Articles / Tourist Guide / Tokyo Tourist Guide / Tokyo Landmarks

There is a list of compulsory places, urban landmarks and institutions that every reasonable tourist needs to see.

It should be noted separately that in the course in its history Tokyo has been twice left in ruins, one time by a lifetaking earthquake and the other time by bombing raid undertaken by American military authorities. Nevertheless it didn?t kill the city, but made it stronger, if it can be put so.

Among the most noteworthy architecture spots there can be named the Hie Shrine; the temples of Sengakuji, Gokokuji, and Sensoji, Tokyo Station (a Marunouchi train station in a business district of Chioda), Wako Department Store (officially Wako Co., Ltd., also referred to as Ginza Wako ? a one-of-the-kind department store, located in the heart of Ginza shopping area in the center of the city), Akasaka Palace (a palace which used to be a royal residence but nowadays functions as a State Guesthouse), the Bank of Japan (a modern bank housed in a historical building), Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (or Tokyo City Hall ? the headquarters of the city administration, located in Shinjuku), Tokyo International Forum (an esthetically attractive piece of postmodern architecture which houses an exhibition and concert hall and conference center), Roppongi Hills (named after the district it finds itself in, Roppongi Hills is an integrated property building which accommodates office space, apartments, shops, restaurants, cafés, movie theaters, a museum, a hotel, a major TV studio, an outdoor amphitheater, and even a few parks).

Tokyo is a world?s famous educational center with over 100 educational establishments, the University of Tokyo, being the most prestigious in the country, the University of Tokyo being the most prestigious of all. Those with the most noticeable architecture are: Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo Institute of Technology and University of Tokyo (those are the National universities). There is only one public university, which is the Tokyo Metropolitan University. Keio University and Waseda University are the only private universities in the city.

The most famous street of Tokyo is the celebrated Ginza, which is widely known for its colorful suite of shops and entertainment establishments. Guests of the city and the inhabitants of it have made it a tradition to stroll down Ginza Street in search of a pleasant time-passing.

A brief review should be devoted also to the national parks of Tokyo, namely the four parks which lie within the limits of the city: 

Chichibu Tama Kai National Park, in Nishitama and spilling over into Yamanashi and Saitama Prefectures

? Meiji no Mori Takao Quasi-National Park, around Mount Takao to the south of Hachiōji
? Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, which includes all of the Izu Islands
? Ogasawara National Park. As of 2006, efforts were being made to make Ogasawara National Park a UNESCO natural World Heritage Site.
Most certainly you won?t have enough time for visiting all of the noteworthy places in Tokyo unless you stay there for a long while, but visiting at least some of them will make your journey informative, educational and pleasant.