Tokyo in 5 days: the city, plus Kamakura and Nikko

Day 2 — The east: Asakusa, Ueno, Yanaka

Walking order: Senso-ji → Sumida riverbank (10 min) → train → Ueno Park (5 min) → one stop → Yanaka (10 min). About 5km.

• 07:30 — Senso-ji at Asakusa, before the coaches and before the Nakamise stalls open.
• 10:00 — The Sumida riverbank, with the Skytree across the water — the view of it beats the view from it.
• 11:30 — Tsukiji Outer Market for an early lunch. The inner wholesale market moved to Toyosu; the outer one stayed.
• 14:00 — The Tokyo National Museum at Ueno — swords, screens and Jomon pottery, and the best museum in the country. Two hours.
• 16:30 — Yanaka, which survived both the 1923 earthquake and the firebombing — a cemetery, a shotengai, and the quietest hour of the week.
• 19:00 — A standing bar under the Yurakucho tracks.

Day 3 — The bay, Ginza and the palace

Walking order: teamLab → waterfront → train → Ginza → Imperial Palace East Gardens (10 min). About 4km.

• 09:30 — teamLab, booked. Planets in Toyosu has the water rooms and you go barefoot; Borderless in Azabudai has no fixed route. Wear something you can roll up.
• 13:00 — Ginza, and the department store basement food halls are the best-value eating in the city. The main avenue closes to traffic on weekend afternoons.
• 15:30 — The Imperial Palace East Gardens, free, and the only part of the grounds open daily.
• 17:00 — Akihabara, or Shimokitazawa for second-hand shops and small bars, which is the better evening.
• 20:00 — Ebisu or Nakameguro for dinner — where Tokyo eats rather than where it takes visitors.

Day 4 — Kamakura

Walking order: Kamakura station → Komachi-dori (on site) → Tsurugaoka Hachimangu (10 min) → Enoden → Hase: Great Buddha and Hasedera (10 min apart). About 4km, plus the Enoden ride.

• 08:30 — An hour south on the Yokosuka line from Tokyo station.
• 10:00 — Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, at the top of the main avenue that runs straight from the sea.
• 11:30 — Komachi-dori for lunch — shirasu, the local whitebait, served raw or boiled over rice.
• 13:00 — The Great Buddha at Kotoku-in — 13.35m of bronze, cast in 1252, sitting outdoors since a tsunami took the building in 1498. You can go inside him for ¥50.
• 14:00 — Hasedera below it, with a hydrangea path and a view over the bay — the hydrangeas are a June queue and a pleasant walk the rest of the year.
• 15:30 — The Enoden line along the coast to Enoshima — the local train everybody photographs, running between houses and then beside the sea.
• 18:00 — Back to Tokyo.

Day 5 — Nikko

Walking order: Tobu Nikko station → bus → Toshogu complex, all on foot within the grounds (about 2km, with steps). Kegon Falls is a further bus up the hairpins.

• 07:30 — Two hours north on the Tobu line from Asakusa. The Tobu Nikko passes are better value than JR for this route.
• 09:30 — Toshogu, the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu — UNESCO-listed, and the most lavishly decorated shrine complex in Japan, which is startling in a culture that prizes restraint. The sleeping cat, the three wise monkeys and the Yomeimon gate are the three things everyone photographs.
• 12:00 — Rinnoji and Futarasan, both in the same cedar-forested grounds and both included on the combined ticket.
• 13:30 — Lunch, and yuba — tofu skin — is the Nikko dish.
• 15:00 — Lake Chuzenji and Kegon Falls, up the Irohazaka hairpins — 48 bends, numbered after the old Japanese syllabary. The autumn colour here is among the best in Japan and the traffic in late October is correspondingly bad.
• 18:30 — Back to Tokyo, which is a long evening on the train.

If it rains

• Swap Nikko for the Edo-Tokyo Museum, the Nezu, or a full day at Ueno’s cluster — the National Museum, the Science Museum and the Western Art Museum are all in the same park.