TOKYO JAPAN VACATIONS
Approximately halfway along the long and arc-shaped archipelago of
Japan, spreading over the Kanto Plain and facing the Pacific Ocean,
there is the megalopolis of Tokyo. The city presents a complex urban
landscape, laced with layer upon layer of railways and highways with a
mighty conglomeration of buildings in between. But if Tokyo appears
immense and daunting from above, alight for a while in its midst, and
you will see that down on the ground it is well organized and highly
civilized on a human scale.
For Tokyo is actually dozens of cities within a city. At the core is the
business center of Chiyoda Ward; to the east is the center of the
former Edo-town people's culture, shitamachi, and to the west is the
skyscraper city of Shinjuku, where the Tokyo government now resides.
Meanwhile, around all the major stations are mega department stores,
shopping, and restaurant districts, and their inevitable companies, the
playgrounds of the nights. But the interesting thing about Tokyo is that
no matter where you are, you only have to step a street or two back
from the main thoroughfare to discover the communications of people,
where "community" still means a helping hand and a smile.
TOKYO GARDENS
What may also be surprising about Tokyo is that it is by no means all-
concrete: there are parks and gardens everywhere and within an hour
of the city center there are beaches and a green hinterland. Slightly
further afield are volcanic islands with white sandy shores, and deep
mountains for trekking, fishing, and camping.
TOKYO TRAVEL INFORMATION
Tokyo is clean and safe, easy to get around, and to get things done.
The low crime rate is famous, and the efficiency of the city's public
transport legendary. Computerized systems keep the city functioning
smoothly; shopping is easy, and information is on tap from any source
in the world via printed media or on screen.
In spite of its harsh urban veneer and high-tech efficiency, Tokyo is a
city with a free spirit where anything goes. Well, not quite: Japanese
people expect perfection in workmanship, are strict in their adherence
to social rules, and are rather fussy about being on time, but when it
comes to matters of the soul, they are generous in their acceptance of
anything new, exotic, playful, lovely, witty, or cute. And above politics,
economics and formal religion, they are inspired by the way that nature
brings such beauty with each new season.
Take a chance and talk to somebody. Whether you are greeted by a big
smile or an embarrassed grin, the welcome will be real. Tokyo people
may be sophisticated participants in the world arena, but at home they
love festivals, good food, and the flowers of the season. These people
are shyly waiting to greet you on the doorstep of an exciting city with an
open heart.
Over 2.8 million people converge on Tokyo from neighboring
prefectures to swell the populations every day.
TOKYO TRANSPORTATION
Tokyoites don’t like to dawdle. Trains on the Yamanote loop line run
almost nonstop at peak hours. In addition, subway and bus lines
crisscross the city in a tight mesh creating the most efficient public
transport system in the world. Taxis can be hailed almost anywhere;
and for long-distance travel, Shinkansen superexpress and planes
leave every few minutes.
The dynamism of Tokyo is evident in the mass of advertising on its
billboards and trains and the volume of magazines in its bookstores.
An unbelievable volume of information reaches the Tokyo public
quickly and accurately in print and on screen. Tokyo’s technology never
sleeps.
And before most people are awake, the fish market with its world-
famous tuna auction bustles into action for another day.
TOKYO ATTRACTIONS
In Tokyo there is no shortage of places to play. Many of Tokyo's favorite
play sports, like Tokyo Disney Resort, for example, are just out of town,
but others are scattered throughout the city.
Some are right in the center of the action, like Korakuen Park. Where
else can you find roller coasters whizzing over the rooftops of an inner
city ward? And Japan's primary and secondary largest Ferris wheels
are on Tokyo Bay.
The latest theme parks include a Hello Kitty park, "edutainment" halls
by the utilities and major companies, and fantasy parks with virtual
reality rides and wide-screen adventures. For thrill-seekers of a nature-
loving kind, there are excellent zoos and high-tech aquariums, some
housed in the most spectacular pieces of architecture in Japan.
TOKYO SHOPPING
There is hardly a thing in the world that you cannot buy in Tokyo. Take
yourself on a tour of a Japanese department store. Work your way
down from the restaurant and gallery floors at the top to the fascinating
food basement below, for a mind-boggling introduction to a shopper’s
paradise par excellence. You don’t even to admire the beautiful
window displays and feel like royalty as they step in the door for the 10
a.m. store opening ritual.
In addition to the department stores with their mighty selection of
Japanese and imported goods, it can be fun to venture to the parts of
Tokyo that specialize in certain lines, for example Akihabara for
electronics, Jimbocho for old books, Kappabashi for kitchenware, and
the wholesome shops of Nihonbashi for kimonos.
Meanwhile in famous shopping districts like Ginza, long-established
purveyors of incense, decorative papers, traditional clothing, and
pearls are wedged firmly among gleaming new towers of high-class
boutiques.
TOKYO DINING
Fresh food in season, lightly flavored to bring out the best in the
ingredients. That is the essence of Japanese cuisine. Sushi is one
such food, consisting of nothing but the freshest raw fish on vinegared
rice. But Japanese cuisine reaches its zenith in the exquisite formal
meal known as kaiseki, a course of about eight dishes, combining
sashimi, tempura, simmered, vinegared, and grilled food, soup rice
and pickles. Each dish is served on vessels chosen to match the
season and complement the color, shape and texture oh the course.
And the perfect complement for this meal is sake - cold or warm - from
the best breweries in Japan.
Meanwhile, Japanese people are adventurous eaters and love to try all
types of food. With 110, 000 restaurants to choose from in the city, you
can imagine that the city provides an astonishing range of dining
experiences. There is the whole gamut of international cuisine, cooked
absolutely authentically or with a Japanese twist. There are stand-up
noodles joints, conveyor-belt sushi shops, inexpensive dinners with
filling set meals, casual cafes for a quick sandwich, or chatter-filled
yakitori bars where after-hours businessmen talk baseball over
skewers of smoky chicken and beer.
TOYKO GARDENS
Tokyo has at least three excellent public Japanese gardens -
Rikugien, Hamarikyu, and Koishikawa Korakuen, plus many smaller
Nihon Teien in hotels, museums and wedding venues that are open to
the public. These gardens may look as if they just happened that way,
but they have been meticulously landscaped - this tree here, this grass
there, and a hill and a pond over there - so that the viewer is presented
with a different vista at every new turn in the path and is charmed by a
fresh spectacle of blossoms and fragrances with each change in
season.
Formal gardens are not the only places that provide greenery for
relaxation. There are also parks, large and small, where you can sit on
a park bench surrounded by green and see the seasons change. And
city has many splendid tree-lined avenues, among them the famous
Omotesando with its several hundred-meter-long boulevard of tall
zelkova trees shading trendy boutiques and restaurants.
TOKYO ENTERTAINMENT
Music concerts and serious plays, opera and ballet, indigenous
dances and musical extravaganzas are all part pf the regular menu of
live entertainments served up to Tokyo concert- and theater-goers. Add
to them kabuki plays and noh drama, storytelling, stand-up comics,
and the all-girl Takarazuka review, and you would be assured of
finding a piece of live entertainment in Tokyo somewhere on almost
any day. Meanwhile, the nights are long in Roppongi, Akasaka, and
Aoyama, where the neon lights of jazz houses, restaurants, dance
clubs and bars blaze all night long.
Riding to the top of a skyscraper or just strolling the neon-lit streets at
night is a brilliant way to entertain you in the city, too. Or what about a
night drive? Cruise around the overhead expressways for a panoramic
view of the nights lights, punctured by Tokyo Tower and the Rainbow
Bridge. Finally, cross over to the new bayside town for the spectacular
sight of Tokyoçs dazzling lights looming from a sea of darkness.
TOKYO TOURIST INFORMATION
VISAS
Japan has visa-exemption agreements with 57 countries. A citizen of
any of these countries who intends to stay in Japan no longer than the
period specified in the relevant agreement requires no visa. For more
information, contact your nearest Japanese embassy or consulate.
The website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan includes a list of
Japanese embassies and consulates.
HEALTH
No inoculations are needed to enter Japan. Tap water is safe.
CLIMATE
Spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November) are the
mildest seasons. Tokyo has relatively mild winters and hot, humid
summers. Rain is more common in June and September than in other
months.
TIME ZONE
All of Japan is in a single time zone, nine hours ahead of GMT. There
is no system of Daylight Saving Time in Japan.
TOKYO HOLIDAYS
Japan has three peak vacation seasons when many people in Tokyo
travel to the countryside or go abroad. These are the New Year holiday
period (Dec 29-Jan 3; banks and shops stay open through Dec 31),
Golden Week (April 29-May 5 and adjacent weekends), and O-bon (a
week around Aug 15). During these periods Tokyo tends to be quieter,
and city trains and roads are emptier. Note that most museums are
closed from around Dec 29-Jan 3, and that most shops and
restaurants are closed on Jan 1. From Jan 1 to 3, major temples and
shrines are packed with visitors who come to pray for a happy and
prosperous year. If you don't mind crowds, Jan 1 is a great opportunity
to see women in kimono. The various national holidays in Golden
Week are marked by associated events whose venues and adjacent
areas get very crowded.
Approximately halfway along the long and arc-shaped archipelago of
Japan, spreading over the Kanto Plain and facing the Pacific Ocean,
there is the megalopolis of Tokyo. The city presents a complex urban
landscape, laced with layer upon layer of railways and highways with a
mighty conglomeration of buildings in between. But if Tokyo appears
immense and daunting from above, alight for a while in its midst, and
you will see that down on the ground it is well organized and highly
civilized on a human scale.
For Tokyo is actually dozens of cities within a city. At the core is the
business center of Chiyoda Ward; to the east is the center of the
former Edo-town people's culture, shitamachi, and to the west is the
skyscraper city of Shinjuku, where the Tokyo government now resides.
Meanwhile, around all the major stations are mega department stores,
shopping, and restaurant districts, and their inevitable companies, the
playgrounds of the nights. But the interesting thing about Tokyo is that
no matter where you are, you only have to step a street or two back
from the main thoroughfare to discover the communications of people,
where "community" still means a helping hand and a smile.
TOKYO GARDENS
What may also be surprising about Tokyo is that it is by no means all-
concrete: there are parks and gardens everywhere and within an hour
of the city center there are beaches and a green hinterland. Slightly
further afield are volcanic islands with white sandy shores, and deep
mountains for trekking, fishing, and camping.
TOKYO TRAVEL INFORMATION
Tokyo is clean and safe, easy to get around, and to get things done.
The low crime rate is famous, and the efficiency of the city's public
transport legendary. Computerized systems keep the city functioning
smoothly; shopping is easy, and information is on tap from any source
in the world via printed media or on screen.
In spite of its harsh urban veneer and high-tech efficiency, Tokyo is a
city with a free spirit where anything goes. Well, not quite: Japanese
people expect perfection in workmanship, are strict in their adherence
to social rules, and are rather fussy about being on time, but when it
comes to matters of the soul, they are generous in their acceptance of
anything new, exotic, playful, lovely, witty, or cute. And above politics,
economics and formal religion, they are inspired by the way that nature
brings such beauty with each new season.
Take a chance and talk to somebody. Whether you are greeted by a big
smile or an embarrassed grin, the welcome will be real. Tokyo people
may be sophisticated participants in the world arena, but at home they
love festivals, good food, and the flowers of the season. These people
are shyly waiting to greet you on the doorstep of an exciting city with an
open heart.
Over 2.8 million people converge on Tokyo from neighboring
prefectures to swell the populations every day.
TOKYO TRANSPORTATION
Tokyoites don’t like to dawdle. Trains on the Yamanote loop line run
almost nonstop at peak hours. In addition, subway and bus lines
crisscross the city in a tight mesh creating the most efficient public
transport system in the world. Taxis can be hailed almost anywhere;
and for long-distance travel, Shinkansen superexpress and planes
leave every few minutes.
The dynamism of Tokyo is evident in the mass of advertising on its
billboards and trains and the volume of magazines in its bookstores.
An unbelievable volume of information reaches the Tokyo public
quickly and accurately in print and on screen. Tokyo’s technology never
sleeps.
And before most people are awake, the fish market with its world-
famous tuna auction bustles into action for another day.
TOKYO ATTRACTIONS
In Tokyo there is no shortage of places to play. Many of Tokyo's favorite
play sports, like Tokyo Disney Resort, for example, are just out of town,
but others are scattered throughout the city.
Some are right in the center of the action, like Korakuen Park. Where
else can you find roller coasters whizzing over the rooftops of an inner
city ward? And Japan's primary and secondary largest Ferris wheels
are on Tokyo Bay.
The latest theme parks include a Hello Kitty park, "edutainment" halls
by the utilities and major companies, and fantasy parks with virtual
reality rides and wide-screen adventures. For thrill-seekers of a nature-
loving kind, there are excellent zoos and high-tech aquariums, some
housed in the most spectacular pieces of architecture in Japan.
TOKYO SHOPPING
There is hardly a thing in the world that you cannot buy in Tokyo. Take
yourself on a tour of a Japanese department store. Work your way
down from the restaurant and gallery floors at the top to the fascinating
food basement below, for a mind-boggling introduction to a shopper’s
paradise par excellence. You don’t even to admire the beautiful
window displays and feel like royalty as they step in the door for the 10
a.m. store opening ritual.
In addition to the department stores with their mighty selection of
Japanese and imported goods, it can be fun to venture to the parts of
Tokyo that specialize in certain lines, for example Akihabara for
electronics, Jimbocho for old books, Kappabashi for kitchenware, and
the wholesome shops of Nihonbashi for kimonos.
Meanwhile in famous shopping districts like Ginza, long-established
purveyors of incense, decorative papers, traditional clothing, and
pearls are wedged firmly among gleaming new towers of high-class
boutiques.
TOKYO DINING
Fresh food in season, lightly flavored to bring out the best in the
ingredients. That is the essence of Japanese cuisine. Sushi is one
such food, consisting of nothing but the freshest raw fish on vinegared
rice. But Japanese cuisine reaches its zenith in the exquisite formal
meal known as kaiseki, a course of about eight dishes, combining
sashimi, tempura, simmered, vinegared, and grilled food, soup rice
and pickles. Each dish is served on vessels chosen to match the
season and complement the color, shape and texture oh the course.
And the perfect complement for this meal is sake - cold or warm - from
the best breweries in Japan.
Meanwhile, Japanese people are adventurous eaters and love to try all
types of food. With 110, 000 restaurants to choose from in the city, you
can imagine that the city provides an astonishing range of dining
experiences. There is the whole gamut of international cuisine, cooked
absolutely authentically or with a Japanese twist. There are stand-up
noodles joints, conveyor-belt sushi shops, inexpensive dinners with
filling set meals, casual cafes for a quick sandwich, or chatter-filled
yakitori bars where after-hours businessmen talk baseball over
skewers of smoky chicken and beer.
TOYKO GARDENS
Tokyo has at least three excellent public Japanese gardens -
Rikugien, Hamarikyu, and Koishikawa Korakuen, plus many smaller
Nihon Teien in hotels, museums and wedding venues that are open to
the public. These gardens may look as if they just happened that way,
but they have been meticulously landscaped - this tree here, this grass
there, and a hill and a pond over there - so that the viewer is presented
with a different vista at every new turn in the path and is charmed by a
fresh spectacle of blossoms and fragrances with each change in
season.
Formal gardens are not the only places that provide greenery for
relaxation. There are also parks, large and small, where you can sit on
a park bench surrounded by green and see the seasons change. And
city has many splendid tree-lined avenues, among them the famous
Omotesando with its several hundred-meter-long boulevard of tall
zelkova trees shading trendy boutiques and restaurants.
TOKYO ENTERTAINMENT
Music concerts and serious plays, opera and ballet, indigenous
dances and musical extravaganzas are all part pf the regular menu of
live entertainments served up to Tokyo concert- and theater-goers. Add
to them kabuki plays and noh drama, storytelling, stand-up comics,
and the all-girl Takarazuka review, and you would be assured of
finding a piece of live entertainment in Tokyo somewhere on almost
any day. Meanwhile, the nights are long in Roppongi, Akasaka, and
Aoyama, where the neon lights of jazz houses, restaurants, dance
clubs and bars blaze all night long.
Riding to the top of a skyscraper or just strolling the neon-lit streets at
night is a brilliant way to entertain you in the city, too. Or what about a
night drive? Cruise around the overhead expressways for a panoramic
view of the nights lights, punctured by Tokyo Tower and the Rainbow
Bridge. Finally, cross over to the new bayside town for the spectacular
sight of Tokyoçs dazzling lights looming from a sea of darkness.
TOKYO TOURIST INFORMATION
VISAS
Japan has visa-exemption agreements with 57 countries. A citizen of
any of these countries who intends to stay in Japan no longer than the
period specified in the relevant agreement requires no visa. For more
information, contact your nearest Japanese embassy or consulate.
The website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan includes a list of
Japanese embassies and consulates.
HEALTH
No inoculations are needed to enter Japan. Tap water is safe.
CLIMATE
Spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November) are the
mildest seasons. Tokyo has relatively mild winters and hot, humid
summers. Rain is more common in June and September than in other
months.
TIME ZONE
All of Japan is in a single time zone, nine hours ahead of GMT. There
is no system of Daylight Saving Time in Japan.
TOKYO HOLIDAYS
Japan has three peak vacation seasons when many people in Tokyo
travel to the countryside or go abroad. These are the New Year holiday
period (Dec 29-Jan 3; banks and shops stay open through Dec 31),
Golden Week (April 29-May 5 and adjacent weekends), and O-bon (a
week around Aug 15). During these periods Tokyo tends to be quieter,
and city trains and roads are emptier. Note that most museums are
closed from around Dec 29-Jan 3, and that most shops and
restaurants are closed on Jan 1. From Jan 1 to 3, major temples and
shrines are packed with visitors who come to pray for a happy and
prosperous year. If you don't mind crowds, Jan 1 is a great opportunity
to see women in kimono. The various national holidays in Golden
Week are marked by associated events whose venues and adjacent
areas get very crowded.
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