Tokyo: The less seen parts of Asakusa

Yanesen, Tokyo

If you only have a short stop in Tokyo, and want to get a good feel for the tradition and culture of the place, then Asakusa is probably the place to be. We were specifically here for the festival and I will cover that, and the Sensoji Temple where it was held, in the next post, but even without the festival, this is a vibrant, interesting and varied area.

Whilst we do, of course, go to specific 'sights', if we have the time, we do also like to spend time just wandering around areas, and trying to get a feel of the place we are in. One of our first expeditions in Tokyo was one of these wandering days, but broadly following a suggested walk, so that we knew we would pass a few temples etc along the way.

Yanesen, Tokyo

We liked the Yanesen area, as it is what much of Tokyo would have been like before the high rises and technology arrived. As an aside, given what we have all heard about how busy and cramped Tokyo is, we were actually very surprised at how little of that we saw. Yes, the centre areas were high rise and sometimes a bit frenetic, but if you venture out just a little, then the buildings are pretty standard, and it feels far more relaxed.

Yanesen, Tokyo

Yanasen is actually a collective name for the YAnaka, NEsu and SENdagi areas - see how they got that. We only walked some of it, missing out the cemetery and much filmed steps, and some of the biger of the hundred or so temples in the area. Instead, we stuck to some of the little alleyways and smaller temples.

The reason this area is such a connection with the past is simple - these shitamachi neighbourhoods somehow survived both the devastating 1923 Kanto earthquake, and the bombings of Word War II. What is even more impressive, is that Yanesen has somehow managed to escape the hands of developers. Long may that continue.

Enjyu-ji Temple, Yanesen, Tokyo

This isn't an area where you will find a lot of tourists either. Most simply don't make it out this far from the main sights. Personally I thought it was worth a wander around the little shops, popping into some nice little cafes.

Enjyu-ji Temple, Yanesen, Tokyo

The local sights aren't grandiose, but they are varied: there's the Enjyu-ji Temple, which is apparently good for healing ailments of the waist and foot; the tomb of Okubo Monto, an old samurai; and the now slightly decrepit former bread shop, Mikado Pan, with its huge old Himalayan Cedar tree towering above it.

Yanesen, Tokyo

Mikado Pan, Yanesen, Tokyo

Mikado Pan & cedar tree, Yanesen

Okubo Monto tomb, Yanesen, Tokyo

Imado Jinja Shrine, Tokyo

Another place that we visited around Asakusa was the Imado Jinja Shrine, which is one of the places that claims to have been the origin of the maneki-neko, the beckoning cat, or lucky cat.

Imado Jinja Shrine, Tokyo

To us westerners, the cat appears to be waving, but in many Asian countries, people beckon with their palm facing downwards, so the cat is beckoning, not waving.

Imado Jinja Shrine, Tokyo

Often thought of as Chinese, because it is so popular over there, it actually came from Japan. There are various stories about the origin, almost of which involve a cat somehow saving the day by beckoning people over.

Imado Jinja Shrine, Tokyo

Imado Jinja Shrine, Tokyo

Imado Jinja Shrine, Tokyo

It is a nice shrine, and needless to say, it has a lot of cat figures. As the maneki-neko here are said to represent a fateful encounter, it is apparently very popular with women, who leave the little wooden ema, or wishing tokens, in hope of meeting their future spouse.

Imado Jinja Shrine, Tokyo

Imado Jinja Shrine, Tokyo

Imado Jinja Shrine, Tokyo

Asahi Beer HQ, Tokyo

We thoroughly enjoyed being in Asakusa. From seeing the rather unique Asahi Beer HQ building, with the taller modelled on a beer glass (see the 'foam' on top), and the shorter having a Philippe Stark designed 'Golden Flame' (no, it isn't a poo) on top, to being in a tiny little bar and getting introduced to a guy who apparently is a famous writer of Noh Theatre. At least we think that is what he was famous for, their English was very limited.

Tokyo

We also finally got around to trying some proper sushi here - or at least Nic did, I just had a drink! I was much happier - and less hungry - when we found a couple more yakiniku places, which weren't as nice as the Ebisu one, but did have an interesting dish where you melt a ball of candyfloss on top of the food. We had to try it, and it was OK, but I wouldn't actually recommend it.

Yakiniku, Tokyo

Of course the main sight here is the Sensoji Temple and the Nakamise Shopping Street, which I'll tell you about on Saturday.

Sushi, Tokyo

Nic with Sushi, Tokyo

Tokyo: Shibuya – Crossings, craft beer, cats and cooking our own dinner

A quiet Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo

The Shibuya district of Tokyo is the main business and shopping area, famous – or is that infamous -for its pedestrian crossing. The crossing is the kind that has now been introduced in some parts of the UK, such as Oxford Circus, where all vehicles are stopped, allowing people to cross in all directions at once, including diagonally.

It is known for being incredibly busy, with hundreds of people crossing at one time. That may be the case in peak hours, but we couldn’t be bothered to get up that early, so it wasn’t too bad when we were there.

Shibuya, Tokyo

The retail area is quite crowded and we weren't interested in shopping, but the thing that did catch our eye was the pet shop, which had various puppies and kittens for sale. The shop was certainly gathering a lot of interest, but what amazed us were the prices. We had to double check our exchange rate calculations, as we were stunned how much was being asked for, what seemed to me, to be mostly non-pedigree cats; we were looking at hundreds of pounds.

Cat café, Tokyo

Talking of cats, we decided to try out one of the cat cafes. There were a good few cats around, and they all seemed healthy and reasonably happy, but they weren't especially friendly. I don't know if we caught them at an off time, but they weren't too keen on playing or interacting that much.

Cat café, Tokyo

We were a bit confused by the Japanese visitors approach to the cats though; instead of stroking them, they would pat them, which didn't generally go down too well. They had plenty of  out of re way spaces to escape to if they wished, and some nice comfortable beds. Of course being cats, they didn't necessarily use those, and one had decided to squish itself into a little birdcage.

One part of Tokyo that I would definitely recommend for poking around, is the area around Ebisu and Daikanyama. Both have nice little shops and good places to eat and drink. There is a disused railway line in Daikanyama, called Log Road, which has a few shops that were a bit disappointing - others in the area were better - and is home to the Spring Valley Brewery.

The brewery is run by Kirin, but has a more interesting range of beers, and it looked like a really nice place to sit and eat and try their beer flight. Unfortunately the day we went turned out to be beautifully sunny, so the wait to get in wasn't something we wanted to bother with. But there were plenty of other places not far away.

Okusa Oumi-tei, Ebisu, Tokyo

One of our favourite restaurants in Tokyo was a chance find in Ebisu. It is called Okuza Oumi-tei, and is a yakiniku place where you order your own selection of meat and cook it on a mini barbeque at your table.

We went to a few of this, but this one was excellent. There was a great selection of meats, from fillet of beef to tongue, and it was really good quality. Very tasty and highly recommended.

Okusa Oumi-tei, Ebisu, Tokyo

Okusa Oumi-tei, Ebisu, Tokyo