What Is Open in Tokyo on Monday

Museums and public gardens in Japan take a weekly rest day, and for the national and metropolitan institutions that day is Monday. The Tokyo National Museum states it plainly: closed Mondays, excluding holidays, on which days it opens on the Monday and closes the following day instead. Shinjuku Gyoen uses almost identical wording, closing Mondays and moving to the next weekday when a Monday is a national holiday.

Ueno Zoo does the same. The Imperial Palace East Gardens, run by the Imperial Household Agency, go further and close on Fridays as well.

Religious sites do not work that way at all. Senso-ji publishes no closed days anywhere on its site, and the Main Hall runs 06:00 to 17:00 from April to September and 06:30 to 17:00 from October to March. Meiji Jingu states that it is open every day of the year and simply moves its opening and closing with sunrise and sunset, from 06:40 to 16:20 in January out to 05:00 to 18:30 in June.

Commercially run attractions follow the money rather than a calendar: the Skytree's operator shows no closed date at all on its own opening-hours calendar, and Shibuya Sky closes on exactly one day a year.

The reversal, and why it is worse than the original problem

When a Monday is a national holiday, almost every venue in the closed column opens and takes the Tuesday off instead. That would be harmless if it applied to everything at once, but it does not. The Metropolitan Government's south observatory already closes on the first and third Tuesday of the month, and the National Art Center in Roppongi closes on Tuesdays as its normal day.

So a holiday Monday gives you a good Monday and then a Tuesday on which the museums, one observation deck and the art centre are all shut together. If your trip contains a holiday Monday, plan the Tuesday first.

Temples, shrines and the streets around them

Senso-ji is the single best Monday morning in Tokyo and it costs nothing. The Main Hall opens at 06:00 in the summer half of the year, the Nakamise approach is empty before eight, and the temple publishes no closed days at all. Meiji Jingu is the same proposition in a forest, free, open every day, and best in the first hour after opening. Both are on the temples and shrines hub, and a guided version of the Asakusa morning is a two-hour walk at $12.99.

Parks, streets and the free views

Ueno Park itself is always open with no fixed closing time, which is worth knowing precisely because the zoo and the national museum inside it are both shut; the grounds, the pond and the shrine paths are a perfectly good Monday hour. Shibuya Crossing is a public intersection. And the Metropolitan Government Building south observatory is free, takes no reservation of any kind, and runs 09:30 to 22:00 with last admission at 21:30 on a Monday. On the second and fourth Monday of the month the north deck beside it is shut, so aim for the south one and you will never be wrong.

The paid views, all of which are open

Tokyo Skytree runs a standard 10:00 to 22:00 with last admission an hour before closing and no regular closed day, from $11.66 (¥1,800) online for the Tembo Deck, with a ¥500 surcharge if you buy at the fourth-floor counter. Tokyo Tower opens its Main Deck 09:00 to 23:00 at $9.72 (¥1,500). Shibuya Sky runs 10:00 to 22:30, last admission 21:20, at $17.50 (¥2,700) online for an entry before 15:00 and $22.00 (¥3,400) from 15:00; its open-air rooftop closes in bad weather, so a wet Monday buys you the indoor floor.

The digital-art venues, which are the strongest Monday bookings

Neither teamLab venue has a weekly closed day. teamLab Planets in Toyosu opens at 08:00 and runs to 22:00, and its tickets are sold online only, never at the venue, which makes it the one thing on this page you have to sort out before you set off. teamLab Borderless at Azabudai Hills runs 08:30 to 21:00. Both take timed entry, both publish occasional single-date closures on their own calendars, and the ticket page compares the tiers. If it is raining on your Monday, this is the answer.

Markets, with one caveat

Tsukiji Outer Market is a shopping street rather than an institution: the information centre runs 08:00 to 14:00 on weekdays and Saturdays, and individual shops set their own closed days, so a Monday there is busy but patchy. Toyosu Market is the caveat. Its closed days are set annually and separately for seafood, produce, meat and flowers by the city government after consulting the market's own trading council, and they are published only as per-category calendar files rather than a weekly pattern. The rooftop green plaza stays open 05:00 to 23:00 even on closed days.

Check the date; do not assume.

The Tokyo National Museum is the big loss. It is the country's oldest and largest museum, the collection galleries are $6.48 (¥1,000) for a general ticket, and it runs to 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, which is the argument for moving it to the end of the week rather than trying to replace it. If you need a museum on the Monday itself, the National Art Center in Roppongi is open, closes on Tuesdays instead, and charges only for its exhibitions.

The Ghibli Museum, which is its own problem

The Ghibli Museum does not publish a weekly closed day at all. It publishes a calendar, month by month, with the closed dates marked on it, and that calendar is the only statement of the fact. It is also the hardest ticket in the city, sold exclusively through one channel with a monthly release, so the closed day is rarely the thing that stops you.

Check the month you are visiting on the museum's own calendar before anything else, and read the ticket page for how the release works.

The logic is simple: put the two free religious sites at the ends of the day when they are empty, put the one advance-booked venue in the morning when its slots are cheapest to get, and finish on a free view rather than a paid one. Total spend is one ticket.

If it rains

Swap the 13:00 and 15:30 blocks for teamLab Borderless at Azabudai Hills, which runs to 21:00 and has no weekly closure, and keep the observatory for last: the south deck is indoors and the view after rain is the clearest you will get. The things-to-do hub has the wet-weather list in full.

If your Monday is a holiday

Reverse it. The museums are open, so put the Tokyo National Museum in the middle of the day and move this routing to the Tuesday, minus the National Art Center and minus the Metropolitan Government's south deck on the first and third Tuesday of the month.

On each of these six Mondays the Tokyo National Museum, Ueno Zoo, Shinjuku Gyoen and the Imperial Palace East Gardens are open, and each closes on the day after. The Emperor's Birthday on Tuesday 23 February is the one holiday the East Gardens do not open for at all, which is a rule specific to that garden.

The one Monday that is worse than usual

The first Monday of January. The museums are still inside their year-end closure rather than merely taking a Monday, the gardens are shut from 28 or 29 December to 3 January, and the shrines are at their absolute fullest for hatsumode. Everything in the open list still works, but expect the free places to be crowded in a way they never otherwise are. The New Year section of the seasons page has the venue-by-venue closure dates.

Friday at the Imperial Palace East Gardens. The gardens close on Mondays and Fridays both, which means a visitor with a Friday-and-Monday city break can miss them entirely without ever doing anything wrong. Hours also shrink with the season: 09:00 to 17:00 from 1 March to 14 April, out to 18:00 from 15 April to the end of August, then back through 16:30 in October to 16:00 from November to the end of February, with last entry half an hour before each.

The first and third Tuesday at the Metropolitan Government's south observatory, and the second and fourth Monday at the north one, each moving to the next weekday when it lands on a holiday. Both decks also close from 29 to 31 December and on 2 and 3 January, plus building inspection days announced on the day. Neither takes advance or group reservations at all, so there is nothing to do but check the schedule.

Tuesday at the National Art Center in Roppongi, which is the substitute this page recommends for a Monday and therefore worth stating twice. When a Tuesday is a national holiday it opens and closes the following working day instead.

And the two with no weekly rule at all

Toyosu Market sets its closed days annually and per commodity category, published only as calendar files, so there is no weekday you can rely on. The Ghibli Museum publishes a monthly closure calendar and nothing else. For both, the answer is the same: open the venue's own calendar for your date rather than trusting any weekday rule, including this page's.