14 Best Sights in Tokyo, Japan

When Nakano Broadway opened in 1966, it was as a luxury complex, akin to the Tokyo Midtown or Ginza Six of its day. Since then, it has morphed into a center for all things otaku, its 13 floors home to roughly 300 stores largely focused on manga, anime, gaming, and related collectibles and goods that run from figurines to cosplay outfits. Japan’s largest manga- and anime-related retailer alone has close to 30 stores in Nakano Broadway, all divided by specialty. Down in the basement are plenty of places for lunch or a quick snack, including the stomach-busting Daily Chico, which does an eight-scoop soft-serve ice cream. It’s like a trip to Akihabara, but with everything under one roof.

Very different from the nearby Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Ando Gallery is the pick of the independent art venues in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa. Located in a small, repurposed storehouse, the focus here is predominantly on young Japanese contemporary artists, with genres ranging from installations to design work.

A bookstore and then some, T-Site was designed to be a “library in the woods” for major bookseller Tsutaya but has ended up being a fashionable meeting place for the Daikanyama area. The three wings of the complex house a Tsutaya store full of arty, intellectual tomes, but there are also cafés and restaurants here, including the plush Anjin Library and Lounge, where you can ease into a comfy chair with a coffee or cocktail while surrounded by 30,000 vintage magazines from the 1960s and ‘70s. Don’t miss taking a look at T-Site’s dog salon too: it’s where some of Daikanyama’s most pampered pooches come for styling.

Located within Tokyo Midtown, the Fujifilm Photo Salon hosts rotating photography exhibits across multiple genres, albeit with a strong emphasis on landscapes, while the Photo History Museum is a showcase of cameras and prints dating back to the mid-19th century. While the salon and history museum are on the small side, it is a good stop while visiting Roppongi's larger galleries, especially as its free.

Designed by famed architect Fumihiko Maki, the Hillside Terrace helped shape Daikanyama as a chic neighborhood after it was opened in 1967 and as it was subsequently expanded over the next three decades. Spread over multiple low-rise buildings, it mixes cafés and restaurants with offices, design and fashion stores, and small galleries. It's been overtaken in the public consciousness by T-Site in recent years, but the contemporary art at Art Front Gallery, coffee at Hillside Cafe, and all its other outlets still make it worth a browse.

South of Kichijoji Station, with one foot in Mitaka and another in Musashino, this park is a large and laidback green space with all sorts to keep you busy for a day. Not only is the Ghibli Museum in the southernmost part of the almost 400,000-square meter (95-acre) park, there’s a small zoo with a guinea pig petting area and a boating pond with swan-shaped paddle boats and row boats. On weekends, expect to see buskers and other street performers, while in spring, when the park is repainted by pink cherry blossoms, you’ll find crowds of picnickers. It’s a lovely spot to take a bento, but there are also small cafés and restaurants scattered around the park. If you are traveling with small kids who need to burn off some energy, the playground equipment here can help with that.

Built in the mid-1600s to house and honor a Shinto spirit that calmed the waters of Tokyo Bay, this little shrine is worth a stop on your way to Tsukiji Outer Market. The name of the shrine literally means "protection from waves," and it is an unofficial guardian shrine for the marketplace and its workers.

One of the Kanto region's oldest temples, Naritasan was founded in the AD 900s to hold a statue of the Buddhist deity Fudo Myoo, which legend has it was carved by Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism. That statue alone—still viewable in the temple’s vast main hall—marks Naritasan out as special to many Japanese, but added to that are two impressive pagodas and a spacious wooded park to explore. Once at Narita Station, which is less than 10 minutes by train from the airport, the temple is reached via Naritasan Omotesando, an 800-meter-long (½-mile) avenue lined with souvenir stores and restaurants, which is fun to explore in its own right, especially if you are in need of some last-minute souvenirs.

Located on one corner of the Ginza Crossing, across from Mitsukoshi and Wako, this incredibly slick two-floor showroom highlights Nissan’s latest concept vehicles and technological innovations. The several cars on display change every few months or so, but as of writing include a GT-R, a Nissan Leaf Nismo rally car, and an e-4ORCE four-wheel drive. On the second floor, there’s a boutique selling Nissan goods and model cars, as well as a café if you want to linger with a latte.

A contemporary art gallery housed in a 200-year-old building, SCAI is a symbol of Yanaka's blend of old and new. The exterior of the building, established in 1787 as a bathhouse, has been well preserved, while the inside is a light and airy gallery featuring rotating exhibits of contemporary art. Although it is a small gallery, the exhibitions are impressive, and it is worth a peek just to see the building itself. The area around it is worth a look as well.

Suginami is home to more than 100 animation studios, making it by far the animation creation center of Tokyo. Although you can’t visit those studios, you can learn about animation at this compact, free museum, which has exhibits on anime history and how anime is made, plus interactive exhibits that include digital screens on which you can try drawing (or trace using templates) your own anime.

The symbol of old Kawagoe can’t be left out of a guide, although there isn’t actually much to do at this 16-meter-tall (52-foot) bell tower other than take a photo. Originally built in the 1600s, the current structure dates to the 1890s, when it was rebuilt following a fire that destroyed much of Kawagoe. It’s just north of the Ichibangai shopping street.

This shrine in the heart of Monzen-Nakacho has been a core part of Fukagawa since the 1600s. It’s said that some of the earliest sumo tournaments were held here in the 1700s, which explains the sumo-related monuments dotted around the place. Today, the grounds hold small antiques markets on the first, second, third, and fifth Sundays of each month, while lively flea markets take place on the 15th and 28th of each month. In odd-numbered years, the shrine is also the starting point of the summer Fukagawa Hachiman Matsuri, a festival that sees more than 50 portable shrines paraded energetically through the streets while onlookers pour buckets of water over the carriers (and each other). One more quirk here is that you can bring your car to be blessed.

This park is the perfect spot to have a picnic on a sunny day. On Sunday people come to play music, practice martial arts, and ride bicycles on the bike path (rentals are available). From spring through fall there are events, concerts, and festivals most weekends. Although the front half of the park makes for great people-watching, farther along the paths it is easy to find a quiet spot to slip away from the crowds of Harajuku.