Tokyo, worth knowing.

Fun facts about Tokyo

1. 1Tokyo Skytree is 634 metres tall on purpose: read in Japanese, 6-3-4 sounds like 'Musashi', the old name for the Tokyo region.Source: japan-guide.com; Tokyo Weekender
2. 2In 2017 the Tsukuba Express, a train line out of Tokyo, publicly apologised because one train left a station 20 seconds early. Nobody had even complained.Source: TIME; The Drive
3. 3Godzilla is an official special resident of Shinjuku. The ward gave him residency papers and made him a tourism ambassador, and a giant Godzilla head now watches over Kabukicho.Source: TIME; Anime News Network
4. 4At Takadanobaba Station, Yamanote Line trains leave to the Astro Boy theme song, a nod to manga creator Osamu Tezuka's studio nearby.Source: SoraNews24; Japan Travel
5. 5Tokyo Tower isn't technically red. Its bands are 'international orange' and white, the colours Japan's aviation law requires on structures above a certain height.Source: Nippon.com; Wikipedia
6. 6Hachiko the Akita kept coming back to Shibuya Station for years, waiting for his owner long after the professor had died. Today his statue is Shibuya's main meeting point.Source: Go Tokyo; The University of Tokyo

Things to do in Tokyo

• ◦Gotokuji in Setagaya is said to be the birthplace of the beckoning lucky cat. Its grounds are lined with rows of white maneki-neko, each raising its right paw.Source: Japan National Tourism Organization; MATCHA
• ◦Climb the spiral stairs at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka and you'll find a grassy rooftop garden guarded by a five-metre Robot Soldier from Castle in the Sky.Source: Ghibli Museum, Mitaka; japan-guide.com
• ◦Kappabashi is a whole street of kitchen shops, around 160 of them, selling Japanese knives, ceramics and the super-realistic plastic food you see in restaurant windows.Source: Go Tokyo; Japan National Tourism Organization
• ◦At teamLab Planets you leave your shoes at the door and wade barefoot through knee-deep water while digital koi swim around your legs.Source: Go Tokyo; Japan National Tourism Organization
• ◦Make your own fake food: at Ganso Shokuhin Sample-ya in Kappabashi, you shape warm wax into shrimp tempura and a head of lettuce in about 40 minutes.Source: Ganso Shokuhin Sample-ya; GLOBAL TRAVEL JAPAN
• ◦Ride the Tokyo Sakura Tram, the last line left of Tokyo's old streetcars. It rattles 12 km from Minowabashi to Waseda past shopping streets and cherry blossom spots.Source: Go Tokyo; Wikipedia

Questions to bring to Tokyo

From Sojourn's journeys. Ask one over a long dinner or on a slow walk, and let the place do some of the work.

Going together

• When do you feel most like yourself?
• What does rest actually look like for you?
• What is one thing you wish we did more of?

Going solo

• What is the first thing this place is showing you that you didn't expect?
• What does this version of you know that the home version tends to forget?

More destinations

Algarve · Amalfi Coast · Aruba · Azores · Barcelona · Basel · Budapest · Cinque Terre · Copenhagen · Curaçao · Dolomites · Évora · Florence · Hiroshima · Hokkaido · Kanazawa · Kobe · Kyoto · Lake Como · Lisbon · London · Madeira · Mount Fuji · Nara · Nassau · New York · Okinawa · Osaka · Paris · Porto · Prague · Punta Cana · Rome · San Juan · Santorini · Sicily · Sintra · Strasbourg · Tromsø · Tuscany · Umbria · Venice · Vienna