Nakamise Shopping Street

What the guides say about Nakamise Shopping Street

Morning. Nakamise Shopping Street runs between the gate and the temple, and most shutters roll up from around 9am. Walk it towards the temple while the painted shutters are still down (they're a mural sequence in their own right), then back down as the sweet shops open. Ningyo-yaki, small sponge cakes filled with red bean paste, are best eaten within a minute of leaving the mould. Then walk ten minutes west to Kappabashi Kitchen Town, a long street of restaurant suppliers. Knife shops, ceramics by the crate, the plastic sample dishes that fill every restaurant window in Japan. It's a working street rather than a tourist one, which is exactly why it's the best souvenir stop in the city. Most shops close on Sundays.

Asakusa is small. Senso-ji sits at the top of Nakamise, the covered approach that runs north from Kaminarimon gate. Asakusa Station (Ginza Line, Toei Asakusa Line and the Tobu terminal) is at the south-east corner of that axis, beside the Sumida River. Tawaramachi Station, one Ginza Line stop west, is at the bottom of Kappabashi. The Tsukuba Express has its own Asakusa station on Kokusai-dori, north-west of the temple by the Rokku entertainment strip.

Walk back down Nakamise Shopping Street as the shutters roll up. The arcade has sold snacks and trinkets to temple visitors for about three centuries, and most stalls open from around 9am. Buy ningyo-yaki (little cakes stuffed with red bean paste) hot from the mould and eat them standing, which is how it's done.