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Harajuku to Shibuya in three hours

A forest shrine, the teenage shopping street, the architecture boulevard and the world's busiest crossing.

On foot
3.4 km
Walking
45 min
At stops
125 min
Total
2h 50m
Stops
5

Three hours covering the stretch where Tokyo is loudest and quietest within a few hundred metres: a 70-hectare forest around an imperial shrine, and a scramble crossing three thousand people use at a time. It is all on one side of one JR stop, entirely flat, and free from end to end.

The route, stop by stop

  1. Yoyogi Park

    Next to the shrine and completely different in character: buskers, dance troupes and picnics rather than silence.

    15 min here Walk here →
  2. Meiji Jingu

    A hundred thousand trees donated from across Japan in the 1920s, now a real forest. Bow at the torii; everyone does.

    40 min here Walk here →
  3. Takeshita Street

    Four hundred metres of teenage fashion, crepes and noise. Impassable at weekends and that is rather the point.

    25 min here Walk here →
  4. Omotesando

    The other Harajuku: a zelkova-lined boulevard where every flagship store was built by a different famous architect.

    25 min here Walk here →
  5. Shibuya Crossing

    Up to three thousand people cross at once. The Starbucks window above it is the cliche; the station walkway is free and better.

    20 min here Walk here →

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