4 Days in Tokyo: Neighborhoods, Japanese Art and a Day-Trip Choice

Spend a day in Asakusa, a day around Harajuku and Shibuya, and a day in Ueno. For the fourth day, choose Ginza and a return to your favorite neighborhood, or leave the city for Kamakura's temples.

These are four full sightseeing days. Arrive beforehand and leave afterwards to follow every day as written. If your flight lands on the first afternoon, use our three-day Tokyo guide for the remaining full days and keep arrival evening near the hotel.

Choose the city version if food, shops and art are your priorities. Choose Kamakura if you want another temple setting and some time outside Tokyo. The day trip replaces Ginza; it is not an extra excursion before the shops.

• Give Ueno its own day if you care about Japanese art. This is the main difference from the shorter route, which pairs the museum with Ginza. Here, lunch and the park can take the afternoon.
• Put the museum on an open date. Tokyo National Museum normally closes Mondays, with holiday exceptions. Check its calendar before assigning the days.
• Choose a hotel for the evenings you want. Ueno works well for the eastern days. Harajuku and Shibuya suit clothes, restaurants and drinks. Neither avoids every train journey.

Breakfast: Pelican's toast

Pelican Café Asakusa, 3-9-11 Kotobuki, is worth choosing for its bread. Order charcoal-grilled toast with butter and jam, or a ham-and-egg toast for a bigger breakfast. It opens at 9am Monday to Saturday and closes Sundays.

If you want to reach the temple earlier, have breakfast at the hotel and save the café for lunch. Use the Asakusa address rather than the Azabudai Hills branch.

Morning: Senso-ji

Walk through Kaminarimon and Nakamise toward Senso-ji. Give the temple and nearby streets roughly two hours. The shops on the approach are part of the outing, but leave time to walk away from the main axis once you have reached the hall.

GO TOKYO's neighborhood guide helps orient the route. This day stays in eastern Tokyo instead of collecting sights from opposite ends of the city.

Lunch: pork cutlet or a sandwich

Asakusa Katsukichi, 1-21-12 Asakusa, serves tonkatsu with rice. The restaurant specifies Japanese pork and Uonuma Koshihikari rice. It closes Thursdays, takes no reservations and does not accept credit cards. Lunch runs 11:30am–2:30pm.

Pelican Café is the alternative for an omelette sandwich or ham-cutlet sandwich. The latter comes with cabbage and mustard. Pick this if a sandwich appeals more than a full rice meal.

Afternoon: things you will use at home

Walk west to Kappabashi for bowls, tableware and kitchen equipment. Leave this part of the day open if you cook. It is more useful to find a few things you like than to hurry through every shop.

For Ueno, use the Ginza Line from Tawaramachi toward Shibuya. Allow about half an hour from the shopping area to the Ueno hotel area, including the walks. Otherwise, finish with dinner near your hotel.

Breakfast and the shrine

bills Omotesando, on the seventh floor at 4-30-3 Jingumae, is the sit-down breakfast option. It opens at 8:30am, with breakfast until 11am and balcony seating as well as indoor tables.

Walk to Meiji Jingu through the Harajuku-side entrance. Use the shrine map to follow the wooded approach. Give the walk and shrine about ninety minutes, then return toward the shopping streets.

Lunch and shopping

Browse Omotesando and Cat Street on the way toward Shibuya. AFURI Shibuya Dogenzaka, 1-19-12 Dogenzaka, is the ramen choice after you reach that end of the route. Its yuzu shio bowl uses chicken-and-dashi broth with citrus; the separate vegan bowl is a different order. This branch is cashless.

CAMELBACK sandwich & espresso, 42-2 Kamiyamacho, is the coffee-and-sandwich alternative. It takes you west into Kamiyamacho, so choose it as a detour after shopping rather than expecting it beside the shrine.

Evening: stay in the neighborhood

Finish around Shibuya, then consider TRUNK(HOTEL) Cat Street for its lounge or TRUNK(KUSHI) skewer restaurant. This takes you back toward Cat Street and suits a social evening.

If you stay in Ueno, the Ginza Line goes directly from Shibuya toward Asakusa. Allow roughly forty-five minutes including station and hotel walks.

Morning: Tokyo National Museum

After hotel breakfast, head into Ueno Park for Tokyo National Museum. Begin with the Japanese collection in the Honkan. Choose a few rooms or a medium that interests you, such as ceramics, textiles or painting, before adding another building.

Displays rotate. Use the current collection information rather than planning around a particular object from an old photograph. Give the museum the morning; today has no appointment across town afterwards.

Lunch: eel at Izuei

Izuei Main Restaurant, 2-12-22 Ueno, is the sit-down eel lunch. Choose an eel box with rice, soup and pickles if you want the specialty without a longer course menu. The main branch opens daily; other branches have different calendars.

If you would rather have a bistro lunch, Bistro NOHGA is another neighborhood option. Choose it for a contemporary French lunch with a choice of main course, served 11:30am–2pm.

Afternoon: park time

Spend the afternoon around Ueno Park and the pond, or give the museum a longer initial visit and eat later. Do not plan an outside lunch as a guaranteed museum re-entry break. The extra day in this itinerary is what allows the slower afternoon.

Return to the hotel before dinner, or go back to the neighborhood whose food you have enjoyed most. This evening does not need a new sightseeing stop.

Books and shopping

Start with breakfast near your hotel, then go to Ginza Tsutaya Books, on the sixth floor of GINZA SIX at 6-10-1 Ginza. Choose it for art and design books. After yesterday's museum, you may have something specific you want to look up or bring home.

Browse the surrounding Ginza shops afterwards. From Ueno, the Ginza Line toward Shibuya takes you directly to Ginza; allow around half an hour including the walks.

Lunch and the afternoon

AFURI Yurakucho, 2-9-1 Yurakucho, is the ramen option if you did not choose it in Shibuya, or want it again. It keeps lunch near this part of town.

Give the afternoon back to somewhere you wanted longer. Return to Kappabashi if you were still choosing tableware, or to Harajuku if clothes took your interest. Four days gives you the chance to act on what you find, not just follow the original list.

Train to the Hase temples

From Tokyo Station, take the JR Yokosuka Line to Kamakura and change to the Enoden for Hase. The Enoden guide lists that final ride at about five minutes. Budget roughly ninety minutes to two hours from a central Tokyo hotel to the temple area, depending on connections.

Visit the outdoor Great Buddha at Kotoku-in, then continue to Hasedera. The first visit centers on the statue; the second adds a hillside temple, gardens and views toward the sea. Hasedera involves steps, so choose a shorter visit if the climb does not suit you.

Temple lunch and the return

Kaikoan, inside Hasedera, offers vegetarian curry and vegan meat pasta, with windows looking toward Yuigahama. Choose it for a lunch that belongs to the temple visit. Food orders end before the restaurant's 4pm closing; the Japanese page lists a 3pm food cutoff.

Return via Hase and Kamakura to Tokyo for dinner. Leave Enoshima for a different day rather than adding it after two temples and lunch.

NOHGA HOTEL UENO TOKYO suits travelers interested in the eastern neighborhoods, art and locally made objects. The lobby gallery and bistro give you reasons to spend time downstairs. Its breakfast offers Japanese and Western choices with a salad buffet. Check the room category if you want a bath rather than a shower.

TRUNK(HOTEL) Cat Street suits someone who wants the hotel to contribute to the evenings: a lounge, restaurants and events, close to the Harajuku-Shibuya part of the route. Choose it for design, clothes and going out, accepting the longer journey east.

For a wider trip, compare seven days in Japan with ten days split between Tokyo and Kyoto. Keep the flight and train days separate when counting the full days available in Tokyo.

For a fuller route and a soba lunch alternative, read the Kamakura day-trip guide.