Best of Tokyo

Best Old Tokyo Neighborhood
In Nippori, explore a bit around the YANAKA area to find some fine examples of nagay a, old-style, connected wooden houses, which you see these days only in samurai films. Many small temples are in the area, as well as a famous cemetery. A good walking course starts at Nippori Station (Yamanote Line).

Best Buddhist Temple
For those who may not know, shrines are dedicated to Japan's ancient, native, polytheistic religion, called Shinto, or "Way of the Gods, " while temples are usually Buddhist. Anyway, the best temple, certainly in terms of raw activity and bustle, is ASAKUSA KANNON (SENSOJI)

Best Shinto Shrine
MEIJI SHRINE, Harajuku,

Best Cherry-Blossom Viewing
AOYAMA BOCHI is a cemetery in the middle of Tokyo. It's a beautiful place at any time of year, but when the cherry blossoms hit Tokyo in April, there are few places to match it. The one-lane road that runs through the cemetery from Nishi-Azabu to Aoyama is breathtaking, transformed as it is into a tunnel of blossoms. The fleeting life of the cherry blossoms (they only last about a week) reminds the Japanese of the transience of all life, so a cemetery is, when you think about it, an especially suitable place to view the blossoms. See Aoyama/Harajuku map.