Handpicked experience · Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan
A forest planted from a hundred thousand donated trees, Burgundy barrels stacked at a shrine, and a castle keep the shogunate decided the city could do without.
The Hanazono Shrine was founded in the mid-17th century, just happens to be one of the most historical shrines in Japan.
Sensoji temple has a long history, contains many important archaeological historical data.
The Meiji Jingu Shrine is close to Tokyo’s business district, and tourists visit Tokyo’s must-see attractions.
Four contrasting quarters of the city in a single day
A shrine forest with a documented century-long design
The empty footprint of Japan's tallest castle tower
A temple approach trading on a three-hundred-year agreement
A guide who knows which hour each place is worth visiting
A private eight-hour day across central Tokyo with a guide and vehicle: the forest shrine at Meiji Jingu, the East Gardens on the site of Edo Castle, the temple and market street at Asakusa, and a run through Ginza.
Four sites and the driving between them, with walking on flat gravel and paths at each. The order is arranged around crowds rather than geography — Asakusa in particular is a different place at nine in the morning than at two in the afternoon.
The woodland around Meiji Jingu looks ancient and is not. It was created from scratch after 1915 on what had been fields and marsh, using around a hundred thousand trees donated from every part of the country and planted by volunteers. The designers wrote a hundred-and-fifty-year plan: the fast-growing pines they started with were intended to die out and be replaced by the broadleaf forest underneath, without further human help. A century in, it is running ahead of schedule.
Alongside the usual wall of donated sake casks stands a second stack of wine barrels from Burgundy. They are there because the emperor the shrine commemorates took to Western food and drink as part of modernising the country, and French producers sent them in tribute. It is the only shrine approach in Japan where the offerings include Bourgogne.
In the East Gardens you can climb the stone base of what was once the tallest castle keep ever built in Japan. The keep burned in the great fire of 1657, along with much of the city. The shogunate costed the rebuild, looked at the state of Edo, and concluded that the money was better spent on housing and firebreaks for the survivors. The base has stood empty for three hundred and sixty years — a deliberate absence rather than a ruin.
Senso-ji was founded in 628 after two fishermen pulled a small figure of Kannon from the river. That statue is still the object of the temple, and it has never been put on public display; even the priests are said not to view it. Everything else here — the great gate, the lantern, the hall — has burned and been rebuilt repeatedly, most recently after 1945. The shops on the approach began when local families were granted the right to trade in exchange for cleaning the temple grounds, an arrangement three centuries old.
Ginza takes its name from the silver mint moved here in 1612. After a fire in 1872 the district was rebuilt in brick as a deliberate shop window for a modernising country, and the habit of treating it as the place to display the newest and most expensive things has never worn off.
Entry to individual sites is arranged separately from the tour. Wear shoes for several kilometres of walking, and expect gravel underfoot at both the shrine and the gardens.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
No. It was planted from about a hundred thousand donated trees after 1915 on former fields and marsh, to a hundred-and-fifty-year plan under which the original pines die back and a broadleaf forest replaces them unaided.
Because the emperor commemorated there embraced Western food and drink as part of modernising Japan. French producers sent barrels of Burgundy, which stand opposite the traditional wall of sake casks.
The foundation of the tallest castle keep ever built in Japan. It burned in 1657 and was never replaced — the shogunate judged that rebuilding housing and firebreaks for a devastated city mattered more.
No, and neither can anyone else. The Kannon figure the temple was founded around in 628 has never been publicly displayed; the temple around it has burned and been rebuilt many times.
Local families were granted the right to trade on the approach in exchange for cleaning the temple grounds. The arrangement dates back about three hundred years.
After the silver mint moved there in 1612. The district was rebuilt in brick after an 1872 fire as a showcase of modernisation, and it has traded on being the newest and most expensive ever since.
No. Site admissions are arranged separately from the guiding and transport.