Tokyo
in the Rainy Season.

The Narita Express runs underground for the first hour after landing — the rain does not affect you. Drop the bags at the hotel by 17:00. Dinner is the closest standing ramen counter; the desk's standing pick on arrival night is Afuri, with locations across the city, yuzu-shio ramen that is light enough for a tired stomach. After ramen, the local sento (public bath) for thirty minutes.

Roppongi's three museums sit inside a fifteen-minute walking radius, all connected by covered arcades and the underground passage from Roppongi station. The desk's rule for rainy days is two of three — the Mori Art Museum and 21_21 Design Sight, with the National Art Center reserved for a different day. Lunch between is in the Tokyo Midtown food court (covered, dry, twelve options).

Evening is the Roppongi Hills observation deck (52F) — the rain on the windows is the view, on this day. Bath: Azabu-Juban Onsen, an underground onsen ten minutes' walk down the slope.

teamLab Planets in Toyosu is the desk's standing rainy-day anchor — a full-immersion digital-art installation where visitors walk barefoot through ankle-deep water and through mirrored rooms of moving light. The visit is two to three hours; tickets are timed-entry, booked at least a week ahead; the Yurikamome line goes there directly from Shimbashi.

Lunch is at Toyosu Market, three stops away, since you are already in the bay area — the food court is the post-Tsukiji market, with sushi counters that open from 06:00. Afternoon: return to central Tokyo by Yurikamome over the Rainbow Bridge (the train is automated and indoor — the bay view in the rain is its own image).

Ueno Park has five major museums on a single triangle. The National Museum of Western Art (Le Corbusier, 1959 — UNESCO since 2016), the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Maekawa, 1975), and the Tokyo National Museum (Honkan, 1937; the heaviest collection). The triangle is covered by arcades; you stay dry between buildings.

The desk's rule for Ueno: pick two, not three. The Western Art building is short (90 minutes); the National Museum's Honkan needs two hours; the Metropolitan rotates. Lunch in the Metropolitan's café (Maekawa-style, quiet, unmistakable); evening at Yanaka's Saito-yu, a 1930s sento with cypress benches.

The Nezu Museum in Aoyama is the rainy day's most-rewarded venue — a Kengo Kuma building (2009) holding the Nezu family's pre-modern Asian art collection, with a hidden three-acre garden that is the actual reason to come. The garden is roofed at the entrance, paved through the main loop, and includes four teahouses scheduled along the path. You can walk it in the rain without an umbrella for most of the loop.

Lunch at NEZU CAFÉ (inside the museum, plate-glass into the garden). Afternoon: a walk down Omotesandō under the trees, ending at Ko-fuku Coffee Roastery or a kissaten of choice. Evening unscheduled; the desk's rule is that day five of a rainy week has a free evening.

Sumida-ku, east of the river, has two indoor anchors: the Sumida Hokusai Museum (SANAA, 2016 — an aluminum-clad cube with the Hokusai prints inside) and the Edo-period boats moored at the Old Yasuda Garden boathouse. The river itself is dry to cross — the Ryōgoku Bridge has a covered pedestrian deck.

Late afternoon: the Sky Tree base. The tower's lower-level shopping arcades and aquarium are indoor, dry, and well-organized. The observation deck itself is optional — in the tsuyu rain it is mostly cloud, so the desk's standing rule is to skip the top and stay at the base. Dinner at a sumo-themed chankonabe house in Ryōgoku.

A short morning. Coffee at Kayaba Coffee in Yanaka (covered approach from the station) or, if your hotel is closer, the kissaten attached. A walk through Daikanyama T-Site (Klein Dytham, 2011 — the city's most considered bookshop, three pavilions linked by covered walkways) before the Narita Express. Two airports, both reached without leaving an arcade.