Mount Fuji is best seen from several angles, and this $68 full-day bus tour does exactly that. You’ll photograph the mountain over Lake Kawaguchiko, frame it behind Chureito Pagoda, taste spring water at Oshino Hakkai, and head as high as road conditions allow. I like the smart variety of stops and the friendly guides, with…
Tokyo Bay is an unusual place to begin a Tokyo sightseeing tour. Here, you climb into a single-seat street kart, pull into ordinary city traffic, cross Rainbow Bridge, and pass Tokyo Tower in roughly two hours. It feels less like a standard tour and more like a supervised road adventure. I like two things right…
Shinjuku’s best food is often tucked into tiny alleys, upstairs rooms, and compact neighborhood eateries. This three-hour walk gives you a useful shortcut: 13 Japanese dishes at four stops, with two drinks included so you can focus on eating instead of checking menus and settling bills. I like the range, from street food and izakaya…
The clever part of this Mt. Fuji and Hakone day tour is the return: after a long coach ride through the mountains, you speed back to Tokyo on the Shinkansen. I like the mix of major sights, especially the high-altitude stop at Mt. Fuji’s 5th Station and the ropeway-and-cruise combination in Hakone. I also like…
At Asakusa Sumo Club, the ring sits in the middle of the restaurant, so your meal comes with a close view of retired professional wrestlers demonstrating rituals, techniques, and full-contact show matches. I like the English and Japanese commentary and the chance to learn what the gestures and rules mean. I also like the audience…
Mt Fuji is the star, but this full-day circuit gives you far more than a mountain lookout. You’ll ride a coach to the 5th Station, cross Lake Ashi by boat, rise above Hakone by ropeway, watch a Japanese drum performance, and return to Tokyo on a bullet train. I like two things in particular: the…
The most memorable part of teamLab Planets TOKYO is that you do not simply look at the art. You walk through it, sit inside it, and alter it with your movement. Water rooms, falling flowers, orchids, and shifting light turn a museum visit into a full-body experience. I like the way the exhibition welcomes people…
Tokyo Skytree gives you the clearest sense of how enormous Tokyo really is. From the 350-meter Tembo Deck, the city spreads in every direction, with the Sumida River, Tokyo Bay, Tokyo Dome, Tokyo Tower, and, on a clear day, Mount Fuji laid out below. The smooth elevator ride is part of the show. I like…
Tokyo is hard to grasp in one sitting, but this full-day coach trip makes a serious attempt. You move from the quiet cedar paths of Meiji Shrine to the old temple quarter of Asakusa, then rise above the city at Tokyo Skytree before finishing with a possible ferry ride across Tokyo Bay. It is a…
The clever idea here is combining Mt Fuji and Hakone in one long day, then sending you back to Tokyo by Shinkansen. You get a mountain viewpoint, a buffet lunch, a gondola ride over Hakone’s volcanic area, a Lake Ashi cruise, and a fast train home without having to plan the connections yourself. I like…
Insider guides, cultural deep-dives and current-affairs reporting on Tokyo and Japan, written by people who live here and go to the places they write about.