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Tokyo · Mixed

From Hachikō to the sacred forest: Shibuya, Harajuku and Meiji Jingū

On this route you go from Tokyo at its most electric to Tokyo at its most silent in little more than three kilometres. You start beside Japan's most faithful dog, cross the most famous pedestrian crossing on the planet, walk up the avenue of zelkova trees and the street of kawaii, and finish in a sacred forest that was planted a century ago with the next century in mind.

  • 6 stops
  • 3 km
  • 1 h 45 min
  • Free
A large wooden torii over the gravel path through the Meiji Shrine forest

The route

Stop by stop

  1. 1 Hachikō StatueAn Akita dog who waited for his owner for almost ten years and became the meeting point for the whole of Tokyo.
  2. 2 Shibuya CrossingWhen every traffic light turns red for cars, a human tide crosses in all directions at once.
  3. 3 Omotesandō AvenueThe ceremonial approach to a shrine that became a catwalk for luxury architecture.
  4. 4 Takeshita-dōriThree hundred and fifty metres of crêpes, outlandish clothes and the kawaii culture Tokyo exported to the world.
  5. 5 Great torii and sake barrels of Meiji ShrineA gate of 1,500-year-old cypress and a wall of sake barrels facing another of Burgundy wine.
  6. 6 Meiji Shrine (Meiji Jingū)A shrine to the emperor who modernised Japan, in a forest planted by hand to last a hundred years.

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Start with GPS

Guide mode

Walk it with GPS.

Open guide mode on your phone: you’ll see your position and the distance to each stop, and we’ll let you know when you arrive. Then read or listen.

Start with GPS
  1. Turn on your location

  2. Walk to the spot

  3. Check the photo and listen

What you’ll discover

From Hachikō to the sacred forest: Shibuya, Harajuku and Meiji Jingū

Tokyo's icons

Hachikō, the Shibuya Crossing, Takeshita-dōri and Meiji Jingū, all in a single walk.

From neon to forest

A contrast that sums up the city: giant screens and, ten minutes away, cedars, gravel and silence.

The stories behind the photo

The true story of the dog, the mural lost in Mexico and the barrels of Burgundy wine.