Senso-ji Temple

What the guides say about Senso-ji Temple

Morning. Be at Senso-ji Temple before the tour groups, which in practice means before 8am. The lantern at the Kaminarimon gate, the smoke from the incense cauldron in front of the main hall, the red pagoda against a flat morning sky. At this hour it's all yours, plus a few dozen locals on their way to work. Step around the side to the smaller Asakusa Shrine, the Shinto shrine that shares the grounds and gets a fraction of the attention. Then walk Nakamise Shopping Street back towards the gate as it opens from around 9am, and eat something warm from the first stall that's ready.

Asakusa is the only major hotel district in Tokyo where the neighbourhood itself is the attraction. Senso-ji, the city's oldest temple, anchors everything, and if you're staying nearby you can walk the Nakamise arcade at 7am, when the incense drifts through empty stalls and the whole district is yours. By 11am it belongs to the tour groups, and hotel guests are the only people who reliably see the difference. The backstreets west of the temple keep the low, dense, workshop-and-noodle-shop feel that most of Tokyo paved over decades ago, and the Sumida River, with its Skytree view, is a few minutes east.

Book within a few minutes of Senso-ji, in Asakusa 1- and 2-chome, if you're staying here for the temple at dawn. Book in Kuramae, about fifteen minutes south along the river, if you'd rather have a calmer, newer building and don't mind the walk. For a ryokan night, Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu beside Nakamise. For a hotel you can rely on, Richmond Hotel Premier Asakusa International, Asakusa View Hotel and Dormy Inn Express Asakusa. For a bed under a shared roof, Nui in Kuramae, Bunka Hostel Tokyo, and Wise Owl Hostels River Tokyo across the water.