Tokyo / Akihabara & Kanda
Akihabara & Kanda秋葉原・神田
Electric Town and, next to it, the oldest book quarter in the world — plus a shrine, a Russian cathedral, and the soba shops Tokyo measures itself by.
Akihabara is the neon face of Japanese pop culture — electronics, anime, arcades on seven floors, maid cafés — and it deserves an evening. But Kanda, one station south, is where the district's older layers are. Jimbocho has a hundred and fifty second-hand bookshops, many of them specialists in prints, maps or a single century; Kanda Myojin shrine has protected the merchants of Edo since 730 and now blesses laptops; Ochanomizu has the domed Orthodox cathedral of 1891 and a street of guitar shops. And here are the noodle houses — soba since 1880, anago since the Meiji era — that Tokyoites cite when they argue about what the city tastes like.
One-day itineraries
One day · The whole loop
Around the Yamanote line in a day of eating: soba in Kanda, unagi in Ueno, a tea house in a garden, tempura in Shinjuku, tonkatsu in Meguro and oden in Ebisu
The Yamanote loop takes an hour to ride and a lifetime to eat. This day rides it clockwise from Tokyo Station and gets off six times, once for each meal a body can reasonably hold: soba, unagi, tea, tempura, tonkatsu, oden. Every stop is from our station-by-station guide, verified on the date shown; walk times are from the station gates. Buy a day ticket and eat small.
Akihabara & Kanda · Ueno & Yanaka · Shinjuku · Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu · Ginza · 7 stops
One day · Jimbocho, Ochanomizu, Kanda, Akihabara
Books, shrines, noodles and neon: a day on the Kanda ridge from the old bookshops to Akihabara after dark
One ridge above the Kanda river holds three religions, a hundred and fifty second-hand bookshops, the soba houses Tokyo argues about and the world capital of anime. This day walks it east: prints and maps in the morning, a cathedral, a Confucian temple and a shrine that blesses laptops after lunch, and Akihabara when its neon is lit. It is the strangest day in this collection and, for the right person, the best.
Akihabara & Kanda · 7 stops
Places (6)
Akihabara Electric Town秋葉原電気街
Radio parts, anime, seven-storey arcades, retro games and maid cafés — the capital of otaku culture, best after dark.
120 min · Akihabara (JR, Electric Town exit; Hibiya line; Tsukuba Express)
Jimbocho book town神保町古書店街
A hundred and fifty second-hand bookshops on one street, the largest in the world — prints, maps, ukiyo-e, first editions, and curry.
120 min · Jimbocho (Hanzomon / Mita / Shinjuku lines), exit A7
Kanda Myojin Shrine神田明神
Guardian of Edo's merchants since 730, now blessing laptops — vermilion halls above Akihabara and one of Tokyo's three great festivals.
40 min · Ochanomizu (JR / Marunouchi line), 5 minutes; Akihabara, 10 minutes uphill
Kanda's old noodle houses神田の老舗麺処
Soba since 1880, anago since Meiji, an eel house in a wooden building — the restaurants Tokyo argues about.
60 min · Awajicho (Marunouchi line) or Ogawamachi (Shinjuku line), 3 minutes
Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do)ニコライ堂（東京復活大聖堂）
The green-domed Russian Orthodox cathedral of 1891 on the Ochanomizu ridge, with its bells still rung by hand.
30 min · Ochanomizu (JR / Marunouchi line) or Shin-Ochanomizu (Chiyoda line), 2 minutes
Yushima Seido and the Confucian hall湯島聖堂
The black-lacquered Confucian temple of the shogun's academy, ten minutes from the arcades and silent as a library.
25 min · Ochanomizu (JR / Marunouchi line), Hijiribashi exit, 2 minutes
Experiences
Operators
Food
- Soba · ¥
- Unagi · ¥¥¥
- The kissaten · ¥