Tokyo Travel Photos: Markets, Temples, Night Views
Tokyo Travel Photos: Markets, Temples, and Night Views
Previous: Three Days in Busan, Korea
(A Jet-Lagged Artist’s Guide to the City Where Even the Spiders Are Ambitious)
Tokyo is one of the easiest cities in the world to navigate—on paper.
In reality, you’ll spend a chunk of your trip joyfully lost inside an underground labyrinth of Metro tunnels that appear to have been designed by a hyper-caffeinated bowl of spaghetti.
You’ve got JR Railways (separate tickets), Tokyo Metro lines (rechargeable cards), and transfers that sometimes include escalators, sometimes include stairs, and occasionally include existential crises.
But hey, it works. And it’s Tokyo—so even when you’re lost, you’re exactly where you want to be.
Akasaka: Our Home Base
We arrived mid-afternoon from Korea and settled into Akasaka, a neighborhood that’s conveniently close to everything but mercifully calmer than Shibuya or Shinjuku. Think: city energy without the city chaos.
Restaurants everywhere, easy access to the Metro, and enough convenience stores to supply you with iced coffee, snacks, and emergency chocolate at all hours.
FIRST DAY: Hie-Jinja Shrine → Tokyo Tower Sunset
Hie-Jinja Shrine
Our very first Tokyo stop was Hie-Jinja Shrine, a Shinto sanctuary originally founded in the 1300s and later rebuilt in the 1600s by the shogunate to protect the city. Today it sits quietly tucked between office towers, which gives it this wonderfully surreal mix of ancient tranquility and modern skyscraper canyon.
The real highlight: the red torii gate tunnel—basically the perfect warm-up for photography, and a “Welcome to Japan” moment in architecture form.
Tokyo Tower at Sunset
That evening we made our way to Tokyo Tower—Tokyo’s 1958 answer to “What if we built our own Eiffel Tower, painted it safety-cone red, and made it glow like a beacon of hope and anime openings?”
From the top, the city stretches endlessly. At sunset, everything gets washed in gold, and Tokyo’s skyline looks like someone dumped a bucket of diamonds across the horizon.
We ate dinner in Akasaka afterward—pro travel tip: walk two or three blocks off the main drag, and prices immediately drop from “tourist” to “normal human.”
SECOND MORNING: Metro Adventures → Meiji Jingu → Shibuya Crossing
The Metro Card Saga
Before visiting Meiji Jingu, we had our first real education in Tokyo Metro etiquette.
What we discovered:
1) NEVER lose your Metro ticket or card.
Unlike a lot of cities where you swipe to enter and then forget about it, Tokyo occasionally requires you to feed the same ticket back into the machine to exit.
If you’ve lost it?
You are not exiting.
You live here now. Make peace with your new tunnel-dweller lifestyle.
2) We accidentally boarded the “Women Only” train car.
Yes. We did that. My son and I ran onto a car seconds before it departed. Yes, we made it on time!
There we were—standing in a pristinely quiet car—when I finally noticed that every single person around us was female… and staring at us with the polite but unmistakable look of “Sir, you do not belong here.”
The pink signage on the platform? Missed it.
The big decal on the door? Missed that too.
The obvious clue that no other men were in sight? Also missed.
We quietly shuffled out at the next stop like two guilty raccoons fleeing a campsite. I noticed a few smiles from the ladies. We must have looked terrible!
Meiji Jingu (and The Spider That Could Bench-Press a Car)
Refreshed from our public-transport humiliation, we headed into the forested pathways of Meiji Jingu, a Shinto shrine completed in 1920 to honor Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.
This is where we saw the spider.
The enormous, athletic, fully committed spider.
The kind that looked like it paid rent and contributed to the local neighborhood committee.
The kind that probably has its own TikTok following.
Fortunately harmless, but startling enough to make us rethink every low-hanging branch for the rest of the morning.
The shrine itself is calm, reverent, and almost impossibly quiet considering it sits right next to two of Tokyo’s most intense districts—Shibuya and Harajuku.
Pro Tip: arrive early. Wonderful morning light- no crowds, and it wasn’t 1000 degrees (yet).
Shibuya Crossing: The Ultimate Zombie Run
After leaving Meiji Jingu, we walked to Shibuya Crossing, the world’s busiest pedestrian intersection—a place where humanity collides beautifully every 90 seconds.
The first time: incredible.
The second time (two days later): cinematic.
So cinematic, in fact, that I couldn’t resist re-enacting a full zombie shuffle through the crowd—arms out, lurching forward, mumbling “BRAINS… BRAINS…” like the undead tourist I am.
Rocco thought it was hilarious.
I don’t even know if anyone noticed my Oscar worthy performance.
Ten out of ten, would zombie again.
My First Holbein Watercolor Store (RIP, Wallet)
Somewhere near Shibuya Crossing I met my destiny: a Japanese art supply store carrying Holbein watercolors.
Three immediate realizations followed:
- Holbein is made in Japan.
- Holbein is far cheaper in Japan.
- I bought paint like I was stocking up for the watercolor apocalypse.
If watercolor tubes were currency, I’d have retired on the spot.
Senso-ji in Asakusa: Old Tokyo, New Sweat
Another day’s adventure brought us to Senso-ji, Tokyo’s oldest temple (dating back to 628 CE). The massive Kaminarimon Gate, the iconic lantern, and the bustling Nakamise shopping street are worth every step—even in heat that felt like Tokyo was trying to slow-poach us.
My first watercolor of Tokyo. Senso-Ji Shrine. 12×18″ watercolor batik on Japanese rice paper. Purchase original painting and prints:
https://ryanfoxpainting.com/products/senso-ji-temple-watercolor-batik-landscape-painting-tokyo-print
Nearby sits Hanayashiki, Japan’s oldest amusement park (1853). If you’ve ever wanted to ride a roller coaster that feels like a historical artifact, this is your place.
A Fuji Break
We escaped the city for a day trip to Mt. Fuji, because when you’re this close and don’t go, the travel gods dock your credibility. What a day this was- check out the experiences HERE
Final Day Loop: Akihabara → Imperial Palace → Shibuya Again
Our last day included:
• Animate Akihabara — anime megastore heaven
• Rocco hunting for vintage fashion
• Imperial Palace grounds — book early if you want to go inside
• A final Shibuya sunset—because Tokyo won’t let you leave without one
Tokyo Survival Tips
✨ Keep your Metro card — treat it like a passport.
✨ Coffee before 7:30 AM? Probably illegal. Buy cold brew the night before.
✨ Tsukiji’s outer market still thrives, even though the tuna auctions moved to Toyosu Market in 2018.
✨ Nightlife varies:
Shinjuku = labyrinth of bars.
Shibuya = neon on steroids.
Roppongi = international chaos.
Final Verdict
Tokyo is too big, too beautiful, and too brilliantly confusing to “finish.”
You don’t check it off a list—you return to it, again and again, because somewhere between the shrines, the zombie crossings, and the Metro misadventures… it becomes part of you.
Quick Break to Mt. Fuji- Daytrip
References:
Hotel
Apa Hotel Higashi Shinjuku Kabukicho Tower– Shinkjuki Crossing area (west Tokyo)
Hotel Villa Fontaine Grand Haneda Airport– near Haneda Airport
Richmond Hotel Premier Asakusa International– Asakusa area (NE Tokyo)
Hotel Mystays Premier Omori– Shinagawa area
THE KAHALA Hotel & Resort YOKOHAMA– If I were RICH!
Coffee
Unfortunately, most bakeries and coffee shops in don’t open until 7:30 a.m. For photographers chasing summer sunrises, that means being up hours before your first shot of caffeine—an impossible situation. I was convinced I’d die of coffee deprivation before then. My advice: stock up the day before on supermarket iced coffees and drink just enough to survive until the cafés open (a strategy I tested and can confirm works).
Tours
Find things to do in – day trips (museums and public transport), and more:
https://expedia.com/affiliates/expedia-home.h5p5bhV
Travel Guides
Here is the recently published Lonely Planet Guide. This is what I used to plan the trip (in conjunction with the all-beloved internet):
Lonely Planet Japan Travel Guide
Another travel guide available for :
Flights:
Trains:
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Ryan Fox AWS, NWS, TWSA
Ryan Fox Painting
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