10:00 A.M. Shinjuku Gyoen
I started my day from Shinjuku Gyoen. I got here by taking the Metro Marunouchi Line to the Shinjuku Gyoen Station. This place is one of the largest parks in Tokyo. There is also Japanese style garden in the park. The entrance fee is 200 yen. I might came here a bit early, because the peak of cherry blossom is not yet here. But it definitely felt refreshing to take a walk and start a day from this park.
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Hours: 9:00am to 4:00pm
Access: 10 Min from JR, Keio, Odakyu Shinjuku Station, 5 Min from Shinjuku Sanchome Station and Shinjuku Gyoenmae Station.
Map:
12:00 P.M. MUJI Café
After having a good walk in the Shinjuku Gyoen, I then headed to the flourishing part of Shinjuku. There is a big MUJI store that has 3 floors in Shinjuku. I decided to have my lunch there. The interior of the MUJI Café is cozy and relaxing and the food there are really healthy. I took my time and had a good lunch.
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Hours: 11:00am to 9:00pm
Access: 5 Mins from Shinjuku Station, Shinjuku Sanchome Station
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01:00 P.M. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
After having lunch, I headed to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. I recommend this place to people like me, who like to take picture. Because there is an observation deck on 45th floor, where you can see a great view of Tokyo. And most importantly it is free.
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Hours: 9:30am to 11:00pm
Access: 15 min from Shinjuku Station
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I spent two more hours later walking around the stores and shopping malls in Shinjuku. Usually I would grab a dessert from stores like “Bake”, which sells tarts or “Zakuzaku”, which sells cream puff, but I didn’t go today. I totally recommend those! They are really delicious.
15:30 P.M. Ochanomizu
Taking the JR Chuo Line from Shinjuku station, I accessed to Ochanomizu with only 10 minutes from Shinjuku. In Ochanomizu, coming out from the Ochanomizubashi Exit, there are a lot of instruments stores, especially guitar store, so if you are a music lover, you might be staying in this place for a long time. I really like this place because they have all kinds of guitar from used guitars to high-end and fancy guitars. After checking some guitar accessories, I went to the other side of the JR station, which is the Hijiribashi Exit. You can see how Japanese people managed to combine different culture in this country in this place.
Firstly, you can visit the Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Tokyo, also known as Nikorai-do. It’s a gorgeous cathedral that was built in 1962.
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Access: 1 min from Ochanomizu station
Map:
After checking the cathedral, I walked along the Hijiribashi (Hijiri Bridge). On the bridge, you can see a great scenery that combines the railroad, train, station, river and bridge perfectly. This is one of my favorite photograph spot. If you visit here during the cherry blossom or snowy day, it will be a different scenery again. After passing the bridge, there is a temple, which is called Yujima Seido, Hall of the Sage in Yushima. This is a Confucian temple that was built in 1690. People come to here to pray for better grades or success in examinations.
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Hours: 9:30am to 5:00pm
Access: 5 mins walk from Ochanomizu Station
Map:
Continue walking down the street and turned right, I arrived the Kanda Shrine. The Kandra Shrine was firstly built in 730. In my opinion, this is the most beautiful and astonishing shrine in Tokyo. Some of you might know that this shrine was used as a background in the anime, Love Live, so it can also count as an anime pilgrimage if you visit here. Kanda Shrine holds one of the three biggest festival in Japan every odd year in the middle of May. It’s a bustling festival with a lot people gather on the street carrying and praising the shrine. If you are interested, it is definitely worth it to check out the festival.
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Hours: Opens 24 hours
Access: 10 mins from Ochanomizu Station
Map
16:30 P.M. Akihabara
After the Kanda Shrine, a short walk brought me to Akihabara. This depends on each person, but if it’s me, I would absolutely visit Akihabara if I have only 24 hours in Tokyo. And in the following you will see why. Firstly, I went around the stores in Akihabara first. There are a lot of electronics stores in Akihabara; what I like the most is that there are a lot of samples, so I get to see them or try to use them directly. And I just love to click those mechanical keyboards. I recommend Tsukumo, Sofmap, and Yodobashi camera for electronics stores.
Other than electronics stores, there are a lot of anime-related goods stores too. I would recommend Radio Kaikan, Gamers, Animate, Kotobukiya and Toranoana. And there are some gatcha stores too. They are all in this area. If you don’t like shopping, there is also an art museum called 3331 Art Chiyoda. I really love this place, which used to be an elementary school. They were exhibiting a Statue of Liberty that was sent from the place where was damaged greatly in the 3.11 earthquake this time. There is also a street full of well-designed goods called 2k540 Aki-Oka Artisan close to the art museum.
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3331 Art Chiyoda
Hours: 10:00am to 09:00pm
Access: 1 min from Suehirocho Station
Map
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2k540 Aki-Oka Artisan
Hours: 11:00am to 07:00pm (March)
Access 6 min from JR Akihabara Station, 3 min from from Suehirocho Station
Map
After wandering around in Akihabara, it came to the dinner time. And the restaurant for dinner was why I chose Akihabara. There are actually a lot of gourmets in Akihabara. They are not necessarily high level food, but they are super delicious with extremely reasonable prices. The restaurant that I went for dinner was called Gyukatsu Ichi Ni San. Their specialties is fried beef and they serve one of the best fried beef in Tokyo in my opinion after trying a lot of restaurant. The fried beef was delicately fried, which is extremely crispy outside but soft and juicy inside. You can eat them with several ways by simply adding salt, adding some wasabi and dipping some soy sauce, or dipping their special miso sauce. You can also cook the beef if you think it’s too raw for you. It was a satisfying meal that only cost 1,400 yen.
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Hours: 11:00am to 9:00pm
Access: 1 min from Suehirocho Station, 5 min from Akihabara
Map
after eating dinner, I just went to game center. There are a lot of entertainment in Akihabara as well. You can go to cat café, owl café, or even maid café. But I decided to just go to gamecenter, play some arcade game and end this amazing one day trip!
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