Tokyo

Tokyo is not a beach city. The bay shore is mostly port and reclaimed land, and the artificial beaches at Odaiba and Kasai are for strolling rather than swimming. For a real swim, visitors take the train about an hour south to the Shonan coast, where Kamakura's Yuigahama, Zushi and Enoshima have long stretches of dark volcanic sand.

The water in Sagami Bay is pleasantly warm in high summer, around 25°C in August, but the official bathing season is short, roughly July and August, and weekends are packed with day-trippers from the capital. It makes a good afternoon out from a summer stay, not a reason to choose Tokyo.

Nowhere offers more depth to eat through. Tokyo runs from standing soba counters in station corridors and ramen shops with a dozen seats to sushi counters, tempura specialists and kaiseki rooms of the highest refinement, and it holds more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other city. Specialisation is the rule: a place often does one dish and has done it for decades. The depachika food halls beneath the department stores, the Tsukiji outer market and the tiny yakitori alleys under the railway tracks at Yurakucho are pleasures in themselves.

Drinking is just as serious, from sake bars and Japanese whisky to meticulous pour-over coffee, and the convenience stores are better than they have any right to be. French, Italian and Chinese cooking reach a level that would stand out in their home countries. Eating well needs no planning and costs less than visitors expect; the harder part is choosing.

Tokyo's heritage is scattered through a modern city rather than gathered in an old town, because the 1923 earthquake and the bombing of 1945 destroyed most of what stood before. What survives and was rebuilt is still impressive: Senso-ji temple and its approach in Asakusa, the forested Meiji Jingu shrine, the moats and walls of the Imperial Palace, the Hama-rikyu and Rikugien gardens and the old lanes of Yanaka.

The museums are the real strength. Ueno Park alone holds the Tokyo National Museum, with the world's largest collection of Japanese art, plus the National Museum of Western Art and the science museum. The Nezu, the Mori Art Museum and many smaller collections add depth, and the city's modern architecture, from Tange's Olympic gymnasium to Omotesando's designer flagships, is a sight of its own.

Tokyo's night out is vast and strangely intimate. Its signature is the tiny bar: Shinjuku's Golden Gai packs some two hundred of them, each seating a handful, into a few alleys, and whole districts are stacked floor upon floor with small bars devoted to whisky, vinyl, cocktails or a single owner's passion. Izakaya fill the lanes around every major station, and Omoide Yokocho's smoky yakitori alley is a classic first stop.

Shibuya and Roppongi carry the club scene, with serious sound and crowds that stay until the first trains in the morning. The rhythm of the night is shaped by the last train around midnight: you either go home or commit until dawn. Streets feel safe at any hour, though Kabukicho's touts are best ignored.

Greater Tokyo is mostly city, but its rail lines reach real mountains. Mount Takao, about an hour west, is the classic first hike, with forest trails and a temple near the summit. Further into the far west of Tokyo itself, the Okutama valleys have river gorges, cedar forest and steeper ridges. Hakone and the Fuji Five Lakes, around two hours away, give the classic views of Mount Fuji, and the climbing season on Fuji itself runs in July and August.

Inside the city, Shinjuku Gyoen, Yoyogi Park and the Imperial Palace gardens are the green relief, best in cherry-blossom season and in the autumn colours of November. Summer is hot and humid, so spring and autumn are the seasons for walking.

Tokyo's rail network makes it an excellent base. Kamakura, about an hour south, is the favourite: the Great Buddha, a hillside of Zen temples and a seaside town feel. Nikko, around two hours north, has the lavish Toshogu shrine complex in cedar forest, one of Japan's great heritage sites. Yokohama, under half an hour away, adds a harbour front, Chinatown and the Sankeien garden.

Closer to hand, Kawagoe keeps a street of old clay-walled merchant houses, and Sawara a canal town of the Edo period. Hakone combines hot-spring inns, an open-air sculpture museum and lake boats, while the shinkansen puts the old resort of Karuizawa about an hour away. Kyoto lies just beyond the range of an easy day.

Tokyo is among the easiest big cities in the world for a vacation with children. Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea lie just across the bay, and the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, the Ueno Zoo, several aquariums and Miraikan, the hands-on science museum in Odaiba, fill many more days. Department-store rooftops, toy stores and character shops in Akihabara and Ikebukuro add plenty.

What makes it work is the everyday ease: streets are safe and clean, stations have lifts and baby rooms, public toilets are everywhere and spotless, and children travelling alone on the trains are a normal sight. The food suits fussy eaters too. The main challenges are packed rush-hour trains, long distances inside huge stations and the heavy heat of July and August.

Getting around is a pleasure. Overground lines, the Yamanote loop and the metro form the densest rail network in the world, trains run to the minute, and one rechargeable card covers trains, buses and convenience-store purchases. Signs and announcements are in English, and almost every sight is a short walk from a station.

Between stations, the city is made of walkable neighbourhoods with quiet backstreets, and walking from Shibuya to Harajuku or through Yanaka is half the pleasure. A car is never needed. The giant stations of Shinjuku and Tokyo can be confusing on the first day, rush-hour trains are crammed, and the network stops around midnight, leaving only taxis.

Tokyo may be the best city in the world to shop. Ginza holds the luxury houses and the great department stores, among them the century-old Mitsukoshi, and Omotesando's flagship stores are architecture in themselves. Harajuku's backstreets and Shimokitazawa are full of independent labels and some of the best vintage clothing anywhere, while Daikanyama and Nakameguro have quieter design boutiques.

Specialist districts run deep: electronics and anime in Akihabara, kitchen knives and restaurant supplies along Kappabashi, books in Jimbocho. Craft shops sell lacquer, ceramics, washi paper and indigo textiles of real quality, and the hundred-yen and stationery stores are attractions in their own right. Service is courteous everywhere, and even a small purchase is wrapped with a care that makes it feel like a gift.

Tokyo is far more affordable than its reputation suggests. Eating out is the great bargain: ramen, curry, set lunches, conveyor-belt sushi and convenience-store meals are cheap and good, and even fine restaurants offer lunch menus at a fraction of their dinner prices. Trains are fairly priced, and many shrines, temples, parks and gardens cost little or nothing.

Accommodation is where the money goes. Rooms in central districts are small and not cheap, business hotels are the sensible middle ground, and prices climb sharply during cherry-blossom season and the national vacation weeks such as Golden Week. Taxis, cocktail bars and high-end dining are expensive, so the city suits visitors who eat the way Tokyo residents do.

Tokyo's stage life is very deep, if not always easy for visitors to read. Kabuki is the obvious draw: the Kabuki-za in Ginza stages it most of the year and sells single-act tickets, a perfect introduction. Noh and the rarer traditional forms can be seen at dedicated theatres, and the all-female Takarazuka Revue offers glittering musical spectacle.

Classical music is a real strength, with several professional orchestras, the NHK Symphony among them, and halls such as Suntory Hall famous for their acoustics, while the New National Theatre presents opera and ballet. Jazz runs deep, from international club stages to tiny listening bars built around record collections, and hundreds of small live houses in Shimokitazawa, Koenji and Shibuya host bands every night. Spoken theatre is almost all in Japanese.

Bathing is woven into ordinary Tokyo life. Hundreds of neighbourhood sento, public bathhouses often decorated with a painted Mount Fuji, survive in the older residential districts, and some draw natural hot-spring water, including the dark mineral water found in the south of the city. Large bathing complexes add outdoor pools, saunas and rest rooms where people spend whole afternoons, and Japanese sauna culture is strong.

For a true onsen with mountain views, Hakone is about ninety minutes away, with traditional inns built around their baths. Within the city, the calm comes from temple grounds, formal gardens and quiet residential backstreets, a counterweight to the crowds of Shinjuku and Shibuya. Many baths still refuse guests with tattoos, so check before going.