Sometaro

What the guides say about Sometaro

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.

Asakusa's regular restaurants are busy on carnival day, so eat early or late. Sometaro, the 1937 okonomiyaki house near Tawaramachi, is a short walk from the western end of the route. The open-air izakaya of Hoppy Street, just west of the temple, are the natural place to end up after the parade. Kamiya Bar, by the Azumabashi bridge, has served its Denki Bran brandy since the 1880s. Food and drink stalls set up around the route too.

Stalls line the temple grounds during the festival, selling yakisoba, grilled skewers and sweets. For a sit-down meal, Sometaro serves cook-your-own okonomiyaki in a 1937 wooden house, though it fills up on festival days. The open-air izakaya of Hoppy Street are at their liveliest this weekend, and Kamiya Bar by the river is a good place for a drink once the Miyairi is over.