Tokyo's spiritual anchor and its most overtly traditional district, where Senso-ji Temple's Kaminarimon gate has drawn pilgrims since 645 AD and the surrounding streets maintain a pace and scale that the rest of Tokyo abandoned decades ago. The buildings are lower here, the streets wider in places and maze-like in others, and the commercial life along Nakamise-dori and Hoppy Street retains a pre-digital earthiness — vendors grilling senbei over charcoal, shops selling wooden combs and paper fans, the izakaya along Hoppy-dori where cheap beer and yakitori smoke create the atmosphere that Shinjuku's Memory Lane aspires to. Kappabashi-dori, the kitchen supply street, is a parallel attraction for anyone interested in Japanese knives, ceramics, or the plastic food models that sit in restaurant windows across the country.
The Sumida River provides the eastern boundary and the best approach to the district — the water bus from Hamarikyu Garden delivers you to Asakusa's pier with Tokyo Skytree rising behind the temple rooftops, a visual compression of traditional and hyper-modern Tokyo that no photograph adequately captures.