Top 10 Places to Visit in Tokyo

The city grew from Edo, a fishing village turned Tokugawa shogunate stronghold from 1603, and was renamed Tokyo ('Eastern Capital') when the Meiji Emperor relocated the imperial seat there in 1868. Modern Tokyo is polycentric rather than built around one downtown: Shinjuku and Shibuya anchor the city's west side as transit and nightlife hubs, Marunouchi and Otemachi near Tokyo Station form the business and government core, and Asakusa in the east preserves the closest thing to old Edo's street layout and temple culture.

The rail network, not roads, is how the city functions: JR East's Yamanote Line loop connects most major districts, and more than a dozen subway and private rail lines interconnect at hub stations like Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Tokyo Station, which alone handles several hundred thousand daily passengers. Traveling between neighborhoods rarely exceeds 30 minutes by train, and a prepaid IC card (Suica or Pasmo) works across nearly every train, subway, and bus line plus many convenience stores.

Spring (late March–early April) brings cherry blossoms and the year's highest hotel prices and crowds; autumn (October–November) offers comparable visual payoff in foliage with milder crowds and more reliable weather. Summer (June–September) is hot, humid, and increasingly affected by extreme heat advisories in July–August; winter is cold but dry, with clear skies useful for long-distance views such as Mount Fuji from Tokyo Tower or Skytree. Tipping is not practised anywhere in the city and can cause confusion if offered.