Tokyo

The 23 special wards (ku) form the dense heart of Tokyo and contain almost everything first-time visitors come to see. Each ward is effectively a city in its own right with its own character: Chiyoda holds the Imperial Palace and its moats at the literal centre; Chūō contains Ginza's luxury and the Tsukiji outer market; Shibuya and Shinjuku drive youth culture, nightlife and the skyscraper skyline; Taitō preserves old Edo around Senso-ji and Ueno's museum park; Minato gathers Roppongi's art and the Tokyo Tower. Moving between them is effortless thanks to the world's most intricate rail network — JR's Yamanote loop line strings together most of the major hubs, and the Tokyo Metro and Toei subways fill in everything between. The wards reward both the headline sights and aimless wandering: a back-street izakaya alley under the train tracks at Yūrakuchō, a craft coffee roaster in a Kuramae warehouse, a rooftop garden above a department store. For the full district-by-district guide, see the Tokyo city page — this prefecture overview points the way beyond the wards.

Mount Takao (Takaosan), 599 metres high and just 50 minutes from Shinjuku on the Keiō line, is the easiest escape from the metropolis and one of the most rewarding. A working centre of Shugendō mountain worship for over a thousand years, it is crowned by Yakuō-in, a temple guarded by tengu (long-nosed mountain goblin) statues, and laced with eight numbered trails ranging from a paved pilgrimage route (with a cable car and chairlift shortcut) to steep forest scrambles. The summit frames Mount Fuji on clear, cold days, and the slopes blaze with maple in November and wild cherry in spring. At the base, the Takao 599 Museum and a cluster of soba restaurants and the Trick Art Museum entertain families, while the Takaosan Onsen hot spring beside the station soaks tired legs before the ride home. Further into western Tokyo, the Tama region spreads through commuter suburbs to genuine countryside — the green expanse of the Sayama Hills, the vast Shōwa Kinen Park, and the temple town of Mitake on its own sacred peak.

Okutama, the mountainous far west of Tokyo Metropolis, is where the prefecture supplies its own drinking water and, in doing so, preserves a landscape of forested ridges, clear rivers and deep gorges barely two hours from Shinjuku. Lake Okutama (Okutama-ko), the reservoir behind the Ogōchi Dam, is ringed by hiking trails and flanked by the cedar and cypress plantations that cloak these mountains. The Tama River carves the Hatonosu Gorge, popular for riverside walks and, in the warmer months, canyoning and rafting. The Nippara Limestone Caves burrow nearly a kilometre into the mountainside in a cool, dripping world of stalactites. Mount Mitake, reached by cable car, holds the Musashi-Mitake Shrine, a mountaintop village of pilgrim lodges (shukubō) where visitors still stay overnight, and the trail to the Rock Garden's moss-draped stream. Okutama is proof that 'Tokyo' includes black bears, wood-smoke villages and trout streams, not only trains and towers.

Strung south from Tokyo Bay into the Pacific, the Izu Islands (Izu Shotō) are administratively part of Tokyo yet feel like another country — a volcanic archipelago of black-sand beaches, hot springs and small fishing communities reached by overnight ferry from Takeshiba pier or short flights from Chōfu. Ōshima, the largest and closest, is dominated by Mount Mihara, an active volcano you can hike to the crater rim, and is famous for camellia forests that bloom in late winter and the open-air Hama-no-yu onsen overlooking the sea. Niijima draws surfers to its long white-sand Pacific beaches and offers a striking free seaside onsen, Yunohama, built like a Greek amphitheatre and open 24 hours. Shikinejima, a short hop away, has shallow tidal hot springs you bathe in among the rocks. Hachijōjima, furthest of the popular islands, is a lush subtropical pair of volcanoes wrapped in ferns and frangipani, with diving, waterfalls and its own distinctive history as a former place of exile. The islands are busiest in summer; spring and autumn bring quieter water and the islands' famously generous fresh-fish meals.

The Ogasawara Islands (also called the Bonin Islands) lie roughly 1,000 kilometres south of central Tokyo and rank among Japan's most extraordinary destinations precisely because they are so hard to reach: the only way in is a 24-hour voyage on the Ogasawara Maru ferry, which sails roughly once a week. That isolation is the point. The islands have never been connected to a continent, so their plants, snails and birds evolved in isolation, earning the chain a UNESCO World Natural Heritage listing and the nickname 'the Galápagos of the Orient.' Chichijima, the main inhabited island, is the base for swimming with spinner dolphins, diving over coral and wartime wrecks, and hiking to viewpoints over impossibly blue bays; Hahajima, smaller and wilder, is for serious nature watchers. Humpback whales gather offshore in winter and sperm whales in summer, making year-round whale watching a highlight. A trip here is a commitment of at least five or six days because of the ferry schedule — but travellers who make it describe it as the most surprising 'Tokyo' of all.

Tokyo's calendar is anchored by Shinto festivals that fill the wards with portable shrines and chanting teams: the Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa (May) is the loudest and most crowded, the Kanda Matsuri (odd-numbered years) and Sannō Matsuri (even years) parade through the centre, and the Sumida River Fireworks (July) light up the sky above the old town. Summer brings neighbourhood bon-odori dances in every ward, while the New Year sends millions to Meiji Shrine and Sensō-ji for hatsumōde. The food, meanwhile, ranges across every register and price point — Tokyo holds more Michelin stars than any city on Earth, yet some of its most memorable meals are a ¥1,000 bowl of ramen, a department-store basement bento, or a monjayaki griddle in Tsukishima. Each island and mountain town adds its own table: ashitaba greens and shima-zushi on the Izu Islands, wasabi grown in Okutama's cold streams, and sea-salt and passionfruit specialities from Ogasawara. Eating your way across the prefecture is a journey in itself.

Within the 23 wards, the rail and subway network is unmatched: a Suica or Pasmo IC card taps you through JR, Tokyo Metro and Toei lines, and trains run from roughly 5 AM to midnight with near-perfect punctuality. The two airports — Haneda (close, 20–30 minutes to the centre by monorail or Keikyū line) and Narita (60–90 minutes by Narita Express or Skyliner) — both connect smoothly. Reaching the rest of the prefecture takes a little planning: Mount Takao is a direct Keiō-line train from Shinjuku; Okutama is the end of the JR Ōme line; the Izu Islands are served by overnight ferries from Takeshiba and small aircraft from Chōfu; and the Ogasawara Islands require booking a berth on the weekly Ogasawara Maru well in advance. Cash still matters once you leave the wards — island and mountain businesses are frequently cash-only — so carry yen, and remember that the JR Pass covers JR lines but not the metro, the private railways or the ferries.