Discovering Tokyo is like walking into a different world, one which is renowned for its perfect combination between cultures of a millennium and the avant-garde, between the traditional and the contemporary.

To walk round Tokyo is to savour the mixture of fiction and reality. Street markets, temples, Zen gardens, museums, art galleries, architecture, high technology, neon lights... Tokyo offers a wide range of tourist attractions at which the visitor may stop by.

From the viewpoint of the Metropolitan Government Towers in Shinjuku, the visitor will be able to appreciate the imposing outline of Mount Fuji and Tokyo Bay, the latter over which the Rainbow Bridge crosses. The centre of Tokyo, around which runs the Yamanote train line connecting the main leisure areas and city services, is home to the Imperial Palace.

Other stations like Shinagawa, Ebisu, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Ueno, etc. lie on the edge of the centre and consist of urban nuclei full of shopping areas, bright-lit signs and large TV screens showing advertisements. The Eastern part of the city, the old town, is called Shitamachi, which means “low town”. This comprises the areas along the Sumida River, below sea level.

Tokyo, which is famous for its hustle and bustle, is a large city with many districts, each of them characterised by a particular style and atmosphere. Shinjuku is the most vivid and full of lights; Ginza is considered to be the most elegant shopping area; Asakusa sits in the historical centre of the city and former theatre and musical entertainment area; and Ueno-Koen is a park, which includes the best museums in the city such as the Tokyo National Museum, which hosts the greatest selection of Japanese art in the world. One of the main attractions in Tokyo is Nagano-Ken Region, considered to be the “Japanese Alps” or “the ceiling of Tokyo” and boasts the biggest natural parks in the country.

Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan and one of the top tourist attractions. Kyoto is a capital thriving with culture, something which is confirmed by the 2000 temples, sanctuaries, palaces, villas and gardens. Visitors will enjoy the local millennia-year old crafts, like ikebana (the art of flower arrangement), sketching, Japanese gardens, kabuki (spectacular and drama theatre) and no (formal theatre with masks).

Japanese cuisine, to which the Western world is becoming more and more receptive, boasts dishes like sashimi (raw fish with balls of rice), sushi, tempura, wasabi or chop. Sake and rice wine are the traditional drinks, although Tokyo is also famous for the Japanese tea ceremony, a four-hour ritual in which permission must be request to drink tea seated instead of knelt down.