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My May 2025 Tokyo Travel Itinerary & Travelogue - Part 1 Shibuya, Ginza, Azabudai Hills [TeamLab], Akihabara, Skytree
I set up a fairly ambitious agenda for revisiting Tokyo this time. There was plenty that changed and some great museum exhibits on at the time I was visiting. I was originally planning to see Osaka Expo, but changed my mind when I found out that many of the key pavillions were entry by lottery. I just didn't want to spend two or three days there waiting in line or not able to get into the main attractions. It works great if you're a local though if you can visit over an over.
I planned a twelve day trip (with 1/2 day on day 1 and day 12) to visit areas that had changed and to see new things in Tokyo. In the middle I scheduled a couple of day trips out of the city to get a change of pace as the crowds in Tokyo, especially tourists is just nuts these days, much worse than when I visited in 2023). In April 2025, a record-breaking 3.9 million foreign tourists visited Japan, marking a 28.5% increase year-on-year and surpassing the previous monthly record of 3.78 million in January 2025. This surge in tourism was attributed to factors like the cherry blossom season and Easter vacation, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. The same number seemed to be there for May too, so it was crowded in Tokyo as a good percentage of these people will spend some time in Tokyo. Some 45 million tourists are expected to visit Japan by the end of 2025!
I'm also an anime fan, but there was actually very little on for fans (especially if you don't read Japanese). I visited places for anime, but they really took up only a few days in total of my time there. If you are an anime fan looking for special events / exhibits, more of them exist from Sept through April. May and June seems to be an intermission period for Tokyo. For example, if you are a fan of Apothecary Diaries (read this article about how great it is), I missed a large travelling exhibit on it by a few weeks.
My schedule follows for my 12 day visit. I really could have used a few more days, but it is what it is, and I did enjoy my trip. I'll do a more detailed set of posts about my visit in the near future.
May 7, 2025 WEDNESDAY
Arrive Narita 16:25
EVENING
Clear customs and get NEX Tickets 17:30
Arrive Tokyo Station and Walk to Hotel at 18:30 – 19:00 PM
Ginza at Night
Refreshed at the hotel room and then walked around Ginza at night when it was cool and had a dinner of ramen at Ippudo. I always try to have ramen as my first meal back in Japan. Lots of soup is comforting and helps you rehydrate too after the flight. There's two Ippudo's in Ginza a block apart!
Ippudo Ramen
May 8, 2025 THURSDAY SHIBUYA
MORNING
Visit the new urban developments south west/south of Shibuya Station
Shibuya East – Fukutoshin Line Station – neat architecture (ovoid vault by Tadao Ando)
Scramble Square - Good view from 12F, don't have to pay to visit. Lots of restaurants and shops. Gourmet Food Shopping at Tokyu Foodshow Edge (B1F) CANELE MANIA.
I wanted to see the station for the Fukutoshin Line with the unusual train station layout that lets you see down to the platform below.
Underground Station where you can see down onto the platforms for the Fukutoshin Line.
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Tadao Ando designed this concrete shell work for the escalators here. You can see part of it in the picture above this, too.
View of the Shibuya Tokyu Plaza building.
Shibuya Stream – Grand Steps, Central Plaza, Shibuya River Promenade, travel walkways, Shibuya Stream Hall interior.
Sakura Stage – Shibuya Side & Sakura Side – Urban Core with embedded escalators, roof plaza with digital cherry trees in plaza, Nigiwai Stage – Shibu S stairs
11 AM Tokyu Plaza and Hokusai Another Story exhibit. Going early meant that the interactive rooms were not really all that crowded, giving us maximum enjoyment of the effects and interactivity. It was cool have cool breezes blow on us for windy paintings and water sounds and squishy noises when we walked across mud flats for others. You can even chase crabs.
Interactive Hokusai Another Story Exhibit, lots of fun moving through various works of his.
You hear water noises, the boards creak and visually shake along with vibration when you walk across the interactive painting.
Scramble Square and Shibuya Stream to the left.
Shibuya River at Shibuya Stream.
Grand Staircase at Shibuya Stream.
Sakura Stage. The place looks best at night when lit up.
Shibuya Stream Escalator Well. A bit hard to find if you look in the wrong places.
Funky looking building by Shibuya Stream with Sukiya and other food on a stick above at Kushidaore.
The famous Hachiko dog statue at Scramble Crossing.
Walked through Scramble Crossing to the Q Front. We didn't go to the Starbucks, but we did tour the inside of the building with the new interior.
There was a big Star War exhibit going on. Life size models of droids, Wookies, and other characters.
View out to the crossing from the upper floors of the Q Front.
There are many character goods stores in Q Front with pop-up shops.
Another pop-up shop.
Share spaces where you can work by the hour and get free drinks, seating, and a workspace.
There were many figures on display in the Share Space.
Chainsaw Man, Denji
Chainsaw Man, Makima
Hatsune Miku
LUNCH
Options: Toritake, JEAN-FRANÇOIS, NANA Obanzazi, Sushi no Midori Sohonten, Dogenzaka Mammoth Tsukemen, Ichiran Ramen, Gindaco, Dotonbori Kamukura Ramen. We went to Mark City and were lucky to get immediate seating at the sushi bar for Sushi no Midori.
Simple sushi set for lunch. We were tired and needed to sit and just relax for a bit.
We did not visit Scramble Square except for the viewpoint on the restaurant floor. The restaurants here are more expensive and some have cover charges. We skipped the viewing deck which I have been to before.
Mark City – see Taro Okamoto’s Shibuya mural ‘Myth of Tomorrow’, west exit architecture in Dogenzaka
QFront – figure floor too and Hololive Exhibit, Starbucks view of the crossing.
Tokyo Anime Center (turns out not much going on when we went).
Shibuya Parco has your pop culture needs covered. There is Nintendo Store Tokyo, Pokemon Center, Capcom Store, Jump Shop, and Godzilla Store Shibuya. The restaurant floor and Chaos Kitchen in the basement are good places to dine too.
Tokyu Hands, tools, stationary (none of the fancy pens were in stock), emergency rations, hobby stuff.
Mega Don Quijote, snacks, food souvenirs. It was a zoo inside with so many tourists buying stuff.
Mark City
Slime and Chocobo at Square Enix Store in Shibuya Stream
Moai at Shibuya
Mega Donki, for all of your souvenir needs, including food and snacks!
Inside Mega Donki
New Parco.
One of the things I wanted to do was visit a number of rooftop viewing decks that were free. At the time I went, most of these were closed other than Shibuya Sky. I wanted to revisit the cool exterior walkway at Parco and the rooftop, but it was also closed. Apparently there was a wave of jumpers from these decks in the previous six months so they were shut down. I believe they were also remodeling at Parco.
A brand new Godzilla store opened the week were were in Tokyo at Shibuya Parco. Your favourite giant lizard as a huge model with animated surroundings at Shibuya Parco!
Mew Two Pokemon Mega Center Shibuya at the Parco. Loads of Pokemon merchandise here.
Jujutsu Kaisen Mural at Jump Shop in Parco
One Piece at Jump Shop in Parco.
Mario at Nintendo Store, Parco.
Link at Nintendo Store Shibuya Parco
We did a lot of walking and needed to take a break at Parco which had a Starbucks.
We tried these Yuzu Chillers which were really good! They hit the spot along with a rest.
Doraemon at Miyashita Park
Shibuya Crossing view from restaurant floor at Scramble Square. Q FRont Building with Starbuck where the crane is in the lower right corner.
Hololive Exhibit at Q Front - the building is full of anime or pop culture exhibits/pop ups, Starbucks, and co-working spaces. The old big screen is gone, replaced by windows looking out.
DINNER
After a long day of walking around we had some trouble finding a place for dinner that didn't rush you, wasn't lined up, or was more reasonably priced. We ended up going to Tonkatsu Maisen in the Shibuya Hikarie building. Could also have done Parco Chaos Kitchen or okonomiyaki at Tsukishima Monja Kuuya Shibuya or Nagomi. I found the street level restaurants at Miyashita Park (Shibuya Yokocho) crowded with no place to put bags or sit comfortably on the street, but did not check out their food hall which has Taco Bell, McDonalds, and Panda Express for the non-adventurous.
Missed Shibuya Hikarie 8/ Cube 1, 2, 3 Cheriko is an illustrator.
Shibuya Sky in Scramble Square – evening crowds, scramble crossing, Center Gai Screen
Miyashita Park - Shibuya Yokocho - Eat your way through Japan
Tonkatsu dinner.
May 9, 2025 FRIDAY AZABUDAI HILLS
The morning started at Azabudai Hills. Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower is now the tallest building in Japan at 325 metres or 1066 feet. This is a beautifully landscaped complex with a large central green and a picturesque walkway connecting to the adjacent Nishikubo Hachiman Shinto Shrine. Our first stop here was at the Azabudai Hills Gallery to see the Tomokazu Matsuyama: First Last exhibition that ended on May 11th. Fantastic art works from this very productive and creative artist. I'm very glad we caught this exhibition.
We also walked through the tiny Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage Gallery with some Go Nagai "Mazinger Z / GO! NOW!!" art.
Azabudai Hills with Mori Tower.
Nishikubo Hachiman Shrine
Mori Tower
LUNCH
Lunch wasn't planned. We wandered through the complex and had some amazing, gourmet hamburg steak at a restaurant in the complex on the way to the big tower.
Gourmet hamburg steak lunch.
After lunch, in the same sub-mall, we went to see the TEAMLAB Borderless interactive projection mapping show, wandering through a myriad of animated displays. Very fun and a must see if you haven't been to one of these before.
One of the many environments inside TEAMLAB Borderless.
A central room at TEAMLAB Borderless. You can sit and rest here and the visuals change over time.
Having a sit down in the room above to watch the animations.
Mirrored sphere room
I wanted to go to the 33rd floor Observation Deck and have a Hills Coffee, but it was closed for a special event that afternoon. No views of the Tokyo Tower from up high for me.
The Tokyo Tower is close to Azabudai Hills.
We then walked over to the nearby Toranomon Hills. Toranomon means Tiger Gate and is named after the southernmost gate of Edo Castle, indicating the history behind the place.
The massive Toranomon Hills Station Tower.
Toranomon Hills Mori Tower, the first skyscraper completed in the complex, stands at 255 meters and offers breathtaking panoramic views of Tokyo from its upper floors. Its modern architectural design is a striking example of urban innovation. Nearby, the Toranomon Hills Station Tower, completed in 2023, reaching 266 meters, seamlessly integrates with the subway station below. It features cutting-edge public spaces, a food floor, and captivating art installations that enhance the city's vibrant atmosphere. The Sky Garden & Pool at Tokyo Node, located on the 45th to 49th floors of the Station Tower, presents an open-air infinity pool with spectacular views of the city skyline, approximately 250 meters above ground. If you have been to Azabudai Hills and have limited time, I would give Toranomon Hills a pass.
Adding a historical dimension to the area, Atago Shrine, a revered Shinto shrine near Toranomon Hills, invites visitors to ascend its steep 86-stone staircase, known as "shussei-no-ishidan" or "steps to success." Meanwhile, Kotohiragu Shrine, tucked between the towering skyscrapers, provides a tranquil retreat that contrasts the surrounding modernity. Its traditional Japanese architecture offers a peaceful sanctuary amidst the urban landscape.
Curry cutlet with omlet rice!
After all the walking and viewing we were beat and retreated to the hotel. We ventured out to a nearby Coco Ichibana Curry House for some tasty curry that night. Eating nearby your where you are staying can be much less stressful and relaxing.
May 10, 2025 SATURDAY GINZA / KANDA MATSURI
It was raining this morning and wouldn't stop until almost noon. Not a great start for the Kanda Matsuri. I wanted to experience this festival that honours the gods enshrined at Kanda Myojin Shrine. These gods are Daikokuten – the god of good harvest and matrimony, Ebisu – the god of fishermen and businessmen (Information Tech too), and Taira no Masakado – a rebellious feudal lord from the 10th century who was later revered and deified. There are parades of portable shrines (mikoshi) and such that wind their way around the Chiyoda area (Akihabara, Nihonbashi, etc.).
Part of Ginza Art Aquarium
First thing to do in the morning was to visit Ginza. In the rain we saw the cool little park on the roof of Ginza Six. I would have visited the new Sony Park, but was unable to book tickets for any time I would have been in the area. It was pouring rain, but you can get to the Ginza Six building underground from Ginza Station via these long tunnels - they're actually quite nice too. After visiting the park we went to see the Ginza Goldfish Aquarium that opened at 10 AM. The displays of artistically presented fish are a pleasure to view and enjoy in some darkened and more serene settings.
Underground tunnel to Ginza Six.
Ginza Six Rooftop Garden. There is even a tiny shrine up here.
Fish tans wall that curves with hanging flowers at Art Aquarium.
Fantastic flowers and colours.
One of dozens of cool table top aquariums.
After the aquarium it was time to visit the UNIQLO T-Shirt Floor at their flagship store. Looking for local only shirts that are for Ginza or Tokyo. Many of the other designs make it out of the country now. The street outside was now a pedestrian street on Saturdays so it was an easy walk right across to visit Ginza Six again.
There are some local Ginza only T-Shirts at the UNIQLO across the street from Ginza Six. The T-Shirt floor is pretty cool looking.
I love visiting the Tsutaya in Ginza Six. I always end up buying books here! Before you buy a book here, make sure you can't buy it on Amazon at home so you don't need to carry it back!
Space Cats!
I always like browsing through the Tsutaya bookstore here which is a bibliophile's dream bookstore with its beautiful presentations of books and woodwork. I also picked up some books here like I do every time I visit. Kenji Yanobe's "Big Cat Bang" suspended in the atrium was really cool. There was even an animated story about the hanging sculpture diorama. It is all about space cats that came to Earth long ago and their descendants might be that cat next to you! The central piece of the sculpture is a spacecraft resembling Taro Okamoto's Tower of the Sun, which is also very cool!
The Rooftop Garden opens here at 9:30 AM, the Tsutaya/Starbucks opens at 10:30 AM.
LUNCH
We had lunch at the more casual food floor on the same level as the Tsutaya where you can choose from a number of different restaurants. We had some very good Italian food for lunch!
We ate at Eataly.
Pappardelle al ragu di anatra (minced duck!)
Spaghetti Alla Bottarga with dried mullet roe (this is hard to find as a dish)
It was now time to head to Nihonbashi to catch the Kanda Matsuri parade. We just had to take the handy Ginza line north and managed to grab a sidewalk seat to watch at 4:30 PM. It isn't a high profile parade, but the groups parading the mikoshi can be very energetic and fun.
Parts of the parade. Mikoshi in the middle.
Also in the Nihonbashi area are the:
Takashimaya (old and new building) – Pokemon Center Tokyo DX is in one of the two buildings. Takashimaya that has a retro vibe.
Nihombashi bridge where the 0 km marker for all roads in Japan is. Check the bronze lamp posts and dragon statues.
Mitsukoshi Main Store - 1st Department Store in Japan. The main building was rebuilt in 1927 after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and is designated as a national important cultural property. The pair of lion statues at the main entrance were installed in 1914 when the store was first built. They are called the “miracle lions” because they only suffered minor damage when the building was damaged by the earthquake, and avoided being scrapped the World War II war effort. The five-story atrium in the store has an ornate 11 metre high sculpture of a heavenly maiden carved out of a 500 year old cypress tree.
Coredo Muromachi 1, 2, and 3 - designed to fit with the area's cultural and historical environment. Nihombashi is a historically significant commercial district that began in the Edo period. The Coredo 1 architecture incorporate elements of traditional Japanese design inspired by traditional storehouses, known as kura. Many shops here specialize in traditional crafts and gourmet foods.
The parade arrives back in Akihabara around 6:20 PM and heads to Kanda Myojin Shrine. We went to the Misukoshi Main store and walked around a bit in Nihonbashi before taking the train up to Akihabara. Enough time had passed that we ended up encountering the Mikoshi parade again as it staged to enter the shrine. This was a very close encounter as we were only a few metres away from the shrines and we walked right along side them for half a kilometre to the shrine. It was a bit surreal as it felt like we were marching with them. We also saw the entry of the shrines and part of the welcoming ceremony for the gods back at their main shrine, and then headed off to get some dinner.
Mikoshi on the march to the shrine.
Front entrance to Kanda Shrine - it is packed with people and booths selling food and souvenirs.
Mikoshi at Kanda Myojin!
DINNER
There were lines at a number of the ramen shops and we just wanted to sit down and eat. In the end, we went to Yoshinoya for a quick meal and our only beef bowl (gyudon) for the trip. After this it was back to the hotel to rest and relax for the remainder of the evening.
Akihabara at night.
Gyudon or beef bowl.
May 11, 2025 SUNDAY AKIHABARA / SKYTREE
Yesterday's visit to Akihabara was for the matsuri and I didn't really walk around the area or shop for anime merchandise. I split with my travel partner who wanted to see the Hilma af Klint: The Beyond Exhibit and the Imperial Palace East Gardens. At most matsuri there are streets of festival vendors. The streets around Kanda Myojin had some setup leading up the shrine, but it was relatively small. More vendors and booths were setup around the UDX building near Akihabara Station, something I found out this morning. On Sunday, Akihabara Pedestrian Paradise happens from 1 – 6 PM during the summer, something that allows all the mikoshi to easily parade around the main street.
Gundam Seed, the anime that got me back into Gundam.
GQuuuuux, the latest Gundam anime in 2025.
I went to see the Gundam Universe Exhibit at Bandai Tamashi Nations Store. It was a comprehensive display of the various Gundam toy lines by anime series. It wasn't too busy when the store first opened and I had a pleasant time perusing all of the Gundam figures and models along with the background info. Figures have sure become expensive over the years since I started collecting for Gundam or any other series.
Models of the giant Gundams in China and Japan!
Lacas from Gundam Seed Freedom Movie
The AmiAmi Akihabara Figure Tower was next on my list. I had never visited and it was packed full of used and new figures. I didn't realize that AmiAmi was a massively huge retailer until I saw this video below about their warehouse and shipping facility for their thousands of online orders per day! AmiAmi is a major retailer and they have good chunk of a floor in Radio Kaikan and this stand alone tower store.
The video shows AmiAmi's warehouse operations. It is a big money operation and even uses machines to package items for shipping and robotics to help fulfill orders like Amazon would!
More Figmas - lots of pre-owned.
Your favourite spell caster, Megumin, for Explosion!!!
Figmas with Little Armory model weapons.
Evangelion Asuka and Rei.
Rascal Does Not Dream Pop-up Store.
Just outside the Electric Town Exit of Akihabara Station.
A visit to Akihabara isn't complete without a walk through the following stores. Radio Kaikan (Kaiyodo store / AmiAmi / etc.), GAMERS, Animate, and Akiba Culture Zone. The Atre just outside Akihabara Station will have a Bandai Namco Cross store too by the time you read this. You can also visit VOLKS, Kotobukiya, Mandarake, Liberty and Lashingbang stores. Lashinbang is interesting as they have stores everywhere it seems. You see them at Diver City, Marui Annex Shinjuku, etc. Lots of used stuff floating around, but it is a real treasure hunt. I was looking for Mao Mao figures from Apothecary Diaries and only saw one in Marui Annex. Don't forget to visit Bic Camera AKIBA and Yodobashi Camera Akihabara or the many Gashapon shops in the area.
Anime is a real commodity item with tons of figures and other merchandise. There are anime related stores / pop-ups everywhere you go it seems. What used to be niche is no longer all that special with AmiAmi, Animate, Lashinbang, etc. It was always business, but now it is big business and there is less exclusivity and charm to the hobby. Akihabara used to the be centre, but other areas now also have good concentrations of anime related stores with much of the same merchandise.
Mikoshi
The Kanda Matsuri had plenty of local mikoshi parades going through the neighbourhood with the cries of washoi! washoi! going on as they vigorously paraded. I met up with my partner back at Tokyo Station for lunch.
LUNCH
Ichiran Booth Ramen in Ueno or Okonomiyaki Kiji Marunouchi in Tokia Building near Tokyo Station? We did neither! Ended up visiting Ramen Street at Tokyo Station. We had very tasty bowls of ramen at Hirugao who also offer Ebi-shio ramen (shrimp and salt ramen) with wontons.
Ramen with wontons.
We took the train up to Ueno to see multiple exhibits at the National Museum after eating. We saw the following exhibits at the National Museum:
Tsutaya Jūzaburō: Creative Visionary of Edo: Exploring the artistic influence of this Edo-period publisher.
Ukiyo-e In Play: Artists reinterpreting traditional woodcut prints.
Both were pretty interesting, but the Tsutaya one required more Japanese language and context to really enjoy it fully. Outside the museum I found the Pokemon Manhole covers in Ueno Park. Cool! In Ueno Park you can visit the zoo, shrines, the ponds, and the Ameyoko shopping district.
It was off to the Tokyo Skytree next along with a quick visit to the Solomachi Mall. I love this mall and visit it every time I am in Tokyo. The mix of shops and dining is very nice and they have a good food court - for Japanese food.
Rayquaza at the Skytree Pokemon Center.
DINNER
We had reservations for the Kura Sushi Global Flagship at Skytree. There was a bit of confusion as I didn't realize they had an upper and a lower restaurant. They actually had sushi going around on the conveyor belt under dishes with domes, but you can and should order express dishes to your table on the touch screen to get specials and such. The sushi was pretty good, but we had better sushi at Sushiro later in the trip.
After eating it was off to visit the Skytree and see Tokyo from way up high for the city lights at night. It is pretty, but there was Detective Conan anime tie-in event going on that had some loud sound and that interfered with a potentially more tranquil experience. If you are tired, like we were at this point, you also realize that if you want to rest your feet, you need to pay for a cafe seat in many places. There is very little to non-existent seating for many attractions otherwise!
Skytree and Solamachi Mall.
Skytree with animated steps.
Tokyo at night, Tokyo Tower at top right.
The Tokyo Tower is being dwarfed by the many skyscrapers going up in Tokyo and some parts of the city are full of flashing red aircraft warning lights in the night skyline. We did a bit of shopping here too and it was back to the hotel after this.
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