3 Days in Tokyo — Essential Highlights

The forested shrine in the center of Tokyo: on weekend mornings, white-kimono brides and Shinto priests process across the gravel of the inner compound.

Takeshita-dori: the global capital of kawaii fashion and crêpes built like Baroque confections. Then the Zelkova-canopied avenue of Prada (Herzog & de Meuron), Tod's (Toyo Ito) and Dior.

The finest urban park in Tokyo: French formal, English landscape and Japanese traditional — all in one enclosed garden island in the most vertical city in Asia.

12 tiny stalls, yakitori smoke, chicken skin (kawa) and tsukune meatballs: the alley unchanged since the Allied Occupation. Japanese whisky highball mandatory.

The department store basement as cultural institution: Japan's finest seasonal ingredients, the world's most beautiful bento boxes and traditional confections unchanged since the Edo period.

The most Instagrammed attraction in Tokyo: the Crystal World mirrored room and the flower rooms where the projections respond to your movement. Book weeks ahead.

The second tallest structure in the world: the glass-floored spiral walkway at 450m with the city directly below, and Fuji's perfect cone 100km to the west on clear winter evenings.

The ramen booth invented for total flavor concentration: you specify 9 variables on a paper form, the curtain rises and a perfect bowl appears. No conversation required or possible.