Northern Tokyo gets little love from tourists, both overseas and domestic. Tokyoites will snidely comment that this is the “Saitama Effect,” being too close to one of Japan’s uncoolest prefectures (I beg to disagree, however, as a Saitama resident). But whatever the reason, there is little mention of this part of Tokyo in most guidebooks, despite the fact that it actually contains some incredible attractions. This article is part of my series of articles detailing various museums and parks in Tokyo, so be sure to read about other parts of the city if this is a topic that interests you.

Aside from its attractions, Northern Tokyo is one of the most walkable parts of the city, where jaunts off the main streets often reward you with scenes of unadulterated everyday life, quaint little shops and restaurants, and a peaceful atmosphere that makes you forget the vastness of Tokyo. Late winter and early spring are my favorite times to walk in this area; the air is still crisp and refreshing, and occasional glimpses of plum and early blooming cherry trees are a delight to discover.

Asukayama Park

We’ll start in Kita Ward at Asukayama Park, on a hill above JR Oji Station. Alternatively, you can take one of the two remaining Tokyo streetcar lines, the Toden-Arakawa Line, also known as the Tokyo Sakura Tram. As an aside, the line was misnamed, as part of the route is lined with beautiful rose bushes that bloom in season, not cherry blossoms. Anyway, back to Asukayama Park.

A fraction of the size of Ueno Park, Asukayama is pleasant and walkable and is undoubtedly a popular destination for parents with toddlers. It is known for beautiful cherry blossom blooms in the spring, but its appeal is certainly not limited to that short season. Bookended by two prominent shrines, Nanashi Jinja and Oji Shrine, and next to Otonashi Water Park where you can stroll right along the river, the general area is an excellent place for a stroll, picnic, or chance for young children to burn off excess energy.

Oji Paper Museum

Asukayama Park also contains the Paper Museum, a small museum that explains the local area’s connection with paper manufacturing in great detail. (Note: The Paper Museum is closed for renovation until March 2025, so if you are one of the early readers of this article, thank you, but don’t visit just yet.)

When most people think of Japanese paper, they think of washi, the handmade paper made by artisans in Japan for over a thousand years. The museum does explain the history of paper making in Japan dating back to washi, but Oji’s importance was built on modern paper manufacturing, so the real focus is on this period.
The papermaking process is part of the exhibition, but to me, it’s the least interesting part. What is far more interesting is how the museum shows the progress of advancements in papermaking technology on the types of products that they were able to produce over time. It’s a nostalgic ride through Japanese history on paper.

To be honest, the museum may not have enough appeal to engage the youngest members of the family. If you are bringing kids, I recommend trying their free washi-making workshop on weekends, an experience the entire family can enjoy.

Kyu-Furukawa Gardens

From the Paper Museum, you’ll walk down the main street of Hongo dori for about 20 minutes to Kyu-Furukawa Gardens. While it is a rather long walk, no train or tram will get you there any faster, so just enjoy the walk if the weather is fine.
Along the way, you’ll pass the Kita Ward Earthquake Science Museum, which I did not visit or review for this article. From what I can tell, it is typical of most municipally run informational museums, pragmatic and packed with information, produced at the lowest possible budget. If you enjoy watching public access television shows or CSPAN, I’m sure you’ll love it. Or, if you are curious about earthquakes and earthquake safety in Japan, by all means, drop into this free museum and have a look around, but I won’t recommend it to general visitors.

But just a few minutes further along, the Kyu-Furukawa Gardens are a real attraction in Northern Tokyo. This city-maintained garden was once the property of the Furukawa family, and before that, Mutsu Munemitsu, a prominent politician during the Meiji Period who helped overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate.
It is the Furukawas, however, that can be thanked for the current beauty of the gardens. They commissioned Josiah Conder to design the main house and the surrounding western-style garden at the property’s highest point. Conder was a notable British architect who influenced a dozen of Japan’s most prominent modern architects as a professor of the Imperial College of Engineering. The garden contains 100 varieties of roses that bloom in the spring; I have been informed by a reliable source that staff won’t allow visitors to walk around with umbrellas during this time so everyone can have a good view of the flowers.

Just a few years later, a Japanese garden was completed at the bottom of the hill, centered around an artificial pond and surrounded by a lush forest. Hidden among the trees is a small tea house used to practice Japanese tea ceremony (you can now enjoy matcha and sweets here in spring and autumn). The contrast between the symmetrical layout of the house and upper garden and the wabi-sabi style of the Japanese garden make Kyu-Furukawa delightfully unique.

The entry fee to the garden is a mere 150 yen, but an additional 400 yen is charged to tour the house, which is now known as the Otani Museum. The house wasn’t open when I visited, but the price seemed a little steep, considering the size of the interior. No photography is allowed inside either, so you’ll have to dazzle your friends with your carefully crafted stories about the house instead.

Take a Break Around Komagome Station

More walking is in order, en route to the Toyo Bunko Museum, about 1.5 kilometers away. Fortunately, you’ll pass Komagome Station on the way, with its neighborhood filled with cheap and interesting little restaurants. Komagome has some Southeast Asian residents, so don’t be surprised to find a good selection of Thai and Vietnamese restaurants among them.
My favorite is about a five-minute walk down Hongo dori from Kyu-Furukawa Gardens, a non-descript restaurant called Family Foods. You wouldn’t know by the name, but the Vietnamese text and photos of various dishes give away the ethnic origins of the restaurant.

The pho has an aromatic and savory broth, but they have all sorts of Vietnamese dishes, including banh mi sandwiches, at very affordable prices. Lunch hours end at 3:00pm, and dinner starts again at 5:00pm, so be sure to time your visit right. If it isn’t open, don’t worry, dozens of other international and Japanese restaurant choices are available on both the north and south sides of Komagome Station near the entrances.

Toyo Bunko Museum

Continue down Hongo dori past the entrance to Rikugien Gardens; don’t worry, we’ll be back here later. Turn right down Shinobazu dori for about 100 meters and come to the monolithic stone structure that is the Toyo Bunko Museum (another note: this museum is also temporarily closed for renovations until fall 2025. Sorry about that!)

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about recommending this museum. Above everything else, it is a library facility dedicated to researching Asian history and culture. That is very niche, and for the average visitor, perhaps too niche to make Toyo Bunko a place of interest. On top of that, the hefty 900 yen admission fee adds up quickly for a family, and there isn’t much to see inside for the general public.
So why do I recommend it? In a nutshell, for its design. The interior architecture of Toyo Bunko is nothing short of a masterpiece. The museum houses copies of nearly every important tome in Asia, some of them one-of-a-kind. It isn’t an overstatement to call it one of Asia’s most important museums. But the design of Toyo Bunko makes you feel like you are in one of Asia’s most important museums. The mix of warm woods and sterile concrete in minimalist layouts. The towering shelves of books under vaulted ceilings. The darkened corridors where light directs your attention to the displays.

So, if you have no interest in literature or modern architecture, you can skip it. If you don’t want to shell out a lot of yen and are not in possession of a Grutto Pass (which gives you free admission), skip it. If you have small children with short attention spans, skip it. But if you want to see an example of how architectural design can lift an exhibition to new heights, I can think of no finer example than Toyo Bunko.

Rikugien Gardens

So finally, we visit the crown jewel of Northern Tokyo’s parks, Rikugien Gardens. I hope you saved enough time for a stroll here; the vastness of the garden can easily take an hour or two to enjoy at a leisurely pace (and speedwalking through the garden isn’t the best way to enjoy it). Surprising no one, Rikugien was built during the Edo Period for the slightly eccentric fifth Tokugawa shogun, Tsunayoshi. Tokugawa #5’s love of dogs was so strong that he instituted the death penalty for killing a dog and allegedly owned 50,000 of them (not a typo), earning him the nickname “Dog Shogun,” but not a lot of fans among his subjects. One wonders if Rikugien was created as Japan’s first dog park, but I suppose we’ll never know.

What we do know is that Tsunayoshi had exquisite taste in gardens. Created in miniature around the grounds are 88 scenes from six famous Chinese poems. You and I may not recognize these scenes by name, but the views of Togetsukyo Bridge crossing a section of the central pond or the azaleas blooming on Fujishiro-toge in April may inspire you to learn them. In late March, the weeping cherry tree near Naitei-daimon does its best impression of a Kyoto geiko, encircled by hundreds of starry-eyed visitors pointing smartphones at it.

The garden offers free one-hour guided tours twice a day on weekends and holidays, but unfortunately, only in Japanese. If you can understand a bit of Japanese, you might better understand the relationship between the garden and the poetry that inspired it. But even a self-guided tour with your eyes and ears wide open will yield a better appreciation for the elements that make Japanese gardens such a delight: seasonal impermanence, the sounds of running water, and a tranquil atmosphere.

Bonus Area – Koishikawa Botanical Garden

Officially, this is where the itinerary ends, and you can find your way to the nearest suitable station, either Komagome on the JR Yamanote Line Namboku Subway Line or Sengoku on the Mita Subway Line. However, if the weather is fine and you have energy to burn, the vast Koishikawa Botanical Garden is about a 20 minute walk from Rikugien. This garden is primarily a research facility for nearby University of Tokyo’s Botany department, but it is a flowery oasis in the middle of the city for those who have had enough of Tokyo’s concrete and steel. There is no real attraction here other than green space unless you are a botanist yourself, but it is a great place to escape the crowds and urban sprawl of the city.

Incidentally, most of the locations mentioned in this article are covered by the Grutto Pass, a discount pass for museums, parks, and other attractions in and around Tokyo. I wrote an extensive article on whether or not you should purchase the Grutto Pass and how to get the most value out of it if you do.