Why Another Tokyo Guidebook?

My goal was to produce the type of book I wish I’d had when I first visited Tokyo. Rather than being a typical guide to hot tourism sites and nightclub districts, this book is intended for those who wish to just walk about and observe interesting neighborhoods. It’s a book designed to have in hand, rather than for armchair reading or to glance at on the flight. As I was doing research, I kept discovering places I did not know about, which necessitated a trip to look at them (an author’s life can be so hard). Quite often I would see places and things in Tokyo and not know what they were, then discover information about them after I returned home. Part of the goal of this book is to reduce that problem for you on your trip.

While there have been guidebooks to walking interesting parts of Tokyo in the past, these have tended to use specific routes with directions. The problem with that model is that things change, making it hard to follow directions. For example, “Cross the bridge to the first intersection with a stop light and turn left at the gas station” sounds fine. But if a street in between has had a stop light added and the gas station has been replaced by a 7-11, then the directions are no longer useful.

Instead, this book provides location information for interesting sights in various neighborhoods and you can choose which route to take. Don’t rush from place to place on this book’s maps. The most direct route may not be the most interesting one, and as you wander you will find plenty of interesting little places and everyday things on the streets. Instead, stroll, get sidetracked, take your time, take a picture, and stop to rest on occasion. Finally, do not try to hit every sight listed for a neighborhood. Most chapters would take more than a day if you try to see everything. Focus on what seems the most interesting.

My preference is not for the city of the high and powerful: the samurai lords, politicians, financiers, and policy makers. My preference is for the low city rather than the high city: the city of the artisan, the family business, and the laborer; the humble neighborhoods of actors, singers, and street performers. This is one reason I have decied to make these older neighborhoods the subject of many of the chapters in this book. The other reason is that the older neighborhoods often have a higher density of interesting locations.

As I worked on this book, I would occasionally talk to people I know about their preferred activities while traveling and found that many spoke of not being interested in the major sights. Instead they spoke of an interest in the everyday aspects of a city, ordinary neighborhoods, and little things discovered while wandering.

Walks through these neighborhoods will take you past the traditional and modern, the raucous and the quiet, and both large and humble structures, often very close to each other. Is an area too noisy? Are you experiencing too much sensory overload? Just go a short distance on a side street and you will find how quiet a major city can be. Explore all the variety and let the impressions of the city wash over you. It is all the real Tokyo, all the real Japan.

Don’t spend valuable trip time and energy hopping around the country. I’ve spoken to too many people who spent a night or two out and about and barely saw anything, as they were either in transit or too tired upon return. Sit yourself in one place and spend the days enjoying the Tokyo area. On subsequent trips you can explore other parts of Japan, or more of Tokyo. I always advise first-time travelers to spend their trip in Tokyo as it is the most foreigner-friendly city in Japan. A few of the advantages include clear transit signage, locals who are familiar with helping tourists, convenient mass transit, and plenty of information available for visitors.

Style elements

For transliterated text, I use a modified Hepburn romanization. Long vowels are indicated by a macron, as in ō. To aid readers in pronunciation, I am even including macrons in loan words, but not in big-city names such as Tokyo.

In place names, I have followed Japanese pronunciation rather than translating elements of names. For example Kandagawa rather than Kanda River, or Ryōgokubashi rather than Ryōgoku Bridge. This will assist if you have to ask for directions.

In most cases I have avoided the use of hyphens in place names by contracting the phrases. For example, Sumidagawa rather than Sumida-gawa, Eitaibashi rather than Eitai-bashi. The one exception to this is in the names of major boulevards, as signage in Japan uses either hyphens or spaces. I decided to use spaces, so Chūō Dōri rather than Chūō-dōri or Chūōdōri.

For Japanese names, I follow the traditional order of family name first followed by given name. For example, Tange Kenzō rather than Kenzō Tange.

Temple names often have a suffix of -in, -dō, or -ji. I include them as part of the name. For example, Sensōji rather than Sensō Temple.

For shrine names, I use the full Japanese name as in Meiji Jingū rather than Meiji Shrine, Hachimangū rather than Hachiman Shrine, or Inari Jinja rather than Inari Shrine.

An effort was made to provide links to the webpages of the various companies, organizations, and insitutions covered in this book. These links are marked with in order to make them easy to pick out in the text. Similarly, don’t miss the helpful information contained in the tips and notes found throughout the book.

Language

Japanese written in Latin characters has vowels pronounced similarly to Spanish or Italian. American English speakers can use the following guide: A sounds like the A in father

E sounds like the A in face

I sounds like the EE in see

O sounds like the OA in oats

U sounds like the OO in room

Ackno​wledgm​ents

Thanks to Ono Masahiro for checking my kanji and romanization, and for helping identify what to call the Ichikawa Danjūrō IX “Shibaraku” bronze statue in Asakusa. Ono-san, you did far more than I asked for.

Thanks also to Karen G. Anderson, Paul Price, Rick Rudge, and Tom Whitmore for being my test subjects as I guided them through many of the neighborhoods in the book: I learned much from your questions and reactions. Extra thanks go to Paul and Tom for their feedback on the text; those edits were happily made.

Satoshi at Asakusa’s Taitō Ryokan for providing a relaxing place to park our stuff and sleep when my friends and I are in Tokyo.

Thanks to Cynthia Olen for her hard work on the maps.

Thanks to Tom Akashi for checking locations in Tokyo during the pandemic to verify shops have not closed or relocated.

Special thanks to my publisher Peter Goodman, who had to wait far too long for this book to reach his hands; Linda Lombardi for her attention to detail in editing the text; and a general thanks to the various writers whose books, essays, articles, and official websites greatly assisted in my gathering information for the entries.

Special thanks to John Sockolov for his diligent work on adding necessary changes during the 2+ years the book was delayed due to Japan restricting entry during the pandemic. Keeping the material up to date was a challenge and his dealing with incorporating my updates is highly appreciated.

Thanks to everyone I met in Tokyo who increased my knowledge of the city: restaurant staff, shop owners, kōban officers, happy drunks, and casual passersby who started up a conversation. It was a delight to learn from you.

Finally, thanks to the Solano Avenue Association, whose annual Solano Avenue Stroll became the inspiration for the title of this book in 2016 when I was beginning my writing.

The maps in this book are based on the data in the maps by the OpenStreetMap creators. OpenStreetMap is an international crowdsourced mapping project. To learn more about OpenStreetMap, and perhaps contribute, see their website at https://​www.openst​reetmap​.org.