Audio walking guides in Tokyo
Photo: Daderot · Public domain
These are self-guided audio walks around Tokyo. You pick a route, put one earbud in, and the guide talks you through it stop by stop — what you are looking at, and why it is there. There is no group to keep up with and no meeting time. 35 walks covering Old Tokyo, Meiji Jingū & Harajuku, Ueno, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Yanaka, Ginza, Tsukiji and more, 856 minutes of narration in total.
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Every walk in Tokyo
Old Tokyo: An Asakusa Walking Tour
Look up. Right above the heads of the crowd pouring through this gate hangs a red paper lantern nearly four metres tall, over three metres across, and about…
Meiji Jingū & Harajuku: Forest, Shrine, and the Birth of Cool
Step to the side of the path and listen for a moment. Behind you is Harajuku, one of the busiest corners of Tokyo, and already the traffic is…
Ueno: Bronze Buddhas, a Lost Battle, and the Black-Market Street
Stand just inside the park, out of the stream of people coming up from the station, and look around you. Behind you is the roar of Ueno Station…
Shibuya: The Busiest Crossing on Earth — and the Bars Behind It
Find the small bronze dog with the station at your back, and you'll probably find a queue. People wait their turn for a photo, someone has left fresh…
Shinjuku: Skyscrapers by Day, Lantern Alleys by Night
Tip your head right back. The building in front of you is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the city hall, and everyone here calls it the Tochō. It's…
The Imperial Palace & Tokyo Station: The Quiet Center
Stand in the plaza and let your eye run the whole length of the Marunouchi facade, because it takes a moment. Red brick, bands of white stone, a…
Yanaka: The Tokyo That Survived
Stand with the station behind you and listen for a moment. Trains rumble past at your back, and ahead of you the ground rises into trees, low roofs…
Ginza: Tokyo's Elegant Heart
Step back from the corner, out of the flow of people, and look up at the clock. You're at the Ginza 4-chōme crossing, the centre of the whole…
Tsukiji: A Food Walk Through the Outer Market
Look up at the roof in front of you. Grey stone instead of wood, a great rounded dome, carved columns and arches that belong in India rather than…
Akihabara: Electric Town & the Otaku Universe
You've come out of the Electric Town exit, and the street gets to you before you've taken ten steps. Look up and every building is a stack of…
Odaiba: The Future on the Water
Find a spot at the rail, out of the way of the walkers, and face the water. That's Tokyo Bay in front of you, with the towers of…
Inside the Tokyo National Museum
Stand to one side of the entrance hall and give the space a moment before you look at anything in a case. Stone underfoot, a ceiling far above,…
Inside the Kyū Iwasaki-tei Mansion
Step to one side of the porch, out of the way of the door, and look up. A tower rises over the entrance, and a two-storey house of…
Inside Sensō-ji: The Main Hall
Stand off to one side of the steps, where the smoke from the big bronze cauldron drifts past you, and let the crowd go by for a minute.…
The Edo-Tokyo Open-Air Architectural Museum
Stand to one side of the entrance for a moment, by the long, low hall that serves as the visitor centre, and take in the trees of Koganei…
Up the Tokyo Skytree
Stand off to one side of the entrance and tip your head right back. The white lattice climbs, narrows, and keeps on climbing until your eye loses the…
Nihonbashi: The Zero Milestone
Stand at the north end of the bridge, off to one side, and look along it. The first reaction is usually a small letdown. It's a handsome granite…
Ryōgoku: Sumo, Fire and the East Bank
Look at the large building beside the station, the one with the green roof. That's the Ryōgoku Kokugikan, the national sumo hall. It opened in January 1985, seats…
Jimbōchō: The Book Town
Stand back from the crossing and look along the main road, and let the shopfronts register. Books in the windows. Books in racks wheeled out onto the pavement.…
Kagurazaka: The Hill With Two Accents
Stand at the bottom of the slope, with the station and the water behind you, and look up the hill. One street climbs away from you in a…
A Walk Through Shinjuku Gyoen
Stand still just inside the gate and listen. A few minutes ago you were beside the busiest railway station on earth, and the sound of it has gone.…
Mount Takao: The Most Climbed Mountain on Earth Is Fifty Minutes From Shinjuku
Step out of the station and stop for a second on the forecourt. In front of you, close enough that its lower slopes fill half the sky, is…
Ochanomizu: A Valley Cut by Hand, a Rebel's Head, and a Bridge Named for Two Sages
Stand at the rail in the middle of the bridge and look straight down. A narrow green river at the bottom of a steep cut, walls of stone…
Shinagawa: Forty-Seven Graves, the Gate Out of Edo, and a Railway Built in the Sea
You'll smell this before you properly see it. Incense, in the open air, from dozens of small fires at once. The graveyard climbs the slope behind Sengaku-ji in…
Shimokitazawa: The Town That Argued With a Road and Won
Stand still for a moment and listen. Trains are coming and going all around you, and yet no barrier comes sliding down across this street. That missing barrier…
Fukagawa: A Poet's Banana Tree, Mitsubishi's Collected Stones, and the Night the Low City Burned
Look down at the water, then along the line of it. It runs dead straight. Canals don't bend unless somebody makes them, and nothing about the water in…
Tsukishima and Tsukuda: Fishermen From Osaka, an Island Made From Dredged Mud, and Seventy Griddles
Stand still on this little red bridge for a moment and look down before you look up. Below you there's a pocket of sheltered water with boats tied…
Nakameguro and Daikanyama: A Concrete River, Eight Hundred Cherry Trees, and Twenty-Five Years of One Architect
Stand on the bridge and look straight down, at the sides rather than the water. Both banks are sheer concrete, and they drop a long way before they…
Koenji: A Dance Borrowed From Shikoku, Four Covered Arcades, and the Recycle Shop That Started a Protest
Look along the track, not at the trains but at the line itself. From up here it runs dead straight in both directions until it simply fades out.…
Roppongi and Azabu-Juban: Warlords, Then Soldiers, Then Seventeen Years of Buying a Hill
Stand at this crossing for a moment, with the expressway rumbling overhead, and look at the size of the blocks around you. Not the buildings, the blocks, the…
Ebisu: The District a Beer Named
Before you move, listen. If a train is pulling out of the platform behind you, you'll hear the departure tune, a plucked, slightly wonky melody on a zither.…
Kanda — The Old Eating Houses
You'll probably hear this shop before you understand it. Someone takes an order, and a voice at the front sings it back toward the kitchen in a long…
Kappabashi Kitchen Town
Look up at the corner building. There's a chef up there. Just his head. White hat, dark moustache, eyes fixed somewhere out over the traffic. He went up…
Sunamachi Ginza, the Side Dish Street
Stand still under the sign board for a moment before you walk in, and breathe in. That's frying oil. Underneath it there's soy sauce and sugar reducing in…
Toyosu Market
You've just stepped off the Yurikamome, and if you looked at the front of that train you'd have noticed there's nobody driving it. It runs itself, on rubber…
Questions about walking Tokyo
What is the best self-guided walking tour in Tokyo?
It depends how long you have. Old Tokyo: An Asakusa Walking Tour (29 minutes, 7 stops) starts at Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate) and is the one most people begin with. Meiji Jingū & Harajuku: Forest, Shrine, and the Birth of Cool covers a different part of the city in about 25 minutes. All 35 walks in Tokyo are listed on this page with their length and starting point.
Do I need to book a walking tour in Tokyo?
No. Every wanderaudio walk is self-guided, so there is nothing to book and no departure time. You start whenever you arrive, and you can stop halfway and pick it up the next day.
How much do the Tokyo audio guides cost?
Your first guide is free. You make a free account before it plays, with an email address or a Google login, and no card. After that a single guide is $4.99, a 30-guide pass, spendable on any guides in any cities, is $29.99, and every guide in Japan is $59.99. It is a one-off payment, not a subscription.
Are these tours in English?
Yes, all 35 Tokyo walks are narrated in English. Other languages are not available yet.
Can I do these walks alone?
Yes — that is what they are built for. There is no group and no guide waiting for you, so walking alone works exactly the same as walking with someone. You choose the pace and the order.
Are there longer versions of the Tokyo walks?
Yes. 30 of the 35 Tokyo walks have a longer version that follows the same route with more stops and more detail — typically about 25 minutes becoming about 40. Unlocking a walk gives you both lengths, so you can take the short one on a busy morning and the long one when you have the day.
What can I do in Tokyo if it rains?
6 of the Tokyo walks are indoor walkthroughs rather than street walks, so they work in rain and in the August heat. They are marked "indoors" in the list on this page. Check opening hours and admission separately — wanderaudio does not sell tickets.