Ameya-yokocho

What the guides say about Ameya-yokocho

The station blocks on the east and south sides are commercial and loud in the daytime. Ameya-yokocho runs beside and under the Yamanote tracks toward Okachimachi, selling dried fish, spices and sneakers, and its street stalls and izakaya keep going after the rest of the district has closed. Most of the chain hotels are here.

Lunch and afternoon. Sometaro, an okonomiyaki house in a prewar wooden building near the temple, hands you the batter and the hotplate and lets you get on with it. Then take the Ginza line three stops to Ueno. Ueno Park is the museum district, and even on a five-day trip the rule is still to pick one. Which one? The Tokyo National Museum for swords and armour, or the National Museum of Western Art for a Le Corbusier building full of Monets, if day five is going to give you enough Japanese art anyway (both close on Mondays). Walk it off through Ameya Yokocho, the market under the tracks that started as a postwar black market and never quite stopped being one in spirit.

Afternoon. Three stops on the Ginza line to Ueno, or a 25-minute walk if your legs are willing. Ueno Park holds more museums than any short trip can use, so pick one and commit. The Tokyo National Museum is the safe choice, with the Honkan building's swords, samurai armour and Buddhist sculpture covering the whole sweep of Japanese art in 90 focused minutes (closed Mondays). Afterwards, the stalls of Ameya Yokocho run under the train tracks south of the park, selling dried fish, cheap sneakers and skewers in roughly equal measure.