Category
G
Asakusa from above. Be down there at seven.
One neighbourhood at a time over four days, using the jet lag rather than fighting it.
The opening scene
Ten past six on Nakamise-dori and every stall is shuttered. The shutters are painted – a whole street of them, a continuous mural you cannot see at any other hour because by nine there are four hundred people here buying rice crackers. The temple gate is lit, a woman is doing her bows at the incense burner, and the only other person in sight is sweeping. I am awake because my body thinks it is lunchtime in California. For the first four days in Japan that is not jet lag, it is an advantage, and this is what it buys you.
The ask
First time in Tokyo, four nights, usually at the front of a two-week Japan trip – and the brief is nearly always a version of “it looks enormous and we have no idea where to start.” Which is a great place to start, honestly. The answer is to stop thinking in sights and start thinking in neighbourhoods: one a day, half a day at each end, and never a dash across the city.
You’ve reached the quiet door.
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