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Set in a pleasant hillside garden, this museum showcases the private collection of the late chairman of the Tokyu Corporation, Keita Gotoh. He was originally attracted to Buddhist calligraphy (bokuseki), and his collection contains many examples of this work. Also included are ceramics, paintings, and metalwork mirrors.

The museum’s most famous works, however, are a set of 12th-century scrolls featuring scenes from the Tale of Genji, painted by Fujiwara Takayoshi, which have been designated National Treasures. They are shown once a year, usually during Golden Week (April 29–early May). The museum is closed during summer maintenance, when exhibitions change over.

Known to the Japanese as Mingeikan (mingei meaning “folk crafts”), this small but excellent museum was set up by art historian Soetsu Yanagi. Yanagi valued the simple and utilitarian nature of hand-made, everyday objects, and started the mingei movement to preserve such designs in the era of mass-production. The criteria for inclusion in the museum’s collection are that the object should be the work of an anonymous maker, produced for daily use, and representative of the region from which it comes. On display are a huge variety of items, including woven baskets to axe sheaths, iron kettles, pottery, and kimonos. There are also themed exhibits, such as 20th-century ceramics, tie-dye techniques or Japanese textiles, and a room dedicated to Korean Yi-dynasty work. A small gift shop sells fine crafts.

EXPERIENCE Beyond the Center

Ikebukuro has become one of Japan’s most popular otaku (geek) districts. Here you’ll find the flagship store for the country’s biggest anime goods retailer – Animate – as well as several locations of their Animate Cafe, where the anime-themed decor, menu, and exclusive merchandise change every few months.

While Tokyo’s most famous geek district, Akihabara, is more popular with men, Ikebukuro is frequented mostly by women, as many of the stores in the area focus on media with a large female fanbase. The district even has a butler café (www.butlers-cafe.jp) in place of Akihabara’s typical maid versions.

But even non-otaku will enjoy exploring this lively leisure district, which is full of shops, arcades, bars, and restaurants. Thre’s also the incredible Sunshine City mall, which has an aquarium, observation deck, and amusement park, plus a long list of stores and restaurants. With all of this activity, the Ikebukuro district has firmly earned a spot on the map of cool Tokyo highlights.

Sunshine City

⌂ 3-Chome-1 Higashiikebukuro # Times vary, see website ∑ sunshinecity.jp

In 1955, 600,000 people a day were riding the dozens of tram lines that crisscrossed the city. Now the 8-mile- (13-km-) Toden-Arakawa line is one of only two that remain, along with the privately-owned Tokyu Setagaya line. The others were eliminated as old-fashioned in the modernization for the 1964 Olympics.

The Toden-Arakawa line runs from Waseda in the west to Minowabashi in the east and costs ¥170 for each trip. The tram itself is a Tokyo highlight, and there are also lots of interesting places to explore along the route. Near the Waseda end of the line is the Higo-Hosokawa Teien stroll garden. A short walk from Arakawayuenchi-Mae stop is the Arakawa Yuen Amusement Park (closed for renovations until 2021). Opposite the Arakawa-Nanachome stop is the tranquil Arakawa Nature Park.

In 1994 the completion of Yebisu Garden Place – a commercial and residential center – brought this area to life. The Tokyo Photographic Art Museum has a permanent collection of work by Japanese and foreign photographers. In the center are a Mitsukoshi store, numerous boutiques, two cinemas, a theater, and restaurants. To the left of Mitsukoshi is the small Yebisu Beer Museum containing exhibits and videos about beer worldwide and in Japan, plus free samples.

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Tokyo Photographic Art Museum

⌂ 1-13-3 Mita, Meguro # 10am–6pm Tue–Sun (to 8pm) ∑ topmuseum.jp

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Yebisu Beer Museum

⌂ 4-20-1 Ebisu, Shibuya § (03) 5423-7255 # 11am–7pm Tue–Sun

This is the site of the climax of Japan’s favorite tale of loyalty and revenge, retold in the play Chushingura and many movies. Lord Asano was sentenced to death by seppuku (ritual disembowelment) for drawing his sword when goaded by Lord Kira. Denied the right to seek revenge, 47 of Asano’s retainers (or ronin), led by Oishi Kuranosuke, plotted in secret. In 1702, they attacked and beheaded Kira, presenting the head to Asano’s grave at Sengaku-ji. They in turn were sentenced to seppuku and are buried here. Inside the temple gate is the well where the ronin washed Kira’s head. Farther ahead on the right are the retainers’ graves. Back at the base of the steps is an interesting museum with artifacts from the incident, which you can visit for a fee.

Studio Ghibli is known throughout the world for its wonderful animated films – some of them charming coming-of-age tales, and others high fantasy epics. The museum makes fans feel as if they have stepped straight into a Ghibli setting, with the studio’s trademark style and attention to detail evident throughout thr grounds. Among the many nooks and crannies to explore are the cinema showing short animated films exclusive to the museum, a fascinating replica of an animation studio, and a café with themed treats. Children will also enjoy letting off steam in the play area inspired by My Neighbor Totoro. Make sure to book your tickets well in advance.

EXPERIENCE Beyond the Center

More popularly known as Shimokita, one of the most distinguishing characteristics of this area is its cool, alternative atmosphere, giving Shimokita a reputation as a real hispter haven.

The seeds of the this relaxed image were sown in the 1960s when a number of small fringe theaters opened here. Some of these still operate today, and more have been added over the years to create a thriving drama scene. The best and most famous venue is the Honda Theater, which provides small but convivial spaces for modern, experimental productions.

Shimokitazawa’s north side is full of record stores, vintage clothing boutiques, and international restaurants. Its independent cafés are especially famous, earning fans from far and wide. The south side, meanwhile, is renowned as the trend-setting center of Tokyo’s music scene. Home to an incredible number of music venues, this is the place to enjoy a Japanese institution known as the “live house”. These intimate live music venues are where patrons come to enjoy music in peace, rather than to drink and socialise as at many other bars.

Honda Theater

⌂ 2-10-15 Kitazawa ∑ honda-geki.com

An important archaeological site, where well-preserved burial mounds and ancient pit dwellings have been discovered, Daikanyama is better known these days as a classy, low-rise neighborhood. It is more popular with the smart set, who come here to explore its trendy boutiques, restaurants, patisseries, and alfresco pavement cafés.

Some big name international fashion brands, such as Jean Paul Gaultier, have outposts here, adding more class and distinction to an already chic district. The area, with its back lanes, shops, and home courtyards full of greenery, makes for a pleasant stroll. Interest in the area first grew when Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki began his ongoing Hillside Terrrace, an apartment, gallery, and shopping project along leafy Kyu Yamate-dori, in 1969. Buildings have been added over the decades. The Art Front Gallery hosts interesting art exhibitions, while closer to the station Daikanyama Address Dixsept complex houses boutiques and trendy cafés. Another major addition came in 2011 with the multiple-design-award-winning Daikanyama T-Site complex, a sleek combination of book store, café and even dog salon, among other things.

Art Front Gallery

§ (03) 3476-4868 # 11am–7pm Wed–Sun

Daikanyama T-Site

§ (03) 3770-2525 # 7am-2am daily

Little-visited Gokoku-ji is one of Edo’s most important temples. Before entering the spacious grounds of the temple, visitors pass through the arresting Niomon gate. The gate takes its name from the statues of two fierce-looking, red-faced Deva kings positioned at either side of the entrance. The statues are meant to ward off malevolent spirits. The right-hand figure’s mouth is open, while his companion’s is closed. This symbolizes exhalation and inhalation, creation and dissolution; the harmony of opposites encountered in many of Japan’s arts.

Stunningly well preserved, the complex’s main hall, dating from 1681, with its sweeping copper roof and massive pillars, is a treasure house of Buddhist statuary. Foremost among the deities here are Kannon, the goddess of mercy. Eight celestial maidens dance across the ceiling in paintings that float over transoms covered with colorful carvings of peonies.

Completing the ensemble of buildings that have been designated Important Cultural Properties are an imposing bell tower and a rare two-tiered pagoda, a popular subject for painters.

EXPERIENCE Beyond the Center

This area is situated east of the Sumida River and squarely within what was known as Shitamachi. It took centuries to reclaim the land from Tokyo Bay and the estuary. To get a good historical grip on the neighborhood, visit the Fukagawa Edo Museum. It recreates an old area of Fukagawa circa 1840, with 11 original buildings, homes, shops, a theater, boathouse, tavern, and a 33-ft- (10-m-) high fire tower. The interiors of the houses have an authentic atmosphere with fishing nets and workmen’s clothing casually hung on the walls, and empty shells strewn on the floor of a reproduced clam peddler’s home.

Fukagawa has several lovely outdoor spaces to enjoy when you need a break from exploring the city streets. First, spanning a vast space either side of the small Sendaibori River, Kiba Park is home to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which reopened in 2019 after undergoing major improvements. The rest of the park – with its botanic gardens, tennis courts, barbecue area, and lawns for strolling – is the ideal place to relax with the family. Only 15 minutes away, built within the grounds of a large estate in the area of present-day Kiyosumi Shirakawa, the Kiyosumi Teien is a beautifully landscaped garden. The grounds are a classic Edo-era kaiyushiki teien, or “pond walk around garden,” with plants that bloom at different times of the year. A teahouse, which floats above the water, and 55 rare stones, brought from all over Japan by Mitsubishi steamships, are the highlights of this garden.

North of Kiyosumi Teien, the small neighborhood of Kiyosumi has won fame for its many high-quality independent coffee shops. If you can’t live without flat whites or pour over coffees, make sure to pay a visit to one of the many cafés here.

In nearby Monzen Nakacho, the Tomioka Hachiman-gu shrine dates from the 17th century. The current building is a 1968 reconstruction, but its prayer and spirit halls and the copper-tiled roof are very impressive. The famed Flea Market, the Fukagawa ennichi, is another attraction. This lively event is held in the shrine grounds on the first, second, and fourth Sundays of the month, from around 6am to sunset.

Fukagawa Edo Museum

⌂ 1 Chome-3-28 Shirakawa, Koto § (03) 3630-8625 # 9:30am–5pm daily ¢ 2nd & 4th Mon

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Museum of Contemporary Art

⌂ 4 Chome-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto # 10am–6pm Tue–Sun ∑ mot-art-museum.jp

Kiyosumi Teien

⌂ 1 Chome-3-16 Kiyosumi, Koto § (03) 3641-5892 # 9am–5pm daily

In addition to Rikugi-en Garden, the district of Komagome has another garden of note: Kyu Furukawa. Its main building, a charcoal-grey stone residence designed by British architect Josiah Conder in 1917, resembles a small Scottish manor house. To see the interior, you need to book in advance (www.otanimuseum.or.jp/kyufurukawatei).

The mansion and its English-style rose garden sit on a ridge above steps leading down to a landscaped area, replete with a tea-ceremony pavilion and a small waterfall that feeds into a heart-shaped pond.

Zoshigaya Cemetery is the resting place of several important literary figures, including Japanese novelists such as Soseki Natsume and Kafu Nagai. The Greek-Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn, whose books helped to introduce Japan to the West in the Meiji era, is also buried here. Scenic tree-endowed graveyards such as Zoshigaya can get crowded during the spring cherry-blossom-viewing season. Another little-visited spot, the Zoshigaya Missionary Museum built in 1907 by an American missionary John Moody McCaleb, is a very well-preserved colonial house, which is open to visitors.

Zoshigaya Missionary Museum

⌂ Zoshigaya 1-25-5 # 9am–4:30pm Tue–Sun

Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, grand chamberlain of the fifth shogun, built this garden, one of the finest Edo-era stroll gardens, in seven years, from 1695. The fine design recreates 88 landscapes in miniature from famous waka (31-syllable poems), so the view changes every few steps. Sit on one of the many seats and enjoy the views.

A great entertainment and commerce center during the Edo era, Ryogoku is now a quiet place. However, it is still the best place to find the residents who have long made this district famous: sumo wrestlers. Many beya (sumo stables) are here, and it is not unusual to see the athletes walking the streets in yukata (light cotton kimonos) and geta (wooden sandals).

The Kokugikan sumo arena also houses the Sumo Museum, which is lined with portraits of all the yokozuna (grand champions). Beside the stadium is the Edo-Tokyo Museum, one of Tokyo’s most imaginative museums. Two zones trace life in Edo and then Tokyo, as Edo was renamed in 1868. The exhibits have explanations in Japanese and English. The route around the museum starts by crossing a traditional arched wooden bridge, a replica of Nihonbashi. There are life-sized reconstructed buildings, plus scale-model dioramas showing everything from the house of a daimyo (feudal lord) to a section of Shitamachi. Beside a scale model of Tokyo’s first skyscraper is rubble from the 1923 earthquake. Models of the boats that once plied the Sumida River give an idea of just how important the river was to Edo life. In the media section is a step-by-step example of how ukiyo-e woodblock prints were produced.

The Sword Museum is full of fine Japanese swords, some dating back to the 12th century. There is also a display of decorated hilts and old Japanese texts, illustrated with beautiful drawings, explaining the finer points of sword-making.

Opened in 2016, The Sumida Hokusai Museum is devoted to the famous ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai – perhaps most famous for his print The Great Wave off Kanagawa. The museum has an amazing array of Hokusai’s art as well as videos and multilingual information about the artist and his life.

Sumo Museum

⌂ 1-3-28 Yokoami, Sumida # 10am–4:30pm Mon–Fri ∑ sumo.or.jp

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Edo-Tokyo Museum

⌂ 1-4-1 Yokoami, Sumida # 9:30am–5:30pm Tue–Sun (to 7:30pm Sat) ∑ edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp

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Sword Museum

⌂ 1-12-9 Yokoami, Sumida # 9:30am–5pm Tue–Sun ∑ touken.or.jp

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The Sumida Hokusai Museum

⌂ 2 Chome 7-2 Kamezawa, Sumida # 9:30am–5:30pm Tue–Sun ∑ hokusai-museum.jp

When the West began to force Japan to open up in the 1850s, the shogunate constructed a series of daiba (obstructions) across Tokyo harbor to keep the foreign ships out. Odaiba (sometimes known as Daiba), an island almost blocking the mouth of Tokyo Bay, takes its name from these. The spectacular route to Odaiba is via the Yurikamome monorail, which climbs a loop before joining Rainbow Bridge high over Tokyo Harbor.

The first station, Odaiba-Kaihin-Koen, leads to Tokyo’s only beach. Nearby is the Daisan Daiba Historic Park, with the remains of the original obstructions. A short walk west is Decks Tokyo Beach, which has six floors of restaurants and shops plus Joypolis, a huge Sega center full of the latest electronic games. In front of Decks is the station for water buses from Hinode Pier. Located in Aomi, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, better known as Miraikan, has interactive robots, biotechnology, and ecological exhibits. The Fuji TV building dominates the area.

At Aomi station is the Palette Town development, including Venus Fort, a shopping mall whose interior recreates an 18th-century Italian town at twilight. Palette Town also includes Mega Web’s Toyota City Showcase, with a massive display area, and state-of-the-art driving simulators. The Wanza Ariake building has shops and restaurants and is connected to Kokusai-Tenjijo Seimon station, as is Tokyo Big Sight (or Tokyo International Exhibition Hall).

National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan)

⌂ 2-3-6 Aomi, Koto # 10am–5pm Wed–Mon ¢ Dec 28–Jan 1 ∑ miraikan.jst.go.jp

Experience Beyond the Center

Experience Beyond the Center

Experience Beyond the Center