Budget · 3-hour walk · Tokyo
Harajuku to Shibuya in three hours
A forest shrine, the teenage shopping street, the architecture boulevard and the world's busiest crossing.
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
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Yoyogi Park
Next to the shrine and completely different in character: buskers, dance troupes and picnics rather than silence.
15 min here Walk here → -
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 → -
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 → -
Omotesando
The other Harajuku: a zelkova-lined boulevard where every flagship store was built by a different famous architect.
25 min here Walk here → -
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 →
More walks in Tokyo
Daikanyama T-Site · Hillside Terrace · Kyu Asakura House · Meguro River
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building · Omoide Yokocho · Kabukicho · Hanazono Shrine · Golden Gai
Yanaka Ginza · Asakura Museum of Sculpture · Yanaka Cemetery · SCAI the Bathhouse · Nezu Shrine
Senso-ji · Nakamise-dori · Sumida Park · Tokyo Skytree · Ueno Park · Ameya-Yokocho
teamLab Planets · Toyosu Market · Odaiba Seaside Park · Unicorn Gundam · Rainbow Bridge
Tsukiji Outer Market · Hama-rikyu Gardens · Kabuki-za · Ginza crossing · Tokyo Station · Imperial Palace East Gardens
Senso-ji · Tsukiji Outer Market · Imperial Palace East Gardens · Meiji Jingu · Takeshita Street · Omotesando · Shibuya Crossing · Shibuya Sky
More in Tokyo
Every walking route in Tokyo, the full Tokyo guide for where to stay and what a day costs, or walks in other cities.