Tokyo

TOKYOSTARTER

The Steps Above Yanaka

≈ 3,000 steps1.3 mi · about 2 hoursStarter · 3 stops · 500 credStart where you live.

The quarter the firebombing missed, on foot: a staircase named for its sunsets, a cemetery avenue of cherry trees, and a shrine at the bottom of the hill. Two hours, best in the late afternoon.

TOKYOSTARTER

Thunder Gate Before the Shutters Go Up

≈ 1,700 steps0.8 mi · about 2 hoursStarter · 3 stops · 500 credStart where you live.

Walk the old low city while the souvenir shutters on Nakamise are still down. Two gates, a pagoda and a park on the far bank, about two hours on foot, and worth doing before eight in the morning.

TOKYOSTANDARD

First Light at the Market

≈ 4,500 steps2.0 mi · about 3.5 hoursStandard · 5 stops · 600 credOne trip earns it.

Take the first train and be in the outer market by six, while it is still trade rather than tourism. Half a day across the old fish quarter and the two islands behind it; Sundays and most Wednesdays the shops are shut.

TOKYOSTANDARD

The Free Floor and the Lanes Below

≈ 3,500 steps1.7 mi · about 3.5 hoursStandard · 5 stops · 600 credOne trip earns it.

Shinjuku from the free observation floor down to the drinking alleys, in the last two hours of light and the first two of dark. Half a day; the observatory shuts on some Tuesdays, so check before you climb.

TOKYOSTANDARD

The Moat and the Brick Front

≈ 5,000 steps + 3.1 mi by car2.3 mi on foot · about 4 hoursStandard · 5 stops · 600 credOne trip earns it.

A half day around the moat that Edo Castle left behind, ending at the red brick station the trains still use. Free ground the whole way, including the East Gardens, but check the day: they shut on Mondays and Fridays.

TOKYOADVANCED

Downstream, Bridge by Bridge

≈ 5,000 steps + 2.5 mi by car2.4 mi on foot · about 7 hoursAdvanced · 7 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

Seven bridges on the Sumida walked end to end from the river mouth up to Asakusa, most of them rebuilt after the 1923 earthquake and each one a different structure. About seven hours with the riverside paths between them.

TOKYOADVANCED

The Bay on Foot

≈ 6,500 steps + 154 mi by car3.0 mi on foot · about 7 hoursAdvanced · 7 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

Cross Tokyo Bay on the free walkway slung under the Rainbow Bridge, then work east along the reclaimed islands to the market roof. A full day; the bridge walkway closes on the third Monday and keeps shorter hours from November to March.

TOKYOADVANCED

The High City on Foot

≈ 9,500 steps4.4 mi · about 7 hoursAdvanced · 8 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

A full day walking the new city north from Shibuya: the crossing, a rooftop park, the shopping avenues, and then seventy hectares of planted forest around a shrine. All on public ground and all on foot, about seven hours.

TOKYOADVANCED

The Takao to Jinba Ridge

≈ 14,500 steps7.0 mi · 2 days or more · + 1 stretch not routedAdvanced III · 11 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

The hardest thing Tokyo holds inside its own boundary: the full ridge traverse from Takaosanguchi to Jinba, about eighteen kilometres of trail with the cable car refused and every metre walked. Two days, and the upper ridge ices over between December and March.

TOKYOADVANCED

West Along the Chuo Line

≈ 10,000 steps + 6.1 mi by car4.8 mi on foot · 1 day or moreAdvanced II · 9 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

Two days getting off at every station out the Chuo line, from the covered arcades of Nakano to a thatched temple gate in Chofu. Shopping streets, a lake, an aqueduct path and the country beyond the wards; you will use the train between legs.