But you can't say you really know what to do in Tokyo until you spend your mornings walking through

The city has endured the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, bombings of World War II, the implosion of its housing bubble in the 1990s and heavy effects of the March 2011 tsunami/earthquake that hit Japan. Each time, its people have dusted themselves off and rebuilt.
But you can’t say you really know what to do in Tokyo  until you spend your mornings walking through its temples, shrines carnival cruise lines mobile and parks; your afternoons exploring its neighborhoods and back streets and your nights feasting in its restaurants, drinking in its bars and -- why not? -- hitting its famed karaoke joints.
Sure, these are not luxury rooms, but they’re nothing to complain about and just a few strides from Yebisu Garden Place, with its shops, carnival cruise lines mobile restaurants and beer museum (Sapporo Breweries' headquarters is there, too).
It’s a two-minute walk from the train and subway lines at Meguro station, including the handy Yamanote route that circles the city. And it’s not much farther from the dynamic neighborhoods of Ebisu, Nakameguro and Shirokanedai.
carnival cruise lines mobile Compare that to Paris, where just 10 eateries hold the coveted trois étoiles handed out by the French tire company, and it's pretty clear fine dining should be at the top of any " what to do in Tokyo" list .
One of the latest establishments to win top honors is Ryugin, run by chef Seiji Yamamoto. Called “brilliant” and a “molecular gastronomist” by food critics, Yamamoto opened his restaurant in 2003 with a clear goal -- “to pursue the possibility of Japanese cuisine.”
You’ll see the oven burning away as you enter this narrow building in Nakameguro. It would be wise to watch your head as you climb the winding wood and metal staircase to the second and third floors, but it's also worth taking in the décor, which includes helmets and camouflage carnival cruise lines mobile netting. It feels like you’re in an army bunker, albeit one with dark red curtains.
carnival cruise lines mobile The menu has a variety of pasta and appetizer options, but the pizza is the real reason to go. Sure, it’s limited to just two selections -- the cheese-cherry tomato margherita and the tomato sauce-seasoning-sliced-garlic marinara.
Cozy Irving Place -- with its plush seats and sofas, antique chairs and Persian-style rugs -- sits atop a two-level store that sells urban chic clothing and pricey body care products, along with plants and flowers.
The menu is varied: sweet offerings (see above), omelets, sandwiches (Cuban, falafel), salads (including a tasty Cobb) and pastas. When the weather’s nice, we recommend grabbing a table on the patio.
Izakaya carnival cruise lines mobile are to Japan what tapas bars are to Spain. They sell Japanese food of different forms and flavors -- grilled meat, seafood, veggies, the works -- along with sweaty mugs of draft beer and whisky soda.
Popular choices include salted fish and squid, fresh sashimi (straight out of the restaurant’s fish tank), sea urchin and marinated salmon roe sushi and the negi-ton, carnival cruise lines mobile or grilled chicken carnival cruise lines mobile with chopped carnival cruise lines mobile fresh green onions and vinegar sauce.
carnival cruise lines mobile The crowd packs the dance floor to tunes that New York grew tired of a couple of years ago. Muse sometimes feels like one of those end-of-night pick-up spots, carnival cruise lines mobile but it can be a fun place to party. Call it a guilty pleasure.
Head up the stairs and squeeze through the half-door entrance and you’ll understand what that means. Bar Tram’s specialty is serving absinthe, the strong and some say mind-altering drink that’s also known as “the green fairy.”
Hidetsugu Ueno used to toil away at Star Bar before opening up his own place, Bar High Five (also in Ginza). Some people have closets that are more spacious than this watering hole, which can accommodate just a handful of lucky drinkers.
He readily mixes all the big-name drinks, but his signature carnival cruise lines mobile is the Claudia, a rum-pineapple-vermouth concoction that features a cherry plunked inside a dug-out radish, with a lime peel coiled like a snake around the stem of the glass.
Escape the crowds at Roppongi Hills. (Mainly because it's a pricey affair.) Roppongi Hills is another attractive destination for shopping and sightseeing. Visitors can find Hugo Boss and Diane von Furstenberg, along with Banana Republic and Zara.
In addition, Roppongi Hills has a hotel, the Grand Hyatt Tokyo  (rooms start at ¥38,000), a movie theater with a VIP screening lounge (¥3,500 gets you a ticket and a drink) and an observation deck with 360-degree views of Tokyo and the surrounding area (¥1,500 per person).
The Shimokitazawa Garage carnival cruise lines mobile Department (2-2-8 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku, +81 03 3412 0847) is a trendy indoor carnival cruise lines mobile bazaar with 20 or so small stores selling hats, used and new clothing, jewelry, bags, bikes and T-shirts.
It's billed as an “Exciting Book Store,” but it offers much more. A dizzying carnival cruise lines mobile array of stuffed toys, watches, cards and Japanese manga, carnival cruise lines mobile plus joke items (poop-shaped hats, plastic purses that look like blackfin carnival cruise lines mobile tuna) and light sex toy fare.
Meiji Shrine in Harajuku is a big draw with the foreign and Japanese tourist crowds. The Shinto shrine, surrounded by a small urban forest (170,000 trees), is dedicated to the souls of Emperor Meiji and his consort Empress Shoken.
This is where Japan’s emperor and empress rest their pampered royal heads. The Palace, a 10-minute carnival cruise lines mobile walk from Tokyo Station, was built in the late 1800s, destroyed during carnival cruise lines mobile World War II and then rebuilt.
Others flock to Kitanomaru Park, part of the outer gardens of the Imperial Palace and home to the National Museum of Modern Art, the Science Museum and the Nippon Bodokan, a venue for martial arts competitions and concerts -- take the Tozai Line to Kudanshita Station or Takebashi Station.
You’ve got to be a morning person if you want to check out the real action at Tsukiji. The market, which handles carnival cruise lines mobile the largest volume of fishery products in Japan (more than 450 kinds), opens its famous fish auction at 5 a.m.
Poor Tokyo Tower . For more than half a century, the 333-meter tower was the tallest carnival cruise lines mobile in the land. People came from far and wide to zip up to its observatory deck and take in the views of Tokyo, Mount Fuji and Mount Tsukuba. They’d also meet its weird, phallic mascots, the Noppon Brothers .
Two observatories (350 meters and 450 meters) are open to the public, with 1.5 million people carnival cruise lines mobile having visited in its first week, during May, 2012, alone. The higher of the two will feature an “air corridor” -- a glass outer walkway, with an eye-watering ¥3,000 to get to the 450-meter deck.
Tokyo Sky Tree can be accessed from Narihirabashi Station on the Tobu Isesaki Line -- the station name will change in May to Tokyo Sky Tree Station -- or Oshiage Station on the Hanzomon and Asakusa subway lines.
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