Tokyo / Asakusa

Asakusa浅草

The old downtown — Tokyo's oldest temple, its longest-running street of shops, rickshaws, and the river with the Skytree across it.

Sensoji has been here since the seventh century and Asakusa has grown up around it as Tokyo's entertainment quarter — theatres, the first cinema, the first amusement park — and its most tenacious neighbourhood of small trades. The approach through the Kaminarimon gate and the Nakamise lane is the most photographed hundred metres in the country; the reason to stay is what is behind it. Streets of craftsmen selling knives, brushes and the plastic food that every Japanese restaurant window uses; old-fashioned coffee houses; the Sumida river with its water buses; and, before eight in the morning, the temple with almost no one in it.

One-day itineraries

One day · Asakusa

A hands-on day in Asakusa: indigo before the crowds, a knife from Kappabashi, a woodblock print you pull yourself, tea to finish

Asakusa is the district visitors photograph and Tokyoites use for buying tools. Behind the temple lies a working town of dye houses, print studios and the kilometre of kitchen shops that feeds every restaurant in the city. This day is built around four operators we have verified, each of whom will let you do the work yourself. Book the indigo and the woodblock ahead; the knife and the tea can be walked into.

Asakusa · 7 stops

One day · Asakusa, Kappabashi, the Sumida

Asakusa before the crowds: the temple at seven, the kitchen street, and the river down to the shogun's garden

Asakusa is the most visited district in Tokyo and, at seven in the morning, one of the emptiest. This day is built on that hour: the temple to yourself, breakfast in a coffee house from the Showa era, the street where every restaurant in the city buys its knives, and then the river — twelve bridges downstream to a garden the shoguns built on the bay. It ends in Ginza, which is how Tokyo has always ended a day in Asakusa.

Asakusa · Ginza · 8 stops

Places (7)

Map of central Tokyo Tokyo Ueno Akihabara Shinjuku Shibuya Shinagawa Ikebukuro Shimbashi 1 1. Sensoji Temple 2 2. Kappabashi kitchen street 3 3. Sumida river water bus 4 4. The craft and coffee streets west of the temple 5 5. A kimono day in Asakusa 6 6. Tokyo Skytree 7 7. Asakusa Shrine and Sanja Matsuri
A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
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1 Temple Essential

Sensoji Temple浅草寺

Tokyo's oldest temple, founded in 628 — a gate, a lane, a five-storey pagoda and a hall that is never closed.

60 min · Asakusa (Ginza / Asakusa lines, Tobu), exit 1
2 Street Essential

Kappabashi kitchen streetかっぱ橋道具街

Eight hundred metres of restaurant supply — knives, lacquer, ceramics, and the plastic food in every window in Japan.

90 min · Tawaramachi (Ginza line), 5 minutes; or walk 10 minutes west from Sensoji
3 On the water Worth it

Sumida river water bus隅田川の水上バス

Down the river from Asakusa under twelve bridges to the shogun's garden or the bay.

45 min · Asakusa (Ginza / Asakusa lines), exit 4 to the pier
4 District Worth it

The craft and coffee streets west of the temple寺の西側の職人通りと喫茶店

Hoppy Street, Denboin-dori, the old coffee houses and the shops that make one thing by hand.

90 min · Asakusa (Ginza line) or Tawaramachi (Ginza line)
5 Craft Worth it

A kimono day in Asakusa浅草で着物の一日

Rent a kimono, be dressed by hand, and walk the temple town the way it was built to be walked.

240 min · Asakusa (Ginza / Asakusa lines)
6 Viewpoint Worth it

Tokyo Skytree東京スカイツリー

The tallest tower in the world, across the river from the oldest temple — and Fuji on a clear winter morning.

90 min · Tokyo Skytree (Tobu) or Oshiage (Hanzomon / Asakusa lines)
7 Shrine For a second visit

Asakusa Shrine and Sanja Matsuri浅草神社と三社祭

The 1649 shrine beside the temple — the one building on the site that survived the war — and Tokyo's wildest festival.

20 min · Asakusa (Ginza / Asakusa lines), through the temple grounds

Experiences

Operators

Food