Ultimate Edition

Tokyo, Japan

Published for the capital and the Kanto plain
JP Monday, October 12, 2026 Vol. DLXIX · Est. 1457
Guides › Japan › Tokyo, Japan

The biggest city on earth, and the one that works best

Tokyo's metropolitan area holds around 37 million people and runs with a precision that shames cities a tenth its size. It is not one city but a few hundred neighbourhoods stitched together by the best railway on the planet.

The Ultimate City Desk
Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo, Japan — Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons · See source page

Edo was a fishing village with a castle, built by Ōta Dōkan in 1457, until Tokugawa Ieyasu made it the seat of his shogunate in 1603; within a century it was probably the largest city in the world, with over a million people, while the emperor stayed in Kyoto. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 brought the emperor east, renamed the city Tokyo — 'eastern capital' — and set off the modernisation that made Japan an industrial power. The Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 and the firebombing of 1945 each destroyed most of the city, which is why almost nothing old survives and why Tokyo rebuilds itself every generation as a matter of course. The 1964 Olympics gave it the Shinkansen and the expressways; the 1980s bubble gave it the money; the decades since have given it a calm, ageing prosperity and a housing market that, unusually for a great city, has stayed within reach.

There is no centre. The Imperial Palace occupies the middle and the city arranges itself in a ring around it along the Yamanote line, and the stations are the districts. Shinjuku is the busiest station in the world, the skyscraper city hall and the bars of Golden Gai; Shibuya is the crossing, youth fashion and the tech companies; Harajuku and Omotesando are style; Roppongi is foreign nightlife and the art triangle; Ginza is old-money shopping; Marunouchi and Otemachi are the corporate headquarters beside Tokyo Station. East of the palace is the older shitamachi, the 'low city' — Asakusa's temple, Ueno's museums and park, Akihabara's electronics, Ryogoku's sumo. West along the Chuo line are the neighbourhoods where people actually live: Nakano, Koenji, Kichijoji. The twenty-three wards are the city proper; the Tama area and three neighbouring prefectures make up the rest of the metropolis.

It has more Michelin stars than any other city and the honest view is that the stars miss most of the point: the ramen counter, the standing sushi bar, the department-store food hall and the convenience store all operate at a level other countries reserve for special occasions. There is a museum or gallery for every interest, a live-music scene of tiny basements, sumo tournaments at Ryogoku in January, May and September, and baseball — the Giants at the Tokyo Dome, the Swallows at Jingu — which is the true mass sport. Spring is cherry blossom in Ueno and along the Meguro river; summer is fireworks and festivals in the heat. The city is quiet in a way that surprises people: no horns, no shouting, trains where nobody speaks. It is also very safe, very clean and very good at queueing.

The hard parts: summers are hot and brutally humid from July to September, with a typhoon season on top; the rush-hour trains are as crowded as the videos suggest; the language barrier is real outside the tourist core, and the paperwork of living here — the ward office, the bank, the phone contract, the apartment with its key money and guarantor — is famously tedious. Flats are small. Earthquakes are a routine fact and the city is built for them. Work culture, though improving, still runs long. What it offers is a city of 14 million in which the trains run to the minute, the streets are safe at any hour, the food is the best in the world at every price, and a new neighbourhood can be discovered every weekend for a lifetime without exhausting the supply.

Where People Live

The neighbourhoods

Shinjuku

The busiest station on earth, the metropolitan government towers, the department stores, Kabukicho's neon, the tiny bars of Golden Gai and Omoide Yokocho, and Shinjuku Gyoen, the best park in the city, ten minutes' walk from all of it.

Shibuya, Harajuku & Omotesando

The scramble crossing and the youth-fashion streets, Takeshita-dori's teenage crowds, Meiji shrine's forest, and Omotesando's tree-lined avenue of flagship stores and architecture. Where trends start.

Ginza, Marunouchi & Nihonbashi

The old commercial heart east of the palace: Ginza's department stores and sushi counters, the corporate towers of Marunouchi around Tokyo Station, and Nihonbashi's Edo-era merchant houses and the Mitsukoshi flagship.

Asakusa & Ueno

The shitamachi: Senso-ji temple and its market street, the Sumida river and Tokyo Skytree across it, Ueno's park, zoo and the national museums, and Ameyoko's market under the tracks.

Roppongi & Azabu

The international district: embassies, the foreign-friendly nightlife, and the art triangle of the Mori, the National Art Center and the Suntory museum. Azabu-Juban behind it is where expat families live.

Koenji, Nakano & Kichijoji

West on the Chuo line — Koenji's vintage shops and live houses, Nakano Broadway's anime and collectibles, and Kichijoji, with Inokashira park, voted the place Tokyoites most want to live nearly every year.

Shimokitazawa

The bohemian low-rise district two stops from Shibuya on the Odakyu line: second-hand clothes, small theatres, coffee and curry. Student and musician territory.

Yanaka & Nezu

The corner of the old city that the earthquake and the bombs missed: wooden houses, temples, the Yanaka cemetery and a shopping street with cats. Quiet, and best on foot.

Eat & drink

The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders

Restaurant

Indoors

Restaurants & places to go

Fuglen Tokyo

. Cocktail bar, Espresso bar & Norwegian Vintage design. @fuglenoslo 1963, @fuglentokyo 2012, @fuglencoffee_tokyo 2014, @fuglenasakusa 2018. · Tomigaya… · fuglen.com

Indoors

Starbucks Reserve Tokyo

· starbucksreserve.com

Indoors

Airports

Tokyo Narita International Airport (NRT) 165 km to the centre

Narita, 12, JP — You board from the indoor waiting area — no need to plan for the weather. ✈ 66 airlines (All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines Domestic, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines…) · direct flights to 103 destinations incl. Seoul, Taipei, Bangkok, Los Angeles, Singapore… (OpenFlights route data).

Indoor
✈ Airlines & flight paths — 66 airlines, 103 direct destinations

Routes and aircraft from OpenFlights (open data; a point-in-time snapshot). * = codeshare. Linked destinations open their own guidebook. Flight numbers are not in the open data — they come from the airline or a paid schedule feed.

Haneda Airport (HND) 143 km to the centre

Tokyo, 13, JP — You board from the indoor waiting area — no need to plan for the weather. ✈ 32 airlines (All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines Domestic, Hokkaido International Airlines, Skymark Airlines…) · direct flights to 73 destinations incl. Honolulu, Shanghai, Bangkok, Beijing, Fukuoka… (OpenFlights route data).

Indoor
✈ Airlines & flight paths — 32 airlines, 73 direct destinations

Routes and aircraft from OpenFlights (open data; a point-in-time snapshot). * = codeshare. Linked destinations open their own guidebook. Flight numbers are not in the open data — they come from the airline or a paid schedule feed.

Getting there by ferry

Ferry terminal

Ferry terminal · 14 km from the centre

Local transit

Toei

Metro, bus, tram · The Toei subway lines, buses and the Arakawa tram. · Fares: Suica or PASMO IC card

Tokyo Metro

Metro · Nine subway lines; Toei runs four more and the buses. · Fares: Suica or PASMO IC card · Airport: Narita Express or Keisei Skyliner; Tokyo Monorail fro

Trains & rail

Narita Express

Rail operator

Hokuetsu Express

National rail

Jomo Electric Railway

National rail

Jōshin Electric Railway Company

National rail

JR Central

National rail

JR East

National rail

JR West

National rail

Watarase Keikoku Railway

National rail

Coaches & shuttles

Willer Express

Intercity coach

Private aviation

On-demand charter, jet cards and the semi-private scheduled carriers that serve this city.

Phenix Jet

Charter, management · Gulfstream, Global · Tokyo and Hong Kong business-jet operator.

Air Charter Service

Broker · Any aircraft via operators worldwide · Global charter broker with 30+ offices; private jets, group charters and cargo.

ExecuJet

FBO, charter, management · Managed fleet · FBO network and management across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.

Flexjet

Fractional, jet card · Embraer Praetor, Bombardier Challenger & Global, Gulfstream · Fractional ownership and jet cards in North America and Europe.

Global Jet

Charter, management · Large-cabin & VIP airliners · Geneva-based operator known for large-cabin and VIP airliner charters.

Tours & experiences

Tokyo Night Culture Tour

Cultural · 5 hours · from ¥18000/pp

Living Here

Practical notes for residents

Getting about

  • JR East runs the Yamanote loop and the Chuo line; Tokyo Metro has nine lines and Toei four, with the private railways (Tokyu, Odakyu, Keio, Seibu, Tobu) fanning out to the suburbs. A Suica or Pasmo card — on a phone works too — covers every one of them, plus buses and convenience stores.
  • Trains stop around midnight and restart around five; the last train is the city's curfew and the taxis after it are expensive. Stations are big, so allow time to change lines, and avoid the 8 to 9am crush if you can.
  • Haneda is the close airport, 20 to 30 minutes to the centre on the Keikyu line or the monorail; Narita is about an hour on the Narita Express or 40 minutes to Ueno on the Skyliner. The Shinkansen leaves Tokyo Station for Kyoto in a little over two hours.
  • Walking is the way to do any single district, and the flat eastern half is good on a bicycle; a car is pointless.

Health

  • Dial 119 for ambulance and fire, 110 for police. The University of Tokyo Hospital and the other university hospitals are the top tier; St Luke's International in Tsukiji and the Tokyo Medical and Surgical Clinic are the usual English-speaking choices.
  • The metropolitan government's Himawari service finds clinics by language and specialty. Residents join national or employer health insurance and pay 30% at the counter; visitors should carry travel insurance, as hospitals bill in full.
  • Drugstores are on every corner, but some common foreign medicines — pseudoephedrine in quantity, ADHD stimulants — are restricted or banned; check before you fly.

Work & study

  • The University of Tokyo is the country's most prestigious; Keio and Waseda are the great private universities, and the Institute of Science Tokyo, Hitotsubashi and dozens more make it the biggest student city in Japan.
  • Corporate headquarters (Sony, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, the banks), finance, publishing and broadcasting, anime and games, and a growing startup scene; the government and its ministries are in Kasumigaseki. Salaries are lower than in London or New York and so are rents.
  • A residence card and a My Number are the first errands; most jobs outside the foreign firms expect working Japanese. Hours are long by Western standards, though the salaryman culture of the 1980s has softened.

Money & manners

  • Yen. Cards and IC cards are now widely accepted, but cash is still normal and some small restaurants take nothing else. No tipping, ever. Consumption tax is 10% (8% on groceries and takeaway) and prices are usually shown both ways.
  • Quiet on trains and no phone calls; no eating while walking; shoes off where the floor steps up; rubbish goes home with you, as bins are rare. A bow is a greeting and a thank-you, and a business card is received with both hands.
  • Cherry blossom is late March to early April, the rainy season is June, summer is a steam bath until September with typhoons, and winter is dry, bright and cold. Autumn is the best season and the one nobody plans for.

Sources

Everything above is checkable