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11 a.m. This might sound odd, but Akihabara is actually better on a weekend when it’s busiest; you’ve got more chance to see some unusual sights then. Getting There Akihabara Station is on the JR Yamanote, Chuo-Sobu and Keihin-Tohoku lines and the Hibiya subway line.

      9 Edo-Tokyo History Museum

      Learn about Tokyo’s fascinating and colorful past

      Some Tokyophiles looking at this will be wondering how on earth the Edo-Tokyo Museum has been chosen ahead of the Tokyo National Museum (page 75) for this chapter. They have a point. The TNM in Ueno (page 33) has the largest and finest collection of Japanese artifacts anywhere in the world—some 100,000 pieces dating from the Jomon period to the early 20th century—but nowhere gives as much insight into the city of Tokyo and its development as the Edo-Tokyo museum.

      Located in Ryogoku behind the country’s main sumo stadium (page 80), the six-floor Edo-Tokyo History Museum is divided into several zones. There are special exhibition areas, cafés and off-limits storage areas on the lower floors, but it’s the exhibits in the Edo Zone and Tokyo Zone on the fifth and sixth floors that mark the museum out for special attention. You enter the Edo Zone over a 25-meter (82-foot)- long wooden replica of the original Nihonbashi Bridge, the doorway to Edo for anyone traveling from places such as Kyoto or Nikko, and then proceed to take in incredibly detailed and evocative exhibits that include a full-scale replica of the kind of tenement houses in which Edo’s lower classes lived and the decorative façade of a Kabuki playhouse.

      The Western influences that helped transform the city and Japan’s rapid modernization under the Meiji emperor are then brilliantly documented in the Tokyo Zone, as too are the devastating impacts of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and the air raids of World War II. There’s a Model-A Ford from 1931, one of the foreign cars once used as taxis in Tokyo, which speaks of a time before Japan was producing its own automobiles. From the early Showa period (1930s), there’s the part- original, part-replica house of the Yamagoya family, featuring a dining room and living room built in a European log house style but bedrooms built in a traditional Japanese style—a wonderful example of Japan on its first steps to modernization after centuries of feudal isolation.

      Opening Times Tues–Sun 9.30 a.m.–5.30 p.m. (until 7.30 p.m. on Sat). Getting There A three-minute walk from the west exit of Ryogoku Station on the JR Sobu Line or one minute on foot from exit A4 of the Oedo subway line. Contact www.edo- tokyo-museum.or.jp Admission Fee ¥600.

      10 Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown

      Two urban developments that have redefined Tokyo

      Roppongi used to be the preserve of late night drinkers and restaurant-goers—just another drab piece of urbanity by day that would come to life only after dark. Today, with two of the city’s most fashionable urban redevelopments, it’s become the epitome of cosmopolitan Tokyo.

      The catalyst for change was billionaire Minoru Mori, head of the giant Mori Building Company, and the $2.5 billion Roppongi Hills complex he launched to much hype in 2003. With more than 200 shops, boutiques, restaurants, cafés and bars as well as the sleek Grand Hyatt Hotel, the stunning Mori Art Museum (page 76) located on the top floors of the complex’s glistening main tower, plus, in separate buildings, the headquarters of Asahi TV and some of the city’s most exclusive apartments, it was rightly billed as a “city within a city”, breaking new ground for Tokyo with its scale and luxury. It set the stage for other sleek urban developments that would soon follow nearby.

      Not to be outdone by Mori, Mitsui Fudosan, Japan’s largest real estate developer, built a city within a city of its own— Tokyo Midtown—within shouting distance. Opened in 2007, Mitsui’s complex is made up of five buildings and a central tower that, at 248 meters (814 feet) is the tallest building in Tokyo Prefecture. Its five-story Galleria is home to 73,000 square meters (790,000 square feet) of stores and restaurants, while the surrounding grounds include a spacious park and garden.

      Where Roppongi Hills boasts the Grand Hyatt, Midtown has the five-star Ritz-Carlton (page 60), occupying the upper floors of its main tower. Midtown doesn’t do badly for art either, with the 21_21 Design Sight gallery and workshop, created by renowned architect Tadao Ando and fashion designer Issey Miyake to showcase modern Japanese design, as well as the Suntory Museum of Art and its fine collection of traditional Japanese art.

      The result is two cities within a city, standing face to face, combining to create the quintessential contemporary Tokyo experience.

      Opening Times Varies by store, attraction and restaurant, but most places within Roppongi Hills and Midtown will be open by 11 a.m. Check the websites below. Getting There Roppongi Station is on the Hibiya and Oedo subway lines. Contact Roppongi Hills: www.roppongihills.com. Tokyo Midtown: www.tokyo-midtown.com.

      11 A Visit to Oedo Hot Springs in Odaiba

      A traditional bathhouse experience with a little Edo kitsch

      I can think of no better Japanese tradition than getting naked with strangers for a long soak in steaming hot water. If you head out of the city, to places like Nikko (page 51) or Hakone (page 54), you’ll have ample opportunity to try a hot spring bath. In Tokyo and other urban areas, it’s an entirely different story. Thank the hot spring gods for Oedo Onsen Monogatori in Odaiba, Tokyo’s largest artificial hot spring complex.

      The baths at this onsen (hot spring bath) theme park include a classic rotemburo (outdoor bath) designed to feel as if you are soaking in a mountain rock pool as well as a lie-down massage bath and several other mineral-rich natural hot spring baths said to alleviate all manner of ailment, from stress to arthritis to dermatitis. Away from the main bathing area you can pop outside to the Japanese garden for a walk through its winding 50- meter (164-foot)-long foot bath, which in places is lined with pebbles and jagged rocks designed to massage your feet (admittedly, massage in this case at times means to inflict excruciating pain). If you have the stomach for it, you can follow that with a visit to the “Doctor Fish” foot bath (additional fee), where hundreds of tiny fish swarm over your feet to nibble away the dead skin.

      Back inside, in an area designed to look like an Edo era town, there’s a food court with a dozen or so small eateries. There are also several different spa treatments to try, a lounge with massage chairs and a sauna. For children there are traditional games to try and occasional street performances. You could easily spend all day here.

      The only real challenge at Oedo Onsen is knowing what you are doing at times. Here are some quick tips. As you enter the lobby, take your shoes off and store them in one of the lockers off to your left, and then go to the reception desk where you’ll be given an electronic wristband with which everything you buy inside will be scanned to your bill. At the next counter, pick up a colorful yukata robe to wear for the day (they have all sizes). Men and women split up here into separate changing rooms and then meet up again in the mock Edo town area after changing into their yukata. Like the changing rooms, the bathing areas (on the other side of the Edo area) are gender separated, too; as you approach the bathing zone, men are in the bathing rooms to the right, women to the left. As for the correct bathing etiquette, see page 86.

      Opening Times Daily 11 a.m.–9 p.m. (last entry

       7 p.m.). Getting There A several-minute walk from Telecom Center Station on the Yurikamome Line, which can be taken from Shimbashi (subway and JR lines). Contact www.ooedoonsen.jp/higaeri/english Admission Fee ¥2,480 weekdays, ¥2,680 weekends and public holidays (as of April 2014). Once inside, everything you eat, drink or buy will be charged to your bill, payable at reception

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