Tokyo Tuttle Travel Pack. Rob Goss

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СКАЧАТЬ the devastation of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and the fire-bombing of Tokyo in 1945. If you want to feel “old Tokyo”, then it’s Yanaka you need to visit.

      Walk down Yanaka’s main shopping street, Yanaka Ginza, and you will find it lined with open-fronted mom-and-pop stores and small restaurants, ranging from Hatsuneya at the far end of the street, which sells traditional textiles and clothing, to the fine teas at Kaneyoshien halfway up and the hand-made candies at Goto no Ame at the start of the street. Wander off into Yanaka’s narrow back streets and it gets even better. You might stroll past the wooden house where Meiji-era novelist Natsume Soseki wrote his masterpiece I Am a Cat or the house-turned-museum where painter Yokoyama Taikan lived. The pair were two of many artists, literati and bohemians who, in the main thanks to Yanaka’s low rents, used to call the area home.

      While Yanaka is best discovered by wandering aimlessly, letting the winding streets lead you where they will, make sure you find your way at some point to Yanaka Cemetery. The peaceful, incense-infused cemetery holds some 7,000 graves, including the resting place of the last shogun. It’s also one of Tokyo’s most tranquil spots except, that is, when the cherry blossoms turn much of its main walkways pink in early spring, attracting crowds of picnickers.

      Opening Times Different shops along Yanaka Ginza close on different days. Most are open by 10.30 a.m. Yanaka Cemetery is open 24/7 (the office, where you can pick up a map of the famous graves, is open daily 8.30 a.m.–5.15 p.m.). Getting There Yanaka Ginza is a five-minute walk from the west exit of Nippori Station on the Yamanote Line. Yanaka Cemetery is one minute from the same station.

      

      8 Akihabara

      Japan’s home electronics and geeky mecca

      Akihabara, which is located almost halfway between the Imperial Palace area (page 26) and Ueno (page 33), has come to mean two things to the Japanese: electronics and otaku. The first of those associations can be traced back to the black market trading of radio components in the area, which began shortly after World War II and then morphed into the legitimate trading of home electronics and gadgetry that today has made Akihabara the home electronics retail center of Tokyo. The latter association is more recent, Akihabara becoming the focal point for otaku (which you can translate somewhere near to geek), initially on the back of video gaming in the late 1980s but more recently on anime (animation) and manga (comic books).

      What that means for visitors to modern day Akihabara is that from side street computer component specialists to one- stop megastores like Yodobashi Akiba (page 36), you won’t find a bigger or more varied collection of home electronics shops anywhere else in Japan. Nor will you see a better or at times more bizarre selection of stores specializing in manga, anime, video games, cosplay (costume play) outfits and all manner of hobby goods and collectibles.

      If you wanted to build your own robot, you’d come to Akiba—as Akihabara is often called—for parts. Want to collect models of every character ever to have appeared in a Godzilla movie? This is the place to find Mothra and more. Need to complete your poster collection of super cute (or super irritating, depending on your stance) teen idol girl group AKB48? Come here before seeking out a counselor. Or just come and have a browse, not only at the stores but of the occasional oddballs in fancy dress wandering the streets. You don’t need to be an otaku or a techie to enjoy Akiba. For a fuller look at the area and a detailed run-down on many of its stores, look at the Akihabara and Shinjuku section on pages 36–7.

      Opening Times Most shops in Akihabara open from 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. This might sound odd, but Akihabara is actually better on a weekend when it’s busiest; you’ve got more chance to see some unusual sights then. Getting There Akihabara Station is on the JR Yamanote, Chuo-Sobu and Keihin-Tohoku lines and the Hibiya subway line.

      9 Edo-Tokyo History Museum

      Learn about Tokyo’s fascinating and colorful past

      Some Tokyophiles looking at this will be wondering how on earth the Edo-Tokyo Museum has been chosen ahead of the Tokyo National Museum (page 75) for this chapter. They have a point. The TNM in Ueno (page 33) has the largest and finest collection of Japanese artifacts anywhere in the world—some 100,000 pieces dating from the Jomon period to the early 20th century—but nowhere gives as much insight into the city of Tokyo and its development as the Edo-Tokyo museum.

      Located in Ryogoku behind the country’s main sumo stadium (page 80), the six-floor Edo-Tokyo History Museum is divided into several zones. There are special exhibition areas, cafés and off-limits storage areas on the lower floors, but it’s the exhibits in the Edo Zone and Tokyo Zone on the fifth and sixth floors that mark the museum out for special attention. You enter the Edo Zone over a 25-meter (82-foot)- long wooden replica of the original Nihonbashi Bridge, the doorway to Edo for anyone traveling from places such as Kyoto or Nikko, and then proceed to take in incredibly detailed and evocative exhibits that include a full-scale replica of the kind of tenement houses in which Edo’s lower classes lived and the decorative façade of a Kabuki playhouse.

      The Western influences that helped transform the city and Japan’s rapid modernization under the Meiji emperor are then brilliantly documented in the Tokyo Zone, as too are the devastating impacts of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and the air raids of World War II. There’s a Model-A Ford from 1931, one of the foreign cars once used as taxis in Tokyo, which speaks of a time before Japan was producing its own automobiles. From the early Showa period (1930s), there’s the part- original, part-replica house of the Yamagoya family, featuring a dining room and living room built in a European log house style but bedrooms built in a traditional Japanese style—a wonderful example of Japan on its first steps to modernization after centuries of feudal isolation.

      Opening Times Tues–Sun 9.30 a.m.–5.30 p.m. (until 7.30 p.m. on Sat). Getting There A three-minute walk from the west exit of Ryogoku Station on the JR Sobu Line or one minute on foot from exit A4 of the Oedo subway line. Contact www.edo- tokyo-museum.or.jp Admission Fee ¥600.

      10 Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown

      Two urban developments that have redefined Tokyo

      Roppongi used to be the preserve of late night drinkers and restaurant-goers—just another drab piece of urbanity by day that would come to life only after dark. Today, with two of the city’s most fashionable urban redevelopments, it’s become the epitome of cosmopolitan Tokyo.

      The catalyst for change was billionaire Minoru Mori, head of the giant Mori Building Company, and the $2.5 billion Roppongi Hills complex he launched to much hype in 2003. With more than 200 shops, boutiques, restaurants, cafés and bars as well as the sleek Grand Hyatt Hotel, the stunning Mori Art Museum (page 76) located on the top floors of the complex’s glistening main tower, plus, in separate buildings, the headquarters of Asahi TV and some of the city’s most exclusive apartments, it was rightly billed as a “city within a city”, breaking new ground for Tokyo with its scale and luxury. It set the stage for other sleek urban developments that would soon follow nearby.

      Not to be outdone by Mori, Mitsui Fudosan, Japan’s largest real estate developer, built a city within a city of its own— Tokyo Midtown—within shouting distance. Opened in 2007, Mitsui’s complex is made up of five buildings and a central tower that, at 248 meters (814 feet) is the tallest building in Tokyo Prefecture. Its five-story Galleria is home to 73,000 square meters СКАЧАТЬ