A Tokyo day built around you: private guide, your own route

Pick the places you want

Six hours usually fits three or four city stops. Circle a few, put the numbers in the notes box when you book, and your guide reorders them so you spend the day seeing things instead of travelling between them. Somewhere not on this list is fine too — just say so.

1. 1teamLab Planets / Borderless — digital art rooms you walk through barefoot in shallow water. Tokyo's strongest photo stop; tickets must be booked ahead.
2. 2Shibuya Sky — open-air rooftop on the 47th floor; Mt. Fuji is visible on clear days. Best about 40 minutes before sunset.
3. 3Sensoji Temple, Asakusa — Tokyo's oldest temple, the red lantern gate and the market lane leading in. Nearly empty before 8am.
4. 4Meiji Shrine — a forest inside the city; fifteen minutes under the trees and Harajuku's noise is gone.
5. 5Hie Shrine — a tunnel of red torii gates climbing a slope; the Kyoto shot, in Tokyo, without the queue.
6. 6Gotokuji Temple — thousands of beckoning-cat figures filling the yard. Where the lucky cat was born.
7. 7Tokyo Tower — the red steel tower from 1958. Standing underneath looking up beats paying to go up.
8. 8Shibuya Crossing — every green light sends hundreds across at once and nobody collides.
9. 9Kabukicho — Shinjuku's nightlife blocks, signage stacked on signage. With a guide you also learn which doors to skip.
10. 10Omoide Yokocho — an alley of seven-seat grill counters, charcoal smoke and paper lanterns. Dinner the way office workers eat it.
11. 11Ichigo daifuku — mochi wrapped around a whole strawberry. Buy it from a market-lane stall and eat it cold.
12. 12The food floor under the Kabuki theatre — bento and traditional sweets, a quick stop without buying a show ticket.
13. 13Uobei Shibuya — high-speed conveyor sushi ordered on a screen, plates shooting straight to your seat. Cheap, and kids love it.
14. 14Portrait latte café — a counter that prints your face onto the foam. A fifteen-minute break that entertains itself.
15. 15Shiro-Hige's cream puff workshop — handmade Totoro-shaped puffs that usually sell out by mid-afternoon.
16. 16Akihabara — electronics, manga and multi-floor arcades. A guide saves you from riding lifts to find the right floor.
17. 17Mt. Fuji day trip — a FULL day, not combinable with a city route. Tell us in advance so we arrange a private car.
18. 18Kamakura day trip — a FULL day: the Enoden line along the coast, the Great Buddha, old temples. About an hour from Tokyo.