Tea Ceremony
The fourth floor Toko-an at the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo offers an excellent traditional tea service experience for guests and non-guests alike. Its trio of ceremonial rooms are outfitted in the traditional sukiya architectural style, defined by refined simplicity and rustic elegance, with bamboo ceilings, tatami mats, spare seasonal decoration, and an adjacent terrace garden that offers a meditative buffer from the throbbing modern city just beyond the walls. Though the authentic chanoyu experience is highly legitimate, it’s also Western-friendly—and that’s a good thing.
More Things To Do in Tokyo
SCAI the Bathhouse
This leading independent gallery is considered the neighborhood of Yanaka’s cultural heartbeat.
Mori Art Museum
Many visitors come for the view and leave before strolling the two floors of exhibition space below, but this is a mistake: Museum director Fumio Nanjo organizes contemporary shows that are as crowd-pleasing as they are curatorially sound.
A Yomuri Giants Game
For an American, attending a baseball game in Japan can be an out-of-body experience: The action on the field is familiar, but what happens in the stands is completely foreign.
Sumo Stable Visit
Sumo wrestling is not Japan’s national sport, but it is its most well known (and celebrated) of its traditional athletic competitions.
Takarazuka
This from of Japanese theater features all-female casts in extravagant costumes on elaborate sets performing high-energy musical versions of recent Western cinema hits, as well as classics of the silver screen and Broadway.
Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
Originally built as a private home for business mogul Kunizo Hara in the ’30s, the Hara opened as a museum in 1979.
Meiji Shrine
Created to honor the Kami (deified spirits) of 20th-century Emperor Meiji and his wife this 200-acre forested park consists of two major gardens and traditional nagare zukuri–style Shinto shrines.
Ōta Memorial Museum of Art
The ukiyo-e genre may not be familiar to the Western world by name, but its works are without a doubt some of the most popular examples of Japanese art we have today.
Tokyo Cook
This small cooking school offers a wide variety of courses dedicated to the numerous styles of Japanese cuisine, all taught taught by celebrated local chefs.
