On a school-vacation day last Friday, Lucinda and I went for a stroll from Sendagi to Nezu, two shitamachi (old neighborhoods) near Ueno Park. The nabes Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi, known together as "Yanesen," have narrow streets with traditional shops and houses. Early May is also the perfect time to see the blaze of azaleas at Nezu Shrine.
I edited a story about shitamachi for the Japanese arts/culture magazine Kateigaho International Edition, which has a wonderful map in the current issue (cover below) to mark shops and restaurants that preserve the culture of "old Edo," as Tokyo was known from the 1600s to late 1800s.
Some snaps of our day, starting with Sendagi's famous paper store, Isetatsu, where you find samurai prints from the Edo period.
This senbei shop sells large, square rice crackers (modern senbei are round)...
...coated with green tea, sugar or soy sauce. Individual crackers are 60 yen (66 cents) and this package was 780 yen ($8.50).
Geta (wooden sandals) in a shop window:
Storefront selling candied imo, or sweet potatoes. The noren curtain (it's orange for this shop but more often navy or black) is displayed when a restaurant is open for business.
This shop, with buckets, cutting boards, and benches, had an intense menthol-like scent from the Japanese cedar or sugi.
We ate lunch on the grounds of Nezu Shrine, which was hosting a festival for thousands of seasonal visitors. Large torii gate at the entrance...
...leads to long path of tiny torii gates inside...
... which leads to the blazing hillside of azaleas (also shown in 1st foto of this post).
It's a short walk from the shrine to Nezu station, and along the way, we stopped at a tiny candy store (also mentioned in Kateigaho) that makes long rolls of ame (hard candies) with traditional Edo-style faces inside.
The rolls are sliced into discs, like these, that half-melt in your mouth. This package of 8 was 210 yen ($2.50) which I thought was a bargain for Edo craftsmanship. Not sure how this is done, but pretty cool-looking, neh?
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