This tour covers my favorite places in Tokyo.You can choose one or two places in Tokyo within 4 hours of tour time from the list of more than 30 places classified as Temple&Shrine, Garden, Shopping, Observatory, Museum, Experience, and Others.
At your hotel
13:00 Hotel pick-up
14:00-15:00 Place #1
15:30-16:30 Place #2
17:00 Return to your hotel
I will provide a more specific itinerary considering the location of your hotel and the two places you choose.
Meiji-Jingu Shrine: This shrine was built in 1920 to commemorate Emperor Meiji who changed Japan into a democratic industrialized country after a series of long feudal period. It is one of the most popular Shinto shrines in Japan where you will feel a special sacred Japanese atmosphere. (Admission free except Inner garden including the Kiyomasa's well and iris garden (Admission: 500 JPY))
Asakusa and Senso-ji Temple: Asakusa is a very popular area with Nakamise shopping street for Japanese souvenirs which is the main street to Senso-Ji Temple. The temple was established in 8th century and has been very popular among common people.
Zojo-ji Temple: It used to be the temple for Tokugawa Shogunate where you can feel Japanese traditional Buddhist atmosphere. Not touristic and very quiet, near to Tokyo Tower. (Admission free)
Sengaku-ji Temple: This Temple is famous for the graves of 48 Ronin who attacked a high ranking samurai Kira to revenge for their Lord Asano. (Admission free except its museum (Admission: 500 JPY))
Hie Shrine: This shrine was established in 1498 and had been worshiped by the Tokugawa Shogunate as the protection of Edo from evil spirits. (Admission free)
Imperial Palace East Gardens: It used to be Edo castle where Tokugawa shogunate governed Japan for 265 years. You can see several gates and defense house of the castle renovated about 50 years ago. There is a nice Japanese garden, but no Palace nor Tower of the castle. (Closed on Monday and Friday. Admission free)
Koishikawa Korakuen Garden: This Japanese garden used to be a Samurai mansion of the Mito Tokugawa. This garden reproduces many scenic places in Japan such as Kyoto and Hida. (Admission: 300 JPY)
Shinjuku-gyoen Garden: This garden is very large and has well maintained Japanese garden. It is very popular with many kinds of cherry blossoms. (Admission: 200 JPY)
Hamarikyu Garden: It used to be owned by the Tokugawa Shoguns in Edo period. They enjoyed duck hunting in its salt water ponds. This garden is within walking distance from Tsukiji. (Admission: 300JPY)
Kiyosumi Garden: It is a typical strolling type Japanese garden with the collection of precious shape natural stones. There are a lot of Koi fish, turtles, and birds in the pond. (Admission: 150 JPY)
Happo-En Garden: It is very popular for its wedding party.
This garden was originally owned by a Samurai load in Edo period.
You can see very old bonsai trees with 500 years old and so many pretty koi fish in its pond.
Note that you need your passport for Tax Free.
Tsukiji Outer Market: The wholesale area has moved to Tokyosu in October, 2018. But its outer market is very popular where you can taste a variety of foods. There is a new wholesale area where you can see many kinds of fish including a big tuna. (Admission free)
Ginza: There are large department stores, brand shops and Kitty land. How about lunch at Ginza Six? Or you can buy Japanese foods and eat at a table there.
Harajuku/Shibuya: A busy area for shopping, food, cat cafe, owl cafe, and hedgehog cafe. (Admission: 1,000 to 2,000 JPY/h for animal cafe)
Shinjuku Kabukicho: Shopping, Godzilla road and its observation deck, Please watch my video below! (Admission free)
Odaiba: Newly developed area by Tokyo Bay with a lot of modern shops and facilities. (Some facilities request an admission fee)
Akihabara: There are many electrical appliance shops and new tourist attractions such as Mad cafe and Owl cafe. (Admission: Owl cafe: 2,000 JPY per hour, Maid cafe: from 2,000 JPY)
Nakano Broadway: It is a department store of used figurines. (Admission free)
Yanaka Ginza: There are many old local shops for crafts and foods.
You can see Mt Fuji from Tokyo on a clear day, but its possibility is about 30%.
Tokyo Sky Tree: The tallest tower in Japan with two observatories at 350m and 450m. (Admission: 2000 JPY for the 350m only, +1000 JPY for the two observatories)
Roppongi-Hills: Tokyo City View; Observatory at 270m. It has Sky Deck which is an outdoor observatory. (Admission: 1,800 JPY, +500 JPY for Sky Deck)
Tokyo Tower: It is a nice place to observe Tokyo without waiting so long. If the sky is clear, you can see Mt.Fuji. (Admission: 900 JPY for the main observatory at 150m)
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Observatory: There are two observatories with great view of Tokyo. Currently, only North Tower is available. (Admission free)
Tokyo National Museum in Ueno: The most popular museum in Japan, which has the largest collection of Japanese treasures such as statues of Buddha, Japanese sword, Japanese painting, and Kimono. The museum has a nice museum shop for souvenirs. (Admission: 600 JPY per adult)
Samurai Museum: It has something new, where you can observe real Samurai armors and swords with background explanation from a staff, You can take pictures with the armors on you. (Admission: 1800 JPY per adult and 800 JPY per child)
Edo-Tokyo Museum: Unique Museum for Edo Period, including scale models of Edo Castle, display of the daily life of common people. Must see for those are interested in Japanese history. (Admission: 600 JPY per adult)
Nezu Museum: Nezu collection of traditional Japanese arts with a very unique and quiet garden. (Admission: 1,100 JPY)
Fukagawa Edo Museum: This museum is more focused on the life of common people in Edo. The real scale model houses look very real. (Admission: 400 JPY)
Ninja Experience : It is a new place for children to practice some arts of Ninja. Forty minutes practice of basic skills of Ninja such as throwing shurikens. (Admission: 1,000 JPY, closed on Tue. and Wed.)
Tea ceremony: Experience a formal tea ceremony with English guidance for 60 min. (Previous reservation required. Admission: 2700 JPY/ adult)
Memory Line and Golden Gai : Both places are for locals to enjoy eating and drinking at night around Shinjuku station.
You can have dinner at Memory Line and have some drinks at Golden Gay for 2-4 hours.
To visit these places, you must start the tour after 13:00PM.
Strawberry Picking: You can eat all the strawberries you pick. They are sweet and delicious. (April and May only, Admission: 2,500 JPY per adult, 2,000 JPY per child, Reservation needed, please ask.)
Tokyo Carmii mosque is the largest mosque in Tokyo, it is a beautiful mosque and open to public. (Admission free)
At your hotel
We will use public transportations during this tour but we can take a taxi if you want.
I can lend you an IC card for easy use of public transportations and help you to charge your deposit in it.
- The tour guide is not available on Monday.
- Please, send a direct message to the tour guide for confirming the availability before booking
Guide fee
Hotel pick up
Transportation cost of the guide within Tokyo
Transportation cost of you (about 500 JPY each within Tokyo).
Transportation cost of the guide outside of Tokyo (if you stay outside of Tokyo such as Disneyland)
Lunch cost of you and the guide (from 1,000 JPY)
Entrance fees (shown in the description of each place in the itinerary)
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan has been closed to foreign travelers since March, 2020. This restriction has been eased since October 11th, 2022 and there is little restrictions now in 2023. Please ask me the availability of the tour before you book it. I was vaccinated five times with the Pfizer one.
Not available on Mondays.
We will use public transportations during this tour but we can take a taxi if you want.
I can lend you an IC card for easy use of public transportations and help you to charge your deposit in it.
- The tour guide is not available on Monday.
- Please, send a direct message to the tour guide for confirming the availability before booking
We use the subways to visit the places. The cost is about 500 per an adult. I will rend you an IC card for public transportation, please pay me the amount you have spent at the end of the tour.
The following is typical schedule.
13:00 Hotel pick up
13:30-14:30 Meiji shrine
15:00-16:30 Imperial Palace
17:00 return to the hotel
If we go to Meiji shrine and imperial palace shown above, we are going to walk 10,000 steps.
Besides being a highly knowledgeable guide, Yuki went out of his way to ensure that my husband had gluten-free food for lunch. He also made valuable suggestions for sight seeing on our own, both of which we very much appreciated.
Dear Andrea, Thank you for writing the review of my Tokyo tour. We visited Asakusa, Meiji Shrine, and Shinjuku Gyoen Garden. We had GF lunch at Roppongi. Thank you very much for taking my tour. Yuki
Hi Yuki San, Thank you very much for bringing me to Mt Fuji, I enjoyed the trip very much, as the weather was good and we could see Mt Fuji clearly and managed to eat the Hoto noodles! Thank you for taking the time to bring me to Shinbuya to buy traditional mochi for my family, they are delicious and visited various drug stores to get some supplements. See you again next time! Rachel
Dear Rachel, Thank you for the review of my tour to Lake Kawaguchi. We visited Koreito Pagoda to see Mt. Fuji then Kimono Museum after lunch. It was a perfect day for the tour, despite of the poor weather forecast. Thank you for taking my tour. Yuki
Yuki arrived promptly at the scheduled time and was pleasant however he was not clear with time limit at the 1st stop ie 10 mins only and our group of 10 were not able to view 3 of the scheduled tour highlights even though we only over stayed at the budha about 15 mins extra. In fact we were only able to view 2 out of 5 which was disapointing. His selection of a lunch location was good and he introduced us the the Subway system in Japan. The tour would have been more dynamic if he had a mic system so we could all hear him.
Dear Frank, I apologize your dissatisfaction. The time schedule is shown 30 min. at the Great Buddah in the itinerary. I am very flexible about the time, but your family takes too much time to take photos at a distance from the Buddha while other families finish visiting tthere. So I asked you to hurry up several times. I delayed our reservation time for lunch to cover the planned place, but you asked me to have lunch on time, so I had no choice but to skip one place. Then I took you to Hachiman-gu Shrine and Komachi street as planned. So I covered three places out of four places. Please understand the difficulty of handling ten people consisting of three different families. Thank you for taking my tour. Yuki
Yuki-san was very well mannered and patient, he took the time to show some extra areas of Hakone whenever we had extra time to spare. He took us to a great place to eat and I enjoyed the meal and experience so much. Thanks Mr. Yuki.
Dear Frank, Thank you for writing the review soon after the tour. Everything went well except we missed Mt. Fuji. But it would be better than the coming typhoon. Best regards, Yuki