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| Kannonji Temple's Tsuiji-bei old mud wall |
After visiting the
Shitamachi Museum I was curious to see how much of the "old" Tokyo remained today and set off to walk around the Yanaka (谷中 - literally "middle of the valley") area in the Western part of Taito Ward, one of the classic places to experience the atmosphere of days gone by. A good place to start is Nezu Station (map bottom left) : head north into the small alleyways and see if you can hook up with Snake Road (Hebi Michi =ヘビ道） - highlighted with a yellow rectangle on the map below. I stopped at a small cafe along this route (to cool off with a mango smoothie) and was lucky enough to meet Prof Sakamoto from Tokyo University who gives walking tours of the area. He explained that Hebi Michi - which winds and turns like a snake - was originally a
river! He recommended I continue north up Hebi Michi until the traffic lights on 452 and then turn right and head towards Choan Temple/Kannon Temple which would bring me to what he considered one of the Shitamachi highlights - the Tsuiji-bei Wall (築地塀), constructed some 200 years ago from layers of hardened mud and tiles (pictured right). After that a short walk through Yanaka Cemetery - which has Shinto, Buddhist, and Christian graves including that of the last Shogun,
Tokugawa Yoshinobu (marked with a red star on the map) - will bring you to Nippori Station (map top right)
So what are the characteristics of Shitamachi? Below I list eight features, adapted from the excellent blog "
Exploring Old Tokyo"(which also has walking maps):
- Nagaya (長屋） terrace (tenement) housing - wooden houses all joined together in a row
- Very narrow twisty alley-ways (delivery companies use push-carts and bikes here - see the middle picture in the series above!)
- Small studios and workshops (アトリア） as well as art galleries
- Flowerpots and plants in the street in front of the houses (not on window-sills)
- No fences either in front of or between houses
- Stray cats (though I didn't actually see many!)
- Lots of shrines and temples
- Tight-knit, friendly, warm neighbourhood bonds
Many of these features can be seen in the pictures above; the route I took is illustrated in the map below. So what's stopping you - go and explore the "old Tokyo"and feel some Tokyo nostalgia!
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| Shitamachi Walking Map of Yanaka and Uenosakuragi in Taito City (Map data ©2017 Google Zenrin) |
