Tokyo

Begin at the temple where fishermen pulled a golden goddess from the river 1,400 years ago, eat your way down Japan's oldest shopping street, then wander through a park built on a civil war battlefield that now holds the nation's greatest artistic treasures.

Watch 3,000 people cross at once without colliding, pay respects to the world's most loyal dog, enter the forest planted to last forever, then lose yourself in the backstreet boutiques where every Japanese street fashion movement was born.

Duck into smoky 6-seat bars where Japan's film rebels plotted the New Wave, eat yakitori shoulder-to-shoulder in an alley called Piss Alley, then find unexpected silence in a garden designed for emperors — all within a few blocks of the world's busiest train station.

Stand on the bridge that marks Japan's distance-zero point, walk the stone walls of the world's largest castle that lost its tower to fire 400 years ago, then cross into the silver mint district where East first met West in brick and gaslight.