Shinjuku新宿

One day · The whole loop

Around the Yamanote line in a day of eating: soba in Kanda, unagi in Ueno, a tea house in a garden, tempura in Shinjuku, tonkatsu in Meguro and oden in Ebisu

The Yamanote loop takes an hour to ride and a lifetime to eat. This day rides it clockwise from Tokyo Station and gets off six times, once for each meal a body can reasonably hold: soba, unagi, tea, tempura, tonkatsu, oden. Every stop is from our station-by-station guide, verified on the date shown; walk times are from the station gates. Buy a day ticket and eat small.

Akihabara & Kanda · Ueno & Yanaka · Shinjuku · Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu · Ginza · 7 stops

One day · Shinjuku

Shinjuku, both sides of the tracks: the garden at opening, the food hall at eleven, the sky for free, and two hundred bars at ten

Three and a half million people a day pass through Shinjuku, and this itinerary meets almost none of them. It uses the garden before the crowds, the department store's food hall to build a picnic, the free observatory at the hour the tourists have left, and the alleys — Omoide Yokocho for supper, Golden Gai for the night — at the hour they belong to the people who drink there. The trick with Shinjuku is timing; the rest is walking.

Shinjuku · 7 stops

Guide · Anywhere in the centre

A rainy day in Tokyo, done well: a national collection, a depachika lunch, a coffee house, an art-book lounge and a bath

Tokyo in the rain is not a lesser city; it is one that moves indoors, into museums, food halls, coffee houses and baths that were built for exactly this. The rule is to choose one district and stay under its roofs — every large station is a covered city — rather than to cross town. Here is a day assembled from the best of them, with the alternatives by area so you can build your own.

Ueno & Yanaka · Shinjuku · Marunouchi & Tokyo Station · Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu · Roppongi & Azabu · 5 stops

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden新宿御苑

An imperial garden of English lawns, French avenues and a Japanese pond — the finest cherry blossom and autumn colour in Tokyo.

120 min · Shinjuku-gyoemmae (Marunouchi line), 5 minutes; Shinjuku, 10 minutes

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observatories東京都庁展望室

Tange's twin-towered city hall, with two free observatories at 202 metres and Fuji on a clear morning.

45 min · Tochomae (Oedo line), direct; Shinjuku (west exit), 10 minutes

Golden Gaiゴールデン街

Six alleys, two hundred bars, eight seats each — the writers' and film-makers' drinking quarter that outlived every redevelopment.

120 min · Shinjuku-sanchome (Marunouchi / Fukutoshin / Shinjuku lines), exit E1, 5 minutes

Omoide Yokocho思い出横丁

"Memory Lane" — sixty yakitori and motsu stalls under smoke beside the west exit, since 1946.

60 min · Shinjuku (JR), west exit, 1 minute

The Isetan food hall伊勢丹新宿店の食品フロア

The most complete depachika in Japan — wagashi, bento, French pastry, sake, and a fruit shop where a melon is a gift.

45 min · Shinjuku-sanchome (Marunouchi / Fukutoshin / Shinjuku lines), direct

Hanazono Shrine花園神社

Kabukicho's own shrine — vermilion among the neon, a Sunday antiques market, and November's Tori-no-Ichi fair of lucky rakes.

20 min · Shinjuku-sanchome (Marunouchi / Fukutoshin / Shinjuku lines), exit E2, 1 minute