Tokyo can expect a big tourism bounce now that it has been awarded the 2020 Olympics. But why wait seven years? This endlessly fascinating metropolis is a thrilling mix of the enormous, the intimate, the futuristic and the very old.
Go underground
Most tourists visit Tokyo as part of a longer Japan holiday. The city can overwhelm if you arrive jet-lagged from the airport. Best save it for last, when you can take it on fresh and revived. Tokyo is beyond big. Think of it is as a series of smaller cities joined up, each with a station five times the size of a London terminus.
With a good guidebook (see also gotokyo.org) and help from the hotel concierge, you can navigate the vast train and underground network by yourself. Or join other guests and hire a guide.
High culture
Tokyo’s version of South Kensington is Ueno – a district full of museums, including the National Museum of Western Art. The National Science Museum, Tokyo National Museum and Archaeological Museum complete the culturally rich list.
Elsewhere, my highlights included the 1 400-year-old Sensoji red Buddhist temple in Asakusa, the 1 900ft Tokyo Sky Tree tower, and the many gardens with a tea-house and a lake.
Edible origami
Eat out in Japan and you join in a piece of ancient theatre. The second I crossed the threshold of a restaurant, a chorus of greetings arose. Then I took off my shoes. Why not? It keeps the place so much cleaner. And those rice paper windows? They shut out the glare, yet let in the light.
I ate in a tiny sushi restaurant (there are hundreds), a counter in front of the chefs, drinking endless cups of Japanese tea, watching deft fingers conjure up edible origami.
My departure was marked by another equally cheerful outbreak of goodbyes.
Ginza glitz
The Ginza shopping district is brash and lavish, like a mix of 5th Avenue, Regent Street and Times Square, only bigger and higher and with more neon lights pulsing and sparkling at full wattage.
The gilded centre is lined with huge department stores, flagship electronics shops, car showrooms and fashion boutiques to shame Paris. In one shop I sampled a £31 000 (about R465 000) massage chair. In the five-storey Sony Tower, I caught Jurassic Park in the plush movie gallery. Yet Ginza can be intimate and personal too. In an arts and crafts shop, I found an exquisite box for business cards, hand-made from paper, for less than £10. They gift-wrapped it most meticulously, without me asking.
Magic mountain
The one unmissable out-of-town attraction is Mount Fuji.
The best place to take in its majesty is at sea, or from the Bullet Train heading south from Tokyo. They book tourists a window seat. I took a coach tour to the Gotemba Fifth Station, 7 500ft up. On the way, the sacred mountain rises above a patchwork of valleys and fields in a rare green corner of built-up Japan. You can take the train from Tokyo to Gotemba for nothing, using the Japan rail pass.
Lost and found
I stayed in the Park Hyatt, where they filmed the movie Lost In Translation. It starts on the 39th floor of the Shinjuku Park Tower.
After dinner in the New York Grill on the 52nd floor, I sat with a drink, like Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, mesmerised by an endless torrent of lights far below on the expressway. Non-residents are free to share the experience. Find other Lost In Translation locations at japan-guide.com/news/0003.html.
l Japan specialist Bales (balesworldwide.com) organised Gareth’s trip.
– Mail On Sunday