The best 10 places to experience Tokyo in peace

Hypertasking in crowded Tokyo can get out of hand. When you really need some R&R, in a city where even the letter "r" gets stressed, try one of these spots, all for under ¥1,000. 

1. Deep breathing

Shinjuku Gyoen near the Sendagaya Gate.

Shinjuku Gyoen, with 58 hectares (144 acres) of green and 20,000 trees, is big enough to put a damper on the din, and wide enough to restore your sense of perspective. 

You have to fork out ¥200 to enter, but even with the fee, the park gets overrun with lovers and businessmen on breaks near the Shinjuku entrance. 

So head to the less populated grounds near the Sendagaya Gate for serene expanses of grass and open sky. 

Spread out a picnic on the yawning lawn area, or grab a book and a bench near the French formal garden, and let the leaves do their soothing thing. Beware cherry blossom season, when the park's 1,500 bloomers draw massive crowds.   

To get there: Five minutes' walk  from JR Sobu Line's Sendagaya Station

2.  Pooch 'n' beach

Bondi's baristas play in the foam.

Dog tired? You and your furry friend can pant at the beachside vibe of canine-friendly Bondi Café. Comfy designer sofas, wooden floors, and blankets if you prefer the patio, give the place the feeling of home, without the clutter.

Baristas create frothy pastorals in their larger-than-usual lattes (¥630) and sliding glass doors open to the outside as soon as the weather allows. 

The food menu is Asian fusion, but slouches toward the west in dessert selections. 

Laze through the early mornings (from 9 a.m.), and skip the midday hours when the lunch crowd comes and local pre-schools let out.

To get there: 5-15-9 Barbizon70 1F, Minami Azabu. Tel: +81 (0) 3 5422 9449

 

3.  Take a seat

It's maddeningly packed and insanely noisy inside Tokyo's electronics emporiums, but sometimes you just have to go there. The cacophony just makes the relief of this place seem even sweeter.

On the third floor of Yurakucho's Bic Camera, one minute's walk from the JR station, an oasis of bliss awaits in the displays of over-sized massage chairs, reflexology foot rollers, and back thumpers.

You have to stick to the 15 minutes per gizmo rule, but you can test and rest with different massagers for an hour or so, free of charge. Weary shoppers routinely drift off to dreamland here.

Once verging on brutal, the newest massage chairs hit every knot and stretch muscles your didn't know you had. 

We take no responsibility if, tenderized and well-pummeled, you find yourself buying one.

 

 4.  Swan-ee, how I love ya!

Forget that you might look ridiculous inside one of the giant swan boats as you pump your way out to the center of Shinobazu Pond, in Ueno. 

The point is you'll find relative quiet when you get there.

Choose a pastel bird boat, pay your ¥700 for 30 minutes -- cheaper for the rowboats which lack the hilarity and UV protection -- and paddle out to where real birds soar overhead, the sounds of the city drift into a fuzz, and you've got relative anonymity in the shadows. 

Arrive at the pond early enough in the morning, and as the sun comes up, you can hear the huge water lilies "pop" when they open.  

 

5.  Call me crazy

There's some bad news here, but it must be told. 

One of the prettiest stretches of Tokyo, a forest of pines and bamboo that used to run along the Tamagawa River, southeast of Futako Tamagawa Station on the Tokyu Denentoshi and Oimachi Lines, has been chopped down. 

Residents are still furious and protest banners fly at nearly every home. It's not exactly calming to walk alongside chain-link fences and sandbags stacked up for the projected, sanitized promenade, but there is a reward at the end of this desolate road.

Tokio Plage Lunatique is a café-style restaurant that looks like it was plucked from a tiny seaside French town and plonked down by the Tamagawa. 

The food is European good, but for our purposes, taking a glass of wine on the roof is all that is required. 

From a sling-back chair under a resort umbrella, watching the sun set behind Mt. Fuji, with no sounds other than herons, gusts of wind in the remaining few pines, and the very distant white hum of traffic, is as close to a mini vacation as Tokyoites can score for ¥700.

To get there: 1-1-4 Tamagawa, Setagaya-ku. Tel +81 (0) 3 3708 1118