Tokyo / Ueno & Yanaka / Street

Yanaka Ginza and the Yanesen lanes

谷中銀座と谷根千の路地 やなかぎんざとやねせんのろじ

A 170-metre shopping street of croquettes, cats and shopkeepers who know each other, at the bottom of a flight of "sunset stairs".

EssentialLocal life · Walkable · Food · Quiet · Photogenic · History

Yanaka Ginza is what a Tokyo neighbourhood shopping street was before the supermarket: sixty shops selling one thing each — croquettes, rice crackers, tea, tofu, sandals — along a lane you enter down a stairway that faces the sunset. Around it, the Yanesen district (Yanaka, Nezu, Sendagi) spreads out in wooden houses, temple walls and small galleries: SCAI the Bathhouse, a gallery in a two-hundred-year-old public bath; Asakura Museum of Sculpture, the sculptor's own house and roof garden; and the cemetery, where the last shogun lies under the cedars. Nezu Shrine, with its tunnel of red torii and its azalea hill, is the reward at the far end.

Don't miss

Map of central Tokyo Tokyo Ueno Akihabara Shinjuku Shibuya Shinagawa Ikebukuro Shimbashi Kabukiza Theatre Chuo-dori and the Sunday promenade Ginza Six Ginza Itoya Hama-rikyu Gardens The Ginza gallery walk Tsukiji Hongwanji The Ginza bar streets Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building Imperial Palace East Gardens Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum Marunouchi Naka-dori KITTE and the rooftop garden Idemitsu Museum of Arts Nihonbashi Bridge Mitsukoshi Nihombashi Main Store The old shops of Nihonbashi Artizon Museum Fukutoku Shrine and the Coredo lanes Nihonbashi river cruise Sensoji Temple Kappabashi kitchen street Sumida river water bus The craft and coffee streets west of the temple A kimono day in Asakusa Tokyo Skytree Asakusa Shrine and Sanja Matsuri Tokyo National Museum National Museum of Western Art Ueno Park and Shinobazu Pond Yanaka Ginza and the Yanesen lanes Nezu Shrine Ameyoko market street Asakura Museum of Sculpture Akihabara Electric Town Jimbocho book town Kanda Myojin Shrine Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do) Kanda's old noodle houses Yushima Seido and the Confucian hall Mori Art Museum and Tokyo City View The National Art Center, Tokyo Tokyo Midtown and the Suntory Museum of Art Azabu-Juban shopping street Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple Roppongi after dark Nezu Museum The Omotesando architecture walk Aoyama Cemetery Meiji Jingu Gaien ginkgo avenue The Aoyama and Minami-Aoyama back streets Meiji Jingu Yoyogi Park Takeshita Street and Cat Street Ota Memorial Museum of Art Togo Shrine Shibuya scramble crossing and Hachiko Shibuya Sky Nonbei Yokocho and the Shibuya alleys Udagawacho record shops and Shibuya vintage Tomigaya and Kamiyamacho Live music in Shibuya Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observatories Golden Gai Omoide Yokocho The Isetan food hall Hanazono Shrine Tsukiji Outer Market Toyosu Market and the tuna auction teamLab Planets The Tsukiji-to-Ginza walk The Meguro River cherry trees Daikanyama T-Site Daikanyama's low-rise streets Ebisu Garden Place and the Ebisu restaurant streets Nakameguro's back streets Kagurazaka's stone lanes Akagi Shrine Dining in Kagurazaka Zenkokuji Bishamonten Ryogoku Kokugikan and sumo Edo-Tokyo Museum Kiyosumi Garden Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) The Kiyosumi-Shirakawa roasters Yanaka Ginza and the Yanesen lanes
A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
Tip
Walk it from Nippori station: cemetery, stairs, street, then south through Nezu to the shrine and the Chiyoda line.
Best time
Late afternoon into sunset; late April for the azaleas.
Allow
150 min
Station
Nippori (JR / Keisei), west exit, 5 minutes
Official site — hours, prices, closures
www.yanakaginza.com · Map

Appears in

In this area: Ueno & Yanaka

Museum Essential

Tokyo National Museum東京国立博物館

The national collection — swords, Buddhas, screens, kimono, tea bowls — in six buildings on the edge of the park.

150 min · Ueno (JR, park exit), 10 minutes across the park; Uguisudani (JR), 10 minutes
Museum Essential

National Museum of Western Art国立西洋美術館

Le Corbusier's only building in East Asia, a World Heritage Site, with Rodin in the forecourt and Monet inside.

90 min · Ueno (JR, park exit), 1 minute
Park Essential

Ueno Park and Shinobazu Pond上野公園と不忍池

Japan's first public park — the cherry avenue, the lotus pond, a Toshogu shrine in gold, and a zoo.

90 min · Ueno (JR / Ginza / Hibiya lines), park exit

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