This article contains affiliate links to booking sites. If you book through them, LOCAL SIDE JAPAN earns a small commission at no extra cost to you. Nine of the twelve places below are free or under ¥600 and need no booking at all. How this site is made →
TOKYO / KOTO CITY / THE LIST
Koto City is the ward that Tokyo’s canals built and that most visitors only touch at teamLab Planets and Toyosu Market before going back across the river. That is a mistake, and an easy one to fix, because the rest of the ward is fifteen minutes away and mostly free. Here are twelve things to do in Koto City, from the Meiji garden and the roaster district in the north-west to the bridge you can walk across at the mouth of the bay, chosen and ordered by someone who works in Kitasuna and has done all of them more than once. Prices and hours were checked on September 18, 2026.
On this page
The best things to do in Koto City, in order
1. Kiyosumi Garden, ¥150
A stroll garden built in the 1880s by the founder of Mitsubishi, who had famous stones shipped from all over Japan and set them around a pond you cross on stepping stones. Herons, turtles, carp, and at 9:00 on a weekday almost nobody. ¥150, open 9:00 to 17:00, directly outside exit A3 of Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Station. The full morning around it is in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa on a weekday.
2. The coffee roasters of Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
Blue Bottle opened its first shop outside the United States here in 2015, in a former warehouse, because the ceilings were high and the rent was not. Allpress Espresso is in a converted timber warehouse behind the garden; ARiSE roasts in the back of a counter with a few stools; KOFFEE MAMEYA Kakeru serves coffee as a tasting course. A pastry and a latte cost ¥1,200 to ¥1,800 at any of them. Weekday mornings; Saturday afternoons have queues.
3. Fukagawa Edo Museum, ¥400
A full-size block of 1840s Fukagawa rebuilt inside a hall: tenements, a rice shop, a boat landing, a fire tower, with the lighting cycling from dawn to night every twenty minutes. You go into the houses and sit on the floor. ¥400 for adults, ¥50 for children, closed the second and fourth Monday. Three minutes from the garden and the single best thing in the ward for children. Tickets, hours and what is inside →
4. The fire ritual at Fukagawa Fudo-do, free
Five times a day, at 9:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00 and 17:00, monks light a fire in the main hall and chant over four taiko drums, loud enough to feel in your chest. Watching is free; sit in the hall, be quiet, do not photograph the ritual. Next to Monzen-Nakacho Station. Tomioka Hachimangu, the shrine where Edo’s professional sumo tournaments began, is next door and also free.
5. Sunamachi Ginza shopping street, the price of lunch
Six hundred and seventy meters of independent food shops, prepared-food counters, fishmongers and greengrocers, and the best cheap lunch on the east side: yakitori, tempura, oden and dumplings bought from counters and eaten standing. It is a working market, not a tourist one; keep entrances clear and ask before photographing staff. Bus from Kinshicho or Nishi-Ojima, or 15 minutes on foot from Minami-Sunamachi. The walk that starts here is in the Onagi River guide.
6. The ¥100 boats on the Yokojukken River
A 1.9-kilometer waterside park made from an old canal, with rowing and pedal boats for ¥100 per 30 minutes and, on scheduled days, free rides in traditional wooden boats rowed by volunteers who will hand you the oar. Cash only, no change given, children with an adult. Ten minutes from Sunamachi Ginza. Details and the calendar in the boat park guide.
7. The Nakagawa boat checkpoint, ¥200
Edo inspected every boat entering the city from the east at a checkpoint on the Onagi River from 1661; the site was excavated in 1995 and the Nakagawa Funabansho Museum, fifty meters away, rebuilds it at scale and explains how a city of a million people was fed by water. Walk there along the riverside Salt Road from the boat park. Near Higashi-Ojima Station.
8. The Lucky Dragon No. 5, free
A museum built around one real wooden fishing boat, the one caught in the fallout of the 1954 Bikini hydrogen-bomb test, which inspired the opening scene of the first Godzilla film and was rescued from the Yumenoshima landfill by a citizens’ campaign. Free, closed Mondays, five minutes from Shin-Kiba Station. The story of the boat →
9. Tokyo Gate Bridge on foot, free
The 2.6-kilometer bridge at the mouth of Tokyo Bay that locals call the dinosaur bridge has a pedestrian deck, reached by a lift at Wakasu Park, with the whole bay, Haneda’s approach path and, on a clear day, Mount Fuji laid out from 60 meters up. Free; the walkway is generally open 10:00 to 17:00 with later hours on summer weekend evenings, so check the Tokyo Port Authority page before you go. Bus from Shin-Kiba to Wakasu Camp-jo.
10. Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, ¥500
MOT’s permanent collection is the best-value contemporary art ticket in the city, in a building at the edge of Kiba Park, whose lawns and playground are the ward’s best picnic ground. Closed Mondays. Twenty minutes’ walk from Kiyosumi-Shirakawa through the park, or Kiba Station.
11. teamLab Planets, from about ¥3,800
The barefoot, wade-through-water digital art museum in Toyosu is in Koto City, and it is the one thing on this list you must book ahead. Official tickets are date-priced, from about ¥3,800 on weekdays; Klook sells them at the same face value as the official site, which is the one to use if the official site’s dates are sold out. Avoid the resellers on other booking sites charging ¥7,000 and up for the same ticket. Go at opening or after 18:00; wear trousers you can roll up.
12. Toyosu Market and the tuna auction
Tokyo’s wholesale fish market moved here from Tsukiji in 2018. The public galleries and the sushi counters are free to enter and open from 5:00; the Senkyaku Banrai complex beside it has seventy restaurants and a rooftop hot spring with a view of the bay. Watching the tuna auction from the deck needs a lottery entry a month ahead; if you missed it, the guided tuna auction and market tour (about ¥19,000, 4.9 from 55 reviews) gets you onto the auction floor’s viewing deck with someone who explains the bidding, and is the only paid thing on this list that is worth the money for most people.
Things to see in Koto City if you have longer
- Kameido Tenjin: the wisteria shrine, late April, with the red arched bridge from Hiroshige’s print. Free.
- Kiba Park’s lumber-raft demonstrations: the ward’s old timber trade, on festival days in autumn, by men who still know how to walk on floating logs.
- The Sunamachi Ginza Sumo Stable, in Kitasuna: 90 minutes with former professional wrestlers — bouts from the edge of a real ring, then the ring itself if you want it. Adults ¥11,000, children 4–12 ¥7,700, under 4 free; 11:00 and 15:30; 3-38-16 Kitasuna. The writer of this site runs it, so this is an interest declared rather than a neutral pick — the other ways to see sumo in Tokyo, with prices, are in this comparison. Check times and book direct →
- Ariake and Odaiba’s Koto half: the Big Sight, the Gundam, the beach. Well covered elsewhere; not what this site is for.
How to do Koto City in a day
Morning: Kiyosumi Garden at 9:00, coffee, the Fukagawa Edo Museum, fukagawa-meshi for lunch, the 13:00 fire ritual (1 to 4 above; all within a 20-minute walk). Afternoon: Toei Shinjuku line to Nishi-Ojima, the ¥100 boats, the Onagi River walk to the checkpoint museum, dinner bought on Sunamachi Ginza (5 to 7). Or: Yurakucho line to Toyosu for teamLab at 18:00 and the market’s sushi counters, if you booked. Total cost of the first two, without food: ¥750.
Where this joins the rest of the east side
Koto is the southern end of the east side. North across the Sumida is Ryogoku and the Kokugikan; east along the river is the buried lock at Komatsugawa in Edogawa; the Edo Kiriko workshop and the tattoo-friendly baths are two stops away in Sumida. Everything in the ward is on the Koto City page.
The next ward north has its own list: Things to Do in Sumida Beyond the Skytree.
Quick answers
What is Koto City known for?
Canals and the old Fukagawa waterfront, Kiyosumi Garden, the coffee roasters of Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, Sunamachi Ginza shopping street, Toyosu fish market, teamLab Planets, Kiba Park and the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. It was the lumber and shipping district of Edo and is still cut by working waterways.
Is Koto City worth visiting?
Yes, for a full day. Most of the best things are free or under ¥600 and within a short walk of Kiyosumi-Shirakawa or Sunamachi; teamLab Planets and Toyosu Market are the two paid draws. It is 15 to 30 minutes from Tokyo Station by subway.
What is free to do in Koto City?
The fire ritual at Fukagawa Fudo-do, Tomioka Hachimangu, the Daigo Fukuryu Maru museum, walking Tokyo Gate Bridge, Kiba Park, Kameido Tenjin, the Onagi River Salt Road and Sunamachi Ginza. Kiyosumi Garden is ¥150 and the boats on the Yokojukken are ¥100.
How do I get to Koto City from Tokyo Station?
Hanzomon line to Kiyosumi-Shirakawa (change at Otemachi, about 15 minutes), Toei Shinjuku line to Nishi-Ojima or Higashi-Ojima for the canals, Yurakucho line to Toyosu, JR Keiyo line to Shin-Kiba for the Lucky Dragon museum and Gate Bridge.
Is teamLab Planets in Koto City and how much is it?
Yes, in Toyosu. Official tickets are date-priced from about ¥3,800 on weekdays, more on weekends; Klook sells them at face value. Book ahead and avoid third-party resellers charging ¥7,000 or more for the same entry.
LOCAL SIDE JAPAN checked admissions and hours against the Tokyo Metropolitan Park Association (Kiyosumi Garden), Koto City Cultural Community Foundation (Fukagawa Edo Museum), Fukagawa Fudo-do, MOT, the Tokyo Port Authority (Gate Bridge walkway) and Koto City (boats), and ticket prices on the teamLab, Klook and Viator sites, on September 18, 2026. The writer runs a sumo experience in the ward; it is listed with that interest declared and is not one of the twelve.
Related: Koto City has the only sumo experience in Tokyo where everyone gets into the ring in a real mawashi rather than a costume. All nine Tokyo sumo experiences compared → — including where that one loses.
