Travel Destinations in Tokyo

Gotoku-ji

The Setagaya Temple Where the Beckoning Cat Got Its Start

The Ii family's Edo temple in Setagaya, where shelves of white beckoning cats surround the Shofuk...

Island

Hachijo-jima

Climb 1,280 Steps up Hachijo-Fuji, 55 Minutes by Plane from Haneda

Two volcanoes joined by a strip of flat land, about 55 minutes by ANA from Haneda. Climb 1,280 st...

Hachijo, Tokyo, Japan

Historic Site

Hachioji Castle Ruins

The Unfinished Hojo Mountain Castle Whose 1590 Fall Doomed Odawara

The ruins of Hojo Ujiteru's mountain castle, stormed by the armies of Maeda Toshiie and Uesugi Ka...

Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan

Garden

Hama-rikyu Gardens

A Seawater Pond and a Teahouse Below the Shiodome Towers

A former shogunal villa on Tokyo Bay whose main pond still fills and drains with the tide, the on...

Shrine

Hanazono Shrine

Shinjuku's Guardian Shrine, Steps from Golden Gai

Shinjuku's guardian shrine since before 1603, squeezed between Yasukuni-dori and the bars of Gold...

Park

Hibiya Park

Japan's First Western-Style Park, Between the Ministries and Ginza

Sixteen hectares of lawns, ponds and flowerbeds across the moat from the Imperial Palace, opened ...

Shrine

Hie Shrine

Escalators Up One Side, a Red Torii Tunnel Up the Other

A hilltop shrine in Nagatacho that guarded Edo Castle for the Tokugawa. Free to enter, open 6:00 ...

Historic Site

Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do)

A Green Byzantine Dome Two Minutes from Ochanomizu Station

The main cathedral of the Orthodox Church in Japan, a Byzantine-style church with a 35-meter gree...

Ikegami Honmon-ji

Where Nichiren Died, and 300,000 People Come on One October Night

Head temple of the Nichiren school on a hill in Ota Ward, built where Nichiren died in 1282. Free...

Park

Inokashira Park

Kichijoji's Pond Park, Where the Kanda River Begins

A park built around a long spring-fed pond five minutes from Kichijoji Station, opened in 1917 as...

Musashino, Tokyo, Japan

Island

Izu Oshima

A Live Volcano and a Black Ash Desert, 1h45 by Jet Foil from Tokyo

The largest of the Izu Islands, about 120 km south of central Tokyo, built around Mt. Mihara (758...

Oshima, Tokyo, Japan

Onsen Hikyo

Jinata Onsen

A Free Hot Spring in the Sea Rocks of Shikinejima, Timed by the Tide

Rock pools at the foot of a narrow cleft on Shikinejima's south coast, where iron-rich spring wat...

Niijima, Tokyo, Japan

Jindai-ji

Soba Lunch and an Asuka-Era Bronze Buddha on Tokyo's Western Edge

A temple founded in 733 in wooded Chofu, ringed by soba shops and home to the oldest National Tre...

Kan'ei-ji

The Shogun Temple That Lost Most of Its Land to Ueno Park

Founded in 1625 by the monk Tenkai as the 'Hiei of the east', Kan'ei-ji was the Tokugawa family t...

Shrine