Tokyo's southern and western districts are where you'll find the city's younger, hipper areas. The mini-city of Shinjuku – with its skyscrapers, department stores and red-light district – buzzes with life, and includes one of the city's most beautiful parks, Shinjuku Gyoen. A short rail ride west of Shinjuku will bring you to a couple of charming museums where you can learn more about anime (see Manga & anime colour section).

Immediately south of Shinjuku are the ritzy residential, shopping and entertainment districts of Aoyama and Harajuku, a collective showcase of contemporary Tokyo fashion and style. Consumer culture is not the only thing on offer, however; the verdant grounds of the city's most venerable shrine, Meiji-jingū, stretch from Aoyama to Harajuku, where you'll also find the stadiums of Yoyogi-kōen, the focus of the 1964 Olympics. There's plenty of cosmopolitan atmosphere at the designer shops and cafés along the super-chic Omotesandō, a tree-lined boulevard often referred to as Tokyo's Champs Elysées, while the transport hub of Shibuya, further south, is another youth-orientated commercial enclave, with trendsetting shops and restaurants, plus a handful of museums.

Further south, Ebisu and Daikan'yama are also fertile hunting grounds for dining and drinking. Ebisu is home to the excellent Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, while neighbouring Meguro has a couple of interesting museums, as well as the tranquil National Park for Nature Study and Happōen traditional garden and teahouse. It's a short walk east from here to the temple Sengaku-ji, a key location in one of the city's bloodiest true-life samurai sagas, and the transport and hotel hub of Shinagawa, one of the original checkpoints for entry to the old capital of Edo.