Tokyo has been at the top of my bucket-list since my days as a teenager when I loved Harajuku {Japanese street fashion}, with a special affection for everything Kawaii {“cute” in Japanese}. This year, I finally decided to fulfill my dream and erase Japan from the list of destinations I must visit at least once in my life.

And there’s a reason I’m saying “at least once in my life” – it's simply impossible to visit this crazy city and never go back to it again and again.

In the capital of Japan there’s so much to see, so many places to visit and so many things to eat that even 10 days weren’t enough for us and left us wanting more. Although our initial list for Tokyo included a lot of things we didn’t manage to fit in during our first visit to the city, like visiting all the city's special cafés {let's face it – it's a crazy number!}, I think we were able to maximize our first trip to the city in the time we had.

All of the things that Daniel and I did during our first trip to Tokyo were carefully selected after many online searches and consulting with the traveling company FURYU, which offers private tours all over Japan.

Since there are so many amazing things to do in this city, I decided to divide the post about the things I liked most in Tokyo into two parts. The first part will be dedicated to the five areas I loved most in Tokyo.

If you’re planning a trip to Tokyo, this is a list that’s really worth saving on your Pinterest account 😉

{It's recommended to watch at the best quality – after pressing the “play” button, click on the small gear on the right-hand side of the screen and then click Quality}

SHINJUKU

There are places that enter your heart from the first second. This is exactly my story with the lively Shinjuku District, which was our first stop in Tokyo. Before the trip, when Daniel and I looked for a place to sleep in the city, the Shinjuku District kept coming up because the eastern side of the district is considered the main shopping and entertainment area in the city {and for general knowledge – the western side of the district is considered the most important government and business center in Tokyo, but it was less relevant to us 😉 }, and also because it’s very easy to travel from there to all the other areas of the city thanks to convenient and fast public transportation.

The internet searches paid off because thanks to that we booked our first AIRBNB apartment in Tokyo in an area that quickly became our favorite place in the city. This apartment, which was undoubtedly the best apartment we stayed in while we were in Japan, was in a quiet and beautiful area, a short walk from the Shinjuku Central Railway Station. I remember that the first moment we left the train station towards the apartment, we were amazed by the incredible number of people who surrounded us from all directions and the constant traffic. Only later did we discover that the Shinjuku Station is the busiest station in Tokyo, and all over the world {it even appears in the Guinness Book of Records!}, and the tour guide who accompanied us during a day trip in the city told us that more than 3.5 million people pass through it every day. As expected from such a central and bustling station, the whole area is a huge shopping center where you can find shops of all kinds {fashion, make-up, electronics, things for the house, and basically everything you can imagine 🙂 }, huge centers with arcade machines {the machine where you try to catch a doll or other prizes that were very awesome!}, restaurants, cafés and bars.

Ordering an apartment for the first time through AIRBNB? Feel free to use my link and get a coupon code for $43 towards your next trip.

During the night, the area becomes especially sparkly, thanks to the lights of huge billboards glinting from the amazing skyscrapers in the area. A very famous bar area in Shinjuku is the Golden Gai, which consists of very narrow alleyways filled with tiny bars which are supposed to be bohemian style. I was a bit disappointed with the Golden Gai because when we visited it, it was full of noisy tourists and I didn’t really feel the special atmosphere that we heard about. But who knows, maybe we visited there on an off day… Another famous attraction in Shinjuku is the Robots Restaurant, which is supposed to be much more than a restaurant. It’s a crazy show that combines characters of robots, dancing girls, tanks, strong music and colorful lights. After a short debate, we decided to leave this attraction for our next visit to Tokyo {because there's no way we're not going back! 🙂 }.

SHIBUYA

The Shibuya District is another one of the city's famous districts and is home to the world's most famous pedestrian crossing, the Shibuya scrambling crossing. Apart from the cross section, Shibuya is also famous for its impressive skyscrapers and a huge shopping area where you can find a variety of shops of all known brands, along with boutique stores, restaurants and cafés.

Some say that the Shibuya area is more interesting and lively than Shinjuku, but I actually didn’t feel that {Have I already mentioned that Shinjuku caught my heart…? 🙂 }.

Anyway, after we took pictures at the famous crossing, we did some shopping and ate the most delicious ramen I ate throughout the trip, and we decided to return to the starting point – to the famous crossing point, this time – to get a view from above. Most people go to Starbucks, which is on the second floor of one of the skyscrapers that surround the crossing, but since the number of seats facing the windows is limited and this is Starbucks, which is busy at any given moment, we decided to go for the less famous option -“Hoshino Coffee”, which is in one of the skyscrapers that face the pedestrian crossing. It turned out to be the perfect choice! All the chairs in the coffee shop that faced the pedestrian crossing were available and we ordered a pancake that was very hot and fluffy, which made this café a perfect place to observe the people crossing and the crazy traffic of the city.

Hedonis-tip: The building in which the café is located is a mall, or rather a cool department store, called Men'sten109, where you can find a variety of cool stands selling special fashion items and accessories. Recommended!

HARAJUKU

The Shinjuku District captured my heart from the first moment we arrived in Tokyo, but Harajuku has always been the place that marked for me the whole Japanese experience that always fascinated me. The Harajuku region, located between Shibuya and Shinjuku, is the center of the Japanese street fashion and is the symbol of the young Japanese culture. The beating heart of Harajuku is Takashita Street, located right next to the Harajuku Station. A small shopping street, colorful and especially sweet, full of clothing and accessories stores and food stands that sell a variety of extremely sweet and colorful desserts – candy stores, crepes with fruit and whipped cream, ice cream, cotton candy and more. This is one of the city’s most famous streets, so it’s less recommended to visit it on Sundays, when it becomes particularly busy.

The Harajuku street fashion is characterized by a colorful and eclectic style that inspires many fashion designers from around the world. The whole area is a huge shopping center where everything can be found from luxury brands, international fashion chains, local fashion shops, boutiques and second-hand shops. So even if Japanese street fashion isn’t your cup of tea, there's no way you'll leave this area empty-handed.

I must admit that we probably spent more time in this area than Daniel thought was possible, and although I always knew I had the most perfect husband, on this trip he managed to prove it again. As a Harajuku fan, I felt that I had come to heaven and I fulfilled my many Japanese fantasies – from a crazy Harajuku performance, through a colorful manicure, to Lolita-styled photos {one of the most famous fashion styles in the Harajuku culture}. I have a lot to tell and so many photos to share from this area, so I decided to write a separate post specific to the Harajuku area that will soon be posted on my blog 🙂 Stay tuned!

AKIHABARA

Akihabara is heaven for electronics and manga enthusiasts, or in short – anyone connected to their Geek side. There’s a reason it’s called the ‘Electric District’ – the whole area is full of electronics and gadgets stores, anime and manga shops, giant buildings with arcade machines and even a special café called Maid Café, which is dedicated to the character of the “sexy maid” which is very popular in the anime and the manga world. A visit to this café sounds like a totally delusional experience {which makes sense considering the fact that the Japanese are great at inventing weird things}, and although I really wanted to go at first, I read in a few articles that this whole thing is a little fishy, and it's often used to take advantage of very young girls for the benefit of aging Japanese men, so I decided to skip it.

If you’re planning on buying electronic products or gadgets in Japan, it’s worth checking out the huge Yodobashi Camera store on the east side of the Akihabara station exit. It’s a department store that spreads over 9 huge floors and you can find everything related to electrical products and electronics at great prices! I bought a Polaroid camera in the shape of Hello Kitty for a funny price! 🙂

GINZA

The Ginza neighborhood is actually the Japanese answer to New York's Fifth Avenue. It’s Tokyo's most exclusive shopping and entertainment district, where the city's first department store was opened, and it’s famous for its concentration of designer stores, department stores, fashion chains, galleries, restaurants and cafés. The city's wide and impressive central boulevard has the most impressive shops I've ever seen in my life – stores with multiple floors, not only of the more popular fashion chains like Zara, H&M and Abercrombie & Fitch but also of high fashion brands like Chanel and Dior, and electronic stores like Sony and Apple. We walked around Ginza over the weekend and found that this was the ideal time to visit because on Saturday and Sunday the main boulevard becomes a kind of shopping street and is closed to transportation so you can walk freely on the road.

Hedonis-Tip: It’s highly recommended to visit the Depachika {Japanese food floor} located in the basement of one of the most prestigious department stores in the neighborhood, Mitsukoshi. Don’t get confused, there are dozens of food stands, bakeries and sweets, but it's not a lame food court in a mall. Everything is fresh, high quality and made like a work of art, and you can find delicacies for both Japanese cuisine and pastries that won’t embarrass France. Incidentally, there’s also a stand by the confectioner Dominic Ansel, the inventor of the Cronut, which has become a viral sensation on Instagram.

So far, here’s the first part of my recommendations about my favorite places in Tokyo and what to do in each area 🙂 The second part, which deals with four major attractions worth doing in the city, will be posted to the blog soon! Stay tuned…


Which of these areas looks the most exciting to you?
And if you've been to Tokyo, you're welcome to write the things you liked the most in the city in the comments below! 🙂

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