Tours of the City
Walking Tours
The Tokyo Tourist Information Office (tel: (03) 3201 3331) provides a leaflet, ‘Walking Tour Courses in Tokyo’, outlining walking routes in several main areas of the city. Asakusa’s Goodwill Guide Club gives a free one-hour English-language walking tour of this historical area every Sunday afternoon, setting off from its offices on 2–18–9 Kaminarimon, Taito-ku. Information is available from the Asakusa Cultural and Sightseeing Centre (tel: (03) 3842 5566).
Bus Tours
Hato Bus (tel: (03) 3435 6081; fax: (03) 3433 1972; website: www.hatobus.co.jp/english), JTB Sunrise Tours (tel: (03) 5796 5454; fax: (03) 5495 0680; website: www.jtb.co.jp/sunrisetour) and Japan Gray Line (tel: (03) 3433 5745; fax: (03) 3433 8388; website: www.jgl.co.jp/inbound/index.htm) all offer a wide variety of half-day, full-day and evening bus tours, with English-speaking guides. For example, Hato Bus offers a half-day (0900–1230) ‘Tokyo Morning Tour’ that departs daily from the Hamamatsucho Bus Terminal. The tour costs 5000 and takes in a number of sights, such as the Tokyo Tower and the Imperial Palace Plaza, as well as driving through a number of the cities lively shopping districts. Free hotel pick-up is available. Full day tours usually cost around 10,000.
Boat Tours
The Tokyo Cruise Ship Company (tel: (03) 3841 9178; website: www.suijobus.co.jp/english) runs a regular waterbus service along the Sumida River, between Asakusa, the Hama Rikyu Gardens, Hinode Pier and Odaiba. The trip takes 40 minutes and costs 660 (one way). The company also operates a variety of other waterbus services around Tokyo Bay, lasting between five and 55 minutes and costing 200–800. Vingt-et-Un Cruises (tel: (03) 3436 2121) and Symphony Cruises (tel: (03) 3798 8101; website: www.symphony-cruise.co.jp) offers two-hour daytime and evening boat cruises around Tokyo Bay. The tours cost, on average, 5000 and 3000 respectively. Symphony Cruises depart from the Hinode Pier, while Vingt-et-Un cruises set off from Takeshiba Pier.
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Tours of the City