, Minato City

The Tokugawa family temple, with six shoguns buried behind it. The Sangedatsumon gate at the front dates from 1622 and is one of the oldest wooden structures in Tokyo.

Tokyo Tower

📍 Shiba, Minato City

Directly behind Zojo-ji, and the reason the temple photograph works. The main deck at 150m is enough; the top deck tour is not worth double.

Sengaku-ji

📍 Takanawa, Minato City

The graves of the 47 ronin, ten minutes from Shinagawa Station. A deliberate last stop: if you are carrying on to Kyoto, the Shinkansen leaves from Shinagawa and you are already there.