Shibuya

What to see

Start at ground level. The Hachiko Statue sits outside the station's Hachiko exit, and the queue for a photo with the bronze Akita is permanent, so arrive at dawn if you want him to yourself. Shibuya Crossing is directly in front, and you'll want to do it twice, once inside the scramble and once from above. The Starbucks window is the crowded option. The Mag's Park rooftop on top of MAGNET by SHIBUYA109 gives you a better straight-down angle for a paid ticket that includes a drink. For the full-height version, Shibuya Sky on top of Scramble Square puts you 229 metres up on an open roof, with the crossing reduced to an ant colony and the city running to the horizon. Book the sunset slot days ahead.

Between the two, Miyashita Park is the newest layer of the neighbourhood, a rooftop lawn with a skate park and bouldering wall laid over three floors of shops along the Yamanote tracks. Tower Records Shibuya, nine floors of physical music on the edge of Jinnan, counts as a sight in its own right. Then climb Dogenzaka to Meikyoku Kissa Lion, a classical-music listening cafe founded in 1926 with theatre seating facing three-metre wooden speakers. Talking stays at a whisper and photography is banned. It's the closest thing Shibuya has to a museum of itself.

Where to eat and drink

Shibuya's coffee has two poles. Chatei Hatou, three minutes from the crossing, is the dark-wood kissaten where each hand-brewed pour is a small ceremony and the chiffon cake sells out. The aged blend is the order. Meikyoku Kissa Lion on Dogenzaka runs a shorter menu of coffee, tea and lemonade, but the point is the records and the silence. For a proper meal, Gyukatsu Motomura Shibuya is the beef cutlet counter that started the gyukatsu boom. You sear rare slices yourself on a hot stone, with barley rice and tororo on the side. Queue right at opening or around 3pm. Ichiran Shibuya by the Hachiko exit is the solo-booth tonkotsu chain, open 24 hours, and at 3am it's the best decision in the neighbourhood.

Evenings belong to Shibuya Nonbei Yokocho, the double alley of standing bars and small izakayas pressed against the tracks. It's more welcoming to first-timers than Golden Gai and mostly free of cover charges. Shibuya Yokocho on the ground floor of Miyashita Park is the new-build version, louder and open late. If the night has further to run, Womb in the Maruyamacho love-hotel hills has been Tokyo's techno and house institution since 2000. Bring a passport and check the lineup first, because the crowd and the door price both depend on who's playing.

Where to stay

Shibuya splits into three zones for sleeping. The blocks immediately around the station, Scramble Square, the Stream complex and the Sakuragaoka side south of the tracks, hold the newer high-rise hotels and business hotels, good if you want the Yamanote and the airport trains within a five-minute walk. Dogenzaka and Maruyamacho, up the hill west of the crossing, are dense with love hotels and a few capsule and cheap options, fine for late nights near Womb, less so if you're with the family. The calmest choice is north and east toward Jinnan, Tomigaya and the Yoyogi Park edge, where mid-range hotels and serviced apartments sit on quieter streets ten minutes from the noise. Shibuya suits first-time visitors who want the south side of the city, Daikanyama, Nakameguro and Ebisu, within one train stop.

How to do it in a day

Be at the Hachiko Statue before 8am, when the photo queue is a couple of people and Shibuya Crossing is commuters rather than crowds. Cross it, then take the lift to the rooftop at Mag's Park for the overhead view while the light is still flat and clean. Walk the Udagawacho backstreets to Tower Records Shibuya as it opens, then settle into Chatei Hatou for a coffee and the chiffon cake before it runs out. Lunch is Gyukatsu Motomura Shibuya. Arrive at opening, or push it to 3pm and fill the gap at Meikyoku Kissa Lion on Dogenzaka. Late afternoon, climb to the rooftop lawn at Miyashita Park, then head to Shibuya Sky for the sunset slot you booked days ago. Come down into Shibuya Nonbei Yokocho for the first drinks, move to Shibuya Yokocho under Miyashita Park if you want volume, and finish with a bowl at Ichiran Shibuya or, on a Friday or Saturday, the main floor at Womb. MEGA Don Quijote Shibuya is open all night if you've still got souvenirs to buy on the way back.