Miyashita Park

What the guides say about Miyashita Park

Afternoon. Walk down into Shibuya. Cross Shibuya Crossing once, watch it once from above, and then you're done with it. Give what's left of the daylight to what surrounds it: the lawn on top of Miyashita Park, the record floors at Tower Records Shibuya, and the coffee at Chatei Hatou, a dark-wood kissaten where each cup is made slowly and served in antique porcelain.

Afternoon. Follow Cat Street downhill into Shibuya, about fifteen minutes on foot. Do Shibuya Crossing once at street level, then once from a window above it, and that's the box ticked. Miyashita Park has a rooftop lawn a few minutes away for a sit-down, and Tower Records Shibuya is nine floors of the physical music shop that disappeared everywhere else on earth.

Morning. The Shibuya Crossing shot is worth doing once, and once only. Go before 9am if you can, before the organised tour groups arrive, cross it, take the photo, and get it out of your system. Then walk five minutes into Nonbei Yokocho, two storeys of matchbox bars pressed against the train tracks. That contrast, tourist spectacle to neighbourhood bar in ten minutes on foot, is the whole city in miniature. From there, Miyashita Park for the rooftop lawn, then up through the backstreets towards Harajuku.