A vast, sprawling city, Tokyo lies at the heart of the world’s largest metropolitan area, home to 38 million people. For all its overlay of modernity, Tokyo is really a collection of distinctive neighborhoods linked by its amazingly extensive and efficient public transportation system. In these neighborhoods, you will find the city’s soul.

In the shadows of ultra-modern skyscrapers is a grid of quiet alleys lined with traditional wooden homes and small shrines tucked within lush gardens.