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Ueno Park History Walk, Part 2: From Battlefield to Museum Hill, with Le Corbusier

This post contains affiliate links. If you book through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

In Part 1 we walked the south side of Ueno Park: the shoguns’ temple of Kan’ei-ji, the Battle of Ueno in 1868, and the racecourse around Shinobazu Pond. We ended with a question. The battle left most of the hilltop in ashes, so what happened to all that empty land?

The answer is all around you on the north side of the park. In about 150 years, the burned temple grounds became Japan’s greatest museum quarter: the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Nature and Science, and the National Museum of Western Art, Le Corbusier’s only building in Japan. Along the way we will meet a Dutch doctor with the wrong face, a ghost station built with the Emperor’s permission, and, at the end, a bridge where the ancient seashore meets Tokyo’s busiest railway lines.

Quick facts

Route	JR Ueno (Park Exit) → Tokyo Bunka Kaikan → National Museum of Western Art → National Museum of Nature and Science → Bauduin statue → fountain square → Tokyo National Museum → old Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen Station and Sogakudo → Kan’ei-ji main hall → Ryodaishi Bridge
Distance	About 2 km, mostly flat
Time	1.5 hours outside only, or a full half day with one museum
Cost	Walking is free, and so are the Rodin sculptures outside the National Museum of Western Art. Tokyo National Museum collection: ¥1,000. Western Art permanent collection: ¥500 (¥1,000 from 20 March 2027)
Avoid	Mondays: the main museums are closed
Nearest stations	Start: JR Ueno, Park Exit. Finish: JR Ueno or JR Uguisudani

Start: the Park Exit

JR Ueno Station’s Park Exit (Koen-guchi) is the front door of the museum quarter. As soon as you walk out of the ticket gates, the National Museum of Western Art is on your left and the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan concert hall on your right, with the zoo and the museums beyond.

The Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, opened in 1961, is the work of Kunio Maekawa, one of Le Corbusier’s Japanese students. It faces his teacher’s museum across the square, which is a nice way to begin. Note that the hall is closed for major renovation from May 2026 until some time in fiscal 2028, so for now you can only see it from outside.

Le Corbusier’s museum: the National Museum of Western Art

The National Museum of Western Art opened in 1959. Its story begins with a businessman, Matsukata Kojiro, who collected thousands of European paintings and sculptures in the early 20th century. Part of his collection stayed in France and was held by the French government after the Second World War. When France agreed to return many of the works to Japan, Japan promised to build a museum for them, and Le Corbusier was chosen to design it. His Japanese students, Maekawa Kunio, Sakakura Junzo and Yoshizaka Takamasa, finished the drawings and supervised the work.

At first sight it is a plain box. But look at how it stands. The ground floor is lifted on columns, with open space underneath: Le Corbusier called these columns pilotis. Inside, the galleries wind around a central hall in a square spiral. His idea was a “museum of unlimited growth”, which could keep expanding outward like a snail shell as the collection grew. In 2016 the building became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as one of 17 works by Le Corbusier in seven countries listed together.

On my visit, the special exhibition was so crowded that I could not get in. Many visitors seemed to have come for the World Heritage building as much as the art. But I have been here many times before, and I can say this: the permanent collection is wonderful, and a bargain. Look for El Greco, Monet and Renoir. Adults pay ¥500, university students ¥250, and high school students and younger are free. From 20 March 2027 the price for adults rises to ¥1,000 and for students to ¥500, still very reasonable.

Rodin in the front garden, free

You do not need a ticket for the best-known works. In the front garden stand Rodin’s The Gates of Hell and The Thinker.

Find the small seated figure above the doors. Rodin first made The Thinker as part of this gate, looking down on the souls below, before he enlarged it as a separate statue. Then walk over to the big Thinker, which you can see from very close. Look carefully at his pose: he rests his right elbow on his left thigh. Try it yourself. It is surprisingly uncomfortable! Then look at his feet. His toes are curled and gripping the stone, as if his whole body is working, not only his head.

A whale and a rocket launcher: the National Museum of Nature and Science

Next door is the National Museum of Nature and Science, founded in 1877, Japan’s main museum of natural history and science. Even from outside there are two things to see. One is a life-size model of a blue whale, about 30 meters long, diving beside the entrance. The other is a big red launcher. It is not a rocket, but the real launch rail used for the Lambda rocket that put Japan’s first satellite, Ohsumi, into orbit in 1970, from Uchinoura in Kagoshima Prefecture.

Why is this a park? Thank a Dutch doctor

Walk on toward the fountain. Past the Starbucks, at the back on the right, stands a small bust that most visitors walk straight past. This man is the reason Ueno Park exists.

After the Battle of Ueno, the new government planned to build a medical school and hospital on the burned hilltop, and work had already started. In 1870, the Dutch army doctor Anthonius Bauduin, who was teaching medicine in Japan, was shown the site. He told the Japanese officials that it would be a waste to cut down the trees, and that Ueno should become a park, like the great parks of European cities. The medical school was moved to Hongo instead, and became the University of Tokyo. In 1873 Ueno was named one of Japan’s first public parks, together with Asakusa, Shiba, Fukagawa and Asukayama, and it opened officially in 1876. Without Dr. Bauduin, Ueno might be a university campus today.

The wrong face, again

Remember Saigo Takamori’s statue in Part 1, whose widow said, “My husband was not like this”? Ueno has a second face problem. When Bauduin’s bust was first put up in 1973, the family had supplied a photograph of the wrong man, his younger brother, who had been the Dutch consul in Japan. Nobody noticed for decades. In 2006 the bust was finally replaced with the right face. So if you want to see the real Dr. Bauduin, you are just in time.

The fountain square: a temple, then a world fair

The big fountain square is the heart of the park. Look back at Hiroshige’s view of Kan’ei-ji in Part 1: the great main hall of the temple stood right here. After the battle, this empty ground became the stage for modern Japan.

In 1877 the government held the First National Industrial Exhibition here, a Japanese world fair to show off new machines, crafts and products. Kawanabe Kyosai’s print from that year shows Ueno full of flags, halls and visitors, with a tall windmill turning above the pines. Only ten years earlier this was a temple ground where the shoguns came to pray.

Exhibitions kept coming back to Ueno, and the museums grew out of them. That is why so many museums stand side by side here today.

The Tokyo National Museum

At the end of the fountain square stands the Tokyo National Museum, Japan’s oldest museum, founded in 1872. Its collection of Japanese and Asian art is one of the largest in the world, with many National Treasures.

Then and now: two main buildings

The building you see today is not the first. In 1881 the British architect Josiah Conder, the “father of modern Japanese architecture”, designed a red-brick gallery for the Second National Industrial Exhibition. When the exhibition closed, it became the museum’s main building. Yoshu Chikanobu printed it in 1881, with fashionable ladies strolling in front. That brick hall was badly damaged in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

What stayed the same: the place, and the idea of a grand building to show Japan’s treasures. What changed: the style. The present main building, completed in 1938, is a Western-style concrete building wearing a heavy Japanese tiled roof, a style popular in 1930s Japan. Look up at the roof: you will find onigawara demon tiles and phoenix ornaments, traditionally meant to keep away evil and bring good fortune.

Inside the main building

Inside the entrance hall, a grand staircase rises under a coffered ceiling. You may recognize it: it often appears in Japanese TV dramas. The main building is huge, on two floors, and seeing the whole collection properly takes several hours. Visitors from abroad especially love the tea bowls used in the tea ceremony, the samurai armor and the Japanese swords.

Make your own ukiyo-e print

My favorite corner is near the entrance of the main building: a hands-on ukiyo-e corner, at no extra charge. You press five color stamps, one after another, onto the same card, lining each one up with a guide mark. Color by color, a woodblock-style picture appears, and you take home your own ukiyo-e postcard. Real ukiyo-e used many more blocks, and the panels explain how the professionals did it. It makes a lovely souvenir.

When I visited, a special Hiroshige exhibition was on, and the museum was busy. There are plenty of sofas to rest on, coin lockers, and elevators as well as stairs.

Two more buildings for two imperial weddings

To the left of the main building is the Hyokeikan, a domed palace in the Western style completed in 1908 to celebrate the wedding of the Crown Prince, later Emperor Taisho. It was designed by Katayama Tokuma, a student of Josiah Conder, and it is an Important Cultural Property. It was closed on my visit. Behind it, the modern Heiseikan opened in 1999 to mark the wedding of the then Crown Prince, today’s Emperor. It shows archaeology, including clay haniwa figures and Jomon dogu, and hosts the big special exhibitions.

A ghost station and Japan’s oldest concert hall

Leave the museum and walk west along the road beside it. Opposite the Kuroda Memorial Hall stands a small stone building: the old Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen Station, “Museum and Zoo Station”, on the Keisei Line. It opened in 1933. The land belonged to the Imperial family, so building a station here needed the approval of the Emperor himself, and the railway was told the building must be dignified enough for the site. That is why a small station looks like a little temple of classical architecture. Trains stopped calling in 1997, and the station was closed for good in 2004. It is opened to the public only for special events, so check the Keisei website.

Across the road stands the Sogakudo, built in 1890 for the Tokyo Music School, the forerunner of today’s Tokyo University of the Arts. It is the oldest Western-style concert hall in Japan and an Important Cultural Property. It is open to visitors on certain days, and there are often concerts.

My favorite coffee break

On the corner opposite the old station is Ueshima Coffee House, at the Kuroda Memorial Hall. It is one of my favorite cafés in Ueno: it is usually less crowded than the cafés in the middle of the park, and from the window you can sit and look out at the old station and the Sogakudo. The perfect place to rest your legs before the last stretch.

Kan’ei-ji today: a temple hall from Kawagoe

Walk north along the road to find what remains of Kan’ei-ji. After the battle, the temple had lost almost everything, including its great main hall on today’s fountain square. In 1879 the monks brought a hall from Kitain, a temple in Kawagoe with deep ties to Kan’ei-ji’s founder Tenkai. It had been built there in 1638. The hall was taken apart, carried to Tokyo by boat, and rebuilt here as the new main hall. So the shoguns’ great temple, which once covered the whole hill, now lives quietly in a corner at the north end of the park.

From the road in front of the temple, look back: you can see the green dome of the Hyokeikan above the trees.

Finish: Ryodaishi Bridge, on the ancient shore

End the walk at Ryodaishi Bridge, just north of Ueno Station, which crosses the railway from the hilltop. Its name comes from Ryodaishi, a temple of Kan’ei-ji nearby. From here you look down on a river of tracks: the Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku Lines, the Utsunomiya, Takasaki and Joban Lines, and limited express trains such as the Hitachi. Because the trains are just leaving or entering Ueno Station, they move slowly, so you can watch them properly. Stay ten minutes and you will see many kinds of trains, sometimes three or four at once. Children love it, and so do I.

Why the trains run along the foot of the hill

Remember the elevation map in Part 1? The railway runs exactly along the foot of the Ueno Plateau, on the flat lowland. About 6,000 years ago, when the sea was higher than today, this lowland was the seashore.

The proof lies a little farther north. At Kami-Nakazato in Kita City, at the foot of the same plateau, the Jomon people left the Nakazato shell mound, a heap of shells about 1 kilometer long and up to 4.5 meters deep, made about 4,600 to 3,900 years ago. It sits on what was then a sandy beach, and archaeologists think it was a kind of seafood factory, where people heated and dried shellfish to trade inland. Today the shell mound, now a National Historic Site, lies between two railway depots, the Tokyo Shinkansen depot and the Oku train depot. The Jomon beach has become a parking lot for trains.

Trains and shell mounds have met before. In 1877 the American zoologist Edward Morse was riding the train from Yokohama to Shinbashi when he spotted layers of shells in a cliff near Omori. Because the railway runs along the foot of the plateau, the cliff was right beside his window. His dig at the Omori shell mound is remembered as the start of modern archaeology in Japan. So as you watch the trains from Ryodaishi Bridge, remember: you are standing on the edge of an ancient sea.

Best time to go

Come on a weekday morning, Tuesday to Friday, when the museums open (9:30). The Tokyo National Museum and the National Museum of Western Art stay open until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, which is a quieter time to visit. In late March and early April, the cherry blossoms make the walk beautiful, but very crowded.

Good to know before you go

Mondays: the Tokyo National Museum and the National Museum of Western Art are closed (except on public holidays).
Tokyo Bunka Kaikan is closed for renovation until some time in fiscal 2028. You can only see the outside.
The National Museum of Western Art can be very crowded during special exhibitions. The Rodin sculptures outside are free.
Prices change: the permanent collection of the National Museum of Western Art will cost ¥1,000 for adults from 20 March 2027.
Give the Tokyo National Museum time. The main building alone can take several hours.
The old station is open only during special events, and the Sogakudo only on certain days. Check before you go.

Getting there

Start: JR Ueno Station, Park Exit. From Asakusa, take the Ginza Line to Ueno (about 5 minutes) and walk through the station to the Park Exit.
From Narita Airport: Keisei Skyliner to Keisei Ueno, then walk up through the park (or start with Part 1).
Finish: from Ryodaishi Bridge, walk back to JR Ueno Station (about 5 minutes), or north to JR Uguisudani Station.

Open Ryodaishi Bridge in Google Maps

Make a day of it

See Ueno with a local guide

This three-hour small-group tour in English covers Ueno Park, the Tokyo National Museum and the Ameyoko market. It is still new, with only a few reviews so far, though they are good. The museum ticket (¥1,000) is not included. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before. Prices may change, so check the details before you book.

See the Ueno Park and Ameyoko walking tour (GetYourGuide)

Where to stay

Mitsui Garden Hotel Ueno

Why choose: Right by JR Ueno and Keisei Ueno stations, so you can walk to the museums in minutes, and the Skyliner to Narita Airport is on your doorstep.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Nohga Hotel Ueno Tokyo

Why choose: A stylish small hotel that works with local craftspeople, in a quieter street east of Ueno Station. Good for design lovers.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Official websites

Tokyo National Museum
National Museum of Western Art
National Museum of Nature and Science
Sogakudo (Japanese)
Old Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen Station (Keisei, Japanese)

Next time

Next time, we keep walking north from Kan’ei-ji into Yanaka and Nippori: quiet temple streets, the old-fashioned Yanaka Ginza shopping street, and the edge of the plateau where the Jomon people once lived beside the sea.

Photos: Aozora Walks unless otherwise noted. Woodblock prints: National Diet Library Digital Collections (public domain): Kawanabe Kyosai, “Panorama of Ueno” (Famous Places of Tokyo, 1877), https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1305644; Yoshu Chikanobu, “The Second National Industrial Exhibition at Ueno” (1881), https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1307421. Elevation map made from GSI Japan’s Chiriin Chizu (pale map and 5 m DEM), with colors and labels added by Aozora Walks. Information as of October 2026.

2026-10-30

Ueno Park History Walk, Part 1: Edo’s Sacred Hill, a Battlefield and a Racecourse

This post contains affiliate links. If you book through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Most visitors come to Ueno Park for its museums. But the park itself is the best museum in Tokyo, if you know how to read it. Over its long history, this hill has been the edge of an ancient sea, the holiest temple ground of the shoguns, a battlefield, and a racecourse where the Emperor watched horses gallop around a lotus pond.

There is so much to see that I have split Ueno into two walks. This is Part 1, the south side of the park: the Edo-period temples, the Battle of Ueno and Shinobazu Pond. In Part 2 we will walk the north side, where the burned temple grounds became Japan’s museum quarter, with Le Corbusier’s only building in the country. As a geography teacher, I will also show you old woodblock prints from the 1850s, so you can compare them with the same places today.

Quick facts

Route	Keisei Ueno / JR Ueno (Shinobazu Exit) → Saigo statue and Shogitai grave → Kiyomizu Kannon-do → Bell of Time → Ueno Daibutsu → Ueno Toshogu → Shinobazu Pond and Benten-do → racecourse curve
Distance	About 2 km, with some stairs and slopes
Time	1.5 to 2 hours
Cost	The park, temples and Benten-do are free. Ueno Toshogu charges a small fee to enter the inner precinct
Best for	History lovers, and anyone who wants Edo-period Tokyo without the crowds of Asakusa
Nearest stations	Keisei Ueno (Keisei Line, Skyliner from Narita Airport) or JR Ueno, Shinobazu Exit

Start at the edge of an ancient sea

Walk out of Keisei Ueno Station or the Shinobazu Exit of JR Ueno and look up. In front of you, a steep green slope rises above the traffic. That slope is the edge of the Ueno Plateau, the eastern tip of the Musashino Plateau that covers much of western Tokyo. Everything around the station, and everything east toward Asakusa, is the flat Tokyo Lowland.

The difference is not just a few stairs. After the last Ice Age ended, the sea rose quickly. At its peak, around 7,000 to 6,000 years ago, the sea level was 2 to 3 meters higher than today. Geologists call this the Jomon transgression, after the Jomon people who lived here then. The sea pushed deep inland and formed a long bay, and the Ueno Plateau stood above the water like a headland. The low ground where the trains now run was the seashore, and the valley on the west side, where Shinobazu Pond lies, was also filled with water.

How do we know? The Jomon people left their shells. Just north of here, below the temple of Enmei-in near Nippori Station, workers digging soil in 1888 found a shell mound, a Jomon rubbish heap of shells. It faced the valley on the west side of the plateau. In Part 2 we will meet an even bigger one on the east side. Ueno Park itself also hides traces of the ancient past: Suribachiyama, the small round hill near the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, is believed to be an ancient burial mound.

By the Edo period the sea had long gone, and the foot of the hill had become one of the busiest shopping streets in the city. Hiroshige drew it in 1858: the dark green hill on the left, a big shop on the right, and crowds of people with umbrellas in between.

The same idea is still true. Ueno grew up at the place where the hill meets the lowland, and where travelers arrived from the north. Today the trains do the same job.

A temple city guarding Edo

In 1625, the monk Tenkai founded Kan’ei-ji on this hill for the Tokugawa shoguns. It was built in the northeast of Edo Castle, the direction from which bad luck was believed to come, to protect the city. The whole hill was its temple ground, with dozens of halls, and six shoguns were later buried here.

Tenkai wanted Edo to have everything Kyoto had. Kyoto has Mount Hiei, the great temple mountain in the northeast of the city, so he named this hill Toeizan, “the Hiei of the East”. Shinobazu Pond became a small Lake Biwa, and a copy of Kyoto’s Kiyomizu-dera was built on the slope. Hiroshige’s bird’s-eye view shows how grand it was: halls and pagodas floating among the pines and clouds.

What stayed the same: every spring, crowds still come to walk under the cherry trees, just like the people Hiroshige drew in front of the great hall. What changed: the hall itself burned in 1868. Its site is now the fountain square, which we will visit in Part 2.

How did it all burn down in a single day? Let’s climb the stairs to the first stop.

Saigo Takamori and the Battle of Ueno

At the top of the stairs stands Tokyo’s most famous statue: Saigo Takamori in a simple kimono, with his dog at his side. Saigo was one of the leaders of the new Meiji government’s army that ended the rule of the shoguns.

In 1868, the last shogun had already surrendered Edo Castle without a fight. But a group of his loyal samurai, the Shogitai, refused to give up. They barricaded themselves on this hill inside Kan’ei-ji. On 4 July 1868, the government army attacked. The battle lasted only one day. The Shogitai were defeated, and fire destroyed most of the great temple.

Now walk around to the back of the statue. Hidden among the trees, just behind Saigo, are the graves of the Shogitai, the men his army defeated. The winner looks out over the city, and the losers rest behind his back. I find this one of the most moving corners of Tokyo.

“My husband was not like this!”

The statue was made by the sculptor Takamura Koun and unveiled in 1898. There is a famous problem with it: no photograph of Saigo is known to exist, so the sculptor worked from portraits drawn after his death. At the unveiling ceremony, Saigo’s widow, Ito, is said to have blurted out, “My husband was not a man like this!” People still argue about what she meant. Some say the face did not look like him. Others say she was upset that he was shown in casual clothes in public. This scene opens the first episode of the 2018 NHK drama Segodon, about Saigo’s life.

Remember this story. In Part 2, we will meet another statue in Ueno Park with an even stranger face problem.

Kiyomizu Kannon-do: Kyoto’s stage on a Tokyo hill

A few steps away is Kiyomizu Kannon-do, built in 1631 as a copy of Kyoto’s Kiyomizu-dera. Like the original, it stands on a wooden stage built out over the slope. It is one of the oldest buildings in the park, survived the Battle of Ueno, and is now an Important Cultural Property.

Then and now: the Moon Pine

Look at the left side of Hiroshige’s print. A pine tree has a branch that loops into a perfect circle. This is the Moon Pine (Tsuki no Matsu). Hiroshige liked it so much that he gave it a print of its own, with Shinobazu Pond and the temple island framed inside the ring.

The original pine was lost in a typhoon in the early Meiji period. In 2012, about 150 years later, a new Moon Pine was trained into a ring and planted in front of the stage.

What stayed the same: the stage, the temple and the idea of a pine framing the view. What changed: the trees around the pond have grown so tall that today you can hardly see the water through the ring. You can still spot the temple on the island, though.

Shells from the battle

Step inside the hall and look up to the right. A large painting of the Battle of Ueno hangs there, and fixed to the right side of its frame are two shells said to have been fired during the battle. The government army had modern Armstrong guns, and it is said that they fired across Shinobazu Pond from the Kaga domain’s estate on the opposite hill, where the University of Tokyo stands today. Quiet as it is now, this hall stood in the middle of the fighting.

The Bell of Time

Walk north along the path toward the Seiyoken restaurant. On a small mound stands the Bell of Time (Toki no Kane). In the Edo period, nine bells around the city rang out the hours, and this is the only one still in use. The bell itself was recast in 1787. It still rings three times a day, at 6:00, noon and 18:00, so time your walk to hear it.

How did the Edo people tell time? They divided daytime, from sunrise to sunset, into six equal “hours”, and night into six more. So a daytime hour was longer in summer and shorter in winter. Before the bell rang the hour, it rang three warning strokes, so people knew to start counting.

The Great Buddha who cannot fall any further

Just behind the bell is one of the strangest sights in Tokyo: a giant Buddha’s face, set into a wall, with no body. The Ueno Daibutsu was first made in 1631 and recast in 1843. In the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 its head fell off. The body was kept by the temple, but in 1940 it was taken away to be melted down for metal during the war. Only the face survived. Since 1972 it has been displayed here, next to a small pagoda.

Because it has already lost everything and “cannot fall any further”, Japanese students now come here to pray to pass their entrance exams. (In Japanese, failing an exam is “falling”.) You will see many wooden prayer plaques with students’ wishes.

Ueno Toshogu: a shrine that escaped the fires

Continue along the stone lantern path to Ueno Toshogu, a shrine to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun. It was founded in 1627, and the present gold-covered hall dates from 1651. It survived the Battle of Ueno, the 1923 earthquake and the air raids of 1945, which makes it one of the few early Edo buildings left in Tokyo. The hall, its gate and the bronze lanterns are Important Cultural Properties.

Near the shrine you can see the top of a five-story pagoda. It belonged to the shrine, but after the Meiji government ordered Shinto and Buddhism to be separated in 1868, Buddhist buildings at shrines were in danger of being pulled down. The priest saved the pagoda by declaring that it belonged to Kan’ei-ji, the temple. Today it stands inside Ueno Zoo.

Shinobazu Pond: a temple island and a racecourse

Walk down the slope to Shinobazu Pond. A causeway leads to Benten-do, an eight-sided temple to Benzaiten, the goddess of water, music and wealth, on an island in the pond. This is the island you saw through Hiroshige’s Moon Pine.

On the west side of the island you can rent rowing boats, cycle boats and swan boats, popular with families and couples. From the water you get a fine view back to the temple, with Tokyo Skytree in the distance.

Then and now: horses around the pond

Here is my favorite secret of Ueno. From 1884 to 1892, there was a horse racecourse around Shinobazu Pond. The first races, on 1 November 1884, were watched by Emperor Meiji himself. Horse racing was part of the government’s plan to make Japan look modern and Western, and woodblock artists rushed to print the scene.

This print, made the year the racecourse opened, shows the jockeys galloping along the edge of the pond, with the hill of Ueno behind. Using prints like this, I found what I believe is one of the old corners of the track: the gentle curve of the path in front of the Shitamachi Museum, at the south end of the pond. The rest of the course continued into what is now Ueno Zoo, so you cannot walk the full lap.

What stayed the same: the pond, the island temple and the hill behind. What changed: the horses and the crowds have gone, and the track is now a quiet path for joggers and strollers.

If you have time, the small Shitamachi Museum beside the curve recreates the streets and homes of old downtown Tokyo, and you can step inside the houses (¥300, closed on Mondays).

Best time to go

Morning is best, when the temples are quiet. Plan to reach the Bell of Time at noon to hear it ring. Late March to early April is cherry blossom season and Ueno Park becomes one of the most crowded places in Tokyo, which is beautiful but slow. In July and August, Shinobazu Pond is covered with huge lotus leaves and flowers, best early in the morning.

Good to know before you go

Stairs and slopes. There are stairs from the station up to the Saigo statue, and from Kiyomizu Kannon-do down to the pond. With a wheelchair or stroller, use the gentle slope from the Keisei Ueno side and the road around the pond.
The Shogitai grave is easy to miss. It is in the trees directly behind the Saigo statue.
The view through the Moon Pine is partly blocked by trees today. Look for the temple on the island.
Ueno Toshogu is free to visit from outside the fence. Entering the inner area around the gold hall costs a small fee.
Boats are rented by the half hour. The boat house closes on Wednesdays from December to February.
Respect the temples. Kiyomizu Kannon-do and Benten-do are places of prayer. Keep your voice low inside the halls.

Getting there

From Narita Airport: the Keisei Skyliner runs straight to Keisei Ueno Station, the start of this walk, in under an hour.
From Asakusa: Tokyo Metro Ginza Line to Ueno, about 5 minutes. Take the exit for JR Ueno Station’s Shinobazu side.
Going on: Ameyoko market is right across the road from the start, and Part 2 of this walk begins at the Park Exit of JR Ueno Station.

Open the Saigo statue in Google Maps

Make a day of it

Walk Ueno with a local guide

If you would like a guide, this three-hour small-group tour in English starts at the Shinobazu Exit of JR Ueno Station and covers Kiyomizu Kannon-do, Shinobazu Pond and Benten-do, the Tokyo National Museum and the Ameyoko market. It is still quite new, with only a few reviews so far, though they are good. The museum ticket (¥1,000) is not included. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before. Prices may change, so check the details before you book.

See the Ueno Park and Ameyoko walking tour (GetYourGuide)

Where to stay

Ueno is a smart base: the Skyliner from Narita arrives here, the Ginza Line takes you to Asakusa in 5 minutes, and the JR Yamanote Line goes around the whole city.

Mitsui Garden Hotel Ueno

Why choose: A comfortable, reliable hotel a short walk from JR Ueno and Keisei Ueno stations. Very convenient if you arrive from Narita Airport with luggage.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Nohga Hotel Ueno Tokyo

Why choose: A stylish small hotel that works with local craftspeople, in a quieter street east of Ueno Station. A good choice if you like design and want a local neighborhood feel.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Official websites

Keisei Skyliner (from Narita Airport)
Ueno Park (GO TOKYO, official Tokyo travel guide)
Ueno Toshogu (Japanese)

Next time

Next time, in Part 2, we climb back up the hill to the north side of Ueno Park. After the battle, the burned temple grounds were almost turned into a hospital, until a Dutch doctor stepped in. We will see what grew there instead: the Tokyo National Museum, Le Corbusier’s National Museum of Western Art, a ghost station, and a bridge where children can watch a dozen kinds of trains pass beneath their feet.

Photos: Aozora Walks unless otherwise noted. Woodblock prints: National Diet Library Digital Collections (public domain): Hiroshige, “Foot of Ueno Hill”, https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1312248; Hiroshige, “Complete View of Toeizan Temple at Ueno”, https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1302538; Hiroshige, “Kiyomizu Hall and Shinobazu Pond at Ueno”, https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1312247; Hiroshige, “The Moon Pine, Ueno”, https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1312325. Utagawa Kunitoshi, “Opening of the Shinobazu Pond Racecourse” (1884): collection of the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library (public domain), TOKYO Archive, call number 5892-C5. Elevation map made from GSI Japan’s Chiriin Chizu (pale map and 5 m DEM), with colors and labels added by Aozora Walks. Information as of October 2026.

2026-10-30

Kengo Kuma’s Wooden Walk: From the Nezu Museum to the Forest of Meiji Jingu

This post contains affiliate links. If you book through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Kengo Kuma loves wood. In Part 1 of this series we went inside his Kabuki-za in Ginza, and in Part 2 we visited Sakai, a small river town full of his buildings. For Part 3, we return to central Tokyo for a half-day walk from the streets of Aoyama to the forest of Meiji Jingu.

We visit three of his buildings, the Nezu Museum, the SunnyHills cake shop and the Meiji Jingu Museum, and stop to look up at a fourth, One Omotesando. Each uses wood in a different way. As a geography teacher, what I love about this route is where it ends: in a forest that looks wild, but was planted by people about a hundred years ago.

Quick facts

Route	Omotesando Station → Nezu Museum → SunnyHills → One Omotesando → Omotesando avenue → Meiji Jingu → Meiji Jingu Museum
Distance	About 3 km, mostly flat
Time	Half a day (3 to 4 hours with the two museums and a tea break)
Cost	Nezu Museum from ¥1,600 (online, changes by exhibition). Meiji Jingu Museum ¥1,000, cash only. SunnyHills: free tea with any purchase
Avoid	Mondays (Nezu Museum closed) and Thursdays (Meiji Jingu Museum closed)
Nearest stations	Start: Omotesando (Tokyo Metro Ginza, Chiyoda and Hanzomon lines). Finish: Harajuku (JR) or Meiji-jingumae

Start: Omotesando Station

Leave Omotesando Station by Exit A5 and walk straight on, away from the big crossing. The Nezu Museum is about 8 minutes ahead. Exit A5 has a long, steep staircase. If you use a wheelchair, push a stroller or prefer to avoid stairs, use Exit B3 instead: the subway elevator is in the Aoyama Rise Square building beside it.

Open Exit B3 (elevator) in Google Maps

This short street already feels like Milan: elegant buildings, fashion boutiques and pastry shops under the trees.

Nezu Museum: a bamboo path and a deep roof

The Nezu Museum opened in 1941 to show the collection of Nezu Kaichiro, a railway businessman who collected Japanese and East Asian art: tea ceremony objects, Buddhist art, paintings and calligraphy, about 7,400 works including several National Treasures. In 2009 the museum reopened in a new building by Kengo Kuma.

Kuma begins before you even reach the door. From the street, you walk along a long, quiet path between a wall of bamboo and a screen of thin bamboo poles, under a low, deep roof. The noise of the city fades with every step.

Inside, the high ceilings are lined with wood, and tall windows open onto the garden. Galleries 1 and 2 on the ground floor are for the changing exhibitions, and the other rooms show the permanent collection.

Bamboo growing along the walls of the Nezu Museum — *Bamboo around the museum.*

Staircase inside the Nezu Museum with wooden walls — *Bamboo around the museum.*

The garden and the café

Do not leave without seeing the garden. Paths lead down through the woods, beside a small stream and past an old house. It is hard to believe you are a few minutes from Omotesando: the air feels cleaner, and all you hear is water and birds.

The glass-walled café in the garden is wonderful, and very popular. On a weekday it was already full, with a line, a few minutes after the museum opened at 10:00. The trick is to book a 10:00 entry and walk straight to the café. When it is busy, the menu may be limited to drinks, cakes and light meals. Photos are not allowed inside the café.

Tickets and facilities

Ticket prices change with each exhibition. During the special exhibition in autumn 2026, an adult ticket was ¥1,600 online and ¥1,800 at the door, and university students paid ¥700 online. High school students and younger are free. Online booking is recommended: on a weekday morning, I still waited five minutes for a ticket at the desk. Credit cards and contactless payment are accepted.

Free lockers are on the ground floor and the lower floor, and the toilets are clean, with accessible toilets. More than half of the visitors that morning were from abroad, and the staff and signs are in English too. The building itself is easy to walk around, but the garden has many steps and stone paths.

Open the Nezu Museum in Google Maps

Book Nezu Museum tickets (official site)

SunnyHills: a building like a bamboo basket

From the Nezu Museum, walk back toward Omotesando and turn into the quiet back streets of Minami-Aoyama. Suddenly, among the houses and concrete, there is a building that looks like a giant bamboo basket, or a cloud of wooden sticks. This is SunnyHills, a shop from Taiwan that sells pineapple cakes. It opened in December 2013.

The structure uses a traditional Japanese joint called jigoku-gumi, literally “hell joinery”, because once the pieces lock together they can never come apart. Carpenters normally use it in flat lattices, with the pieces crossing at right angles. Kuma’s team tilted the joints to 30 degrees and built them up in three dimensions, which let them use sticks only 6 cm thick. The result is soft and light, very different from the concrete boxes around it.

The wood outside is coated against rain and wind, but inside it is left bare, so you can see and smell real timber. Climb the stairs through the lattice, with sunlight falling through the gaps. There is also an elevator.

Upper staircase surrounded by wooden lattice — *Up to the third floor.*

Wooden beams crossing on the ceiling — *Up to the third floor.*

Tea and cake upstairs

If you buy something in the shop, you are invited upstairs to the tea room, where you get a cup of black tea or oolong tea with a pineapple cake and an apple cake. Without a purchase, it costs ¥600. The third floor has the toilets and a display about the building.

The shop opens at 11:00. On a weekday there were only a few people waiting, and it was not crowded. Photos are allowed inside, but a sign asks you not to photograph other customers. If you want photos of the interior, come right at opening time.

Open SunnyHills in Google Maps

One Omotesando: the rhythm of the trees

Walk back to the big Omotesando crossing. Right by the crossing stands One Omotesando, an eight-story building completed in 2003. Most of it is offices and shops for luxury brands, so just enjoy it from outside. Its long front is covered with vertical louvers of red pine. Kuma explained that he wanted them to echo the rhythm of the zelkova trees planted along Omotesando.

Open One Omotesando in Google Maps

Walk the approach, not the subway

From here, you could take the subway one stop to Meiji-jingumae. But please walk. Omotesando means “the front approach”: this avenue was laid out as the road to Meiji Jingu, so walking it is part of visiting the shrine. Zelkova trees line both sides, and the boutiques and showrooms are fun just to look at.

Turn into a side street now and then. The lanes behind Omotesando are full of small cafés and independent shops.

Meiji Jingu: a forest made by people

At the end of Omotesando, cross Jingu Bridge into the shrine. Look over the side: the JR Yamanote Line runs right underneath.

Meiji Jingu was founded in 1920 for Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. About 100,000 trees were donated from all over Japan and planted to create the forest, which was designed to grow, change and renew itself like a natural one. A century later, it looks like it has always been here.

Pass under the torii gate and the city disappears. There are plenty of visitors, but it is calm: you hear leaves moving, birds, and a stream under a small bridge.

Meiji Jingu Museum: wood in the forest

The Meiji Jingu Museum, a short walk from the torii gate, opened in October 2019 to mark the shrine’s 100th anniversary. It displays treasures connected with Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. Kuma kept the building low, with gently sloping roofs and colors that blend into the trees. The columns inside are meant to suggest the trunks of the forest.

Now remember the eaves at the Nezu Museum. Walk along the outside of this building and you will find almost the same thing: a long path under a deep, low roof, with wood on one side and green on the other. Two buildings, ten years apart, one in the city and one in the forest.

Long approach path to the Nezu Museum under deep eaves, with bamboo on one side — *Nezu Museum (2009). Photo: Aozora Walks*

Long covered walkway under deep eaves outside the Meiji Jingu Museum — *Nezu Museum (2009). Photo: Aozora Walks*

Inside, wood and natural light make the rooms warm. Big windows separate you from the forest only by glass, so it feels as if you are sitting among the trees. The reading corner and the rest area upstairs have the same views.

Entrance hall with wooden columns and beams — *The entrance hall.*

Reading corner with tables and big windows — *The entrance hall.*

The museum is open 10:00 to 16:30 (last entry 16:00) and closed on Thursdays. Admission is ¥1,000, and you must pay in cash. Next door, Forest Terrace (not designed by Kuma) has indoor and outdoor tables for coffee or a light meal.

Open the Meiji Jingu Museum in Google Maps

Standing here, I felt that this walk ends with a nice idea. The museum is clearly a man-made building, and the forest is a man-made forest. Yet a hundred years after the trees were planted, they look at home together.

Best time to go

Go on a weekday morning, and avoid Mondays and Thursdays. Book the Nezu Museum for 10:00 and head to the garden café first. SunnyHills opens at 11:00, which fits nicely after the museum. Leave enough time to reach the Meiji Jingu Museum before its last entry at 16:00.

One more thing I noticed: Kuma’s wood changes color with the light. Morning, afternoon, evening, sunshine or cloud, the same building looks different, so it is worth coming back at another time of day.

Good to know before you go

Check the day. The Nezu Museum is closed on Mondays (and between exhibitions), the Meiji Jingu Museum on Thursdays.
Bring cash. The Meiji Jingu Museum accepts cash only (¥1,000).
Steps in the garden. The Nezu Museum garden has many steps and stone paths. Inside the museum building, getting around is easy.
Stairs at Exit A5. Use Exit B3 and its elevator if stairs are difficult.
The café fills up fast. Book a 10:00 museum entry and go to the café first. Photos are not allowed inside.
Respect other customers. At SunnyHills, do not photograph other guests. Come at opening time for empty-room photos.

Getting there

From Asakusa: Tokyo Metro Ginza Line direct to Omotesando, about 30 minutes, no change of train.
From Ginza (Kabuki-za): Ginza Line to Omotesando, about 15 minutes.
Going home: Harajuku Station (JR Yamanote Line) is right by Jingu Bridge, and Meiji-jingumae Station (Chiyoda and Fukutoshin lines) is next to it.

Make a day of it

See more of Omotesando’s architecture with a guide

Omotesando is packed with buildings by famous architects, from Tadao Ando to SANAA. If you want an expert to show you around, this private three-and-a-half-hour architecture tour in English starts at Jingu Bridge and covers works such as SunnyHills, Dior and Prada, plus the back streets. It has excellent reviews, is wheelchair accessible and can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours before. As a private tour it is not cheap, and prices may change, so check the details before you book.

See the private Harajuku & Omotesando architecture tour (GetYourGuide)

Where to stay

TRUNK(HOTEL) CAT STREET

Why choose: A stylish boutique hotel on Cat Street, the relaxed shopping lane between Harajuku and Shibuya. You can walk to Meiji Jingu and Omotesando.

Check Rates on Booking.com

The Aoyama Grand Hotel

Why choose: A comfortable hotel on Aoyama-dori, on the Ginza Line, so getting to Ginza and Asakusa is easy, and Omotesando is close by.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Official websites

Next time

Next time, we take the Ginza Line from Omotesando back toward Asakusa and stop at Ueno Park. Once the grounds of a great temple, it has been a battlefield, a racecourse and finally Tokyo’s museum quarter, home to Le Corbusier’s only building in Japan.

Photos: Aozora Walks. Information as of October 2026. Sources: official websites of each facility.

2026-10-28

Nihonbashi Walk: Where Japan’s Roads Begin, Under an Expressway About to Vanish

This post contains affiliate links. If you book through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Stand in the middle of Nihonbashi and look up. Instead of sky, you see the underside of an expressway. Look down, and there is a small bronze plate in the road: the point from which distances across Japan are still measured. This bridge was the starting point of the old highways of Edo, and today it is one of the best places in Tokyo to see how the city keeps rebuilding itself.

In the last post, we rode the Yurikamome back from Odaiba to Shimbashi. From there, the Ginza Line takes you to Nihonbashi in a few minutes. As a geography teacher, I think this short walk explains more about Tokyo than almost anywhere else: the roads, the river, the fish market, the first department store, the central bank and the gates of Edo Castle, all within about one kilometer.

Quick facts

Route	Nihonbashi Station → Nihonbashi bridge → fish market memorial → Mitsukoshi → COREDO Muromachi → Bank of Japan → the three Tokiwa bridges
Distance	About 1.5 km on flat ground
Time	2 to 3 hours with stops (1 hour if you only walk)
Cost	Free to walk. River cruises from ¥2,500 (optional)
Nearest stations	Nihonbashi or Mitsukoshimae (Tokyo Metro Ginza Line)

Start: Nihonbashi Station

From Nihonbashi Station on the Ginza Line, take Exit B10. You come up on Chuo-dori, the main street. Walk to the next big intersection and turn right, and the bridge appears under the expressway.

Right outside Exit B10, on the south-east corner of the Nihonbashi intersection, food trucks park at lunchtime, selling bento boxes to office workers. A handy stop if you want to eat before you start walking.

The bridge where all roads began

The first Nihonbashi, a wooden bridge, was built in 1603, the year Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun. Soon after, the shogunate made it the starting point of the five main highways of Japan, including the Tokaido to Kyoto. Travelers, goods and news all passed over it. The name simply means “Japan Bridge”.

The wooden bridge burned and was rebuilt many times. The stone bridge you see today was completed in 1911. It is the 20th Nihonbashi, and it became a national Important Cultural Property in 1999.

Lions, kirin and the last shogun

The bronze decorations on the bridge are wonderful, so take your time. The lions hold the crest of the city of Tokyo. The creatures with wings are kirin, mythical animals. They are often said to have wings so that they can fly from the starting point of Japan’s roads to every corner of the country.

Look at the name plates on the bridge posts. The characters “日本橋” were written by Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun. The same characters appear on the side of the expressway above, copied from the plates. Even the expressway pays its respects to the bridge.

Scars from 1945

Now look closely at the stone railings. The dark stains are burn marks, and a sign on the bridge explains that they were left by the Great Tokyo Air Raid of 1945. Incendiary bombs fell on the bridge and burned on the stone. Nobody painted over them.

On the night of 10 March 1945, American bombers dropped incendiary bombs over the wooden neighborhoods of eastern Tokyo. The fires killed an estimated 100,000 people in a single night. Nihonbashi burned, and so did Asakusa: the main hall of Senso-ji was lost that night. If you followed this series from Part 2, you have already seen the ginkgo tree beside Senso-ji that still carries its burn scars. The stone bridge survived. The black marks are its scars, and a small piece of war history you can touch.

Kilometer zero

In the middle of the road, between the two lanes, is the Japan Road Origin Marker. Distances on many national roads are still measured from here. You cannot walk into the traffic to see it, but there is a full-size replica at the north end of the bridge, beside the kirin.

Then and now: Hiroshige’s Nihonbashi

The most famous picture of this bridge is the very first print in Utagawa Hiroshige’s series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, published in the 1830s. A daimyo procession is setting out across the arched wooden bridge at dawn, at the start of the long road to Kyoto.

What stayed the same: the place and its role. The bridge still crosses the same river at the same spot, and it is still where Japan’s roads begin. Look at the bottom left of the print, too: men carrying baskets of fish. They are coming from the fish market at the foot of the bridge, which we will visit in a moment.

What changed: almost everything you can see. The high wooden arch became twin stone arches, built low and flat for trams and cars. The wide sky in the print is now covered by the expressway, built in 1963 in a rush before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, along the river because there was no land left to build on.

And it will change again. The expressway above Nihonbashi is being moved underground. The tunnel is planned to open around 2035, and the elevated road is scheduled to be removed by around 2040. When it is gone, the bridge will see the sky again for the first time in more than 70 years. If you come now, you are seeing a view that will soon be history.

Want to walk across the old wooden bridge from Hiroshige’s print? At the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku, the northern half of the wooden Nihonbashi has been rebuilt at full size at the entrance to the permanent exhibition. The museum reopened in March 2026 after a major renovation, and it is the best place to learn more about the history of Edo and Tokyo.

From the river: Nihonbashi Cruise

Walk down to the river pier at the north end of the bridge. From under the bridge you can see the stone arches and the expressway pillars standing in the water.

Small open boats run by Nihonbashi Cruise leave from here. The regular course goes around the old moats of Edo Castle along the Nihonbashi and Kanda rivers in about 90 minutes, from ¥2,500 for adults (as of October 2026). I didn’t ride it this time, but I watched the boats come and go, with the guide talking all the way. Note that the commentary is in Japanese. Check the official website for courses, times and booking.

Where the fish market began

Back up on the street, cross to the north-east corner of the bridge. A small monument with a statue of the sea princess Otohime marks the site of Tokyo’s first fish market, the uogashi.

The market began in the early 1600s, when fishermen from Tsukuda village near Osaka, invited to Edo by Ieyasu, started selling the fish left over after supplying the shogun’s castle. Boats brought fresh fish straight up the river to the stalls along the bank. For about 300 years, this was the kitchen of Edo.

The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 destroyed it, and the market moved to Tsukiji, then in 2018 to Toyosu. To be honest, nothing of the market is left. There is only the monument. But if you remember the fish carriers in Hiroshige’s print, the empty riverbank tells its own story.

Mitsukoshi: from kimono shop to department store

Walk north on Chuo-dori to Mitsukoshi. Its roots go back to 1673, when the Mitsui family opened a kimono shop called Echigoya. Echigoya became famous for a new idea: fixed prices, paid in cash, displayed openly. At the time, most shops negotiated prices and sold on credit to rich customers. Echigoya sold to everyone at the same price, and it grew into one of the biggest stores in the world.

In 1904 the store declared itself Japan’s first “department store”. Two bronze lions guard the main entrance. They were made in England in 1914, modeled on the lions of Trafalgar Square in London. If you are from Europe, they may look familiar.

Step inside. The central hall rises five floors, and in the middle stands a carved goddess, the Magokoro (Sincerity) statue, 10.9 meters tall, made by the sculptor Sato Gengen and installed in 1960. On the balcony above is a theater pipe organ, built by Wurlitzer in the United States and installed in 1930. It is still played on certain days, so check the store’s schedule if you want to hear it.

COREDO Muromachi: old names, new buildings

Across the street, COREDO Muromachi is a group of new buildings designed to recall the old merchant town, with dark facades, shop curtains and lanterns. Inside are small shops of long-established Nihonbashi brands: knives, dried bonito, seaweed, Japanese paper. It is a good place for gifts and for lunch.

Traveling with children? Nihonbashi is where the very first Pokémon Center opened in 1998. Today Pokémon Center Tokyo DX is on the 5th floor of the East Building of Nihonbashi Takashimaya S.C., a short walk south of the bridge (not in the main Takashimaya building).

One more Hiroshige link: the street between Mitsukoshi and the Mitsui Main Building was once Surugacho, named because it pointed straight at Mount Fuji. Hiroshige painted it with Echigoya’s shop curtains on both sides and Fuji filling the end of the street. The street plan is still the same, but today you will not see Fuji through the buildings.

The Bank of Japan, on the site of the gold mint

A few minutes west is the Bank of Japan head office, completed in 1896 and designed by Tatsuno Kingo, the architect of Tokyo Station. The site was not chosen by chance: in the Edo period this was the Kinza, where the shogunate made its gold coins.

You can join a free guided tour of the building, offered in English, if you book online in advance. Across the street, the Bank of Japan Currency Museum is free and shows Japanese money from ancient coins to modern notes (closed on Mondays).

Three bridges called Tokiwabashi

Walk to the river behind the bank and you find something unusual: three bridges with the same name, Tokiwabashi, side by side.

Here stood Tokiwabashi Gate, one of the main gates of Edo Castle. It was also called the Asakusa Gate, because the road from here led to Asakusa and on to northern Japan. So if you came from Asakusa today, you followed the old road into the castle. The gate was taken down in 1873, but its stone walls survive and are a national historic site.

The middle bridge is the stone Tokiwabashi of 1877, made with stones from another demolished castle gate. It is one of the oldest stone bridges in Tokyo. Downstream is a bridge from 1926, and upstream is a modern one from 1988: Meiji, Taisho and Showa, one after another.

A small puzzle for kanji fans: the old stone bridge is written 常磐橋 and the 1926 bridge 常盤橋. Both are read “Tokiwabashi”. One popular story says the character 盤 (which contains “dish”) was changed to 磐 (“rock”) for the stone bridge, because a dish breaks easily. Look at the name posts and find the difference.

Look up from the river, too. Right next door, in a new district that also houses the city’s sewage pumping station and office, a huge skyscraper is rising: Torch Tower, about 390 meters tall and planned to be the tallest building in Japan when it is completed in the late 2020s. From the stone walls of an Edo gate to Japan’s next tallest tower, all in one view: Tokyo is still rebuilding itself.

Best time to go

Weekday mornings are calm, and the light is good on the bridge before noon. Mitsukoshi opens at 10:00. If you want to tour the Bank of Japan, book a morning slot and do the walk around it.

Good to know before you go

It is not a pretty postcard. The expressway makes the bridge dark and noisy. That is exactly the point of this walk, but do not expect a quiet old bridge.
Do not step into the road. The real road marker is in the traffic lanes. Even if the road looks empty, please do not cross to it for a closer look. Use the replica at the north end for photos.
The cruise is in Japanese. You can still enjoy the views, but you will not understand the commentary.
Plan the bank tour. The free Bank of Japan tours need an online reservation. The Currency Museum is closed on Mondays.
Toilets. Use Mitsukoshi or COREDO Muromachi.

Getting there

From Shimbashi: Tokyo Metro Ginza Line to Nihonbashi, about 5 minutes, ¥180.
From Asakusa: Ginza Line directly to Mitsukoshimae or Nihonbashi, about 12 to 15 minutes, ¥180.
From Tokyo Station: walk about 10 minutes from the Nihonbashi Exit.

Make a day of it

Continue to Edo Castle with a guide

Tokiwabashi Gate was the front door to Edo Castle, and the castle itself is only a short walk away. This two-hour walking tour with an English-speaking local guide explores the Imperial Palace grounds, the moats, gates and stone walls of Edo Castle and the story of the shoguns. It has very good reviews, many from European travelers, and free cancellation up to 24 hours before. Prices may change, so check the details and meeting point before you book.

Join the Imperial Palace & Shogun walking tour (GetYourGuide)

Where to stay

Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo

Why choose: A luxury hotel high in a tower a short walk from Mitsukoshi, with views over the city. You can step out of the lobby and start this walk at once.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Mitsui Garden Hotel Nihonbashi Premier

Why choose: A comfortable mid-range hotel within walking distance of the bridge, with easy Ginza Line access to Asakusa and Ginza.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Next time

Next time, we return to the Kengo Kuma series: a walk from Omotesando to Meiji Jingu, from the streets of Aoyama to the forest of the shrine.

Photos: Aozora Walks unless otherwise noted. “Nihonbashi: Morning View” by Utagawa Hiroshige, from The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido: National Diet Library Digital Collections (public domain), https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1309914.

2026-10-23

Riding the Yurikamome Over Rainbow Bridge: Odaiba to Shimbashi on Tokyo’s Driverless Train

This post contains affiliate links. If you book through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

A train with no driver, running on rubber tires, climbing in a loop and gliding across Rainbow Bridge between an expressway and the sea. It sounds like a theme-park ride, but it is an ordinary commuter line: the Yurikamome.

In Part 3, we sailed down the Sumida River from Asakusa to Odaiba by water bus. This time we take the other way home. As a geography teacher, I love this 15-minute ride because it shows how Tokyo built a whole new district on reclaimed land in the bay, and then had to squeeze a railway into it.

Quick facts

Route	Odaiba-kaihinkoen → Rainbow Bridge → Shibaura-futo → Shiodome → Shimbashi
Time	About 13 minutes
Fare	¥325 with an IC card / ¥330 ticket (adults)
Payment	Suica, PASMO and other IC cards, or contactless credit cards and phones
Best seat	The very front, or the very back for photos

A driverless train on rubber tires

The Yurikamome is not a normal train. It is a “new transit system”: small, computer-controlled cars that run on rubber tires along a concrete guideway, with no driver and no conductor on board. The whole line runs on an elevated track, so you are above the streets for the entire ride.

Rubber tires grip better than steel wheels on rails, so the Yurikamome can handle steep slopes and sharp curves. That matters here. The line was built after the roads and expressways around it, so it had to weave over, under and between them. The result is a ride with surprising climbs, drops and turns that you will not find on most railways.

There is a story behind it, too. The line opened in November 1995, planned for the World City Expo that Tokyo was to host on this waterfront in 1996. The expo was cancelled during construction, and for a while the new trains ran through almost empty reclaimed land. In Odaiba, the railway came before the city.

Then and now: Odaiba was once the sea

Where did the name “Odaiba” come from? In 1853, American warships under Commodore Perry sailed into Edo Bay, and the shogunate hurried to build a line of small island forts, called daiba, in the sea off Shinagawa to defend the city. Only two of them survive today: No. 3, now Daiba Park, and No. 6, an overgrown island you can see from the bridge. The whole Odaiba district, and the name itself, grew from these forts.

What stayed the same: the stone walls. The low, angled walls of the fort are the same ones you can see in the 1927 photograph, built more than 170 years ago.

What changed: everything around them. In 1927 the fort sat alone in open water, with nothing but sea and sky behind it. Today pine trees and grass cover the top, a sandy beach runs beside it, and the high-rises of Odaiba stand where there was once only sea. The Yurikamome you are about to ride runs across land that did not exist a century ago.

Daiba Park, on top of the No. 3 fort, is free and open at all times, about a 20-minute walk along the beach from Odaiba-kaihinkoen Station. If you have time before your train, walk along the old stone walls.

Starting at Odaiba-kaihinkoen

If you arrived by water bus, walk inland from the pier to Odaiba-kaihinkoen Station. There are coin lockers by the ticket gates, handy if you are carrying shopping bags or luggage.

Platforms have screen doors, and trains come every few minutes. Here is the fun part: with no driver’s cab, the front of the train is just a big window with seats behind it.

Crossing Rainbow Bridge

Soon after leaving Odaiba-kaihinkoen, the train heads onto Rainbow Bridge. This is a two-level bridge. The Yurikamome runs down the middle of the lower deck, with the Shuto Expressway directly above you and ordinary road lanes on both sides at the same level. The track is wrapped in mesh, so it feels like riding through a tube in a science-fiction film. On a clear day, the white towers stand out sharply against the blue sky.

At the Shibaura end, the train swings around a big loop. The bridge deck is high above the water so that ships can pass underneath, and the loop is how the track and the road climb up to it, and back down, in the little space available on the shore.

You can walk across it, too!

Rainbow Bridge has free walkways, the Rainbow Promenade, on the outer edges of the lower deck. The walk is about 1.7 km and takes around 30 minutes between the Shibaura side and the Odaiba side. You choose the north route (views of Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Skytree and the city) or the south route (views of Odaiba and the old Daiba fort) at the entrance, and you cannot switch halfway. One fun plan: walk across one way and ride the Yurikamome back.

Open 9:00–21:00 from April to October, and 10:00–18:00 from November to March. Last entry 30 minutes before closing.
Closed on the third Monday of each month (the next day if it is a holiday).
No cycling, no tripods. Pets and folding bikes are allowed only if carried in a bag.
The Shibaura entrance is about 5 minutes from Shibaura-futo Station; the Odaiba side is about 10 minutes from Odaiba-kaihinkoen Station.

Between the skyscrapers

After Shibaura-futo, the line curves north toward Shimbashi, and this is where the “roller coaster” feeling kicks in. The track dips, rises and bends between office towers, sometimes so close that you can almost look into the windows.

Tip: front for the thrill, back for the photos

Because there is no driver, the last car has the same big window as the first. I took most of the photos in this article from the very back, and I think the back is actually better for photos. But both ends have great views, and the front is more exciting, especially for kids.

Arriving at Shimbashi

The line ends at Shimbashi, one of Tokyo’s busiest business districts. Just before you arrive, look for the Shiodome skyscrapers. Outside the Nippon TV building at Shiodome stands a giant clock designed by Hayao Miyazaki, the director of Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. It “performs” several times a day.

From Shimbashi, you can change to the JR lines, the Toei Asakusa Line, or the Ginza Line. The Ginza Line takes you straight back to Asakusa, or to Nihonbashi for our next walk.

Best time to go

Weekday daytime is the easiest time to get a front seat.
Weekends, school holidays (especially spring and summer), and big event days at Tokyo Big Sight are very crowded.
Go in clear weather if you can: the views of the bay and the white towers of Rainbow Bridge are at their best.

Good to know before you go

Check for events. When Tokyo Big Sight or other Odaiba venues hold a big event, the Yurikamome can be packed. Check the Tokyo Big Sight event calendar before you go.
Want the front seat? Wait for two trains. Shimbashi and Toyosu, the two ends of the line, have only two tracks each. Let the train waiting at your platform leave, then the one from the other track, and you will be at the head of the line for the front seats on the next train. It works every time, even when it is busy.
Check the direction. At the end stations, trains reverse and leave in the direction they came from. Make sure you are on the right platform.
Paying the fare. You can tap an IC card such as Suica, or a contactless credit card or phone at the gate. With contactless cards, the total fare for one day is capped at ¥820 (same card and same device). The old magnetic one-day pass is no longer sold. Check the official Yurikamome website for the latest details.

Tip: you will need mobile data for route searches, and some contactless payments use your phone. An eSIM is the easiest option for visitors.

Get a Japan eSIM (Airalo)

Getting there

From Odaiba: Yurikamome Odaiba-kaihinkoen Station, about 13 minutes to Shimbashi.
From the water bus: walk from Odaiba Seaside Park pier to Odaiba-kaihinkoen Station.
From Shimbashi: JR, Tokyo Metro Ginza Line and Toei Asakusa Line all connect.

Make a day of it

teamLab Planets

If you have more time, stay on the Yurikamome the other way, toward Toyosu. Near Shin-Toyosu Station is teamLab Planets, an immersive digital art museum where you walk barefoot through rooms of light, mirrors and water.

This ticket on GetYourGuide is the official entry ticket, with timed entry. Same-day booking is not possible, tickets are non-refundable, and you must enter within 30 minutes of your time slot. Prices may change and may differ from the official site, so compare before you book.

Book teamLab Planets tickets (GetYourGuide)

teamLab Planets official website

Where to stay

Hilton Tokyo Odaiba

Why choose: A bayside hotel next to Daiba Station on the Yurikamome, close to Rainbow Bridge and the Odaiba waterfront.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Grand Nikko Tokyo Daiba

Why choose: A large hotel by Daiba Station, convenient for exploring Odaiba and riding the Yurikamome in the quiet morning hours.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Park Hotel Tokyo

Why choose: In the Shiodome skyscrapers at the Shimbashi end of the line, with easy access to Ginza and the Ginza Line.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Next time

From Shimbashi, we take the Ginza Line to Nihonbashi, the bridge where all of Japan’s old highways began. Stone bridges, a department store with a giant goddess, and an expressway that will soon disappear: Tokyo’s past and future, side by side.

Photos: Aozora Walks unless otherwise noted. The No. 3 Daiba fort in 1927: “Shinagawa Daiba” (Tokyo City Parks Division, 1927), National Diet Library Digital Collections (public domain).

2026-10-22

Sakai, Ibaraki: A Kengo Kuma Town on the Tone River, One Bus Ride from Tokyo

This post contains affiliate links. If you book through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

In Part 1, we watched kabuki inside Kengo Kuma’s Kabuki-za in Ginza. For Part 2, we leave Tokyo for a small town most visitors have never heard of: Sakai, in Ibaraki Prefecture. Kuma has designed seven or eight buildings here, and the main ones stand within a few minutes’ walk of each other. Few places in Japan let you see so many of his works in one stroll.

As a geography teacher, I was curious about one question: why would a world-famous architect keep coming back to a quiet farming town on the Tone River? The answer, as so often in Japan, starts with a river.

Quick facts

What	Walk between Kengo Kuma buildings in a small river town, with a dried sweet potato café and a lunch stop
Where	Sakai, Ibaraki Prefecture, on the Tone River
Cost	Highway bus from Tokyo Station ¥1,800 one way. Town bus: free. Buildings: free to see from outside
Time	Half a day in town, plus about 1.5 hours each way from Tokyo
From Tokyo	Highway bus from Tokyo Station (Yaesu South Exit) to Sakai Highway Bus Terminal, then the free town bus

Find your way

The buildings are in two groups, a short walk apart. Open these on your phone to find them:

Group 1: HOSHIIMONO100 Café, S-Lab and S-Gallery, next to the Sakahana-cho bus stop
Group 2: Sakai Sand and Chakura at Michi-no-Eki Sakai, the roadside station
Bus: Sakai Highway Bus Terminal, where buses from Tokyo arrive

Why Kuma came to a small river town

Sakai grew up as a kashi, a river port. In the Edo period, rice, soy sauce and other goods from northern Japan came down the Tone River to Sakai. Just across the water, at Sekiyado, the Edo River branches off and flows south to Tokyo Bay. So from Sakai, boats could carry cargo all the way to the city of Edo, today’s Tokyo. Katsushika Hokusai, the artist of the famous Great Wave, made a print of this river in the early 1830s: “The Tone River in Sōshū,” from his series A Thousand Pictures of the Sea, with fishermen casting their nets from small boats.

If you rode the water bus down the Sumida River with us, you have already seen the other end of this old water network. You will still find the memory of the river port in Sakai today, in names like “Kashi-no-Eki” and “Sakai Kashi Restaurant.”

When trains and trucks replaced boats, the town lost its role and, like many places in rural Japan, its center began to empty out. The turning point was a mix of local food and modern design. The town built S-Lab, one of Kuma’s buildings, as a lab for developing local products. A dried sweet potato (hoshiimo) created there became a hit as a thank-you gift in Japan’s furusato nozei program, a system where people donate to a town of their choice and receive local products in return. According to Japan’s Ministry of Finance, donations to Sakai rose from just ¥65,000 in fiscal 2013 to ¥4.85 billion in fiscal 2021. Here, architecture became part of how the town earns its living.

Look closely and you will see that Kuma’s designs here borrow from local life: the bamboo blinds used to dry sweet potatoes, the fibers of the potato itself, the storehouses of the old river port. Most of them use wooden louvers, slats of timber set at angles, his signature.

HOSHIIMONO100 Café: a building inspired by dried sweet potatoes

Get off the town bus at Sakahana-cho and you will see it right away: a white building wrapped in slanted wooden louvers. They are said to echo the bamboo blinds used to dry sweet potatoes, and the fibers of the potato itself. As the sun moves, the louvers throw layers of light and shadow across the facade, so the building looks different every time you glance at it.

This is the main shop of Hoshiimono Hyakka, a dried sweet potato specialist, with a café inside. Try the hoshiimo pudding, a cake or a café latte. The sweetness comes gently from the potato itself. With all that warm wood around you, it is a genuinely calming place to sit for a while, and a good spot to buy snacks for the trip home.

S-Lab and S-Gallery: a lab you can look into

Right next to the café is S-Lab, the research and development center where local products are created. Its walls are mostly large sheets of glass, so you can watch steps such as dried sweet potato processing and winemaking from outside. Look up at the deep eaves: their wooden underside is the building’s best feature. S-Lab is joined in an L shape to S-Gallery, a small museum for the painter Shukusanpō, who spent his later years in Sakai.

Both were closed on the Sunday I visited, so I could only enjoy them from outside. S-Gallery is officially closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, but it may also close on other days, so check before you go if you want to step inside.

Sakai Sand: where it all began

From the café, walk south to Michi-no-Eki Sakai, the town’s roadside station with a farmers’ market and souvenir shop. Inside is Sakai Sand, a sandwich shop that opened in 2018 as the very first project between Kuma and the town. The sandwiches are filled with fresh local vegetables and fruit. What I loved most was the structure: boards of timber stacked and crossed overhead in a bold, almost playful way.

Chakura: a storehouse with wings

Next door stands Chakura, the “Sakai Kashi Restaurant.” Its tall gray wall recalls the kura storehouses of the old river port, and on it hang huge wooden louvers that spread out like wings. Seen from below, it is breathtaking, one of the boldest designs in the town.

Don’t let the storehouse look fool you: the restaurant inside is now SHED, a casual café-restaurant using local ingredients. The menu changes with the seasons and has included steak rice bowls, pasta, hamburg steak and bento boxes. Between the building and the roadside station runs a semi-outdoor walkway with tables, shaded by another wooden louver roof in Kuma’s typical style. On a fine day, it is a lovely, relaxed place for lunch.

Across the road from the roadside station is a shopping area with a Kasumi supermarket, Don Quijote and Mister Donut, and Goroko-no-Yu, a large public bathhouse, if you would like to end your day with a soak. Just to the south flows the Tone River, crossed by the Sakai-Ōhashi Bridge to Sekiyado in Chiba Prefecture.

The town bus (and the self-driving bus)

Sakai is famous in Japan for another reason: in 2020, it became the first town in the country to run self-driving buses on public roads every day as regular public transport, using small electric buses made by the French company Navya. As of October 2026, however, the self-driving buses are out of service for long-term maintenance, and no restart date has been announced. A regular bus with a driver runs on the same route and timetable instead, and it is still free.

For this walk, take the bus from Sakai Highway Bus Terminal to the Sakahana-cho stop, right in front of the café. After that, everything is within walking distance.

Best time to go

Thursday to Saturday. Each place has different closing days, so on Sunday to Wednesday, something will be closed: the café closes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, S-Gallery on Mondays and Tuesdays, and S-Lab was closed on the Sunday I visited. Go on a sunny day if you can. The louvers look their best when the light throws strong shadows.

Good to know before you go

Check the bus home first. Highway buses back to Tokyo are not frequent, so check the timetable before you set off.
Trains are slow here. Sakai has no train station. By train, you need a local bus from Tobu-Dobutsu-Koen or Koga Station, so the highway bus is much easier.
Not a big sightseeing spot. This is a quiet working town, not a tourist attraction. Come for the architecture, the food and the calm, not for crowds or souvenir streets.
Opening hours (as of October 2026): Michi-no-Eki Sakai and Sakai Sand, usually 9:30–17:00 (10:00–17:00 on weekends, hours vary by day). SHED, 10:00–17:00. HOSHIIMONO100 Café, 10:00–18:00 (last order 17:00), closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. S-Gallery, 10:00–12:00 and 13:15–17:00, closed Mondays and Tuesdays, ¥330.

Getting there

Highway bus (easiest): Tokyo Station, Yaesu South Exit, to Sakai Highway Bus Terminal, via Oji Station. About 1 hour 30 minutes, ¥1,800 (JR Bus Kanto and Kanto Railway). Then take the free town bus to Sakahana-cho.
By train and bus: Tobu Nikko Line to Tobu-Dobutsu-Koen Station, or JR Utsunomiya Line to Koga Station, then an Asahi Bus bound for “Sakai Shako.” Get off at “Sakai-machi Yakuba Iriguchi.”
By car: the buildings have parking.

Book your trip

Highway bus

You can check timetables and reserve seats on the operator’s official site.

JR Bus Kanto (official)

Stay connected

Out in the countryside, you will want mobile data for bus timetables and maps.

Get a Japan eSIM (Airalo)

Official websites

Next time

In Part 3, we return to Tokyo and walk from Aoyama to Harajuku, from the bamboo-lined approach of the Nezu Museum to the forest of Meiji Jingu, to see how Kuma brings wood and green into the heart of the city.

Photos: Aozora Walks. Information as of October 2026. Sources: Ministry of Finance, Japan, “Finance” (December 2022); official websites of each facility.

2026-10-18

Kabuki-za in Ginza: Watch One Act of Kabuki and Find the Upside-Down Phoenix

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At the end of our water bus trip, I promised a closer look at the buildings of Kengo Kuma. We start with one of his best-loved works: Kabuki-za, the home of kabuki in Ginza.

Our journey begins in Asakusa, at another Kuma building, the Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center across from Kaminarimon. From Asakusa, the Toei Asakusa Line takes you to Higashi-Ginza Station in about 15 minutes with no change of trains, and the station connects directly to Kabuki-za.

Before you set off, step inside the ground-floor entrance and look up. The ceiling is made of layers of wooden slats and beams, so the building feels warm even though it is made of glass and steel. Bringing wood into modern buildings is one of Kuma’s trademarks, and you will see it again in Part 2.

Quick facts

What	Watch one act of kabuki, then explore the free rooftop garden
Where	Kabuki-za, Ginza (Higashi-Ginza Station, Exit 3)
Cost	Varies by act (I paid ¥3,000 for a 75-minute act). Rooftop garden: free
Time	30–90 minutes per act, plus about 30 minutes for the rooftop
From Asakusa	Toei Asakusa Line, about 15 minutes, no transfer

Arriving at Kabuki-za

Exit 3 at Higashi-Ginza Station brings you straight into Kobikicho Hiroba, a basement floor with souvenir shops, a 7-Eleven and a Tully’s Coffee, so it is a good place to wait if you arrive early. It is named after Kobiki-cho, the old name of this area, where Kabuki-za first opened in 1889.

Take the escalator up and cross Harumi-dori. From the other side of the street, you can see the whole facade: the curved roof and red lanterns of a traditional theater in front, and the modern Kabuki-za Tower rising behind. This is how Kuma rebuilt a beloved old theater without losing its face.

The woodblock print below by Kawase Hasui shows Kabuki-za in 1951, the year it reopened after being burned in the war. Compare it with today’s facade: the curved gables and the tiled roofline live on.

Watching kabuki for one act

A full kabuki program lasts four hours or more. The Ichimakumi seats let you watch just one act, from about 30 to 90 minutes. Not too short, not too long, and easy on the wallet: for first-timers, it is the perfect way to try kabuki.

Online: reserved seats go on sale at noon the day before. You show a QR code on your phone at the entrance.
On the day: a small number of seats are sold from 10:00 at the window beside the main entrance. Popular acts sell out fast. On the day I went, some people were turned away.

The Ichimakumi entrance is right next to the same-day ticket window, to the left of the main entrance. An elevator takes you straight up to the 4th floor, where there are restrooms and drink vending machines. Once you enter, you cannot go out and come back in.

Get the audio guide. You can rent it at the desk right in front of the elevator on the 4th floor. Kabuki’s way of speaking and storytelling is hard to follow even for many Japanese people. The guide explains the story, the meaning of lines and gestures, the costumes and the actors, always at just the right moment without getting in the way. At the Ichimakumi seats, the English version costs ¥1,000. A subtitle device that shows the lines in English or Simplified Chinese is also available at the same desk (¥1,000, cash only).

The view. You look down on the stage from high up, and part of the hanamichi, the walkway actors use to make their entrances, is out of sight. Still, you get used to it quickly, and it is not very different from the 3rd-floor seats. Bring opera glasses if you want to see faces and costumes.

What surprised me most was the atmosphere. Regular fans shout the actors’ stage names at key moments, and with the music and the rise and fall of the voices, you always know when the big moment is coming. Even without following every word, you can enjoy the skill of the performance.

After the show: Goemon Stairs and the upside-down phoenix

After the act, go back down to the basement and take the elevator at the back of Kobikicho Hiroba to the 5th floor. The rooftop garden here is free and open to anyone during opening hours.

From the garden, an outdoor staircase leads down to the 4th floor. It is called the Goemon Stairs, after a famous kabuki scene in which the thief Ishikawa Goemon looks out from a temple gate and cries, “What a magnificent view!” For me, these stairs are the best part of Kabuki-za, because they bring you closer than anywhere else to Kuma’s great roof.

Look at the round tiles at the ends of the roof. Each bears a phoenix, the symbol of Kabuki-za. But one of them faces the other way. This “upside-down phoenix” is said to carry a message: nothing perfect lasts forever, so one part was left imperfect on purpose.

Most people walk straight past it. I found it, but I won’t spoil the fun by showing you where. Look carefully from the Goemon Stairs and see if you can find it yourself.

At the bottom of the stairs, the 4th-floor corridor displays photos of great actors and models of the earlier theaters, a reminder that today’s Kabuki-za, joined to a modern tower, still carries the face of the old ones.

Good to know before you go

Book online the day before if you can. Same-day tickets for popular acts sell out fast.
No re-entry. Buy drinks in Kobikicho Hiroba before you go up.
Prices vary by act. Watching several acts can cost more than one regular ticket.
Photos: never during a performance. Photos of the auditorium are allowed during intermissions, and the rooftop garden and Goemon Stairs are fine at any time.

Getting there

Toei Asakusa Line or Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, Higashi-Ginza Station, Exit 3 (direct connection)
From Asakusa: Toei Asakusa Line, about 15 minutes, no transfer

Make a morning of it: Tsukiji

Kabuki-za is only about a 10-minute walk from Tsukiji Outer Market along Harumi-dori, or one stop on the Hibiya Line from Higashi-Ginza to Tsukiji. A good plan is to have breakfast at the market, where the stalls are busiest in the morning, and then walk over to Kabuki-za in time for same-day tickets at 10:00. Many shops close in the early afternoon, and many are also closed on Sundays, public holidays and market holidays (mostly Wednesdays), so check before you go.

Book your trip

Single-act seats (Ichimakumi)

These are sold only by Kabuki-za itself: online from noon the day before, or at the theater on the day. They are not available through tour or ticket websites.

Kabuki-za program and single-act tickets (official)

Full performances

If you would like to see a whole program, Shochiku’s official multilingual ticket site sells all seat types at the regular price.

Shochiku official online tickets

You can also book through GetYourGuide, where Shochiku, the company that runs Kabuki-za, lists tickets itself. The ticket includes an English subtitle device, and you can cancel for free up to two days before. You cannot choose your seat, and the price may be higher than on the official site, so compare before you book. You will receive a voucher, which you exchange for a ticket at the box office on Basement Level 2 on the day.

Kabuki-za tickets on GetYourGuide

Ticket prices, seat types and sales rules change by program and season. The information here is as of October 2026, so please check the official site before you go.

Stay connected

You will need mobile data to show your QR ticket at the entrance.

Get a Japan eSIM (Airalo)

Where to stay

Mitsui Garden Hotel Ginza Tsukiji

Why choose: Opened in 2024, a 3-minute walk from Higashi-Ginza Station and close to Tsukiji Outer Market, so you can start the day with a market breakfast. Every room has a washer-dryer and a microwave, there is a cave-like guest bath in the basement, and the bath products are vegan-certified.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Tokyu Stay Ginza

Why choose: About a 1-minute walk from Higashi-Ginza Station, practically next door to Kabuki-za. Every room has a microwave and most have a washer-dryer, which makes it a practical base for a longer stay in central Tokyo.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Hotel Grand Bach Tokyo Ginza

Why choose: A quiet hotel 1 minute from Higashi-Ginza Station, built around the music of J.S. Bach and the idea of wellness. You can hear live piano in the lobby, and breakfast is a buffet focused on healthy, balanced food. Corner rooms look out over the lights of Ginza.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Next time

In Part 2, we leave Tokyo for Sakai in Ibaraki Prefecture, an old river-port town on the Tone River where Kuma has designed a whole group of wooden buildings, just one bus ride from Tokyo Station.

Photos: Aozora Walks. Information as of October 2026.

2026-10-15

From Asakusa to Odaiba by Water Bus: Reading Tokyo’s History Under the Sumida River Bridges

This post contains affiliate links. If you book through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Imagine stepping aboard a silver spaceship in Asakusa and sailing back into the Edo period.

That is what a water bus ride down the Sumida River feels like. The boat looks as if it came straight out of a science-fiction comic, yet the river beneath it was the great highway of old Edo. For centuries, boats carried rice, timber and travelers along this river, and its bridges were where the city gathered, celebrated and, at times, fled from disaster.

In Part 1 and Part 2, we explored the streets of old Asakusa through the eyes of Demon Slayer. This time, as promised, we take to the water. As a geography teacher, I think this one-hour trip from Asakusa to Odaiba is one of the best ways to see how Tokyo grew, from a city of wooden bridges to a waterfront of steel and glass.

Quick facts

Scene	Sumida River and Tokyo Bay by water bus
Route	Asakusa Pier → down the Sumida River → under Rainbow Bridge → Odaiba Seaside Park
Fare	¥2,000 adults / ¥1,000 children (Emeraldas, direct)
Time	About 55 minutes by timetable (my boat arrived in about 40)
Nearest station	Asakusa Station (Ginza Line / Asakusa Line Exit 4, 1 min walk)

Finding the pier

From Kaminarimon Gate, walk a few minutes toward the Sumida River, the side where you can see Tokyo Skytree. Next to Azumabashi Bridge, just behind the small Japanese-style police box, you will find the ticket building with “TOKYO CRUISE” written on it.

Buy your ticket first, then explore

There are ticket machines inside, but there is almost always a queue, and departures leaving soon often sell out. There seem to be many boats, but they go to several destinations. Only about six a day sail directly to Odaiba, so if you miss the one you want, you may wait two hours or more.

My advice: buy your ticket first, then walk back to Senso-ji until departure time. Even better, book online in advance.

If you book online, your e-ticket arrives by email and opens on your phone. On the way to the boarding gate, you will find a small check-in device shaped a bit like a rubber stamp. You simply press it onto your phone screen, and the ticket is marked as used. I had never seen a system like this before.

Tip: you will need mobile data to open your e-ticket at the pier. An eSIM such as Airalo is the easiest option for visitors.

Get a Japan eSIM (Airalo)

On board the Emeraldas

I rode the Emeraldas. Its silver, spaceship-like exterior was designed by Leiji Matsumoto, the manga artist famous for Galaxy Express 999. The interior is by the architect Takato Tamagami, who made the front cabin feel like a riverbank, with curving benches and counters instead of rows of seats.

There is plenty of seating, so you will not have to stand. If you want a table or a window seat, though, join the line at the gate about 15 minutes before departure. The Emeraldas also has three private compartments, available for an extra charge of roughly ¥3,000–4,000. Check availability when you book.

You are welcome to bring food and drinks on board. Pick something up at a convenience store or fast-food shop near the pier and enjoy a picnic on the river. The cabin is air-conditioned and mostly enclosed, so the trip is comfortable in both summer and winter.

The rooftop deck opens once the crew have it ready, usually some time after departure. Up there you are much closer to the bridges and the view is wider. In spring and autumn it is wonderful.

Under the bridges

Between Asakusa and Tokyo Bay, the boat passes under more than ten bridges, and you get to see their undersides, which you would never notice from the street. Each one has a different shape and structure, and many carry a story about how Tokyo grew. Three stood out for me.

Ryogoku Bridge: born from a great fire

In the early Edo period, the shogunate allowed only one bridge across this river, for defense. In 1657, the Great Meireki Fire swept through Edo. With no way across the river, huge numbers of people were trapped, and the death toll is said to have reached around 100,000.

Ryogoku Bridge was built soon afterward, in 1659 (some sources say 1661), as an escape route. Its name, “Bridge of Two Provinces,” comes from the river once marking the border between Musashi and Shimousa provinces. Open spaces were cleared at both ends to stop fires from spreading. These firebreaks soon filled with food stalls and street shows, and became one of Edo’s liveliest entertainment districts.

Katsushika Hokusai, the artist of The Great Wave, also painted this spot. In his series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, a crowded ferry crosses the river at sunset, with Ryogoku Bridge stretching behind it and Mount Fuji on the horizon. The ferry is long gone, but you are floating on the same river.

Shin-Ohashi Bridge: the bridge Van Gogh painted

Soon after Ryogoku comes Shin-Ohashi Bridge. In 1857, Utagawa Hiroshige depicted the bridge in a sudden summer shower in his series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Thirty years later in Paris, Vincent van Gogh was so taken with the print that he made his own painted copy, Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige). The bridge you pass under today is a modern one, but the river view is the one that crossed the world.

Further downstream, look out for Kiyosu and Eitai Bridges. Both were built after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 destroyed much of the city, and both were modeled on bridges over the Rhine in Germany. First a great fire, then a great earthquake: Tokyo has rebuilt itself again and again, and you can read that history in its bridges.

Kachidoki Bridge: a gate to the sea

Kachidoki Bridge felt different from the moment it came into view. Two massive steel arches stand on either side of the river, with heavy stone piers between them, like a great gate guarding the way to the sea. Its name, meaning “a shout of victory,” comes from a ferry that once crossed here, named in 1905 after a victory in the Russo-Japanese War. And the gate-like look is no accident: the bridge was planned as a grand entrance for an international exposition scheduled for 1940, which was never held.

Kachidoki is also a bascule bridge. Its center once split in two and rose like a pair of wings to let large ships pass, about five times a day at its peak. As river traffic fell and car traffic grew, it opened for the last time in 1970. When you pass beneath it, look closely at the middle of the deck. You can still see the seam where the two halves were meant to part. It was one of my favorite moments of the trip. In 2007, the bridge was designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan.

Just past Kachidoki, work is beginning on the former site of the Tsukiji fish market, which moved to Toyosu in 2018. A large stadium and a new waterfront district are planned there for the 2030s. Then the river opens into Tokyo Bay, and the boat slips under Rainbow Bridge on its final approach to Odaiba.

Arriving in Odaiba: an architect’s skyline

As you approach Odaiba Seaside Park, look for the building with a giant silver sphere. This is the Fuji TV headquarters, completed in 1996 and designed by Kenzo Tange. He was one of Japan’s greatest architects and won the Pritzker Prize. His other works include the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and St. Mary’s Cathedral in Tokyo.

And here is a nice coincidence. Right across from Kaminarimon, where this trip began, stands the Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center, designed by Kengo Kuma, the architect of Japan’s National Stadium. Two generations of Japanese architecture bookend a single boat ride.

Another option: the Tokyo Mizube Line

TOKYO CRUISE is not the only way to sail from Asakusa to Odaiba. The Tokyo Mizube Line, run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Park Association, also connects the two. Its old boats were retired in January 2026, and service resumes on 17 October 2026 with a new boat, the Raiden.

Here is the interesting part. The Raiden is a disaster-response vessel built by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. In an emergency, it carries supplies and people along the rivers. On ordinary days, it carries sightseers like you. After a trip past bridges born from fires and earthquakes, that feels like a fitting end to the story.

Pier: Nitenmon Pier, about a 5-minute walk upstream (north) from the TOKYO CRUISE pier
Route: Nitenmon → Ryogoku (short stop) → Odaiba Seaside Park, about 65 minutes
Departures: 10:40, 13:20 and 16:00 from Nitenmon, mainly Wednesday to Sunday
Fare: ¥2,000 adults / ¥1,000 children

It is far less known among visitors, so it is usually much less crowded. The trade-off is fewer departures, so check the official timetable before you go.

Good to know before you go

Book ahead. Direct boats to Odaiba are limited, and same-day tickets often sell out.
Arrive early for good seats. Join the line about 15 minutes before departure.
Bring snacks. Food and drinks are allowed on board.
Check the weather. Boats can be cancelled in bad weather, and the rooftop deck opens only when conditions allow.
Maintenance days. Each boat has regular days off for maintenance, so check the timetable for your date.
Two operators, two piers. TOKYO CRUISE and the Tokyo Mizube Line leave from different piers. Make sure you go to the right one.

Getting there

TOKYO CRUISE Asakusa Pier: 1 minute on foot from Exit 4 of Asakusa Station (Tokyo Metro Ginza Line and Toei Asakusa Line) and from the Tobu Line station
From Odaiba Seaside Park, the Yurikamome line takes you back to central Tokyo across Rainbow Bridge. Here is how to ride it, and how to get the front seat.

Book your trip

Book directly with TOKYO CRUISE

The simplest option is to book your seat on the official TOKYO CRUISE website, which has an English page. You pay only the regular fare, and your e-ticket arrives by email.

TOKYO CRUISE official website

Water bus tickets are also sold on GetYourGuide. Note that this ticket is sold by a travel agency, not by TOKYO CRUISE itself. You cannot choose your boat, so you may not ride the Emeraldas, and you board with a special link sent the day before rather than your booking number. Prices and conditions may change, so compare with the official site before you book. For most visitors, booking directly is simpler.

Water bus tickets on GetYourGuide

Explore Asakusa before you sail

The pier is only a few minutes from Senso-ji, so if you have time before your boat, see the temple district with a guide first. This two-hour walking tour with an English-speaking guide starts beside Kaminarimon and takes you along Nakamise Street to Senso-ji and into the back streets, with some street food along the way. Prices may change, so check the details before you book.

Join the Asakusa walking tour (GetYourGuide)

Prefer a guide?

If you would like someone to explain the sights as you go, this private tour with a government-licensed, English-speaking guide combines a water bus ride with three or four stops of your choice, such as Senso-ji, Ryogoku Kokugikan, Hamarikyu Gardens and Odaiba. It takes about six hours, and only your own group joins.

See the private water bus tour (Viator)

Where to stay

Hotel Gracery Asakusa

Why choose: About 200 meters from Kaminarimon and a 3-minute walk from Asakusa Station. You can walk to the pier in minutes, and Senso-ji is right on your doorstep for an early-morning visit before the crowds arrive.

Check Rates on Booking.com

THE GATE HOTEL Ryogoku by HULIC

Why choose: A riverside hotel in Ryogoku, a little away from Asakusa but right on the theme of this trip. It stands on the Sumida River near Ryogoku Bridge, about a minute’s walk from the Ryogoku pier used by the Tokyo Mizube Line. Some rooms look out over the river or the Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo arena, and the guest-only terrace on the 9th floor has views of the river and Tokyo Skytree.

Check Rates on Booking.com

KOKO HOTEL Residence Asakusa Tawaramachi

Why choose: A 2-minute walk from Tawaramachi Station on the Ginza Line, one stop from Asakusa and a direct ride to Ueno and Ginza. Rooms come with a kitchen and a washer-dryer and sleep up to six, which makes it a good base for families and longer stays.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Next time

Heading back? Ride the Yurikamome over Rainbow Bridge from Odaiba to Shimbashi. Before you board, look out for the old stone fort that gave Odaiba its name.

This trip ended with two great architects, Kenzo Tange and Kengo Kuma. In the next series, we will look at their buildings more closely and explore how modern Japanese architecture shaped the Tokyo skyline.

Photos: Aozora Walks unless otherwise noted. Ryogoku Bridge: Ryu ohsako / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Shin-Ohashi Bridge: Jmho / Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Eitai Bridge: jmho / Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Katsushika Hokusai print: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0). Utagawa Hiroshige print: National Diet Library Digital Collections (public domain).

2026-10-09

Demon Slayer in Asakusa, Part 2: Ryounkaku, the Tower That Vanished

This post contains affiliate links. If you book through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

In the Asakusa episodes of Demon Slayer, one building rises above everything else on the skyline: a tall, slender tower glowing over a pond. That tower was real. It was called Ryounkaku, and for more than thirty years it was the symbol of Asakusa. Today it is gone, and most visitors walk past the spot where it stood without noticing.

In Part 1, we stood at Kaminarimon. In Part 2, I take you west into Rokku, Asakusa’s old entertainment district, to find where the tower stood, and then back to Senso-ji to see what the disasters of the 20th century left behind.

Quick facts

The scene	Season 1 (Tanjiro Kamado, Unwavering Resolution Arc), Episode 7, at around 16:20
Route	Rokku Broadway → Ryounkaku site → Okuyama Omairimachi → Senso-ji
Cost	Free (all outdoor or temple grounds)
Time needed	30 minutes to 1 hour
Nearest station	Tsukuba Express Asakusa Station, Exit A1 (2 min walk to the start)

Schematic map of the Part 2 walking route from Rokku to Senso-ji — *The Part 2 route. Tap the map to enlarge. Schematic map by Aozora Walks.*

Ryounkaku: Tokyo’s first skyscraper

Ryounkaku, nicknamed “Asakusa Juni-kai” (the Twelve Storeys), opened in 1890. It was about 52 meters tall, at a time when almost nothing in Tokyo stood higher than two or three floors, so it could be seen from all over the city. Visitors paid admission to climb to the top and look out over Tokyo.

It also had Japan’s first electric elevator. The elevator, however, broke down so often that it was shut down within a year of opening, and most visitors climbed the stairs.

On September 1, 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake struck. The tower broke apart above the 8th floor, and the remaining structure was demolished by army engineers later that month. This gives us a useful clue about the anime: if Ryounkaku is still standing, the story must take place before September 1923. And because a streetcar still runs in front of the temple (see Part 1), it is also before the Ginza Line subway opened in 1927.

Anime vs. history: the tower over the pond

The anime shows Ryounkaku rising behind Hyotan Pond, a gourd-shaped pond that once sat in the middle of Rokku. Compare it with a photograph taken from almost the same angle in the 1890s:

What matches: the composition. In both, the pond fills the foreground, low trees and buildings line the far bank, and the tower stands alone above them, reflected in the water. The animators clearly worked from views like this one, which appeared again and again on postcards of the time.

What the anime adds: night and light. The real Rokku was famous for its electric lights and theaters, and the anime turns that into a glowing fantasy scene. The pond itself no longer exists. It was filled in from 1951, and the land was sold partly to help pay for rebuilding Senso-ji’s main hall after the war. Buildings and streets of Rokku now cover the site.

Walk to where the tower stood

From Tsukuba Express Asakusa Station, take Exit A1 and you come out on Rokku Broadway. Walk straight north along this street.

On your left, look for the building that houses Asakusa Engei Hall and Asakusa France-za Engeijo Toyokan, two theaters for rakugo storytelling and comedy. The colorful banners lining the street in front of them are one of the places where you can still feel the Asakusa of the anime. As Tanjiro walks through the crowds of Asakusa, the street he passes appears to be around here.

At the north end of the street, you reach an OK Store supermarket (2-14-5 Asakusa). This is where Ryounkaku stood. In front of the store is a small memorial plaque engraved with the tower. Stand here and look up: for over thirty years, one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo rose from this spot.

The shortcut to Senso-ji

From the tower site, most visitors would walk around to Kaminarimon. Don’t. The shortcut is Okuyama Omairimachi, a small shopping street that leads straight to the west side of the temple grounds. Enter from the end near UNIQLO.

Bonus: there are public restrooms right by the exit on the Senso-ji side, which are not easy to find in crowded Asakusa.

What the disasters left behind

The Great Kanto Earthquake did more than bring down Ryounkaku. Fires spread across the city, and in Asakusa Ward more than 90 percent of households lost their homes. In that sea of fire, Senso-ji’s main hall and five-storey pagoda survived, almost miraculously. But their luck ran out 22 years later. On March 10, 1945, the Tokyo air raids burned both. The main hall you see today was rebuilt in 1958, and the pagoda was also rebuilt after the war.

Three stops inside the temple grounds show this history.

1. The tub that saved the temple’s treasure

Just before the main hall, on the west side, is Awashima-do, a small hall. In front of it stands a large metal rainwater tub made in 1770.

During the war, the temple feared that Tokyo would burn. On November 18, 1943, the monks placed Senso-ji’s sacred main image, a statue of the bodhisattva Kannon, inside this tub, and buried it deep under the main hall. The hall burned in 1945, but the statue survived underground. It was dug up safely on March 7, 1947.

2. The main hall

The main hall burned in the 1945 air raids and was rebuilt in concrete in 1958. Look closely and you will see how faithfully it follows the old design.

3. The ginkgo that still carries the scars

Walk to the southeast side of the main hall, near Nitenmon Gate. Here stands a huge ginkgo, said to be about 800 years old. It was hit during the 1945 air raids, and the inside of its trunk is still blackened by fire several meters up. It is one of the few things in Asakusa that saw both the Asakusa of the anime and the Asakusa of today.

Asakusa can feel like a place where time stopped in the Taisho era. In fact, it was destroyed twice in just over twenty years and rebuilt each time. What you see is not a survivor, but a city that kept rebuilding itself on the same ground plan.

Best time to go

Go early in the morning or at night. Staying at a hotel nearby makes this easy.

The temple grounds are open 24 hours, so you can see everything on this route at any time of day.
The main hall itself is open 6:00–17:00 (from 6:30 between October and March). At night you can view it from outside but not enter.
Every evening from sunset until about 23:00, the main hall, five-storey pagoda, Hozomon Gate and Kaminarimon are lit up.
Early mornings are quiet, cool and clear. Many locals and hotel guests jog through the temple grounds before the crowds arrive.

Good to know before you go

Ryounkaku itself is gone. The site is now a supermarket, with only a memorial plaque. Come for the story, not for a building.
This route enters Senso-ji from the west, the opposite of the classic approach. You miss the build-up of walking through Kaminarimon and up Nakamise to the main hall. If this is your first visit to Asakusa, consider doing Part 1’s route as well.
Kaminarimon is a long detour from the tower site, so start from Tsukuba Express or the Rokku side.

Getting there

Tsukuba Express, Asakusa Station, Exit A1: about 2 minutes on foot to Rokku Broadway (closest)
Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Tawaramachi Station: about 8 minutes

See the classic side with a guide

This route enters Senso-ji from the west, so it skips the classic approach through Kaminarimon and Nakamise. If you would like to see that side too, with someone to tell you the stories behind it, this two-hour walking tour with an English-speaking guide starts beside Kaminarimon and takes you along Nakamise Street to Senso-ji and into the back streets, with some street food along the way. Prices may change, so check the details before you book.

Join the Asakusa walking tour (GetYourGuide)

Dress up in Taisho style

The Taisho era was a time of “haikara” fashion, when Japanese and Western styles mixed freely. The anime’s costumes are simplified for animation, but real Taisho fashion was full of stylish details. Several shops in Asakusa rent Taisho-romance style kimono, with dressing and hairstyling included. Kimono rental shops are mostly open during the day, so plan your kimono walk for daytime.

Book a retro kimono rental (Klook)

Taisho-romance kimono at Jidaiya

Once you are dressed up, why not see Asakusa from a rickshaw? Jidaiya, the same company that rents Taisho-romance kimono, also runs rickshaw rides of 30 minutes to an hour, with pullers who can guide you in English.

Book a Jidaiya rickshaw ride (GetYourGuide)

Where to stay in Asakusa

To walk this route early in the morning or at night, stay close by.

Asakusa View Hotel Annex Rokku

Why choose: Right in front of the Ryounkaku site, and steps from Tsukuba Express. Ideal for an early-morning walk.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Asakusa View Hotel

Why choose: A large hotel about one minute’s walk west of the tower site, with views over the Asakusa rooftops toward Tokyo Skytree.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Next time

In Part 3, we leave the temple behind and follow the Sumida River by water bus from Asakusa to Odaiba.

Aozora Walks is a fan-made travel guide and is not affiliated with the official Demon Slayer franchise. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba © Koyoharu Gotouge / SHUEISHA, Aniplex, ufotable. Historical photographs: National Diet Library Digital Collections (public domain).

2026-10-02

Demon Slayer in Asakusa, Part 1: Kaminarimon Then and Now

This post contains affiliate links. If you book through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

If you have watched Demon Slayer, you probably remember the night Tanjiro arrives in Asakusa: a glowing shopping street packed with people, lanterns everywhere, and a streetcar rattling past in the foreground. It feels like a fantasy city. But almost everything in that scene was real.

I am a geography teacher who lives in Asakusa. In this series, I walk through the places that appear in the anime and explain what has changed since the Taisho era (1912–1926), what survived, and why. In Part 1, we start at the most famous spot of all: Kaminarimon.

Quick facts

The scene	Season 1 (Tanjiro Kamado, Unwavering Resolution Arc), the Asakusa episodes (Episodes 6–10). Tanjiro meets Muzan in Episodes 7–8. The Asakusa street scene appears in Episode 7, at around 16:20.
Best viewpoint	Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center, 8F terrace (free)
Hours	Terrace open 9:00–22:00, open daily (occasional closures)
Time needed	About 30 minutes
Nearest station	Tokyo Metro Ginza Line Asakusa Station, Exit 1 (1 min walk)

Short on time? A small-group walking tour with an English-speaking guide covers Kaminarimon, Nakamise and Senso-ji in about two hours.

Book an English-guided Senso-ji tour (Klook)

The Asakusa Tanjiro saw

The Asakusa episodes are set in the Taisho era, when Asakusa was Tokyo’s biggest entertainment district. Crowds came for the temple, for the shops on Nakamise, and for the theaters and cinemas of Rokku, the district just west of the temple. Towering over it all was Ryounkaku, a twelve-storey tower with Japan’s first electric elevator.

Asakusa in the Taisho era and today. Schematic map by Aozora Walks.

The animation studio clearly studied old records of the city. Look closely at the Kaminarimon scene and you will notice three details that tell you it is not modern Asakusa.

1. There is no Kaminarimon gate

Today, the giant red gate with its huge paper lantern is Asakusa’s symbol. But in Tanjiro’s time, it did not exist. The gate burned down in 1865, and for almost a century there was no permanent gate here. The current Kaminarimon was only rebuilt in 1960, with a donation from Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic. Even without a gate, people still called this street “inside the Kaminari Gate” — you can see those words printed on the old photograph below.

2. A streetcar runs in front of the temple

In the anime, a streetcar passes along the main road in front of Nakamise. That line really existed. Today you will not find it, because the streetcar has been replaced by something underground: the Ginza Line. It opened between Ueno and Asakusa in 1927, just after the Taisho era ended, as Japan’s very first subway. Its Asakusa Station is right beside Kaminarimon, so when you arrive by subway, you are following the same route as the old streetcar, just a few meters below.

3. The kaminari okoshi shop on the corner

On the left corner as you face the gate stands Tokiwado, a shop selling kaminari okoshi, a crunchy puffed-rice sweet that has been Asakusa’s classic souvenir for generations. The shop is in the same place today. The building itself, however, is not from the Taisho era. It was rebuilt after the Tokyo air raids of 1945.

Why so little of Taisho Asakusa survives

Asakusa was destroyed twice in just over twenty years. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 brought down Ryounkaku and burned much of the district. Then, in March 1945, the Tokyo air raids burned it again, along with the main hall of Senso-ji itself.

As a geographer, what fascinates me is what came back. Buildings were lost, but the shape of the place survived: the straight line of Nakamise leading from the main road to the temple, the entertainment district of Rokku to the west, and the river to the east. Asakusa was rebuilt again and again on the same pattern. That is why, even in 2026, you can stand here and still feel the Asakusa of the anime.

Where to see the anime’s view today

Here is the best part. There is a place where you can see Kaminarimon and Nakamise from almost the same angle as the anime: the Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center, directly across the road from the gate.

The building itself is worth a look. It was designed by Kengo Kuma, one of Japan’s leading architects, whose work in Tokyo includes the National Stadium built for the 2020 Olympics, Takanawa Gateway Station, and the Nezu Museum. Its stacked, house-like floors are a modern take on traditional Japanese rooflines.

Take the elevator to the 8th-floor terrace. It is free and open until 10 p.m. Looking north, you will see the gate below you and Nakamise running straight toward the temple. Come around sunset if you can: as the lights come on, the street starts to look a lot like the night Tanjiro arrived.

Anime vs. today: the same street, 100 years apart

Here is the scene from Episode 7 next to the view I took from the 8th-floor terrace at night. Compare them, and the geography of Asakusa jumps out.

What stayed the same: the layout. In both pictures, Nakamise starts at the main road and runs in a straight line to the temple gate at the far end, with shops packed along both sides. The street plan has survived an earthquake, a war and a century of rebuilding.

What changed: almost everything built on top of that plan. In the anime, there is no Kaminarimon at the entrance, and a streetcar runs along the main road in the foreground. Today, the red gate rebuilt in 1960 stands at the bottom of the frame, the streetcar has been replaced by the Ginza Line running underground, and taller concrete buildings now line the low wooden shopfronts of the Taisho era.

Local tips

The view from the 7th floor is actually even better for photos. Take the elevator to the 8th floor, then walk down the stairs.
Every floor has clean restrooms, which are surprisingly hard to find in crowded Asakusa.
Staff at the information desk speak English and can help with maps and questions.

Good to know before you go

The center itself has very few downsides: it is free, open every day, and right in front of the gate. A few things to keep in mind:

The terrace closes at 10 p.m., so plan night-view visits accordingly.
It occasionally closes for maintenance. Check the official website before you go.
Even at sunset, it is much quieter than the street below. The only wait is usually a few minutes for the elevator on the ground floor.
Ryounkaku, the tower in the anime, no longer exists. Only a memorial stone marks where it stood. I will take you there in a later part of this series.

Getting there

Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Asakusa Station, Exit 1: about 1 minute on foot (closest)
Toei Asakusa Line, Asakusa Station, Exit A4: about 3 minutes
Tobu Skytree Line, Asakusa Station, main exit: about 3 minutes
Tsukuba Express, Asakusa Station, Exit A1: about 8 minutes

Make a half day of it

Kaminarimon is just the entrance. Walk up Nakamise to Senso-ji, then explore the back streets around the temple. You can easily spend half a day in Asakusa without getting bored. Tokyo Skytree is also close: about 10 minutes by Toei bus, or one stop on the Tobu Line.

Explore Asakusa with a guide

If you want to hear the stories behind the temple and its streets, a small-group walking tour with an English-speaking guide is a great way to start your visit. For something more memorable, try a rickshaw ride. The pullers know the neighborhood inside out.

This two-hour walking tour with an English-speaking guide starts right at the police box beside Kaminarimon, then takes you along Nakamise Street to Senso-ji and into the back streets around the temple, with some street food along the way.

Join the Asakusa walking tour (GetYourGuide)

Book a rickshaw tour (Jidaiya)

Where to stay in Asakusa

Staying in Asakusa lets you see Nakamise early in the morning and late at night, when the day-trip crowds are gone.

Richmond Hotel Premier Asakusa International

Why choose: Modern, comfortable rooms within walking distance of Nakamise and Kaminarimon.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Onyado Nono Asakusa

Why choose: A Japanese-style hotel with a natural hot-spring bath, a relaxing end to a day of walking.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Asakusa View Hotel

Why choose: A large hotel with views over the Asakusa rooftops toward Tokyo Skytree.

Check Rates on Booking.com

Next time

In Part 2, we head west to Rokku, Asakusa’s old entertainment district, and find the spot where Ryounkaku once stood. Read Part 2: Ryounkaku, the Tower That Vanished →

Aozora Walks is a fan-made travel guide and is not affiliated with the official Demon Slayer franchise. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba © Koyoharu Gotouge / SHUEISHA, Aniplex, ufotable.

2026-09-27

Author: Aozora Walks

Ueno Park History Walk, Part 2: From Battlefield to Museum Hill, with Le Corbusier

Quick facts

Start: the Park Exit

Le Corbusier’s museum: the National Museum of Western Art

Rodin in the front garden, free

A whale and a rocket launcher: the National Museum of Nature and Science

Why is this a park? Thank a Dutch doctor

The wrong face, again

The fountain square: a temple, then a world fair

The Tokyo National Museum

Then and now: two main buildings

Inside the main building

Make your own ukiyo-e print

Two more buildings for two imperial weddings

A ghost station and Japan’s oldest concert hall

My favorite coffee break

Kan’ei-ji today: a temple hall from Kawagoe

Finish: Ryodaishi Bridge, on the ancient shore

Why the trains run along the foot of the hill

Best time to go

Good to know before you go

Getting there

Make a day of it

See Ueno with a local guide

Where to stay

Mitsui Garden Hotel Ueno

Nohga Hotel Ueno Tokyo

Official websites

Next time

Ueno Park History Walk, Part 1: Edo’s Sacred Hill, a Battlefield and a Racecourse

Quick facts

Start at the edge of an ancient sea

A temple city guarding Edo

Saigo Takamori and the Battle of Ueno

“My husband was not like this!”

Kiyomizu Kannon-do: Kyoto’s stage on a Tokyo hill

Then and now: the Moon Pine

Shells from the battle

The Bell of Time

The Great Buddha who cannot fall any further

Ueno Toshogu: a shrine that escaped the fires

Shinobazu Pond: a temple island and a racecourse

Then and now: horses around the pond

Best time to go

Good to know before you go

Getting there

Make a day of it

Walk Ueno with a local guide

Where to stay

Mitsui Garden Hotel Ueno

Nohga Hotel Ueno Tokyo

Official websites

Next time

Kengo Kuma’s Wooden Walk: From the Nezu Museum to the Forest of Meiji Jingu

Quick facts

Start: Omotesando Station

Nezu Museum: a bamboo path and a deep roof

The garden and the café

Tickets and facilities

SunnyHills: a building like a bamboo basket

Tea and cake upstairs

One Omotesando: the rhythm of the trees

Walk the approach, not the subway

Meiji Jingu: a forest made by people

Meiji Jingu Museum: wood in the forest

Best time to go

Good to know before you go

Getting there

Make a day of it

See more of Omotesando’s architecture with a guide

Where to stay

TRUNK(HOTEL) CAT STREET

The Aoyama Grand Hotel

Official websites

Next time

Nihonbashi Walk: Where Japan’s Roads Begin, Under an Expressway About to Vanish

Quick facts

Start: Nihonbashi Station

The bridge where all roads began