5-day itinerary

Tokyo

Kamakura is an hour from Tokyo by train and contains the Great Buddha — an 11-metre bronze Amida cast in 1252, sitting open to the sky because the hall around it washed away in a 15th-century tsunami — plus a coastal hiking trail between Shinto shrines that most visitors to Japan never find. Take the Yokosuka Line from Shinjuku and arrive mid-morning. This 5-day Tokyo itinerary opens with Senso-ji in Asakusa before 8am, covers Shinjuku and Harajuku on day two, reserves day three for Kamakura, then spends the final two days in the neighbourhoods: Yanaka for old Tokyo — machiya wooden townhouses, a cemetery that functions as a park, and the Yanaka Ginza shopping street — and Shimokitazawa for vinyl record shops, vintage clothing, and live music in venues that seat forty people.