Tokyo City Break
Explore Tokyo's famous gardens and parks, historic shrines, and temples, enjoy a sushi lunch, book a show at the Kabuki-za Theatre, visit museums and galleries and enjoy the nightlife at one of the many bars in the Roppongi Hills.
The best season to visit is during Spring and Autumn. Mar to May and Sep to November.
Touring style: self-guided adventure
Prices are seasonal and start from GBP 648 per person, a minimum of 2 persons travelling together and based on standard hotels. International airfares are extra. Japan experiences dramatic pricing fluctuations based on Festivals, domestic holidays and in some instances on weekends. Please ask us for an individual quote.
- Day 1: Arrival Tokyo
- Day 2: Full Day Tokyo walking tour
- Day 3: Suggested Independent Tokyo touring
- Day 4: Suggested Independent Tokyo touring
- Day 5: Departure
Day 1: Arrival Tokyo
Arrival in Tokyo. You may wish to be met on arrival for a private transfer to your hotel, or take the Narita Express.
Day 2: Full day Tokyo tour
An early start today as you head with a local guide to Tsukiji Fish Market. Best known as one of the world's largest fish markets, Tsukiji handles over 2,000 tons of marine products per day.
Following breakfast, stroll through nearby Hama-Rikyu Teien, a former private garden of an Edo period Lord. Break up your walk with a stop in a tea house on a small island on the park’s lake, where you will have the opportunity to witness a short tea ceremony.
You will then have a chance to view Tokyo from a different angle as you take a boat cruise along the Sumida River.
The next stop will be Asakusa, part of Tokyo’s Shitamachi, or old town. Asakusa is home to Sensoji Temple, Tokyo’s oldest Buddhist temple, and is also the city’s oldest Geisha district. The streets around Sensoji have many traditional shops selling Japanese crafts and souvenirs and are a delight to wander through.
The last stop for the day is Ueno’s Ameyoko-cho, a busy market street underneath the train lines. Originally the site of a black market after World War Two, this bustling market is filled with shops and stalls selling various products such as fresh fish, dried food, and spices, and is a great place to try some local snacks.
Overnight in Tokyo
Day 3: Tokyo Independent touring
Take the Metro for a walk around the Imperial Palace and its gardens. Walk around the Ginza area and do some shopping. Book a show at the Kabuki-za Theatre. Enjoy a sushi lunch. Take the metro to Akihabara, the world-renowned electronics district, offering every imaginable high tech game and comic!.
Other suggestions include the Ghibli Animation Studio Museum, the Miraikan (National Museum of Science and Innovation), the Edo Tokyo Museum, Tokyo Disney, Disney Sea or one of the many other amusement parks in the Tokyo area.
Enjoy dinner in one of the Japanese style pubs.
Day 4: Tokyo Independent touring
Take the subway to Harajuku station and visit the Meiji Jingu Shrine, where the Meiji emperor is enshrined. The Meiji Jingu Shrine is a great contrast to the hustle and noise of Tokyo with the forest of 120,000 evergreen trees blocking out the noise of the city. As this is an active Shinto shrine it is possible to see Shinto wedding parties parading through the inner ground of the shrine. (usually at weekends, especially Sundays, or on auspicious days in the Japanese calendar). This is an amazing sight to see with the bride in the traditional Japanese wedding kimono (Uchikake), shrine maidens, Shinto priests and the wedding party with the women wearing gorgeous kimonos.
Afterwards, explore the Harajuku district. Harajuku Tokyo is a significant fashion and shopping region, famous for its Harajuku Girls and Harajuku fashion. Opposite Harajuku Station, Takeshita-Dori is a narrow street packed with young fashionable people and lined with fashion boutiques and cafes. This is definitely the place to be seen if you are a young Tokyoite, but well worth visiting as a tourist. Takeshita-Dori represents the cutting edge of fashion in Tokyo where you can see all the latest in Japanese street fashion and then buy in the boutiques.
Omote-Sando, which runs parallel to Takeshita-Dori, is where you can find a lot of fashionable boutiques and cafes for adults rather than the young. Here you will find Oriental Bazaar where you can find and buy a lot of Japanese souvenirs in one place. It's a must for foreigners. Evening visit to Roppongi Hills to view modern Tokyo architecture, and nighttime Tokyo city view.
Day 5: Departure or extend your stay to Nikko
Departure.
Or extend your stay to explore outside Tokyo, with one or two-day trips available to Nikko, Kamakura, Mt Fuji and Hakone, Kyoto and beyond to Hokkaido, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa.