東京 An architect and a graphic designer · 5 days Tokyo, by design Five days of Tange and Ando, letterpress and listening bars, vegan ramen and tiny bars: a trip plan built around buildings, type and records. It all starts at the door of the Godzilla Hotel in Shinjuku. Golden Gai, ten minutes’ walk from your hotel. Night one. 5days, each in one part of the city 74places, all picked for design 33of them free to visit ≤30 minfrom the hotel to the start of each day Do first Map The five days All places Eat Design bingo Words Know Before you fly Do this first Book ahead, watch for Mondays, and learn one word: dashi Book ahead These sell out Ichigaya Letterpress Factory · The free 50-minute Printing Plant Tour runs on set days only. Book on the museum’s event page (it is in Japanese, so use your browser’s translate). Oedo line to Ushigome-kagurazaka, exit A1, then 10 minutes on foot. Nezu Museum · Book a time slot online. Shibuya Sky Ghibli Museum · Tickets go on sale on the 10th of the month before and sell out fast. teamLab Borderless Blue Note Tokyo Tofuya Ukai Daigo Closing days Most museums close on Mondays Put Day 5, which is all streets and shops, on your Monday. The letterpress factory (Day 1), 21_21 and the National Art Center (Day 4) and Ghibli also close on Tuesdays, so make a Tuesday Day 2 or Day 3. Eating vegetarian Every food stop is veggie or fish Japan is harder for vegetarians than it looks, because fish stock (dashi) and meat stock hide in a lot of dishes. Eating some fish makes it far easier. How to order safely. Getting around Your base is perfect The Godzilla Hotel (Hotel Gracery) is in Kabukicho, five minutes from Seibu-Shinjuku and ten from the JR east exit. Shinjuku is the world’s busiest station, and its lines reach everywhere in this guide. Where everything is Each day takes one slice of the loop The green Yamanote line circles central Tokyo, and your hotel sits on its west side. Tap a dot to open that day. SDay 1 · Shinjuku ODay 2 · Harajuku UDay 3 · Ueno GDay 4 · Tsukiji DDay 5 · Daikanyama No day starts more than half an hour away Rough door-to-door time from the hotel to each day’s first stop. UDay 3 · Ueno30 min GDay 4 · Tsukiji30 min DDay 5 · Daikanyama20 min ODay 2 · Harajuku15 min SDay 1 · Tocho, Shinjuku15 min The plan Five days, numbered like metro stations Every stop has a code, like Tokyo Metro’s station numbers: S03 is the third stop of the Shinjuku day. Tick stops off as you go; this phone remembers them. SDay 1ShinjukuODay 2HarajukuUDay 3UenoGDay 4TsukijiDDay 5Daikanyama SDay 1 · 新宿 · Shinjuku Towers, capsule toys, metal type and tiny bars Shinjuku, plus two short hops on the metro: Ikebukuro for the world’s biggest capsule-toy shop, and Ichigaya for letterpress. 12 stops Kenzo Tange’s city hall: free views from the 45th floor. Morning S01 09:00 · S01 Godzilla, and Kabukicho Tower Hotel Gracery · Yuko Nagayama, 2023 Start on your doorstep. Godzilla glowers over the hotel terrace, and next door Nagayama’s tower wears a glass skin modelled on a splash of water. Tip He roars and lights up now and then through the day. Watch from the street outside. Free20 minArchitectureUnusual Done S02 09:30 · S02 Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building Kenzo Tange, 1991 Tange’s Gothic-cathedral city hall. The free observation deck on the 45th floor looks out to Mount Fuji on a clear morning. Tip After dark, the facade is used as a projection-mapping screen. Come back one evening. Free45 minArchitecture Done S03 10:30 · S03 Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower Tange Associates, 2008 A fashion and design school wrapped in a crisscross white web. It is best seen from the foot of the tower, looking straight up. Free15 minArchitecture Done S04 11:15 · S04 Gashapon Department Store, Ikebukuro Bandai Namco Cross Store Tokyo · Sunshine City Guinness confirmed it in June 2026 as the world’s biggest capsule-toy shop: 4,096 machines, wall after wall. Bring a fistful of ¥100 coins (there are change machines). Tip Yamanote line to Ikebukuro, 8 minutes, then a 10-minute walk east. Afterwards the Fukutoshin line runs straight back to Shinjuku-sanchome for lunch. ¥1 hrUnusualGraphic design Done Afternoon S05 12:45 · S05 Ain Soph. Journey Vegan · Shinjuku 3-chome An all-vegan café near the garden gates, famous for its fluffy “heavenly” pancakes. An easy first meal. Tip It gets busy at lunch. Go a little early or after 13:30. ¥1 hrFood & drink Done S06 13:45 · S06 Shinjuku Gyoen National garden French, English and Japanese gardens in one, plus a modern glass greenhouse. The best place to fight off jet lag on a bench. ¥1 hrClosed MonArchitecture Done S07 15:15 · S07 Ichigaya Letterpress Factory Dai Nippon Printing · building of 1926 DNP’s old print works, restored and full of working presses, cases of metal type and the punches used to cut Japanese characters. Free, and a quiet joy for a graphic designer. Tip The free 50-minute Printing Plant Tour runs on set days only. Book on the museum’s event page (it is in Japanese, so use your browser’s translate). Oedo line to Ushigome-kagurazaka, exit A1, then 10 minutes on foot. Free1.5 hrClosed Mon, TueBook aheadGraphic designArchitectureBooks Done S08 17:00 · S08 Kinokuniya Shinjuku Bookshop, since 1927 Tokyo’s grand old bookshop. Head for the art, design and architecture shelves and the Japanese magazines. Free1 hrBooksGraphic design Done Evening S09 18:30 · S09 Tsunahachi Tempura, since 1924 Crisp tempura fried in front of you at the counter: aubergine, sweet potato, shiitake, prawn and white fish. Tip Ask for vegetables and fish only: “Yasai to sakana dake”. The dipping sauce has fish stock. ¥¥1 hrFood & drink Done S10 19:45 · S10 Omoide Yokocho Post-war alley A smoky lane of tiny grill counters by the tracks, barely changed since the 1940s. Most of the grills are meat, so walk it for the atmosphere and the photographs. Free20 minArchitectureUnusual Done S11 20:15 · S11 The giant 3D cat Cross Shinjuku Vision, east exit A huge cat that seems to climb out of a curved billboard. Pure Tokyo. Free10 minGraphic designUnusual Done S12 21:00 · S12 Golden Gai Six alleys, about 200 bars Bars that hold six to ten people each, every one a little world. Some are for regulars only; look for a sign in English. Tip A cover charge is normal. Try two or three bars rather than one. ¥¥All nightUnusualMusicFood & drink Done If it rains Nearly all of it is indoors already. Swap the garden for Sekaido, the art-supplies shop by Shinjuku-sanchome. ODay 2 · 表参道 · Harajuku · Omotesando · Shibuya The best kilometre of modern architecture on earth Omotesando is a free gallery of Pritzker winners. Walk it slowly and look up. 11 stops Toyo Ito’s Tod’s: the zelkova trees outside, cast in concrete. Tange’s 1964 Olympic gymnasium: a roof hung like a bridge. Morning O01 08:30 · O01 Meiji Jingu Shinto shrine, 1920 A gravel path through a planted forest to a calm cypress shrine. Go early, before the crowds. Free45 minArchitecture Done O02 09:30 · O02 Yoyogi National Gymnasium Kenzo Tange, 1964 The roof hangs from cables like a suspension bridge. The building most often called Tange’s masterpiece. Free30 minArchitecture Done O03 10:15 · O03 The Tokyo Toilet Shigeru Ban, Tadao Ando, Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma and more Public toilets by star architects (the ones in the film Perfect Days). Ban’s glass walls go frosted when you lock the door. Tip Ban’s are in Yoyogi-Fukamachi Mini Park and Haru-no-Ogawa Community Park. Free1 hrArchitectureUnusual Done Afternoon O04 12:00 · O04 Afuri Harajuku Ramen Light yuzu-citrus ramen, and one of the few ramen chains with a vegan bowl made from vegetable broth. Tip Order the vegan ramen. Their usual broth is chicken. ¥45 minFood & drink Done O05 13:00 · O05 The Omotesando strip Ito · Ando · SANAA · Aoki · Herzog & de Meuron In one walk: Tod’s (Toyo Ito), Omotesando Hills (Tadao Ando), Dior (SANAA), Louis Vuitton (Jun Aoki) and Prada’s glass diamond (Herzog & de Meuron). Tip Prada is a short walk off the main road, in Minami-Aoyama. Free1.5 hrArchitecture Done O06 14:30 · O06 SunnyHills Minami-Aoyama Kengo Kuma, 2013 A pineapple-cake shop inside a basket of interlocking timber. Visitors are usually offered tea and a cake, free. Free30 minArchitectureFood & drink Done O07 15:15 · O07 Nezu Museum Kengo Kuma, 2009 You go in down a long bamboo-lined path under a huge low roof. Then wander a hilly garden of teahouses. Tip Book a time slot online. ¥¥1.5 hrClosed MonBook aheadArchitectureArt Done O08 17:30 · O08 Shibuya Sky Shibuya Scramble Square An open-air roof 230 m up, right above the famous crossing. Book the slot that takes in the sunset. ¥¥1 hrBook aheadArchitecture Done Evening O09 19:00 · O09 Tower Records Shibuya Record shop A whole building of music, with Japanese pressings and city pop you won’t find at home. Free45 minMusic Done O10 20:00 · O10 Uobei Sushi by bullet train Order on a touchscreen and your plate shoots to your seat on a little rail. Fish, of course, plus cucumber rolls, inari and sweet egg. ¥45 minFood & drinkUnusual Done O11 21:30 · O11 JBS (Jazz Blues Soul) Listening bar One man, one turntable, and a wall of vinyl from floor to ceiling. Order a whisky and listen. Tip It is tiny and quiet. Keep your voices down and your phones away. ¥¥1–2 hrMusic Done If it rains Nezu Museum, Spiral and Shibuya’s bookshops and record shops are all indoors. Leave out the toilets and the shrine. UDay 3 · 上野・浅草 · Ueno · Ryogoku · Kuramae · Asakusa Le Corbusier, Hokusai and old Edo Modernist pilgrimage in the morning, the old east side by dusk. The Oedo line ties it together. 10 stops Le Corbusier’s only building in East Asia, now World Heritage. Kazuyo Sejima’s Hokusai Museum, sliced open by footpaths. Morning U01 09:30 · U01 National Museum of Western Art Le Corbusier, 1959 Le Corbusier’s only building in East Asia, and World Heritage since 2016. Look for the spiral plan and the top-lit galleries. ¥1 hrClosed MonArchitectureArt Done U02 10:30 · U02 Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Kunio Maekawa, 1961 The concert hall opposite, by Le Corbusier’s Japanese pupil. Look at the great upturned concrete eaves. Free15 minArchitectureMusic Done U03 11:00 · U03 Gallery of Horyuji Treasures Yoshio Taniguchi, 1999 · Tokyo National Museum Taniguchi, who later remade MoMA, set a dark box of 7th-century treasures behind a shallow pool. Calm and perfect. ¥1 hrClosed MonArchitectureArt Done Afternoon U04 12:30 · U04 Ueno Yabu Soba Soba house, since the 1890s Cold buckwheat noodles on a bamboo tray with a dipping sauce. Simple, perfect and a short walk from the museums. Tip Try zaru soba or vegetable tempura soba. The sauce is made with fish stock. ¥45 minFood & drink Done U05 13:30 · U05 Akihabara Gachapon Kaikan Capsule-toy shop · Akihabara About 500 machines, chosen for the strange: miniature everyday objects, surreal animals and a corner of cheeky adult capsules. New ones arrive every month. Tip Two stops from Ueno on the Yamanote line. Then the JR Sobu line runs two stops to Ryogoku for Hokusai. ¥40 minUnusualGraphic design Done U06 14:30 · U06 Sumida Hokusai Museum Kazuyo Sejima (SANAA), 2016 The artist behind the Great Wave, in a mirrored building cut through by footpaths. A must for the graphic designer. ¥1.5 hrClosed MonArchitectureArtGraphic design Done U07 16:15 · U07 Kakimori Stationery · Kuramae Pick the paper, cover, rings and clasp, and they bind your own notebook while you wait. Next door, mix your own ink at Ink Stand. ¥¥1 hrGraphic design Done U08 17:15 · U08 Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center Kengo Kuma, 2012 Eight small timber houses stacked on top of one another. The free roof terrace looks down onto Senso-ji. Tip Go up at sunset. Across the river is Philippe Starck’s golden “flame” on the Asahi Beer Hall. Free30 minArchitecture Done Evening U09 18:00 · U09 Senso-ji Tokyo’s oldest temple After dark the day-trippers leave and the gates and pagoda are lit up. It is far better than at noon. Free45 minArchitecture Done U10 19:00 · U10 Hoppy Street
