Start at Sensoji before eight and finish in the museums at Ueno. One day, three areas, two stops apart.
Two stops separate the three areas, so the day has no long journey in it.
08:00 Sensoji and Nakamise, before the shops open · 10:00 the back streets and the river · 11:30 Tokyo Skytree, the tallest tower in the world · 13:00 lunch in Asakusa or at the tower · 14:30 Ueno Park — the Tokyo National Museum · 17:00 Ameyoko market, then dinner
Founded in the seventh century and the oldest temple in Tokyo. You come in under a huge gate with a red paper lantern hanging in it, walk up a street of small shops, and arrive at the main hall.
The gate. The lantern weighs about 700kg.
Shops for four centuries. Eat as you go here — on this street it is expected.
Knife makers, brush makers, and small kitchens that seat six.
The grounds are open, the gate is lit, and the shops are shuttered and painted. By ten the street is full.
634 metres, and the tallest tower in the world. Two decks, at 350 and 450 metres. The walk from Asakusa crosses the river.
Everything is inside one park, on foot from one entrance. Forty minutes from Narita Airport by the Skyliner, so this works as a first day or a last one.
Opened in 1872 and the oldest in the country. Give it two hours.
Lotus leaves cover the water from bank to bank in summer.
Fish, fruit, sweets and cheap clothes, shouted from open fronts.
The National Museum of Western Art, in a building on the World Heritage list · the oldest zoo in Japan, from 1882 · an avenue that has been a blossom viewing ground since the seventeenth century
Boats leave Asakusa down the Sumida river to the bay. They are public transport, not a cruise, and a one-way fare costs a fraction of one. You can leave Asakusa in the afternoon and reach the bay without going underground.
A place can be better known than the prefecture it sits in. Use the prefecture pages below to work out where to eat, where to stay, how to get around and who to call.
