Best places to visit in Tokyo
Tokyo packs a lot of history into a city that also looks relentlessly forward. Temples that predate the shogunate sit a few train stops from a museum built entirely around projectors and sensors. This list mixes the landmarks everyone puts on a first trip with a few stops that take more digging to find, and each one earns its spot for something more specific than a good photo angle.
Sensō-ji
Address: 2-3-1, Asakusa, Taito 111-0032 Tokyo Prefecture
Sensō-ji is Tokyo’s oldest temple, established in 645 as a tribute to Kannon, the goddess of mercy. It sits at the center of the Asakusa district and draws visitors through two grand gates, Kaminarimon and Hozomon, the latter fitted with red paper lanterns that weigh about a ton each and wooden carvings that include a dragon sculpture. Most visitors pass through incense smoke at the entrance and pick up an omikuji fortune slip before moving on.
Meiji Jingu
Address: 1-1 Yoyogi-Kamizono-cho, Shibuya 151-8857 Tokyo Prefecture
Meiji Jingu is a Shinto shrine set inside more than 700,000 square meters of forest, an odd and welcome quiet pocket given how close it sits to Harajuku and Omotesando. The shrine’s biggest moment comes every New Year’s Day, when the hatsumode celebration draws around three million people through its grounds to pay respects for the year ahead.
Hachiko Statue
Address: 1-1-1 Yayoi In front of Anex, Bunkyo 113-8657 Tokyo Prefecture
The bronze statue outside Shibuya Station honors an Akita dog who waited there every day for his owner to return from work, and kept doing it for nine years after his owner died. The statue itself has become one of the city’s default meeting points, which means you’ll usually find a small crowd around it regardless of the hour.
Nezu Museum
Address: 6-5-1 Minamiaoyama, Minato 107-0062 Tokyo Prefecture
The Nezu Museum in Aoyama holds more than 7,000 pieces of pre-modern Japanese and East Asian art, including calligraphy, lacquerware, textiles, and pottery, some of it designated as national treasures. The collection was assembled by businessman Nezu Kaichiro, whose interests ranged widely enough that the museum still reflects several different genres rather than one narrow specialty.
teamLab Borderless
Address: 1-2-4 Azabudai Azabudai Hills Garden PlazaB B1F, Minato 106-0041 Tokyo Prefecture
teamLab Borderless opened in June 2018 inside the Mori Building as a 10,000-square-meter installation run on more than 520 computers and 470 projectors. Rooms shift and blend into each other as visitors move through them, so no two walks through the space play out quite the same way. It’s less a museum in the traditional sense than a built environment that reacts to whoever happens to be standing in it.
Sengaku-ji
Address: 2-11-1, Takanawa, Minato 108-0074 Tokyo Prefecture
Sengaku-ji, a Buddhist temple in the Takanawa area, holds the graves of the 47 Ronin, the samurai who spent years plotting to avenge their master’s death in the early 18th century before taking their own lives in a ritual act of loyalty. The temple draws visitors less for its architecture than for the story attached to the ground it sits on.
Kyu Asakura House
Address: 29-20 Sarugakucho, Shibuya 150-0033 Tokyo Prefecture
Kyu Asakura House is a two-floor mansion built in 1919 during the Taisho era, once home to government official Torajiro Asakura. It sits in the middle of Daikanyama, a district now known for boutiques and cafes rather than old estates, which makes the wooden corridors and tatami rooms feel more out of place than they would elsewhere. A small entrance fee gets you through the house and into its manicured garden.
Nijubashi Bridge
Address: 1-1 Kokyogaien, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Nijubashi Bridge connects the main gate to the Imperial Palace and traces its history back to 1614, though the iron structure standing today was completed in its current form in 1964. The stone arches reflect in the palace moat, with the Fushimi-yagura keep, relocated from Kyoto in 1628, forming the backdrop behind it. It’s one of the more photographed spots in the palace grounds, and one of the few places where you can see that much of the old castle’s layout at once.
That’s a temple from the seventh century, a museum that opened in 2018, and a set of stops in between that rarely make the same list together. Between the shrines, the ruins, and the digital art, there’s enough here to fill several days without repeating a theme.
