What's a good 3-day itinerary for Tokyo?

Day 1 stays east — the old Edo neighborhoods where incense smoke and grilled senbei still hang in the morning air. Senso-ji at 7 AM is a different temple than the one at noon: monks chanting behind the Hondo's wooden panels, stone courtyard still damp, maybe four other visitors. By 10 AM the grounds are packed. So arrive early, take your time, then walk ten minutes north to Kappabashi, the kitchen-supply street where restaurant owners buy those uncanny plastic food replicas. Ueno Park is fifteen minutes further on foot — skip the zoo, it's grim — and cut through to Yanaka, where wooden shopfronts and narrow lanes feel like the 1960s never quite left. Yanaka Ginza's evening strip sells 200-yen menchi-katsu (fried meat croquettes, crunchy shell, almost too hot to hold) eaten standing on the sidewalk. Dinner at Daikokuya back in Asakusa: the line moves fast, and the dark sesame oil they fry in gives the tempura a nuttier, heavier character than most spots across the city. About 10 kilometres of walking, two short train hops.

Day 2 heads west. Meiji Shrine at 8 AM, before the wedding parties arrive — the crushed-gravel path under the forest canopy drops the temperature five degrees and swallows Harajuku traffic noise within thirty seconds. Crows overhead, your footsteps, nothing else. After the shrine, Takeshita-dori is the sensory opposite: neon crêpe shops, teen fashion, sugar everywhere. Walk it once for the spectacle, then escape south to Omotesando for slower ground. Shibuya Crossing at 2 PM looks the same as it does at any hour, despite what travel blogs claim — five minutes there is plenty. Shibuya Sky's open-air deck is the better draw: 2,000 yen, and on a clear day Fuji floats above the western horizon like it's been composited in. Evening means Shinjuku. Skip Kabukicho's main drag and head straight to Omoide Yokocho — a tangle of alley-width yakitori bars where charcoal smoke hangs at head height, draft Asahi runs 300 yen, and you're eating chicken thigh skewers in a space the size of a coat closet. It's cramped and loud. That's the point.

Day 3 is central Tokyo, starting at Tsukiji Outer Market by 7 AM. The inner wholesale auction moved to Toyosu in 2018, but the outer market — the part visitors care about — stayed put. Get tamagoyaki from Tsukiji Shoro (dashimaki egg on a stick, around 300 yen, warm and faintly jiggly) then head to the seafood counters for a 1,500-yen chirashi bowl at a metal standing counter. Walk fifteen minutes south to Hama-rikyu Gardens, where the tidal pond reflects Shiodome's glass towers in a way that still catches you off guard. Matcha in the nakajima teahouse runs 510 yen and comes with a dry wagashi sweet. From there, Ginza is twenty minutes north on foot — window-shopping territory, not spending territory, unless you want the depachika experience. Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi has the best basement food floor: free samples of mochi, tsukemono pickles, thin-sliced wagyu. End at Tokyo Station's underground Ramen Street — Rokurinsha's tsukemen has the longest line for good reason.

Logistics worth sorting before you land: buy a 72-hour Tokyo Subway Ticket at Narita or Haneda for 1,500 yen — it covers Metro and Toei lines, which handle about 90 percent of this route. JR trains aren't included, but you'll need JR only once or twice (170-yen single fare). Load a Suica IC card anyway for the JR gaps and konbini purchases. Total walking across three days is about 28 kilometres. Tokyo's subway stations have more stairs than you'd expect, and the sidewalks are hard concrete — bring shoes you've already broken in, not ones you just bought.