Four hundred stalls crammed along the Yamanote tracks between Ueno and Okachimachi, born as a postwar black market and named for the candy (ame) and American goods once sold here. Today it is fish, fruit, spices, sneakers, bags and the loudest hawkers in Tokyo, under a canopy of hand-painted signs. The market feeds the trains passing overhead with a soundtrack of shouted prices and sizzling street food.
Walk the main strip from the Ueno end, then dip into the parallel lanes where the Asian grocers and standing bars are. It is the opposite of Ginza and the most honest street food in the district, from grilled squid to Turkish kebabs and a pile of cut fruit on a stick.
Tips
- Fishmongers shout prices and discount hard in the last hour, so late afternoon is the bargain time
- Chocolate, dried fruit and cosmetics are the traditional buys, alongside military surplus and trainers upstairs in the Ameyoko Center building
- Stand-up bars under the tracks serve beer and kebabs from mid-afternoon, and the crush before New Year is a Tokyo spectacle