The Rough Guide to Tokyo (Travel Guide eBook)

Rough Guides

Description

The Rough Guide to Tokyo

Make the most of your time on Earth with the ultimate travel guides.
World-renowned 'tell it like it is' travel guide.

Get Olympic ready with this practical 'tell it like it is' guidebook to Tokyo. Featuring extensive listings and maps, this is packed with information to help travellers make the most of their Tokyo 2020 Olympic adventure.

Discover Japan with this comprehensive and entertaining travel guide, packed with practical information and honest recommendations by our independent experts. Whether you plan to scoff sushi, be dazzled by neon Akihabara or drink sake until your head spins, the Rough Guide to Tokyo will help you discover the best places to explore, eat, drink, shop and sleep along the way.

Features of this travel guide to Tokyo:
- Detailed regional coverage: provides practical information for every kind of trip, from off-the-beaten-track adventures to chilled-out breaks in popular tourist areas
- Honest and independent reviews: written with Rough Guides' trademark blend of humour, honesty and expertise, our writers will help you make the most from your trip to Japan
- Meticulous mapping: practical full-colour maps, with clearly numbered, colour-coded keys. Find your way around Harajuku, Asakusa and many more locations without needing to get online
- Fabulous full-colour photography: features inspirational colour photography, including the dizzying lights of Shinjuku and awe-inspiring presence of Senso-ji Temple.
- Time-saving itineraries: carefully planned routes will help inspire and inform your on-the-road experiences
- Things not to miss: Rough Guides' rundown of Roppongi, Ginza, Akihabara and Bayside Tokyo's best sights and top experiences
- Travel tips and info: packed with essential pre-departure information including getting around, accommodation, food and drink, health, the media, festivals, sports and outdoor activities, culture and etiquette, shopping and more
- Background information: comprehensive 'Contexts' chapter provides fascinating insights into Japan, with coverage of history, religion, ethnic groups, environment, wildlife and books, plus a handy language section and glossary
- Covers: the Imperial Palace and around; Ginza and around; Akihabara and around; Ueno and around; Asakusa and around; Ryogoku and Kiyosumi; Bayside Tokyo; Akasuka and Roppongi; Ebisu and the south; Harajuku; Aoyama and Shibuya; Shinjinku and the west; Ikebukuro and the north.

You may also be interested in: The Rough Guide to Japan, Pocket Rough Guide Tokyo, The Rough Guide to China

About Rough Guides: Rough Guides have been inspiring travellers for over 35 years, with over 30 million copies sold globally. Synonymous with practical travel tips, quality writing and a trustworthy 'tell it like it is' ethos, the Rough Guides list includes more than 260 travel guides to 120+ destinations, gift-books and phrasebooks.

Sujets

• Hakone (Kanagawa)
• Kioto
• Bradt
• Hakone, Kanagawa
• Travel
• Osaka
• Kyoto
• Tokyo
• Japanese
• Geography of Japan
• Japan
• East
• 2020
• 2021
• Eyewitness
• Asia
• Hakone
• T?ky?
• Marco Polo
• Nara
• ?saka
• Ky?to

Informations

• Publié par: Apa Publications
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781789196634
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

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Christian Kober/AWL Images
Contents
INTRODUCTION
What to see
When to go
Author picks
Things not to miss
Itineraries
BASICS
Getting there
Arrival
City transport
The media
Festivals and events
Culture and etiquette
LGBTQ Tokyo
Kids’ Tokyo
Travel essentials
THE GUIDE
1 The Imperial Palace and around
2 Ginza and around
3 Akihabara and around
4 Ueno and around
5 Asakusa and around
6 Ryōgoku and Kiyosumi
7 Bayside Tokyo
8 Akasaka and Roppongi
9 Ebisu and the south
10 Harajuku, Aoyama and Shibuya
11 Shinjuku and the west
12 Ikebukuro and the north
LISTINGS
13 Accommodation
14 Eating
15 Drinking and nightlife
16 Entertainment and the arts
17 Shopping
18 Sport and health
OUT OF THE CITY
19 Around Tokyo
CONTEXTS
History
Books
Film
The arts, architecture and design
Japanese
Glossary
SMALL PRINT
Alamy
Introduction to
Tokyo
With its sushi and sumo, geisha and gardens, neon and noodles, it may seem that Tokyo is in danger of collapsing under the weight of its own stereotypes. Yet ticking off a bunch of travel clichés is rarely this much fun, and as you might expect of the planet’s largest metropolis, there’s also enough nuance here to keep you entertained for a lifetime. Ordered yet bewildering, Japan’s pulsating capital will lead you a merry dance: this is Asia at its weirdest, straightest, prettiest, sleaziest and coolest, all at the same time.
Caught up in an untidy web of overhead cables, plagued by seemingly incessant noise, the concrete and steel conurbation may seem the stereotypical urban nightmare. Yet step back from the frenetic main roads and chances are you’ll find yourself in tranquil backstreets, where dinky wooden houses are fronted by neatly clipped bonsai trees; wander beyond the high-tech emporia, and you’ll discover charming fragments of the old city such as temples and shrines wreathed in wisps of smoking incense.
Centuries of organizing itself around the daily demands of millions of inhabitants have made Tokyo something of a model metropolitan environment . Trains run on time and to practically every corner of the city, crime is hardly worth worrying about, and convenience stores and vending machines provide everything you could need (and many things you never thought you did) 24 hours a day.
With so much going on, just walking the streets of this hyperactive city can be an energizing experience. It need not be an expensive one, either – you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how affordable many things are. Cheap-and-cheerful izakaya – bars that serve food – and casual cafés serving noodles and rice dishes are plentiful, the metro is a bargain, and tickets for a sumo tournament or a kabuki play can be bought for the price of a few drinks.
Browsing the shops and marvelling at the passing parade is mesmerizing – the next best thing to having a ringside seat at the hippest of catwalk shows. The city’s great wealth and relative lack of planning restrictions have given architects almost unparalleled freedom to realize their wildest dreams. Likewise, in über-chic bars, restaurants and clubs you’ll see today what the rest of the world will get tomorrow. You may not figure out exactly what makes Tokyo tick – and you’re sure to get a little confused while trying – but the conclusion is inescapable: Japan’s powerhouse capital is a seductive and addictive experience.

LEFT-FIELD TOKYO
Many visitors to Tokyo expect to see something a little quirky during their stay – here are a few places to sample the city’s more intriguing facets.
Capsule hotels The rooms at capsule hotels are pretty darn small – there’s no more characteristic Japanese sleeping experience .
Robot Restaurant Seeing is believing at this zany attraction, where performances feature dozens of dancing girls and robots .
Game centres Bash the hell out of the world’s weirdest arcade machines in one of the city’s many game centres .
Oddball cafés Have your coffee served by costumed girls, fawning guys in dicky-bows, or surrounded by owls, cats or snakes .
Golden Gai Tokyo drinking at its most atmospheric, this is a warren of minuscule bars in neon-drenched Shinjuku .
Shibuya crossing It’s amazing to see just how many people can cross a road at the same time; take in the spectacle over a coffee at L’Occitane .
Standing bars Eat like a horse, standing up at one of the city’s umpteen cheap and cheerful soba-ya or udon-ya , or do likewise with alcohol at a tachinomiya .
< Back to Intro
What to see
One way to ease yourself into the city is by taking a relatively crowd-free turn around the Imperial Palace – the inviolate home of the emperor and a tangible link to the past. From here it’s a quick hop to Marunouchi which has been busily restyling itself as a chic shopping and dining destination to rival glitzy Ginza .
High on your sightseeing agenda should also be Tokyo’s evocative northeast quarter, where the Edo-era spirit of the city remains. Asakusa ’s primary focus is the major Buddhist temple of Sensō-ji , surrounded by a plethora of traditional craft shops. The leafy precincts of Ueno Park contain several major museums, including the Tokyo National Museum . From here it’s an easy stroll to the charming and tranquil districts of Nezu , Sendagi and Yanaka , packed with small temples, shrines and shops.
The weird, wired and wonderful Akihabara area – famous worldwide for its electronics stores – has recently rebooted as the focus of Tokyo’s dynamic manga and anime scene; nearby you’ll find the Kanda Myōjin , one of Tokyo’s oldest shrines and host to one of the city’s top three festivals, the Kanda Matsuri . Across the Sumida-gawa is Ryōguku , home to the colossal Edo-Tokyo Museum and the National Sumo Stadium .
Linked by the impressive Rainbow Bridge is Odaiba , a futuristic man-made island, where you’ll find the Miraikan , Tokyo’s most fascinating science museum, and the touristy, fun public bathhouse Ōedo Onsen Monogatari.
Roppongi ’s nightlife can exhaust the most committed hedonist, but save some energy to return by day to explore the Roppongi Art Triangle formed by the National Art Center , housed in one of the city’s most dazzling architectural spaces; the Suntory Museum of Art ; and the excellent Mori Art Museum, atop the Roppongi Hills complex.
The southern part of central Tokyo is a slightly unwieldy mishmash of districts revolving around Ebisu and Meguro ; highlights here include the calmer, boutique-filled Daikanyama and Nakameguro neighbourhoods.
Fashionistas should head towards on-trend Shibuya and Harajuku , and the super-chic, boutique-lined boulevards of Aoyama . When you’ve reached consumer saturation point, retreat to the wooded grounds of nearby Meiji-jingū , the city’s most venerable Shinto shrine, or peruse the delicate woodblock prints and crafts and artworks in the Nezu Museum , the Ōta Memorial Museum of Art or the Japan Folk Crafts Museum .
Also on the west side of the city lies Shinjuku , bursting with towering skyscrapers, endless amounts of neon, TV screens several storeys tall, and arguably the world’s most complicated railway station. Attractions here include the monumental Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building , the beautiful gardens of Shinjuku Gyoen and the lively and raffish Kabukichō entertainment area; the hipster paradise of Shimokitazawa is a short trip to the west.
In the north of Tokyo, offbeat pleasures include the rickety Sakura Line , the city centre’s last tramway; the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Myonichi-kan in Ikebukuro; and a trio of pretty Japanese gardens .

Alamy
SENSŌ-JI, ASAKUSA

TOP 5 URBAN GREEN ESCAPES
Look at any map of central Tokyo and you’ll quickly realize that there isn’t much in the way of parkland – just 5.3 square metres of park per resident, compared to 29 square metres in New York and 26 square metres in Paris. Compounding this, two of the biggest central patches of greenery (those immediately around the Imperial Palace and the Akasaka Detached Palace) are largely off-limits to the general public. However, here are five bona fide urban green escapes; see tokyo-park.or.jp for further suggestions.
Hama Rikyū Onshi Teien Once the duck-hunting grounds of the shogun, now a beautiful bayside retreat .
Higashi Gyoen The east garden of the Imperial Palace, an oasis of tranquillity in the heart of the city .
Meiji-jingū Inner Garden Peaceful grounds surrounding Tokyo’s most important Shinto shrine .
National Park for Nature Study A slightly inconvenient location helps to preserve this park’s natural serenity .
Shinjuku Gyoen English, French and Japanese garden styles combine harmoniously at this spacious park .
High-speed trains put several important sights within day-trip range of Tokyo, including the ancient temple and shrine towns of Kamakura to the south and Nikkō to the north. Mount Fuji , 100km southwest of the capital, can be climbed from July to September, while the adjoining national park area of Hakone offers relaxed hiking amid beautiful lakeland scenery and the chance to take a dip in an onsen – a Japanese mineral bath.
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