36 Hours in Tokyo

Head back into the urban fray of Ginza, Tokyo’s original luxury retail district, where you can gawk at the Issey Miyake showroom or peruse designer brands like Commes des Garcons, A Bathing Ape, Supreme and Kolor at the Dover Street Market. For far more affordable (and edible) designs, visit Ginza Akebono, a traditional Japanese confectionery shop that dates back to 1948 when Tokyo was recovering from the devastation of the war. The signature treat is strawberries and sweet azuki bean paste wrapped in mochi, powdery skins of pounded sticky rice (432 yen, or about $3.25). Or try the sakura mochi, a pink concoction made to evoke cherry blossom season (270 yen).

Bartenders in Tokyo don’t just mix drinks, they stage them. The waistcoat-wearing cocktail makers at No. in Yoyogi-Uehara, a hipster residential neighborhood, shake and stir with choreographed elegance. The bar, on the third floor of a narrow apartment building, projects a Japanese-Nordic spirit with blond slatted wood and minimalist bar stools. No.’s cocktails are all numbered instead of named (get it?), and there are thoughtful alcohol-free options. Judging from others at the bar, No. is a good place to pitch up at the counter alone and sit with a drink and a book (cocktails from 1,100 yen).

The best Japanese set lunches allow you to try multiple tastes without feeling overstuffed. At Lakan-ka, on the edge of the Aoyama neighborhood, the obanzai lunch tray offers several small vegetable and seafood dishes with multigrain rice, a miso soup and an omelet whorled like a shell. Complement the meal with one of a selection of teas infused with monk fruit, a fruit native to China and the restaurant’s namesake in Japanese (1,500 yen for the lunch set; teas from 750 yen). If the line for a table is too long, amble over to Toraya-An Stand, a cafe offshoot of Toraya, the Japanese confectionery maker whose founding dates to the 16th century. Try a simple vegetable bowl of crispy lotus root, sliced red peppers, green peas and hummus with a bean-paste-filled sticky bun (lunch set, 1,480 yen) eaten in a minimalist dining room with a tiger mural on the wall.

Stop at the Aoyama branch of Sou Sou, a Kyoto-based designer of contemporary textiles with a classical flair. Choose from a selection of kimono-inspired jackets, loose-fitting dresses and blouses, or baggy trousers styled like traditional hakama. Shoes and tabi-socks, which are both split-toed, come in a wild array of colors and prints. The tenugui — or hand towels — are beautiful enough to display as wall hangings, and you can buy bamboo hangers designed for that purpose.

Bar Martha in Ebisu is notorious for its owner’s strict policy of banning chatter among guests. The spacious bar, housing some 1,000 vinyl records, is intended for serious music listeners and drinkers only. But on a recent evening, the owner, who has been known to shush customers, was not at the turntable spinning records. In the more lax atmosphere, there was plenty of audible conversation as tunes from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Clash segued into Miles Davis and the Brian Setzer Orchestra. Photos are prohibited; smoking is permitted. Shelves are stacked with bottles of whiskey and other liquors, and drinks are poured into glasses with large blocks or globes of ice (cover charge 900 yen, drinks start at 800 yen).

Although Tokyo has much less public green space per capita than London, New York or Paris, its beautifully groomed gardens are a marvel and a balm. Take a walk along the stone paths of Kiyosumi Gardens (150 yen admission for adults), where turtles crowd rocky outcroppings and ducks and carp swim in the large pond that dominates the park. In spring, cherry and plum trees explode with blossoms, and profusions of irises overflow a long, wide flower bed. Basho makes an appearance here as well, on a large rock inscribed with one of his most well-known haiku: “Old pond — frogs jumped in — sound of water.”