Places to go in Tokyo

Having visited Tokyo twice, once in 2017 and twice in 2018, I have compiled a list of must-visit places when you're there. They include shrines, temples, parks and shopping areas. I will underline the nearest train station at the attractions. And most of the pictures are mine, except for the cover photo above.

1. Meiji Shrine (Meiji Jingu) - Harajuku

It's about a 15 minutes walk through a small park/forest from the train station and has really nice old wooden tori gates on the way to shrine! If you're lucky, you might get to witness a Japanese wedding happening at the shrine itself, which my mother and I got the opportunity to do so! 

 

2. Takeshita Dori / Street - Harajuku

Takeshita Dori is famous for its trendy shopping for teenagers and is just opposite Meiji Shrine (across the road). You can spot the start of the street by the tall grey structure that says 'Takeshita Street' in the middle. Beware to never visit this place on weekends as we made that mistake once and the number of people there was crazy! The crowd literally looks like the picture below (not mine) on the weekend. When you're there, I recommend trying the crepes~

3. Ueno Park - Ueno

It's a 10 minutes walk from Ueno station and this is one of the best parks to visit during the cherry blossom season. There, you can see many Japanese having picnics and there are a shrine and museums inside the park itself. You can easily spend 1 - 2 hours there just admiring the beautiful cherry blossom trees that surround you.

4. Ameyoko - Ueno

Ameyoko is located beside Ueno park, just a 10 minutes walk away. It is a shopping street + a local market with stores selling clothes, shoes, food, and snacks. It gets quite busy in the evening and you can easily spend 3-5 hours there depending on how fast you walk. You can easily spot the start of the street from the large structure that says 'Ameyayokocho' or 'アメヤ横丁'. Most of the stores close around 8pm so make sure you're there early! It's my favorite place to buy cheap clothes and snacks. As it's a 4-way street, you might get lost so be careful.

5.Sensoji Temple - Asakusa

Sensoji temple is famous for its Kaminarimon ('Thunder Gate') which is the gate before the temple. After entering the gates, you will find yourself in Nakamise Shopping Street where stalls sell many food and souvenirs. It becomes quite cramped during peak hours (afternoons) so do go on a weekday and in the morning as the shopping street closes at night. You can spend about 1-2 hours there.

Kaminarimon

Nakamise Shopping Street

Pagoda

6. Shibuya Crossing - Shibuya

It's a crossing street where people can cross the road in all directions. Don't just look at it, try crossing it. It feels out of this world to be crossing the road with so many people at one time. A great experience. After crossing, you can go to many buildings for shopping like Shibuya 101.

7. SKY CIRCUS Sunshine 60 Observatory - Ikebukuro

This observatory is on the 60th floor of Sunshine City Shopping Mall @ Ikebukuro. If you love observatories like me, this is a must-visit. It costs 1200 yen (around $15) to enter and while it is not the tallest observatory, it has many attractions such as VR and games inside to entertain yourself with. Sometimes, they have themes and the last time I went, it was Detective Conan. I recommend visiting from 4 - 6pm on a day with good weather (little clouds and no rain) where you can get to witness the day view of the city, the sunset and the city night lights at one go.

  

8. Studio Ghibli Museum - Mitaka

Unfortunately, we didn't manage to buy the tickets online in time to visit the museum so we didn't manage to go in. If I remember correctly, you have to purchase it online or from a travel agency one month before your actual visit. We were too fascinated by seeing the decorations outside that we forgot to take pictures =.=|| Here are some pics from google.

Food

Here are some pictures of the food we ate during the trip. Some of the times we were too hungry and ate without taking pictures first ><

Places I didn't get to visit and would like to:

1. teamLab Borderless - Aomi

Just look at the beautiful lights, omgggg! It looks like a great place to take pictures. I like to take pictures of things and scenery.

2. Chidorigafuchi Park - Kudanshita / Hanzomon

I heard it's another beautiful place to visit during cherry blossom season. Ah, I want to go ><

3. Tokyo Skytree - Asakusa

This is another one of the observatories that I would love to visit. The view will definitely be great from the height!

4. Shinjuku

Can you believe that I've been to Tokyo twice and never stepped foot into Shinjuku, not even once? Yeah, that's right. I didn't find anything interesting to do there and thought that it would be boring since it's mostly department store there but no harm visiting at least once. I watched a Japanese drama called 'Todome no Kiss' and I kinda want to see Kabukicho XD

5. Tokyo DisneySEA - Tokyo DisneySEA station

Well, nothing much to say about this. Everyone loves a theme park, including me.

6. Maxell Aqua Park

I saw this in anime, so I searched it up. It seems like a nice place!

Let me know in the comments if you've visited any of these places and your opinion on them! :)