Top 10 in Tokyo // Japan 2019

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to travel around Japan with my boyfriend for just under a month and it was by far one of the craziest, yet best decisions I've ever made. 

We started and finished our trip in Tokyo, the biggest city in the world. And what an experience that was! I loved how ridiculously busy it was with commuters coming from every direction, rushing for work, but then you'd find a temple in the middle of the city and it was eerily quiet and peaceful. 

We had a great time exploring Tokyo, we made some amazing memories that I will treasure forever.  So I hope this helps those that are looking to visit Tokyo too!

Here are my top 10 places to visit in Tokyo:

10. ANIME DISTRICT

If you want to explore the busy, loud and wacky side of Tokyo then the Anime District is the place to go! Each building blasted catchy music, people dressed in eccentric clothing, adverts played on the billboards, arcades on every street. It was insane. We even got interviewed by a TV crew for a show about tourists in Japan, which we completely messed up by laughing too much!

We loved the arcades and visited an eight story building full to the rim of claw machines! The district is also full of manga stores and giant electronic stores with all the latest electronics and technology. Definitely worth a visit!

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9. EAT SOME SUSHI

You can't go to Tokyo without eating at a sushi restaurant! We went to one of the fast food places where you order your meal on the tablets and within minutes they come shooting out on the belts. It was such a great experience and the sushi was incredible, cheap too! 

You can use this as a chance to work on your chopsticks skills too, as that's all they have to offer when it comes to cutlery in Japan!

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8. MONSTER CAFE

If you're looking to experience the wacky side of Japan, I highly recommend an evening at the Monster Café in Harajuku. This place is exactly how I expected Tokyo to be, with people dancing on giant birthday cakes whilst you eat your meal out of a large metallic coloured bag. I felt as if I had stepped into Alice in Wonderland it was so colourful with large plant figurines, rainbow lights flashing and staff dressed head to toe in crazy costumes. Plus, they serve huge slices of rainbow cake, what's not to love?

I have to admit we were pretty confused when they brought out our meal wrapped up in the metallic paper, can you see the shock on my face? The waitress unwrapped the paper bag for us and started mashing up the chips, meat and veg together and it was surprisingly really tasty!

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7. SHIBUYA CROSSING

A pretty famous place in Tokyo, Shibuya Crossing is a collection of different crossings called a 'scramble crossing'. The best way to describe this place? Organised chaos. Hundreds of people coming from all directions, it's unbelievably crowded but was definitely worth ticking off the bucket list! We visited in the evening and the billboards and advertisements looked so pretty lit up. 

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6. IMPERIAL PALACE

The Imperial Palace, located right next to Tokyo Station is such a lovely place to walk around on a more chilled out day. The buildings are beautiful and the walk around the moats are enjoyable too! Although the inner grounds of the site aren't open, you can still enjoy the views from around the outside of the moat! I loved the traditional Japanese architecture of the buildings too, they looked so pretty in the sunlight. 

How beautiful is that bridge? We accidentally found this place, we didn't have it on our itinerary (somehow?!) but were so glad we stumbled across it! It was a great way to spend an afternoon, to get away from the manic city centre.

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5. MEIJI SHRINE

Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side when we visited the Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi, but it was still worth it! We soon fell in love with all of the Shrines and Temples around Japan, they are such a great experience and so beautiful too. 

Make sure to take a trip to the gardens too! We went during February but if you visit in the Spring, they have an amazing Iris garden which is supposed to be stunning. We still really enjoyed wandering around the gardens though and managed to spot a fair few herons!

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4. SENSO-JI

Senso-ji was on the top of our bucket list for Tokyo and it did not disappoint! This was our first stop after my 13 hour plane journey to Japan and although a tad jet lagged, I thoroughly enjoyed exploring this amazing temple! It's situated in Asakusa, next to an amazing market full of tasty treats and goodies. 

Make sure to find out your fortune whilst here too! Ross managed to get a pretty great one, however I wasn't quite so lucky so had to run around the site to try and fix my bad fortune... 

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3. TSUKIJI FISH MARKET

We spent our second morning in Japan at the famous seafood market, which was probably one of my favourite activities out of the whole trip. The market consists of many stalls selling fresh fish down lots of small alleyways. Eating fish for breakfast isn't normally my 'go to', but it was delicious. I highly recommend the scallops!

The market opens as early as 5am and runs until midday. Even if you don't want to try the food it was great to walk down the alleys and watch the talented locals cook the fresh fish. 

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2. TEAMLAB BORDERLESS 

Looking for a rainy day activity? This digital art museum was another memorable visit for us! The art was mesmorising and the pitch black, maze-like layout of the museum made it so fun to explore. I loved how interactive this museum was too, make sure to try out the green tea whilst there!

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1. TOKYO DISNEYSEA

And at the top of my list is quite an obvious one for me... Disney! We chose to spend our last day in Japan at Tokyo DisneySea and it was so much fun to run around like kids all day! It was a great way to end our trip on a high.

And that's it! They are my top ten things to do in Tokyo! 

I hope you enjoyed this post and that it helps if you're planning a trip to Japan! If you have any more questions feel free to ask!

And if you've ever visited any of these places or recommend others, comment below! I'd love to read what you did when in Tokyo. 

Speak soon,

Em x