Tokyo

Tokyo is the largest urban agglomeration on the planet — a city of roughly 37 million people where a seventh-century Buddhist temple can stand in the shadow of a glass skyscraper, and a back alley of yakitori grills sits two minutes' walk from a flagship department store. Whether you arrive at Narita, some 60 kilometres from the centre, or at the far more convenient Haneda, the rail network does the hard work for you. The Narita Express reaches Tokyo Station in 50 to 60 minutes, and if you have a JR Pass, the fare is covered. Once you're in the city, a prepaid Suica or Pasmo card removes every friction from the underground.

What to see in Tokyo

Senso-ji Temple

Tokyo's oldest and most visited Buddhist temple anchors the Asakusa district and pulls you straight back into the old city of Edo. The colossal Kaminarimon gate — flanked by the gods of wind and thunder — opens onto Nakamise-dori, a covered approach lined with stalls selling everything from rice crackers to lacquerware.

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden combines English, French and Japanese landscape styles within a single, spacious enclosure. It is at its most breathtaking during cherry blossom season, when the grounds fill with pale pink canopies and Tokyoites spread out picnic sheets for the afternoon.

Shibuya Sky

Perched atop Shibuya Scramble Square, this observation deck in Tokyo delivers an unobstructed aerial view of the famous Shibuya Crossing below and the city stretching to the horizon. Go at dusk, when the neon begins to build and the scale of the place really hits home.

Ghibli Museum

Dedicated to the beloved animation studio behind My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away, the Ghibli Museum houses original sketches, exclusive short films you won't see anywhere else, and a giant robot standing watch on the rooftop. Book tickets well in advance — they sell out months ahead.

teamLab Planets TOKYO

teamLab Planets TOKYO is an immersive digital art installation in the Toyosu area. Visitors move through a sequence of large-scale environments where light, water and projection create striking sensory spaces. It is one of the city's most talked-about contemporary attractions and consistently draws long queues.

Ueno Park

Ueno Park packs an impressive amount into one green space: a large lake fringed with lotus flowers, a zoo famous for its giant pandas, and several of the city's foremost museums clustered together. It is also one of the prime spots in Tokyo for cherry blossom viewing in late March and early April.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

Kenzo Tange's postmodern twin-tower complex rises 243 metres above Shinjuku and, crucially for budget-conscious travellers, the panoramic observation decks are entirely free to enter. On a clear day you can make out Mount Fuji to the south-west — a view that puts the sheer scale of the city into perspective.

Hama-rikyu Gardens

These traditional Japanese gardens sit right on the edge of Tokyo Bay, making them an ideal pairing with a morning visit to Tsukiji Market nearby. Tidal ponds, a tea house and manicured pine trees offer a genuinely quiet contrast to the surrounding towers of the Shiodome business district.

Audio guide to Tokyo with Guipock

A city the size and complexity of Tokyo rewards preparation. The audio guide Tokyo experience on Guipock is built around the idea that you should be able to explore entirely at your own pace, without shepherding by a group or a fixed timetable. There are no tour buses to chase and no rigid start times.

The content itself is delivered as high-quality generated audio available in a wide range of languages and regional accents — British English, American English, Australian English, European French, Canadian French, European Spanish, Latin American Spanish, German, Austrian German, and more. Each listener hears commentary tailored to their own language and accent preference, which matters when you are travelling as a mixed-nationality group.

Navigation works through a GPS-guided map that tracks your position as you move through the city. When you approach a point of interest, the app sends you a notification so you know it is time to open the relevant audio track. You decide when to listen — the control stays with you.

Connectivity in Tokyo's underground stations and densely built neighbourhoods can be unpredictable. The offline download feature means you can pull the full route onto your device before you leave your hotel, then use the Tokyo audio guide app all day without touching your data allowance. That matters when you are navigating the metro between Asakusa and Shibuya.

Travelling with family? The family code lets every member of your group access the same purchase from their own phone, each in their chosen language. No additional purchases, no sharing a single device around the group. And for younger visitors, the children's mode adapts the commentary to a shorter, more engaging format with age-appropriate language — useful when attention spans are being tested by a long afternoon in Ueno.

Making the most of your visit to Tokyo

Tokyo rewards a minimum of four or five days, and even then you will leave with a list of things you didn't get round to. The city is best understood neighbourhood by neighbourhood rather than as a single destination.

Asakusa gives you the older, quieter face of Tokyo — the Senso-ji temple precinct, covered shopping streets and the unhurried pace of the old shitamachi. Shibuya and Shinjuku are the engines of the modern city: loud, relentlessly busy, best experienced at night when the illuminated signage reaches full intensity. For something altogether different, Yanaka — a small district of narrow lanes and traditional wooden houses — feels almost untouched by the decades of development that reshaped the rest of the capital.

For food, start a morning at the outer market at Tsukiji, where sushi restaurants, seaweed stalls and artisan knife shops open early. The Edomae-style sushi that originated here is still the benchmark. Ramen hunters should head to Shibuya or Shinjuku, where the concentration of highly regarded shops is particularly dense.

The best time to visit depends on what you want from the trip. Late March to early April brings cherry blossom and large crowds in equal measure. Autumn — October into November — offers cooler temperatures and the spectacular foliage of the parks. Summer is humid and warm, but the city's festival calendar is at its fullest.

Getting around requires almost no planning once you have loaded a Suica or Pasmo card. The metro reaches virtually every part of the city, and the network runs to a precision that regular users of the London Underground can only admire. Taxis exist but are expensive; for most journeys, the train is faster as well as cheaper.