Shitamachi, the “low city”, is the flat land east of the Imperial Palace where Edo’s merchants and craftsmen lived. It survived fire, earthquake and war in patches, and those patches are where Tokyo still moves at walking pace.
Asakusa before nine
Senso-ji’s grounds never close, and the main hall opens at six (6:30 in winter). Arrive by eight, through Kaminarimon and up a Nakamise-dori still behind its painted shutters, and you have the temple almost to yourself with the incense burner, the five-storey pagoda and the morning sweepers. Pull an omikuji fortune for ¥100; if it is bad, tie it to the rack and leave it behind. By ten the shops are open and the crowds arrive, which is your cue to leave.
Walk west along Kappabashi, the street of kitchenware wholesalers between Asakusa and Ueno. Knives, ceramics, lacquerware and the plastic food samples in every restaurant window are all sold here, at trade prices. Many shops close on Sundays. Then back toward the river: Pelican, the bread shop that has made nothing but loaves and rolls since 1942, sells out by early afternoon and is closed on Sundays and holidays.
Across the Sumida
Cross Azuma-bashi and the Sumida riverside promenade runs north toward Skytree, with the Asahi building’s gold flame behind you. The river is the reason Shitamachi exists, and a walk along it at eight in the morning (joggers, fishermen, the first water buses) is the calmest hour the district offers. At Ryogoku, a short hop south, the Sumida Hokusai Museum (¥400 for the permanent collection, closed Mondays) is small and well done, and the Edo Kiriko glass-cutting workshops nearby sell the faceted tumblers that Sumida has produced since the 1830s; a simple glass starts around ¥5,000.
Yanaka: temples, cats and the stairs at sunset
Take the Yamanote to Nippori and leave by the west exit. Yanaka escaped the 1945 firebombing and keeps the street grid, wooden houses and more than seventy temples of the old town. Walk through Yanaka Cemetery (the ginkgo avenue, the cat population, the grave of the last shogun) to the Yuyake Dandan steps, which drop into Yanaka Ginza, a short shopping street of croquette stands, tea shops and cat-themed everything. It is best around four in the afternoon, when the name (sunset stairs) earns itself.
From there, Kayaba Coffee, in a 1938 house on the corner by Ueno Sakuragi, does an egg sandwich and a proper hand-dripped coffee from eight in the morning. SCAI the Bathhouse, a 200-year-old sento turned contemporary gallery, is a two-minute walk and free (closed Sunday and Monday). Nezu Shrine, fifteen minutes west, has a tunnel of small torii and an azalea garden that is Tokyo’s best in late April.
The sento habit
Public baths are Shitamachi’s living room. Entry is set by the city at around ¥550 for adults; bring a small towel or buy one for ¥200–300, and leave your shoes in the locker by the door. Wash thoroughly at the seated taps before entering the bath, keep towels out of the water, and do not be surprised by the heat: 42 degrees is normal. Jakotsuyu in Asakusa, a few minutes from Tawaramachi station, is a good first bath, with dark mineral water and an outdoor tub, open from the afternoon until midnight and closed Tuesdays. Tattoos are generally tolerated in neighborhood sento, unlike the big onsen complexes, but cover large pieces if you can.
Ueno: museums, market and the pond
Ueno Park holds the Tokyo National Museum (¥1,000, closed Mondays; the Honkan building alone is two hours), the National Museum of Western Art in a Le Corbusier building, and Shinobazu Pond, which disappears under lotus leaves in July and August. Below the park, Ameyoko runs under the Yamanote tracks to Okachimachi: fishmongers, dried-fruit sellers, sneaker stalls and standing bars that start pouring at eleven. The side streets between Ameyoko and the park are full of old kissaten; order the morning set (coffee, thick toast, boiled egg, around ¥600–700) before ten and watch the regulars read the paper.
A morning route that joins them
Start at Senso-ji at eight, walk Kappabashi by half past nine, reach Ueno Park by ten and do one museum, eat in Ameyoko at noon, then take the Yamanote two stops to Nippori and spend the afternoon in Yanaka, finishing on the Yuyake Dandan steps as the light goes. That is seven or eight kilometres on foot, almost all of it flat, and it is the best single day in Tokyo for understanding what the city was before it was tall.