88 unmissable things to do in Tokyo, part 2

11. Visit the city’s oldest and best-loved temple...

With over 30 million visitors a year, Senso-ji holds a special place in local hearts. Otherwise known as Asakusa Kannon, Senso-ji is metropolitan Tokyo’s oldest temple and dedicated to Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion. The principal statue of Kannon enshrined in the temple is said to have been saving worshippers ever since first appearing 1400 years ago when – as legend has it – fishermen discovered it in the Sumida river. In a local example of corporate philanthropy, the main Kaminarimon Gate – famous for its giant red lantern – was actually restored in 1960 through a donation from Konosuke Matsushita (Panasonic’s founder).
Senso-ji map and opening hours

12. Get your dinner delivered to you by train...

It’s been 46 years since the Tokaido Shinkasen opened in 1964, and 47 years since Niagara Curry House opened in 1963. In line with the words ‘Tetsudo Mudo no Mise’ (or, ‘Shop with a Railway Feeling’) displayed above the entrance, the interior is jam-packed full of railway-related memorabilia. Many of the items you’ll find here really do date back to when the restaurant first opened, with a vast collection of destination and station nameplates decorating the interior from wall to wall. By the entrance, you’ll find a meal ticket vending machine offering a number of items including a cho-tokkyu(super express) spicy menu (based on an orthodox Japanese-style curry) and a variety of different topping options such as hamburger, katsu (deep fried pork cutlet), and ebi-furai (deep fried prawn). Customers sitting at one of the restaurant’s passenger-car-style seats (from actual trains) have their order delivered via an entertaining model railway delivery system. Plus, there’s also a particularly interesting restaurant manager (or should that be ‘station manager’?) who wears a railway cap.
Niagara Curry House map and opening hours

13. Take a cemetery stroll...

‘A dreaded sunny day, so I’ll meet you at the cemetery gates,’ so The Smiths once sang, and a stroll around a vast, metropolitan cemetery can certainly be an educational, rather than maudlin thing. The sheer volume of people that have lived and died in Tokyo make the scale of the city’s cemeteries truly breathtaking, and many of them are resting places to Japan’s past notables. Zoshigaya Cemetery, for example, contains the final resting place of Irish writer, Lafcadio Hearn (buried under his Japanese name, Koizumi Yakumo), Natusme Soseki (‘the Japanese Dickens’) and disgraced general, Tojo Hideki. Out at Tama Cemetery, you’ll find legendary wordsmith Yukio Mishima, known internationally for his shocking, seppuku death.

14. Try out a love hotel...

Japan’s chronic lack of any real privacy — and the thinness of its rice-paper walls — has helped create a thriving tradition of ‘love hotels’. These short-stay establishments (usually rented in two-hour blocks) are ubiquitous, with entire sections of the capital’s neighbourhoods devoted to them. And while slightly risqué, the use of such places has much in common with sex in general in Japan — not talked about openly, but widely indulged. Love hotels offer such a quintessentially Japanese experience that any couple travelling to Tokyo should try one out, if only for the afternoon.
For more info on Tokyo’s love hotels, click here

15. See a gig at a legendary live house...

Loft has been around for more than 25 years and is a dedicated promoter. Inside are two areas: one is the main space for gigs, the other is a bar with a small stage. Expect loud music of any genre here. At times Loft offers more than just gigs, with all-night events that include DJs. Nearby sister venue Loft Plus One (1-14-7 Kabukicho, 03 3205 6864) is an unusual place that specialises in live talk events. The entertainment ranges from political discussion to porn stars performing erotic games. Needless to say, the language barrier only affects some events.
Loft map and opening hours

16. Take tea with a future star...

Tokyo has an abundance of places to see and be seen at, but few are as well located and prominent as Anniversaire Café. Situated on Omotesando, it is well known as a place to model your latest togs, but it’s also said that part-time jobs as waiting staff here are popular with wannabe actors and singers. And it’s certainly true, when you look closely, that they seem unusually tall and fresh of face. So get your waitress to sign whatever you can; she could be the next Ayumi Hamasaki...
Anniversaire Café map and opening hours

17. Buy a T-shirt in a jar...

While Uniqlo may slowly be growing into a worldwide brand, it retains an element of exclusivity at UT, a Harajuku store that sells exclusively designed T-shirts (amongst other items) in plastic jars, displayed in racks as though they were cans of Coke in a convenience store fridge. Even the shop window attracts attention, regularly decorated by artists and designers of the moment. The shirts are a bargain at 1500 yen a piece (at the time of writing), and make for great Tokyo souvenirs — jar included.
UT map and opening hours

18. Try a Coke...with tea...and milk...

Just as Brits find the idea of strawberry jam and peanut butter sandwiches wince-inducing, the rest of the world — surely — finds Coke, tea and milk similarly unstomachable. For the good people of Harajuku, however, it is something of a delicacy, and one that the otherwise entirely pleasant Double Tall Café has perfected. If you find you’re just too sensible to place the order, the lattes come with our hearty recommendation, as well as a cute foam topping — just to remind you that you’re still in Tokyo and not some kind of culinary science lab.
Double Tall Café map and opening hours

19. Look a gift melon in the mouth...

The glory days of big spending may be long gone, but fruit fans looking out for those infamous ‘100 dollar gift melons’ can still find them at exorbitant prices if they look hard enough. Sembikiya, next door to Double Tall Café displays some very tasty looking honeydews, yours for only 15,750 yen, as well as wholesome-looking apples, a snip at 1000 yen a piece.

20. Explore haunted Tokyo...

The Haunted Tokyo Tours, run by the passionate and knowledgeable Lilly Fields, are more than just a look at the ghost stories the capital enjoys; they also provide a great way to explore the city’s backstreets, taking in little-known places that you might otherwise miss, in the company of a stimulating guide. If places that go bump in the night are really your thing, however, Time Out recommends signing up for their Shinjuku Ghosts and Demons tour; the trip to Oiwa Inari Tamiya Jinja, home of the notoriously vengeful Oiwa (of Yotsuya Kaidan fame), is a spine-tingling treat.
For more information on Haunted Tokyo Tours, click here