Tokyo / Harajuku & Meiji Shrine
Harajuku & Meiji Shrine原宿・明治神宮
A forest of a hundred thousand trees with a shrine at its heart, and, across one road, the loudest teenage street in Japan.
Meiji Shrine was built in 1920 and its forest was planted by volunteers from every prefecture: 100,000 trees, chosen so that in a century it would look like it had always been there. It has. Enter under the great cypress torii and the city goes silent within a hundred paces; on a weekend morning you will see a Shinto wedding procession cross the courtyard. The other side of the station is Takeshita Street, a lane of crêpe stands, costume shops and fifteen-year-olds, and behind it the Cat Street back lanes where the actual fashion happens. Yoyogi Park, next door, is Tokyo's Sunday lawn.
One-day itineraries
One day · Meiji Shrine, Yoyogi, Harajuku, Shibuya
A Tokyo Sunday: the shrine at sunrise, the park at noon, the crossing at dusk, live music at nine
Sunday is the one day Tokyo takes off, and this is where it takes it: the forest of Meiji Shrine at first light, Yoyogi Park's lawns at noon when the whole city is picnicking, the fashion streets of Harajuku on the afternoon they are made for, and Shibuya as the lights come on — the crossing, the alley, a basement with four bands. Six kilometres on foot, one hill, and no reservation needed until dinner.
Harajuku & Meiji Shrine · Shibuya · 8 stops
One day · Aoyama, Omotesando, Harajuku
Aoyama for people who look up: a garden of tea houses, a kilometre of architecture, and the back streets where Tokyo's taste is set
Nothing on this day is on a first-timer's list and all of it is what people who know Tokyo do with a free day: a private museum whose garden is better than its galleries, a walk past buildings by every living master of architecture, lunch where the magazine editors eat, ceramics from a gallery you will not find on a map, and, if there is a booking, the best jazz club in Asia at nine. Everything is within fifteen minutes on foot of Omotesando station.
Aoyama & Omotesando · Harajuku & Meiji Shrine · 6 stops
Places (5)
Meiji Jingu明治神宮
A century-old forest of a hundred thousand trees, a cypress shrine at its centre, and silence a hundred paces from Harajuku.
90 min · Harajuku (JR) or Meiji-jingumae (Chiyoda / Fukutoshin lines), at the gate
Takeshita Street and Cat Street竹下通りとキャットストリート
The loudest lane in Japan and, one block behind it, the quiet one where the fashion actually happens.
90 min · Harajuku (JR, Takeshita exit) to Shibuya, walking south
Yoyogi Park代々木公園
Tokyo's Sunday lawn — rockabilly dancers, drum circles, picnics under the ginkgo, and the Olympic gymnasium by Tange.
90 min · Harajuku (JR) or Yoyogi-koen (Chiyoda line), 3 minutes
Ota Memorial Museum of Art太田記念美術館
Ukiyo-e only — Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro — in a small house of tatami and stone, one street from Takeshita.
60 min · Meiji-jingumae (Chiyoda / Fukutoshin lines), exit 5, 1 minute
Togo Shrine東郷神社
An admiral's shrine with a pond garden, thirty seconds from Takeshita Street and a different century.
20 min · Meiji-jingumae (Chiyoda / Fukutoshin lines), 3 minutes; Harajuku (JR), 3 minutes
Experiences
Operators
- National Noh Theatre · ¥¥
- Meiji Jingu Shrine · ¥
- Chicago Harajuku · ¥¥