Places in Tokyo
Apr. 20th, 2026 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingLast week, a few of my students told me that my Japanese fiction class has inspired them to visit Tokyo this May, and they asked for recommendations. I’m the sort of boring nerd who loves bookstores and bases my travels on a foundation of finding nice cafés to sit down and chill out, but I did my best to make a list of places that might be fun for people in their early 20s. This was a labor of love, so I thought I’d share it here too.
So here are some of my favorite spots in Tokyo:
- The Starbucks above the giant scramble crossing outside the Hachiko Exit of Shibuya Station is peak Tokyo. I like to get an ice coffee, sit at the counter beside the floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor, and just chill and watch the world go by. You’d think this Starbucks would be filled with tourists, but it’s always surprisingly empty (though not in a creepy way).
- The Tower Records in Shibuya is also worth visiting, and I think you’re still young enough to go into the 109 Building (or the 109 Men’s Building) to check out all the tiny pop-up fashion stores.
- My favorite hidden spot in Shibuya is the neighborhood’s branch of the secondhand otaku merch store Mandarake, which is like five or six stories underground. I go there to buy dōjinshi fancomics, but the majority of the store is like an incredible hoarder basement. It’s a giant space that’s fun to walk around, and it’s also something of an expedition through the warren of Shibuya backstreets to find the entrance in the first place.
- The Meiji Shrine is super touristy, but it’s 100% worth it. Especially early in the morning. Absolute magical place. People are always getting married there, and the grounds are huge, so you can watch the processions without getting in anyone’s way.
- The Meiji Shrine is contiguous to Yoyogi Park, and you can actually walk through the shrine forest into the park, which is giant yet still somehow always filled with people: people doing sports, people doing live performances, people walking their dogs, people doing fashion shoots, people exhibiting their art, people selling freshly prepared street food, and so on. This is where kids in their 20s hang out during the daylight hours, and it’s always a good time.
- On the other side of Meiji Shrine is Aoyama, an upscale neighborhood filled with restaurants and cafés. You’ll probably want to stay away from the super-crowded area around Harajuku Station, but it’s nice to walk along Omodesando Avenue and feel fancy.
- A good destination to walk toward is the Nezu Museum. I don’t really care about the museum itself, but they have a posh (but still inexpensive) café surrounded by a gorgeous garden where you can get tea and cake and feel like you’re in a Haruki Murakami novel. The restaurants in that area are also posh but do really nice (and affordable) lunch specials. If you want to make people on social media jealous, this is probably the most photogenic part of Tokyo.
- If you’re feeling very strong and powerful and secure in your masculinity, the Aoyama Flower Market Tea House is one of the most overleveled photo ops you’ll encounter in this lifetime. As an added bonus, the food itself is super creative and really good.
- Less expensive but just as classy is the neighborhood of Daikanyama, which is a bit south of Shibuya Station via the Tokyu Line. It’s convenient to think of this neighborhood as being centered around the Tsutaya “T-Site” bookstore, which is a gorgeous piece of architecture. The bottom floor is filled with magazines, and it’s fun to wander through even if you don’t read Japanese. The surrounding area is filled with bars and cafés and restaurants that have street seating, and it feels a lot like Paris.
- On the opposite end of the posh-to-grunge spectrum is Nakano Broadway, which is just outside Nakano Station, one of the stops past Shinjuku Station on the Chuo Line. This is a small but surprisingly labyrinthine indoor mall of otaku hobby stores, and it’s an interesting place to explore. I also appreciate the covered arcade leading from the station to the mall, which is super retro. If you make a right into the alley just in front of Nakano Broadway, there will be a small super-casual restaurant on your left side that serves the best grilled unagi you’ll ever eat.
- Ikebukuro is an incredible experience, both the underground train station and the neighborhood above it. Once you arrive in the station, you’ll want to follow the signs for the “Sunshine City” east exit, which will spit you out right in front of a pedestrian plaza called “Sunshine Street.” This is where my favorite Denny’s in Tokyo is located, for what that’s worth.
- My favorite Tokyu Hands store is also along this plaza. I’m not sure how to describe Tokyu Hands, save that they have everything in there. Everything. It’s sort of like the American store Target, but without a clothing section, and also if Target was affordable and actually nice. On the top floor, they have a lovely little cat café.
- Also along this plaza is a small indoor theme park called Namco Namja Town, and the “theme” is what if there were a postwar retro neighborhood, and it was filled with inexpensive but delicious junk food like ramen and gyoza and ice cream parfaits that you can order in small servings so you can try all sorts of different varieties. Also the draft beer is super fresh and super cheap. It might be weird to be here by yourself, but it’s fun to go with friends or a partner.
- Sunshine City (at the end of the plaza) is a giant mall, and it has my favorite Pokémon Center in Tokyo, complete with its own Pokémon Café. The Sunshine Aquarium on the top floor of the building is actually really nice. It’s one of Tokyo’s top date spots, but you’ll also see a bunch of older people (from their mid-20s to early 40s) chilling out while surrounded by the relaxing vibes of the darkened jellyfish rooms. It’s a nice place to take a breather if you’re feeling stressed out or overwhelmed (or if you’ve been day drinking and need an hour of quiet before you get back on the train), and the outdoor penguin performances are legit amazing if you’re looking for something a bit more high-energy.
- The entire Sunshine City complex is rumored to be super haunted, by the way. This neither here nor there, but I thought it would be fun to mention that there are all sorts of creepy urban legends about the underground areas of this building.
- There’s zero shame in going to a maid café in Akihabara. It’s actually a super fun experience! You don’t need to speak more than super basic Japanese, and the larger places (like Maidreamin and At-Home Café) have staff/performers who can speak basic English. Going in a group is okay; but, if your friends are cowards, going solo is totally okay too.
- I don’t actually fuck with East Tokyo that much, but Tokyo Station will give you the “an entire city contained inside an interlocking complex of massive buildings” feeling of Shinjuku Station on a more manageable scale. This is also the best place in the city to pick up one the famous eki-ben train station bentos, as well as various omiyage souvenir snack boxes. Because the stores in the station are for domestic travelers (unlike the stores in the airport), the prices aren’t inflated.
And now for some daytrips:
- I really love the seaside city of Kamakura, which is extremely wealthy, beautiful, and generally only visited by domestic tourists. If you take the Yokosuka Line from Tokyo Station, it’s a little less than an hour to get there via a direct train ride that passes through Yokohama. You probably want to pay a bit extra for a Green Car seat, which will allow you to enjoy the scenery as it transitions from urban to suburban to semi-rural.
- I like getting off at Kita-Kamakura Station and walking south along the old road lined with 13th-century Zen temples. The closest temple to the station is Engakuji, where you can climb a slope to a hillside outdoor matcha café. My favorite temple is Kenchōji, a sprawling complex that lets you enter the main meditation hall and take your time chilling out on the back veranda overlooking a lovely hillside garden while soaking in the vibes. Close to Kenchōji is a restaurant called Hachinoki, which serves beautifully presented traditional Buddhist food in a casual (but still quite nice) setting for not that much money.
- And then you can walk the rest of the way down the mountain to Kamakura Station. If you want, you can take the trolley down to the beach from the station. I always end up super hungry after that walk, though, so I usually just go back to Yokohama Station and have an early dinner. Yokohama is famous for its Chinese food (which is prepared in a Japanese way of course), and it’s easy to try out a bunch of different regional varieties in the restaurants and food stands in the giant Yokohama Station complex before heading back to Tokyo.
- The hot springs resort town of Hakone is another fun trip via the Odakyu Line from Shinjuku Station. It’s about an hour and a half one-way, which is a bit of a trek, so you’ll probably want to stay the night. Hakone is the sort of place that’s fun to visit with a group of friends or a partner, but I’ll admit that it might be a little lonely if you’re traveling solo.
- A lot of people want to climb Mount Fuji for some reason, but this is extremely challenging (and kind of a dumb idea, honestly). If you’re feeling adventurous, Mount Takao is much closer (50 minutes from Shinjuku Station via the Keio Line) and more accessible, and there are plenty of places to sit down and refill your energy with udon and/or ice cream while you’re climbing. Or you can just take the funicular railcar right up to the mountain temple and then leisurely walk back down to have a giant plate of soba and tempura at one of the restaurants outside Takaosanguchi Station.
So here are some of my favorite spots in Tokyo:
- The Starbucks above the giant scramble crossing outside the Hachiko Exit of Shibuya Station is peak Tokyo. I like to get an ice coffee, sit at the counter beside the floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor, and just chill and watch the world go by. You’d think this Starbucks would be filled with tourists, but it’s always surprisingly empty (though not in a creepy way).
- The Tower Records in Shibuya is also worth visiting, and I think you’re still young enough to go into the 109 Building (or the 109 Men’s Building) to check out all the tiny pop-up fashion stores.
- My favorite hidden spot in Shibuya is the neighborhood’s branch of the secondhand otaku merch store Mandarake, which is like five or six stories underground. I go there to buy dōjinshi fancomics, but the majority of the store is like an incredible hoarder basement. It’s a giant space that’s fun to walk around, and it’s also something of an expedition through the warren of Shibuya backstreets to find the entrance in the first place.
- The Meiji Shrine is super touristy, but it’s 100% worth it. Especially early in the morning. Absolute magical place. People are always getting married there, and the grounds are huge, so you can watch the processions without getting in anyone’s way.
- The Meiji Shrine is contiguous to Yoyogi Park, and you can actually walk through the shrine forest into the park, which is giant yet still somehow always filled with people: people doing sports, people doing live performances, people walking their dogs, people doing fashion shoots, people exhibiting their art, people selling freshly prepared street food, and so on. This is where kids in their 20s hang out during the daylight hours, and it’s always a good time.
- On the other side of Meiji Shrine is Aoyama, an upscale neighborhood filled with restaurants and cafés. You’ll probably want to stay away from the super-crowded area around Harajuku Station, but it’s nice to walk along Omodesando Avenue and feel fancy.
- A good destination to walk toward is the Nezu Museum. I don’t really care about the museum itself, but they have a posh (but still inexpensive) café surrounded by a gorgeous garden where you can get tea and cake and feel like you’re in a Haruki Murakami novel. The restaurants in that area are also posh but do really nice (and affordable) lunch specials. If you want to make people on social media jealous, this is probably the most photogenic part of Tokyo.
- If you’re feeling very strong and powerful and secure in your masculinity, the Aoyama Flower Market Tea House is one of the most overleveled photo ops you’ll encounter in this lifetime. As an added bonus, the food itself is super creative and really good.
- Less expensive but just as classy is the neighborhood of Daikanyama, which is a bit south of Shibuya Station via the Tokyu Line. It’s convenient to think of this neighborhood as being centered around the Tsutaya “T-Site” bookstore, which is a gorgeous piece of architecture. The bottom floor is filled with magazines, and it’s fun to wander through even if you don’t read Japanese. The surrounding area is filled with bars and cafés and restaurants that have street seating, and it feels a lot like Paris.
- On the opposite end of the posh-to-grunge spectrum is Nakano Broadway, which is just outside Nakano Station, one of the stops past Shinjuku Station on the Chuo Line. This is a small but surprisingly labyrinthine indoor mall of otaku hobby stores, and it’s an interesting place to explore. I also appreciate the covered arcade leading from the station to the mall, which is super retro. If you make a right into the alley just in front of Nakano Broadway, there will be a small super-casual restaurant on your left side that serves the best grilled unagi you’ll ever eat.
- Ikebukuro is an incredible experience, both the underground train station and the neighborhood above it. Once you arrive in the station, you’ll want to follow the signs for the “Sunshine City” east exit, which will spit you out right in front of a pedestrian plaza called “Sunshine Street.” This is where my favorite Denny’s in Tokyo is located, for what that’s worth.
- My favorite Tokyu Hands store is also along this plaza. I’m not sure how to describe Tokyu Hands, save that they have everything in there. Everything. It’s sort of like the American store Target, but without a clothing section, and also if Target was affordable and actually nice. On the top floor, they have a lovely little cat café.
- Also along this plaza is a small indoor theme park called Namco Namja Town, and the “theme” is what if there were a postwar retro neighborhood, and it was filled with inexpensive but delicious junk food like ramen and gyoza and ice cream parfaits that you can order in small servings so you can try all sorts of different varieties. Also the draft beer is super fresh and super cheap. It might be weird to be here by yourself, but it’s fun to go with friends or a partner.
- Sunshine City (at the end of the plaza) is a giant mall, and it has my favorite Pokémon Center in Tokyo, complete with its own Pokémon Café. The Sunshine Aquarium on the top floor of the building is actually really nice. It’s one of Tokyo’s top date spots, but you’ll also see a bunch of older people (from their mid-20s to early 40s) chilling out while surrounded by the relaxing vibes of the darkened jellyfish rooms. It’s a nice place to take a breather if you’re feeling stressed out or overwhelmed (or if you’ve been day drinking and need an hour of quiet before you get back on the train), and the outdoor penguin performances are legit amazing if you’re looking for something a bit more high-energy.
- The entire Sunshine City complex is rumored to be super haunted, by the way. This neither here nor there, but I thought it would be fun to mention that there are all sorts of creepy urban legends about the underground areas of this building.
- There’s zero shame in going to a maid café in Akihabara. It’s actually a super fun experience! You don’t need to speak more than super basic Japanese, and the larger places (like Maidreamin and At-Home Café) have staff/performers who can speak basic English. Going in a group is okay; but, if your friends are cowards, going solo is totally okay too.
- I don’t actually fuck with East Tokyo that much, but Tokyo Station will give you the “an entire city contained inside an interlocking complex of massive buildings” feeling of Shinjuku Station on a more manageable scale. This is also the best place in the city to pick up one the famous eki-ben train station bentos, as well as various omiyage souvenir snack boxes. Because the stores in the station are for domestic travelers (unlike the stores in the airport), the prices aren’t inflated.
And now for some daytrips:
- I really love the seaside city of Kamakura, which is extremely wealthy, beautiful, and generally only visited by domestic tourists. If you take the Yokosuka Line from Tokyo Station, it’s a little less than an hour to get there via a direct train ride that passes through Yokohama. You probably want to pay a bit extra for a Green Car seat, which will allow you to enjoy the scenery as it transitions from urban to suburban to semi-rural.
- I like getting off at Kita-Kamakura Station and walking south along the old road lined with 13th-century Zen temples. The closest temple to the station is Engakuji, where you can climb a slope to a hillside outdoor matcha café. My favorite temple is Kenchōji, a sprawling complex that lets you enter the main meditation hall and take your time chilling out on the back veranda overlooking a lovely hillside garden while soaking in the vibes. Close to Kenchōji is a restaurant called Hachinoki, which serves beautifully presented traditional Buddhist food in a casual (but still quite nice) setting for not that much money.
- And then you can walk the rest of the way down the mountain to Kamakura Station. If you want, you can take the trolley down to the beach from the station. I always end up super hungry after that walk, though, so I usually just go back to Yokohama Station and have an early dinner. Yokohama is famous for its Chinese food (which is prepared in a Japanese way of course), and it’s easy to try out a bunch of different regional varieties in the restaurants and food stands in the giant Yokohama Station complex before heading back to Tokyo.
- The hot springs resort town of Hakone is another fun trip via the Odakyu Line from Shinjuku Station. It’s about an hour and a half one-way, which is a bit of a trek, so you’ll probably want to stay the night. Hakone is the sort of place that’s fun to visit with a group of friends or a partner, but I’ll admit that it might be a little lonely if you’re traveling solo.
- A lot of people want to climb Mount Fuji for some reason, but this is extremely challenging (and kind of a dumb idea, honestly). If you’re feeling adventurous, Mount Takao is much closer (50 minutes from Shinjuku Station via the Keio Line) and more accessible, and there are plenty of places to sit down and refill your energy with udon and/or ice cream while you’re climbing. Or you can just take the funicular railcar right up to the mountain temple and then leisurely walk back down to have a giant plate of soba and tempura at one of the restaurants outside Takaosanguchi Station.
