MCP Integration

tokyo.how provides an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that lets AI assistants like Claude directly search and retrieve our Tokyo guides. Instead of browsing the site manually, you can ask your AI assistant questions about Tokyo and it will pull accurate, up-to-date information from our guide database.

What is MCP?

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard developed by Anthropic that allows AI assistants to connect to external data sources and tools. Think of it as a bridge between your AI assistant and real-world information.

With MCP, your AI assistant can go beyond its training data and access live, structured information from services like tokyo.how — giving you more accurate and current answers about life in Tokyo.

What Information Can You Get?

Through our MCP server, your AI assistant gains access to the following tools:

Search Guides

Full-text search across all tokyo.how guides. Ask about any topic — transportation, food, housing, healthcare — and get ranked results with relevance scores. Supports both English and Japanese queries.

Get Guide Details

Retrieve the complete content of any specific guide, including the full article text, category, and metadata. Your AI assistant can read the entire guide to give you detailed, accurate answers.

Browse Categories

List all available guide categories (Transport, Food, Culture, Housing, Finance, Healthcare, and more) with article counts, so you can explore what topics are covered.

List All Guides

Browse the complete catalog of guides, optionally filtered by language or category. Useful for discovering guides you didn't know existed.

Setup for Claude Desktop

Follow these steps to connect Claude Desktop to tokyo.how's MCP server:

Step 1: Install Node.js

If you don't have Node.js installed, download it from nodejs.org. The LTS version is recommended.

Step 2: Open Config File

Open Claude Desktop's configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

You can also access this from Claude Desktop: click the Claude menu → Settings → Developer → Edit Config.

Step 3: Add the MCP Server

Add the following entry inside the "mcpServers" object in your config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tokyo.how": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://tokyo.how/mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

If you already have other MCP servers configured, simply add the "tokyo.how" entry alongside them.

Step 4: Restart Claude Desktop

Completely quit and relaunch Claude Desktop. The MCP server indicator should appear in the bottom-right corner of the chat input area.

Example Prompts

Once connected, try asking Claude things like:

• "How do I use a Suica card in Tokyo?"
• "What are the best ramen spots in Tokyo?"
• "How do I set up a bank account in Japan?"
• "What guides does tokyo.how have about transportation?"
• "Show me all available guide categories"

Claude will automatically use the tokyo.how MCP tools to search and retrieve the most relevant guide content to answer your question.

Troubleshooting

If the MCP server doesn't appear in Claude Desktop:

• Verify your JSON syntax is correct (use a JSON validator if needed)
• Make sure Node.js is installed and npx is available in your PATH
• Check Claude Desktop logs at ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\logs\mcp*.log (Windows)
• Try restarting Claude Desktop completely

For Other MCP Clients

tokyo.how's MCP endpoint is available at:

https://tokyo.how/mcp

It uses the Streamable HTTP transport protocol and operates in stateless mode. Any MCP-compatible client can connect to this endpoint. Refer to your client's documentation for setup instructions.