24 hours in Tokyo: your ultimate round-the-clock guide to the capital

Munching on super-fresh sushi in a fish market at the crack of dawn is an essential Tokyo eating experience. You could undergo the rite at the famous staple Toyosu together with hundreds of jetlagged newcomers...or flee the hungry hordes to Tsukiji, the wholesale market’s former site, where you’ll find equally luscious seafood served in far less sterile surroundings.

One of our favourite kaisendon (seafood bowls) at Tsukiji’s outer market comes courtesy of Tsukiji Kanno, a historic seafood-over-rice specialist where the seating options range from a couple of makeshift counters facing the bustling Monzeki-dori street to air-conditioned booths bathed in fluorescent light at the back of the slightly antiquated building.

The affable Mrs Kanno’s crew can whip up around 30 different fish and rice combos, among the most notable of which is the ever-popular nakaochi tokudon (¥2,200) built around the day’s freshest lean tuna. The morning nigiri sets, meanwhile, start from around ¥2,000.

You might need to wait. Most breakfast joints in Tokyo don’t open until 8am anyway. One of the city’s most reliable purveyors of excellent morning meals is Sawamura, which hails from the Nagano prefecture resort town of Karuizawa but has established a firm hold on the capital’s breakfast scene over the past decade.

Among the company’s half a dozen Tokyo locations, our pick is Bakery Lounge Sawamura Nakameguro. Hidden away on the quieter side of the hip neighbourhood, just a few steps from the Meguro River, the café is worth seeking out purely for its heavenly french toast. This thick slab of Sawamura’s best-selling, ultra-light pain de mie shokupan – caramelised and crispy on the outside, obscenely light and fluffy within – pairs perfectly with a side of artisanal Shinshu bacon from Nagano.

Be sure to lay down a couple of hundred extra yen on a cup of hand-drip speciality coffee; this Sawamura outpost serves as an extension of the brand’s Karuizawa roastery and offers a wide range of single-origin beans.

Morning pick-me-ups don’t come any more elevated than this. Kickstart your day with a bowl of matcha whisked up fresh 150 metres above the city at Tokyo Tower’s soaring tea ceremony, held in the pointy orange-and-white landmark’s main observatory on the second and fourth Saturday of the month.

Taking place before the viewing platform is opened to general visitors and admitting only 15-20 participants per ceremony, these sky-high gatherings let you have the tower’s soaring vistas more or less to yourself. Oh, and the tea is pretty tasty too, as you’d expect from a session curated by Soyu Mori, a master of the Urasenke school and a leading tea-ceremony academic.

Seated on tatami mats (or chairs, in case you’re attending the 9am session) set up by the observatory’s floor-to-ceiling windows, participants are treated to top-grade matcha served in bowls crafted by some of the country’s leading ceramic artisans. But the air of formality ends there: you don’t need prior tea ceremony experience to participate, and staff are happy to answer any questions in English (as well as French and Spanish). Online reservation required.

A rediscovered love of vinyl by quality-conscious music enthusiasts has made Tokyo’s enviable ecosystem of record stores an object of international wonder and longing. One standout among the city’s countless repositories of analogue treasures is VDS, the Tokyo-born Vinyl Delivery Service’s second physical outpost (the first is on London’s Columbia Road).

Housed in the Skwat Kameari Art Centre, a makeshift collective cultural space hidden under the Joban Line railway tracks that it shares with an architectural office, an art book distributor and a tiny coffee shop, the store doubles as a warehouse for VDS’s online record-retail business – hence the seemingly endless shelves stocked with everything from rock and city pop to reggae and traditional Japanese music.

Some of the up to 9,000 records available for perusal are categorised with labels like ‘earth’, ‘fire’, ‘water’ and ‘air’, adding a philosophical touch to the digging experience. Hesitant to pull the trigger on that rare pressing? You’re welcome to play before you purchase – using any of the store’s five different turntables, which are also for sale.

Tired of agonising over what to pick off a restaurant menu? Leave the world of endless choice and obsessive customisation behind and embrace the Japanese set meal. Most typically composed of rice, soup and several small sides, the teishoku is a beacon of nutritional balance and rich flavours in an ocean of lopsided servings and ultra-processed eats.

In its purest form, the traditional teishoku lunch joint – of which there must be thousands across Tokyo – serves only one meal: the daily special. A shining example is Sakura Honten in Iidabashi, where chef Shigeaki Yoshizawa has been conjuring up a different combination of hearty home-cooked dishes almost every weekday for 24 years.

His tastefully decorated restaurant fills up practically as soon as the doors open, and the day’s 50 meals are often all gone within an hour. No wonder: Priced at a barely believable ¥950, Yoshizawa’s teishoku always feature three carefully crafted sides highlighting quality fish, meat and veg, plus a bowl of filling miso soup, pickles, and unlimited servings of rice.

On their way out, many satisfied patrons make a point of eyeing the sign by the door, which lists the content of tomorrow’s teishoku. This is food you could eat every day – and many do.

Steer clear of the afternoon slump by descending into the cave-like basement of Green Terrace Omotesando, the flashy fashion street’s newest boutique cluster. This well-ventilated and pleasantly uncrowded refuge is home to Tokyo’s first Philocoffea café, a dainty shrine to serious speciality coffee.

Playing the role of head priest here is pour-over phenom Tetsu Kasuya, the 2016 World Brewers Cup Champion, a coffee-community celeb famed for his uncompromising approach to both hand-drip science and bean curation. The inventor of the revolutionary 4:6 method – an intuitive formula for dividing the hot water used to brew a cup of coffee, which allows for easy flavour adjustments – Kasuya has introduced the coffee world to a smattering of buzz-generating recipes in recent years. At the Omotesando café he showcases his latest hybrid approach: a combination of pour-over and immersion. The result? An impeccably balanced cup with the silkiest taste around.

Alternatively, if you’re on the east side, take your pick of the numerous cafés in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, Tokyo’s self-proclaimed ‘coffee town’. Then finish with a pit stop at the inimitable Posh, a purveyor of fruit tarts and other lip-smacking vegan sweets liable to set your TikTok on fire.

You’re never too far from a park in Tokyo. According to a recent survey by the global digital research platform Freepik, the capital has more green spaces than any other big city in the world. What’s more, some of these verdant oases hide amazing art and architecture.

Our favourite in-garden gallery is the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, centred on a 1933 art deco mansion on lush, impeccably manicured grounds in Meguro. The house was built by Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, the uncle of Emperor Hirohito, who returned from a three-year stint in 1920s Paris enamoured with art deco.

The prince hired luminaries such as Henri Rapin and René Lalique to design the opulent interior, which has been beautifully preserved over the years. Take in the building’s decorative splendour and illustrious history at the museum’s annual ‘Looking at Architecture’ exhibition (held until August 24 this year), then find a spot to relax in the afternoon shade outside.

You’ll find two other botanically biased museums worth a look in posh Minami Aoyama. The Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum – the avant-garde visionary’s former studio and home – boasts a tiny jungle of a front garden and a frozen-in-time gallery replete with paint splatters and half-finished works, all left untouched since the artist’s death in 1996.

Its polar opposite on the unruliness scale, the Nezu Museum nearby combines a sleek Kengo Kuma-designed building with a private garden where winding stepping-stone paths transport you into Zen-like silence in the heart of the city.

Sprawling, diverse and incredibly interconnected, Tokyo’s music scene rewards intrepid musos with an endless stream of mindblowing tunes you’d have a hard time coming across on Spotify. It’s also fairly easy to explore even if you aren’t a night owl, with gigs typically starting way earlier than at many clubs in the West.

Dive right into the deep end at Fever, the go-to venue for Tokyo’s rising indie acts since 2009. Tucked beneath a swim school just across the street from Shindaita Station, it feels more like a collective art space than a conventional club. The space opens into a roomy entrance hall that connects to Pootle, a Vietnamese-inspired fried chicken joint which doubles as a café and gallery.

The venue itself is a 300-capacity black box – maybe 350 if you really pack it in. With a low stage and a slightly sloped floor, the room offers a solid view of the performance from just about anywhere. Alongside up and comers, Fever has also hosted bigger Japanese names like toe and Galileo Galilei, alongside well-known international acts like Foxing, MJ Lenderman and many more.

Fever keeps things eclectic with a no-genre booking policy, so there’s truly something for everyone. And don’t skip the bar in the main room – it’s stocked with dangerously cheap drinks and American chips like Lays and Fritos.

When the music ends for the night, shuffle over to Candle Cafe in nearby Shimokitazawa to debate drum solos and guitar riffs over a craft beer or strong gin cocktail in the intoxicating glow of handmade candles.

While most of Tokyo’s coolest bars are underground ones – both literally and figuratively – sometimes you want to drink up high. And with the capital’s insatiable appetite for upward expansion, the variety of drinking destinations offering incredible views to go along with a carefully crafted cocktail or cup of fine sake is pretty remarkable.

If you only have time for one sky-high boozer, make it the out-of-sight Bulgari Bar. Part of the Italian jewellery house’s very own Tokyo hotel, this semi-alfresco rooftop stunner is perched on the 45th floor of the Midtown Yaesu skyscraper and boasts gemstone-grade cocktails and mocktails to go with the billion-yen vista directly westward. Tip: arrive between 6 and 7pm to marvel at the sunset – and enjoy a complimentary platter of fancy bar bites.

Found at a lower altitude, but still lofty in its own way, The Roof at the Tokyo Edition, Ginza hotel is another standout, offering intimate seating surrounded by lush greenery. Opt for one of the seasonal cocktails like the refreshing Ume & Shiso, which blends coconut yoghurt with sparkling sake. If your vibe is more vintage anime T-shirt than designer dress, seek out A-Bridge in Sangenjaya and stick around for a gig or DJ set.

A 90-second walk – trust us, we’ve timed it – from the sensory overload of the Scramble Crossing takes you to an equally gasp-inducing but much more jovial capital institution. Founded and run by comedians, Tokyo’s first (and only) stand-up comedy club puts on shows pretty much every night of the week.

Tokyo Comedy Bar is more than just a stage and seats – it’s a community hub open to everyone partial to laughter and eager to peek into the many hilarious aspects of life in Japan. Expect high-energy performances in both English and Japanese, the occasional big-name headliner from overseas, and a rotating selection of six types of craft beer on tap.

Their flagship Stand-Up Comedy Showcase entertains punters from 7.30pm daily, while the 9pm slot is dedicated to a mix of open mics, international visitors, and monthly affairs like the Gay Agenda, a queer-friendly comedy showcase, and LoLs in Translation, a show about learning Japanese.

The venue will play host to the Tokyo International Comedy Festival from September 11 to 21, and TCB is also the force behind the Shinjuku Stage shows, held at Kabukicho’s DecaBar Super every Friday and Saturday night from 8pm.

While Nordic sauna culture still has some way to go before it dethrones hot-spring bathing as Japan’s favourite form of wet and sweaty relaxation, the country’s sauna boom is still gaining, um, steam. The trend was to a large degree sparked by Sado (The Way of Sauna), a manga and essay series by Katsuki Tanaka, who has in recent years poured his energy into building the kind of sauna he once only wrote about.

Located just three minutes from JR Shibuya Station, Shibuya Saunas is the culmination of Tanaka’s vision: a modern temple of sweat that’s both serious about tradition and playful in execution. Guests can choose from nine distinctive sauna rooms, each designed with a different theme – from the silent, pitch-black ‘Musta’ sauna to the music-infused ‘Sound’ sauna and the serene, tea-inspired ‘Teetä’ room.

The facility’s layout is divided between two areas – Woods and Lämpi – which alternate between men and women on different days, ensuring everyone gets the full experience. Shibuya Saunas is also tattoo friendly, a rare and welcome policy in Japan’s public bath scene, making it a magnet for Tokyo’s creative crowd.

Beyond the steam, Shibuya Saunas offers a plant-based menu crafted by Michelin-starred chef Yusuke Nomura of Shojin Ryori Daigo, plus plenty of lounge space for cooling down. It’s wellness with a pulse; equal parts detox and downtown hangout.

Nothing beats smacking some balls around after a long day. Automated batting cages may no longer be as ubiquitous as they once were in Tokyo – blame baseball’s dwindling popularity – but the ones that remain still make for a fun way to blow off steam.

Our go-to is the first-timer friendly Asakusa Batting Stadium, tucked away on the second floor of a time-worn gaming arcade near Sensoji Temple and instantly recognisable by the giant glove above the entrance.

The clientele is diverse, ranging from complete rookies to former high school heroes capable of regularly hitting 150km/h pitches – the fastest setting here – deep into the (virtual) stands. Pitches are synchronised to videos of hurlers from Japan’s pro league, making you feel like you’re going up against a real opponent. One game of 20 balls costs ¥400, and the Stadium even has a bullpen with a pitching skills simulator for those that want to test their arm.

The only drawback is the all-too-early 11pm closing time. Those who’d like to keep swinging into the wee hours will want to seek out the Shinjuku Batting Centre in Kabukicho, where the floodlights stay on until 4am, or the nearby Oslo Batting Centre, an equally unembellished establishment where the tireless mechanical arms keep working until 1am.

While Tokyo has its fair share of mega-clubs, what really sets the capital’s all-night music scene apart is the profusion of modestly sized but wildly ambitious venues. Call them underground, left-field or experimental, the best of these spots blend creative programming and meticulously tuned sound systems with a lively community-first spirit.

Start a night of immersion into the local scene at Hven, a brushed-metal hideaway beneath the train tracks in Nakameguro that feels both futuristic and grounded, intimate and expansive. The entrance alone, a long corridor running alongside the railway, sets the tone: You’re stepping out of the city and into something else entirely.

Inside, things centre on a compact dance floor and a powerful sound system pumping out house, techno or the occasional hip hop set. But most people end up flowing between the rooms – chilling in the lounge where the music still plays but at a less intense volume, or drifting out to the smoking patio under the night sky. Hven isn’t just a music bar; it’s a platform for crossover culture. Besides great music, expect contemporary art, eclectic live performances and experimental showcases.

Next, move up to Enter in Shibuya, a 150-capacity club with an airtight sound system. Here the DJ booth is planted right in the middle of the dance floor, dissolving the usual distance between performer and crowd and creating a truly immersive, all-around-you experience. Each corner of the room is fitted with high-end speakers and a Meyer Sound subwoofer, making the space feel less like a club and more like a finely tuned instrument – built for those who really want to listen, not just be seen.

Still want to keep the party going? Head to Aoyama Hachi – a strong candidate for the smallest four-storey club in the world, and an ever-reliable sanctuary for cutting-edge sounds.

Communal sento bathhouses may be foreign to most tourists, but they’ve been an inextricable part of life in Tokyo for centuries. While no longer an essential element of the city’s infrastructure – most Tokyoites are now content to bathe and shower at home – sento have been undergoing a renaissance of sorts in recent years.

Some bathhouses have reinvented themselves with sleek interiors, others by opening a pub or eatery on their premises. Yet others, like Daikoku-yu right beneath Tokyo Skytree, have decided to take things back to basics.

A shining example of the old-school neighbourhood communal bathhouse, Daikoku-yu stays open through the night and fills its tubs with natural hot spring water pumped up from deep under the city. The star of the show is the spacious rotenburo open-air bath, where you can soak while gazing at Tokyo’s tallest structure and taking in the faint nocturnal sounds of the city.

Forget pizzas, kebabs or even tacos – nothing tastes better after a long night out than a hot and greasy serving of noodles. And in the ramen capital of the world, there’s a plethora of amazing bowls to choose from at any hour.

Our go-to purveyor of invigorating late-night cholesterol bombs is Akanoren. A stumbling distance from Roppongi, it has been serving up Hakata-style tonkotsu ramen – thin, flat noodles in a light, pork-based and soy-sauce flavoured soup – by the Nishi-Azabu crossing for well over four decades. Tip: Be sure to get a plate of bite-sized sui gyoza (boiled) dumplings to go with your bowl. Stop by the ATM on the way – this place is cash only.

In Shinjuku, set course for Sugoi Niboshi Ramen Nagi, and brace for the smell – the speciality here is pungent niboshi ramen, made by boiling vast amounts of dried sardines for 12 hours to create a distinctive, boldly flavoured soup that’ll blow away any lingering drowsiness.

In Ginza, Shinamen Hashigo does a range of manageably spicy dan dan noodles with meaty toppings, while Kamo to Negi in Ueno specialises in duck noodles with a beautifully clear stock that’s light yet flavourful.

Cap off your round-the-clock adventure by taking in the awe-inspiring sight of the sun emerging from the calm expanse of Tokyo Bay. While there are plenty of places along the waterfront offering unimpeded views towards the east, not all of these are easy to reach or possible to enter before the rest of the city wakes up. Here are three Tokyo sunrise spots you can visit at any hour and won’t need to scale any fences to get to.

To position yourself for one of Tokyo’s coolest sunrise views, walk through Shibaura in the early-morning haze to find a spot just west of the Shibaura Loop Bridge, on the western end of the Rainbow Bridge. From here, you can watch the mammoth structure transform into a gigantic diamond ring, with the sun itself bringing the bling as it emerges above the farther end of the circle.

The Terminal 3 Observation Deck at Haneda Airport stays open 24 hours and offers the dramatic vista of parked planes illuminated by the day’s first orange rays. Hop on the morning’s first monorail from Hamamatsucho Station at 4.59am and you’ll be at Terminal 3 around 5.12am – early enough for the sunrise at any time of year except July and the first half of August.

Alternatively, swing like you’re winning in Wakasu Seaside Park at the foot of the Tokyo Gate Bridge, where a strategically placed piece of playground equipment adds a fun element to one of the city’s most majestic sunrise views. Note: this spot is really far out, so you might want to rent a bike or e-scooter for the trip.