My Tokyo favorites

Having lived in Tokyo for over a year, I don't see myself capable of suggesting only a few places to see. Even now I feel like there is so much of Tokyo I do not know! So I want to share with you those places that I have particularly enjoyed, from Japanese gardens, to temples, karaoke or robot cafes!

Note that while I may omit some of the more tourisitc places, the usual touristy things may also be your thing, I will briefly summarise the more common neighborhoods:

Shinjuku:

Vibrant atmosphere, the core of Tokyo. Worth it specially at night to see the neon lights, the Kabukicho red-light district, Hanazomon Shrine, Golden Gai for tiny bars, Tokyo Metropolitan tower for free skyscraper views and lightshows, Omoide Yokocho for traditional outdoor izakaya.

Harajuku:

Eat your way through Takeshita street, from crepes to Korean hot dogs or applel candy. Shop till you tire at Omotesando street. Visit Meiji Jingu Shrine, secluded inside a park, and the adjacent Yoyogi Park. If you are lucky you may even see a wedding, I have seen them a few times!

Shibuya:

See the famous crossing, the most crowded in the world! A Hachiko dog statue will greet you at the exit of the station (the dog who waited for his master even after his death). If you are party-goer this is the place to be for clubs. You must go up the Shibuya crossing starbucks, newly reopened in April 2024 after a period of closure.

Akihabara:

For anime and techno lovers, full of shops, as well as controversial Maid Cafes. Personally I have only been once as I am not avid in collecting figures or buying manga - even if I am an anime fan.

Ikebukuro:

Similar to Akihabara but aimed more for women. It also has a big Pokemon Center at Sunshine City as well as a One Piece shop if you are a fan. A lot of other theme cafes in the area like Butler Cafe. There is a nice pancake shop called Happy Pancake, if you go after 3 PM, late afternoon, there will hardly be anyone!

Asakusa:

Oldest and most traditional neighborhood. Visit Senso-ji the red temple as you cross through the shops, eat at outdoor shops or try matcha at its many coffee shops. My favorite neighborhood. You can also choose to go up Tokyo Skytree to see the sunset and of course walk around at night. It is also popular to rent a kimono here or do a tea ceremony.

I also encourage you to have a walk around Sumida river or sit in the Sumida Park as you have a coffee. You can also take a boat all the way down to Odaiba. There are some strange-looking golden Asahi beer buildings.

Ueno:

Famous for its Ueno Park, full of museums like the Tokyo National Museum, National Museum of History and Science, Art Museum, zoo. But I like it more for its Toshogu Shrine and walking around its lake, very hectic during cherry blossom and summer festivals. Especially during cherry blossom season it gets extremely pretty.

Odaiba:

An artificial island at Tokyo Bay, you can take the monorail or boat to reach it. It has a Statute of Liberty replica, a Gundam robot, and several funny activities in DiverCity like Unko Museum (literally, "shit" museum) or Takoyaki Museum.

In summer you can chill at its artificial beach. Rain or shine, there is something to do in Odaiba.

For me the best part of coming here though is watching the sunset, or catching some Doraemon and Nobita outside DiverCity. I think if you are short on time the cost and time of coming here may not be worth it though

Ginza and Tsukiji Market area:

Here you have the most famous fish market, where you can try sushi and other seafood. Although the actual market with the tuna action has been moved to Toyosu (and is competitive to get tickets). Ginza is the elegant area with many businesses and high-class shops. You also have the Imperial Palace Gardens nearby for a walk. I am not a particular fan of this area.

Now let's see some more specific places that I would you like to consider visiting!

1.Attend a traditional festival

Each season has different festivals in Tokyo, and well, Japan as a whole. Probably every month there is a unique festival even! I was lucky enough to attend a few.

Shinto festivals often feature a mikoshi, a portable shrine that houses a deity's spirit during the celebration. The decorated mikoshi is carried through the streets by parishioners to bless the community and ward off misfortune, bringing people together. Attending local events such as this is a great way to immerse yourself in Japanese culture without having to get out of the capital.

The main Shinto festivals happen in Spring and Summer:

• Sanja Matsuri: Held annually on the third weekend of May at Asakusa Shrine.

• Kanda Matsuri: Held every two years in mid-May on odd-numbered years at Kanda Shrine.

• Sanno Matsuri: Held every two years in mid-June on even-numbered years at Hie Shrine12.

• Fukagawa Matsuri: Held annually around August 15 at Tomioka Hachiman Shrine.

The last one I attended was Kanda Matsuri, in Chiyoda City, near Akihabara. I found it quite mesmereizing how so many Japanese men grouped together to carry the heavy mikoshi, kept encouraging each other. There were even some women! There were many mikoshi, I suppose each managed by an organization, that were carried to Kanda shrine. There were many food stalls around as well.

If you are visiting in summer, I recommend attending Summer Festivals. For instance, a Bon Odori dance. They are, together with fireworks, part of summer festivals. Surrounded by red lanterns Japanese dance in a circle slowly, with taiko drums and slow music. Some dances are more complex but I was able to catch-on the more simpler ones.

Of course stay for the actual fireworks and visit the food stalls in your yukata - I found mine quite cheap in Asakusa.

2. Stroll around Nakameguro river and visit a VIP Starbucks

Nakameguro is a trendy, laid-back neighborhood in Tokyo known for its boutiques and Meguro River. It is very popular during cherry blossom season as you can see them along the whole length of the river, even at night when they are lit up.

The best part is staying all the wait till night, where sakura are lit up with pink light - that is when you realize the flowers are not really pink!

But asides that, I recommend checking out Starbucks Reserve Roastery, that you will find as you walk along the riverside. I enjoyed seeing the coffee brewing process, and visit all the 4 floors. Not only does it have, of course, coffee, but a tea section on the 2nd floor with fresh matcha green tea, sweet bakery, coctails, and terrace with river views.

Queues can be very long of up to 2-3 hours. While you are supposed to scan the QR code that is at the ticket office next to the entrance, my tip is to get the code previously - simply take a photo of it or get the web address- log in the queue, and go do something else.

For example you can check Meguro Sky Garden, a roof garden park, located about 10 minutes walk from the Starbucks.

3. Catch Doraemon and/or Tokyo Tower at Roppongi Hills

If you are in Tokyo during August, and are looking for evening plans to escape the summer heat, why not check out Roppongi?

Roppongi is mainly famous for its nighlife, and business district. I myself hardly go there as am not too much of a night person, and is quite far from where I live - plus it can be a bit expensive to eat out too. But there are events at different times. In August, they put many different real-life-scale Doraemon statues in Roppongi Hills.

They all have different funny faces, as an avid Doraemon fan - it was my first anime as a child- I could not surpress my excitement!

Now, there are other things you can do in Roppongi, if you are not into Doraemon or not here in August. For example, you can check Mori Art Museum, and of course enjoy or go up Tokyo Tower. It is especialy beautiful in winter for Christmas.

4. Seasonal leaves and flowers at Showa Kinen Park

Showa Kinen Park is a massiv park in Tachikawa, Tokyo, and my favorite park to relax in Tokyo. It has seasonal flower gardens with tulips, poppies, cherry blossoms, and autumn foliage, but also tea rooms, playground and a lake.

I visited it in early December, for late autumn foliage. There were many familys spending the Sunday afternoon there, and it was nice to see them having fun. The leaves were already a mixture of green and red.

5. Visit robot cafes!

In case you did not read my introduction - not blaming you! - I am a robotics software engineer and researcher, and one of my motivations of coming to Japan was to meet robots in the field. Specially social robots who can communicate with people and help improve quality of life. While actual useful robots may still be in research still, there are several cafes where I could meet robots.

Pepper Parlor (Shibuya)

It is a cafe located on the 5th floor of Tokyu Plaza Shibuya, see their website for more details. They have Softbank Robotics Pepper social semi-humanoid robot. Its main user-case is of a companion robot. It was actually the first robot I programmed during my study in London, where I developed cognitive games the robot could play with older adults.

In this cafe, you can see three Pepper at reception greeting people. A mobile base robot guides you to your table, and each table has a Pepper.

I have been many times in the year that I have been living in Tokyo, and it is clear they aim to improve user-experience as the robot performs better everytime.

Pepper usually does the following:

1. Dance: from Gangnam style, to anime opening songs or Christmas songs

2. Chit-chat: in Japanese and English. The speech recognition worked better at the last times I visited. However, it is clear it uses a ChatGPT like engine for responses, and in my opinion the responses are too long and complex. Also, if you ask anything outside the robot's boundaries, it will indicate it does not know the answer. For example, asking if "it feels lonely", or "it wants to get out of the cafe" even.

3. Games: these are only provided in Japanese when I went. Still fun to try! One of them is for taking photo with Pepper, where the robot makes the pose you choose

As for the food the pancakes are quite good and big. They also do lunch sets with omurice and other things. But you can also just get a drink. Unlike other theme cafes where you need to already pay access fee, I think it is pretty good!

Henna Cafe (Shibuya)

Very close to Pepper Parlour but on the other side of the famous crossing, at B1 of Shibuya Modi building, you can have your coffee done by a manipulator robot! It is a Sawyer robot, with one industrial arm and happy face. You can order the drink from the screen - chocolate, matcha, hot or iced coffee. The machine provides a paper with a QR code, that you scan in the machine next to the plastic window where the robot operates.

Once your turn arrives, depending on what you ordered, the robot will filter coffee, get ice from the dispenser, or tea/chocolate. It even washes the dishes after! It will finally put the cup on the slot for you to pick up. It was quite fast and smooth I think. Did you know there is also a Henna Hotel? I stayed in one in Kanazawa but there are many others too, with dinasour robots.

Dawn Avatar Robot cafe (Nihonbashi)

It is an experimental cafe operated by OryLab Inc, where people who have difficulty going out for various reasons remotely operate their avatar robots OriHime and OriHime-D from their homes and hospitals, to provide services. Visiting this cafe really gave me reason to pursue my career. In the end, there are many who think social robots will take over our jobs, but in this case, it is creating new jobs and possibilities to those restricted.

Note you need to book in advance for a meal, and is about 4000 yen each.  Please see their website for details and bookings! It is maximum 4 people per table.

There is a small robot at reception asking about the number of people and guiding you to the table. I was oblivious to the fact there was a person behind it who was speaking through the robot's microphone and seeing us through the robot's eyes.

At our table, we had another table, a nice person remotely controlling the robot from Hiroshima, who showed us the menu on the tablet and took our orders. It/she also showed us her interests like anime or eating tempura, and we could talk to her. It was a very curious experience as a researcher because while we were 4, I felt bad not including the robot in our conversation, so I kept glancing and asking questions to it/her too.

Lastly, a mobile and humanoid robot was coming with trays that had our food and drinks. The robot had like a railway to pass through and it was also remotely operated so it stopped if the path was blocked.

We were lucky to also see the barista robot! this is something you can also do without booking for a meal. Also remotely controlled, it prepares fresh coffee with its two manipulator hands.

Once we were done, we could try ourselves controlling a small robot through the tablet. Truly a magnificient experience.

Lovot cafe (Kawasaki, Kanagawa)

While this one is not technically in Tokyo, it takes 45 minutes to reach Kawasaki city from Shinjuku station, and I have only been there for the sake of this robot cafe. See their website.

Lovot is a small social robot for home that is aimed at reducing loneliness and establish meaningful relationships between humans. It has two wheels so it can move around, and makes sounds when it is touched. If you press its nose it will close its eyes in surprise! They are very cute.

The cafe is inside a shopping mall, and they accept reservations - although you can also simply show up. They have both sweet and savory things.

While we were seated we had a Lovot with us that we could pick-up and play with. Then we moved to the playground area to visit the others. It is funny because they also get jealous of each other, if you start playing with one soon another will come trying to get your attention!

6. Visit theme cafes

Tokyo is THE place for theme cafes. Depending on your tastes, you can take your pick: ninja cafe, butler cafe, maid cafe, capybara cafe, cat cafe. I certainly have not been to all!

The first group of cafes is based on a theme.

Maid Cafes are the original theme cafes probably, and the most well-known. Akihabara is the place to go. I had heard about them from the anime and mange Kaichou wa Maid-sama! In case you haven't seen it, please watch it, it is my favorite romance anime without a doubt.

It is true they can be weird. You see women, looking quite young, dressed as maid and addressing you as their master. You need to say cute things to ask for things, even for going to the toilet, or say "moe moe" before a meal. They usually do a kawaii dance at the end. I have been to two: Home Cafe and Maidreaming. Omurice, omelette with rice, is the most typical dish, and they will usually draw something for you with tomato sauce. I asked for a Pikachu, the other friends other Pokemon, but maybe it was too challenging. Note they are quite prizey i.e. if you want a photo with a Maid it is extra, or if you want to dance with them.

Their opposite butler cafe is newer, the famous one being in Ikebukuro, Swallowtail Butler Cafe. It is not a coincidence as Ikebukuro is the neighborhood targeted at female otaku - anime and manga lovers.

Others include Alice in Wonderland cafe, Ninja Cafe, but I have not been in those. I did go to 2D cafe though, where it looks like you are part of a 2D world. It is in Shin-Okubo, the Korea Town of Tokyo, and you can just go in and wait. It is quite small but as they focus on kakigori (ice with syrup), cakes and drinks, people do not stay too long.

Then there are theme cafes focused on a character, usually a kawaii character. I went to Peanuts Cafe in Harajuku, where we had panckages and drink with Peanuts decoration. Truth be told food quality is not the best at theme cafes, and they are costly (maybe 2500 yen each plate), but you pay for the decoration and instagram photo.

And probably the most famous theme cafe in Tokyo, the Pokemon cafe, near Tokyo Tower. Even if you are not a pokemon cafe it is truly an experience.

Well, booking can be a challenge, tickets start selling 30 days before, at 6 PM Japan time, and sell out pretty fast. For me I was luckier to wait till the previous day, check around 6-6.30 PM, and pick cancelled slots.

Food is quite good, I got the snarlax rice and chicken, and a drink. They change it quite often though.

We also got a visit from Pikachu chef at the end who wanted to teach us dance.

One of my personal favorites is the Cinnamonroll Cafe in Shinjuku. It is quite a small cafe next to Shinjuku Gyoen inside Shinjuku Marui Annex. They do not accept reservations and queues can be quite long at the weekend, even unmoving, especially between 11-1. I was lucky to go during the week at 3 PM and had no queue. For solo travellers, they sit you with a Cinnamon roll plushy, and it is so decorated so cute! I had an omurice and then a mango ice cream, and spent about 1800 yen, I found it much cheaper compared to other theme cafes.

And the last character cafe I went to was Pompompurin Cafe, in Harajuku. Similar to the previous one, it revolves all around the popular golden retriever dog also created by Sanrio. I found food quite good in proportion, including the milkshake, even if it was a bit more expensive like 2500 yen. You can take pictures around the shop with the many Pompompurin. It was evening around 7 PM, before closure, and there were also no queues. No reservations possible.

The last group of theme cafe are animal cafes.

 I am not too in favour of them, particularly those animals that should not be in closed spaces or are not people friendly. By that I mean capybara, hedgehog cafes, for instance. I did got to a cat cafe as I read they were well taken cared of, in Harajuku.

7. Marvel at TeamLabs

I am not an art person myself, or rather, I canot understand it well. Which is why I was sceptical at TeamLabs, in Toyosu (near Tsukiji market). It shows digital immersive artwork and has won multiple awards worldwide. I won't spoil the fun though, but take short trousers and not a skirt.

You do need to book in advance as tickets sell out. There are 2 Teamlabs: TeamLab Planets Tokyo, and the new one that begun in February 2024 TeamLabs Borderless.

Some cool photos I took :)

While the first and original TeamLab has defined areas, Borderless differs in the sense that you can walk around freely without an order, and rooms change so you never get to come back to the same place. We spent about 3 hours there! There were some similarities, but I would still recommend both if you can afford them.

8. Release your inner-child at DisneyLand and DisneySea

If you are doing a working holiday in Japan or staying for awhile, and are a Disney fan, I definitely vote for Disney. It takes only about 1 hour from central Tokyo too.

DisneySea in particular is unique in the world, and is based on a lake with a volcano, with areas related to the Little Mermaid, Aladding, Indiana Jones, and more.

DisneyLand while may be similar to others in the world, for me it was fun as it was my first time. I went on a Thursday and could ride in most of the attractions with maximum 30 minute waiting time. Also, at the time I went in 2024 they were releasing special 40th anniversary tickets. As soon as you entered the park you could book a slot for free for a popular attraction. They also have express passes for the main attractions, like Beauty and the Beast, costing 2000 yen.

Rent a kimono with tea experience in Asakusa

Kimono are traditional Japanese dresses, that are often used at important occassions such as weddings or graduations. However, foreigners often try them out during their travel in Japan. While at first I found it a bit weird to see non-Japanese people wearing them, I don't think they are disrespectful or anything, and they are indeed beautiful. Many may choose to do it in Kyoto, but I actually tried a kimono for the first time during my last month in Japan, in Tokyo.

We used Maikoya, and I can't recommend it enough, as they are probably one of the only institutions that offer both tea ceremony and kimono experience together, in the traditional district of Asakusa, Tokyo.

The staff helped us put our kimono after we chose it, and also styled our hair. We got in a tatami room for the tea ceremony, where the lady explained the history and the different steps involved. I had done another tea ceremony in Kyoto before, and in that one each person could then go in turns to pour water, while here, the lady would do it for us. But asides that, the experiences were similar. The matcha with wagashi sweets turned out nicely.

After we could take some photos in the yard that even had a torii, as well as indoors. Many did not know but we knew it was possible to take the kimonos outside and stroll around Asakusa until 6 PM that day (we had started at 10 AM), leaving things at the establishment. I am really grateful I mananged to do it!