Radical departure

While Scottish students are pulling pints and stocking supermarket shelves for extra cash, their Tokyo counterparts are slipping on white gloves and pushing commuters onto trains during morning rush hour. After that they head to class.

The chap who shoved me inside an already crammed carriage did an excellent job. With my nose pressed against the automatic door, I knew that if I could just hold my breath for ten minutes then I would make it to Tsukiji, one of the world's largest fish markets, and Tokyo's rawest experience.

I went from being packed like a sardine to being surrounded by squid, giant tuna, scallops, sea cucumbers and whale meat, while workers wearing white overalls and black wellies rushed around the place carrying crates, clipboards and chainsaws.

There was a lot of shouting and slicing going on, and I was almost run over by a fork-lift truck, but finally I made it to the sushi stalls. It wasn't even 9am, but the locals were already getting stuck into the freshest and choicest seafood imaginable.

There's so much to savour in the manic Japanese capital. One criticism of Tokyo is that it is all urban sprawl and no heart, but why have one focal point when you can have ten? Embrace the labyrinthine transport system and do something different each day. Strike out and see.

True, the Tokyo transport map makes the same sense if you stand on your head to study it, and there's little language concession for non-natives. However, if you embrace the confusion it does gradually become clearer, and you'll find yourself starting to act like you've been here for three years rather than three short days.

You'll still get lost, but scratch your head or frown long enough and a benevolent citizen, usually elderly, will, with broken English or unorthodox sign language, have you striding purposefully in the right direction again.

But right now I'm perplexed. I'm being taught Japanese chess and there seem to be more squares on the board, plus the pieces look different. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing and I'm losing badly. Tasting defeat, I call for another Sapporo. This is the deliciously atmospheric Golden Gai quarter: one block, dozens of ramshackle bars that look like they're about to fall down. You wander through Kabukicho, the garish red light district, to get here.

Golden Gai is an anachronism in modern Tokyo worth celebrating, the post-war watering holes (drawing an eclectic clientele of artists, bar philosophers and businessmen) resisting time and again the threat of re-development, while the rest of Tokyo is pushed up to the clouds.

The bars are dark and cramped, but wear their idiosyncratic natures well. Besides chess, my host seems to like horse racing (judging by the wall posters and autographs of Frankie Dettori and Kieron Fallon) and Japanese rock (the stack of labelled video tapes beneath a battered telly playing black-and-white footage of mop-top Japanese musicians).

My neighbour pours my beer from my bottle into my glass since you are not supposed to pour your own in Japan. When I'd tried three customers ran from the darkness to stop me.

I can pour my own tea at Andon Ryokan, though. Ryokans were 17th- century rest-houses for feudal lords visiting Tokyo in order to pay their respects to the Shogun. Today they are not only great value, but they offer a refreshing alternative to sterile hotel chains. Normally a ryokan reeks of tradition, but Andon, a sleek glass box on a quiet residential street, is a daring departure from the norm.

Cutting edge combines with a Zen-like calmness. I kick off my house slippers and climb into a serene and compact room, containing little more than a futon, TV and DVD player (you can browse Andon's extensive film library). The beautiful breakfast is prepared by friendly, knowledgeable young Tokyoites, and when you are done pacing Tokyo's streets you can return to the warmth of Andon and soak your weary bones in the private Jacuzzi.

Eating out in Tokyo is fun and visual aids prove useful. In Europe, plastic representations of food suggest an inauthentic tourist trap, but in Japan it's an art form and a God-send for the uninitiated. Point and you shall receive.

So I tuck into my Teishoku (fixed-price lunch of main dish, rice, pickles, the ubiquitous miso soup and unlimited green tea, for Y800 (4) - who said Japan has to be expensive?. The restaurant is in Ginza, the chi-chi district of ostentatious retail therapy. Lunching businessmen smile in my direction as I get my chopsticks in a twist and splash soy sauce on my rice (a no-no). At least someone's providing the entertainment.

Have you ever pointed at camera-flashing Japanese tourists? Visit Japan and the tables are turned. You can walk an entire day in Tokyo without seeing another western face, though I think that sticking out like a sore gaijin magnifies the Tokyo experience - and for the better.

I'm the lone gaijin monorailing between skyscrapers and over the Rainbow Bridge to the futuristic island of Odaiba, a favoured destination of courting couples. I gaze up at one of the tallest Ferris Wheels in the world and in a noisy amusement arcade I amuse myself by sitting on a giant panda and slotting coins in its neck until it takes me for a leisurely walk.

Odaiba was originally meant to protect Tokyo from sea-based attack, but in the 1980s this re-claimed land was re-developed for tourism and business. Outlandish structures such as the Fuji TV building give Odaiba its Jetsons feel. Standing on its beach looking back at the Tokyo skyline is wonderful. Even better is taking the ferry back across the Bay of Tokyo.

Swallowed again by hustle and bustle, I'm in Akihabara, the energetic electronics district, with the main thoroughfare, Chuo Dori, a neon blaze. Chain-smoking men in suits play ear-bleeding pachinko. A cartoon girl who may be a Japanese pop star signs autographs for eager middle-aged males. I duck into a monolithic tower of video games and bash the bongos and, when I'm done drumming, pick up the electric guitar.

Another clear blue Tokyo day starts in trendy Ebisu with a trip to the beer museum. The Japanese like their beer, as well as our whisky, and I learn why from the holographic beer fairy (no kidding) before trying the Y400 (2) tasting tray, which includes blueberry flavoured beer.

By noon I'm in Shibuya, known for its many love hotels; next on the all-reaching Yamanote Line is Shinjuku with its 60 underground exits sought by two million people every day.

Shinjuku is Blade Runner, but instead of folding an origami unicorn, I make for the top of the twin-tower Metropolitan Government Office and catch the blood-red sunset. As darkness falls, the homes of Tokyo's 12 million population, light up below.

It's worth seeking out the traditional coffee shops in Tokyo - and these aren't the kind of ubiquitous cafs blighting Britain, with their oversized couches and tepid coffee in buckets.

Japan is third on the planet for coffee consumption and kissatens have been satisfying the caffeine habit for decades, with business in these family-run cafs remaining as strong as the Japanese like their coffee. In these neighbourhood institutions you may pay Y500 (2.50) for a cup, but it'll be meticulously prepared and stylishly served on a tiny tray at a shrunken table; you half expect the Mad Hatter to turn up. Kissatens offer temporary respite from the hectic modernity of the city, and the coffee's not bad either.

Elsewhere in Tokyo, you can still escape those congested streets and concrete overpasses. Take the Imperial Palace, for example. Closed to visitors for 363 days of the year, that doesn't stop you exploring the 284 acres of lovely gardens.

Then there's Sensoji in Asakusa, the oldest and most popular Tokyo temple, dating from 645. In the epicentre of urban cool, Harajuku - where the teenage girls flaunt their "wicked style", as singer Gwen Stefani puts it - there's the venerable Meiji Shrine, approached through a huge gate along a rather dignified tree-lined path.

Perhaps best of all is the wonderful Honkan Gallery at the Tokyo National Museum. It houses the largest collection of Japanese art and antiquities in the world, and the samurai armour, swords, ceramics, screen prints, calligraphy and many paintings of Mount Fuji are simply but beautifully displayed. This place is worth an hour or two of anyone's time.

It's hard to pitch Tokyo as a city-break destination because of the 12-hour flight time from London, but for me it falls into the ultimate urban destination category along with New York, because of its energy and variety. In a way it's even better than New York, because you are pummelled from the outset by the realisation of a radical cultural departure.

Random images remain in my mind: the blue tarpaulin in Ueno Park, where Tokyo's homeless sleep; men on trains reading manga comics the size of phonebooks; a Harajuku girl dressed as a Labrador; ravens tearing at a discarded coat on a gravestone; a mother and child whirring past on a bicycle. Whatever you see, Tokyo's worth seeing. SM

Factfile Tokyo

How to get there

Fares in September to Tokyo Narita, from Glasgow, via London, start from 561 (not including tax) with KLM. Call Trailfinders on 0141-353 2224 for details.

Where to stay

Funky rooms at Andon Ryokan (00 81 3 3873 8611, www.andon.co.jp), cost 41 per night. For five-stars, try the Park Hyatt (00 81 3 5322 1234, www.parkhyatttokyo.com), at 239 per night for a king room.

and there's more

The Beer Museum Yebisu (4-20-1 Ebisu Garden Place, Ebisu JR station, 10am-6pm Tue-Sun, free, (00 81 3 5423 7255, www.sapporobeer.jp).

Tokyo National Museum, 13-9 Ueno Koen, Ueno JR station, 9:30am-5pm Tue-Sun, admission Y420 (2.15), (00 81 3 3822 1111, www.tnm.go.jp).

An eight-day holiday to Toyko, Kyoto and Mount Fuji, departing from Scottish airports costs from 1,099. Call Scotsman Reader Holidays on 0131-620 8400, or visit www.holidays.scotsman.com, especially for the impressive Honkan Gallery with its permanent 25 room collection of Japanese art and antiquities.

for the decidedly strange virtual-reality tour and the pleasurable tasting lounge at the end of it all

Shoot to the 45th floor of the Metropolitan Government Building, 2-8-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Tocho-mae station, 9:30am to 10pm Tue-Sun, free, (tel 00 81 3 5321 1111) and enjoy the stunning panoramic view of Tokyo.