residential Tokyo?

February 22, 2010 6:59 AM

How to see "the real Tokyo" (in three days)?

We'll be in Tokyo for three days next month. (We'll also have three days in Kyoto/Nara). I realize that there aren't all that many things I actually want to see in Tokyo. Here are some, I think:

the fish market
Yoyogi Park
Ueno Park
Going to the top of that building at night that every guide book tells you to go to the top of (Tokyo Metropolitan Building, just looked it up)
Some shopping in that shopping area the teenagers go to (we'll be traveling with my 17-year-old son)
Shimokitazawa neighborhood
Akasura then boat ride to Odaiba (actually boat ride sounds a little depressing -- much concrete, big buildings?)

None of us are people who would go to anything like: a Toyota showroom or a Disney anything or electronics stores although the huge neon-ness of the city sounds interesting.

So -- where are there, for example, residential neighborhoods in Tokyo where we could walk around and just see how people "live"?

I live in the East Village in NYC and I just love to wander around. I would tell a tourist like me to wander around the lower east side (although...), Harlem, Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods (Red Hook, Long Island City), Brighton Beach...

This is something I found on the web just now:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20090724a1.html

here [Ugh the goddamned thing won't link]

that is kind of what I mean. So, any recommendations appreciated.

posted by DMelanogaster to travel & transportation around Tokyo, Japan (12 answers total)

How to see "the real Tokyo" (in three days)?

Some shopping in that shopping area the teenagers go to (we'll be traveling with my 17-year-old son)

Go to Akihabara. Yes, you say you don't want to go to electronics shops. OK, understood. On the other hand, if you want to get a massive dose of contemporary Tokyo pop culture, you will certainly do so, just wandering up and down the streets and alleys.

Go to Shibuya. Again, massive dose of contemporary culture. Send your son into the '109' store :) He'll see lots of 17-year-old-ish girls, most of them overly made up, but he might make a friend or two.

Go to the Meiji shrine, on a weekend. Not for the shrine necessarily - check your guidebook for when, but if you go on a weekend morning, in the area outside the shrine, you'll see a host of cosplayers (people dressed up like their favorite animated TV character) and maybe even some amateur bands performing. Great fun. Again another dose of contemporary pop culture.

Otherwise you say you want to see a regular neighborhood. Maybe try Ikebukero, just take a side street, and start walking continously for a long time. I did so for the same reason - I wanted to see a regular neighborhood. The further I got, I was able to start to see regular, average Tokyo-ites.

FWIW, IMHO the fish market, the top of Tokyo Tower, etc. are all touristy and not the real Tokyo. Go to Akihabara, Shibuya and just spend your day, wandering around, going in and out of shops, etc.

Trust me - I've done it, and it's great.
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 7:48 AM on February 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

Thermonuclear.jive.turkey has good advice. Electronics shopping, pop culture, and cosplaying are part of real life to a lot of people in Tokyo. Take the subway during rush hour so you can get packed into a car by an attendant with white gloves. Er.. hope you don't get groped, that's also part of the real Tokyo. Asakusa Kannon Temple is beautiful and is packed with locals on New Year's Day. The neighborhood, Asakusa, is nice and not touristy.
posted by halonine at 7:57 AM on February 22, 2010

The neighborhood, Asakusa, is nice and not touristy.

By whose standards? The Asakusa/Shitamachi part of Tokyo is filled with restaurants, and is an interesting look at an older neighbourhood in Japan. It's also home to Kappabashi, where you can purchase plastic food, or check out one of the dozens of stores that sell to the restaurant industry. It's also a great place to snap a picture of the giant golden turd, the Asahi Beer Tower.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:10 AM on February 22, 2010

Oh, I see you called Asakusa nice.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:11 AM on February 22, 2010

much concrete, big buildings?

the huge neon-ness of the city sounds interesting.

Yes there's a fair bit of neon-ness which is neat. But keep in mind, Tokyo was bombed and burned to rubble in WWII and then quickly rebuilt. The entire city, from one end to the other, consists of unglamorous concrete boxes of buildings, with electrical wiring strung everywhere. Yes there's a few exceptions but by and large you will be struck by the complete lack of architecture, regardless where you are.

But don't let that deter you. It's a neat city.


posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 8:21 AM on February 22, 2010

Actually, if you want neighborhood/not touristy but with a slice of awesome, try this: Go to Asakusa, see the temple, take some pictures, then, from behind the temple, turn left (west) and start walking. There should be a little bit of the covered arcade area there. Keep going west, (it would help if you have a map) and about halfway between Asakusa and Ueno is Kappabashi-dori, which is the main restaurant supply street in Tokyo. There are shops all up and down the street selling anything you'd ever need to open a restaurant, as well as some things you might like and want to take home (chopstick holders, really, really nice Japanese cooking knives -- I recommend the vegetable knife--, plastic sushi, paper lanterns that fold flat and are easy to pack). Turn left (south) onto Kappabashi, and keep going till you get to the building with the giant chef's head on top (it'll be on the right hand corner). If you turn right and go straight, you'll get to Ueno. If you cross the street and go a couple blocks before turning right, you'll get to Ueno, but you'll get there through backstreets and residential Tokyo. The whole area between Asakusa and Ueno is residential, and quite a nice walk.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:28 AM on February 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

A fella I know makes these audio tours which aim to give you some real tokyo.

Koenji (on the Chuo and Sobu lines) is similar to Shimokitazawa and a fun place to wander around and encounter random eccentricities of daily Tokyo life. There's a barber there who keeps a hawk in his shop, for instance.

Also, I lived in Japan for quite a while and thought the fish market was pretty awesome, especially if you're already up from jetlag at 4 am.
posted by ejoey at 10:06 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

This:

Go to the Meiji shrine, on a weekend. Not for the shrine necessarily - check your guidebook for when, but if you go on a weekend morning, in the area outside the shrine, you'll see a host of cosplayers (people dressed up like their favorite animated TV character) and maybe even some amateur bands performing. Great fun. Again another dose of contemporary pop culture.

was heartening, in that I was reading that the place to see the cosplayers was in the park on Sunday, whereas we won't be there on either Sunday of our stay in Japan.

Thanks for all this great advice!
posted by DMelanogaster at 10:33 AM on February 22, 2010

I found the boat trip to Odaiba to be pretty chill, and there are a lot of colorful bridges and odd buildings along the way. If you are going to Odaiba anyway, why not?

If you want REAL Tokyo, make sure to get on the train for morning rush hour. For a couple days, it's fun.

One of my favorite living neighborhoods is up between Nippori and Nishi-Nippori, on the Yamanote line. Part of it is new, every-day, anonymous apartments. Much of it was not destroyed in WWII, and so it still has lots of tall, narrow wood houses, a very old cemetery, narrow narrow streets, and little shops that have been in the same families for ages. There is a fantastic walking tour route in the Lonely Planet Tokyo; you can get to it from Amazon look inside. Otherwise, just wander.

Your son, especially, may enjoy walking through the campus at University of Tokyo. Just to see lots of people his age, doing their thing. Plus, the campus is beautiful. Plus, it is famous from some manga or other - if he is into that, he will recognize it.

(Asakusa is FULL of tourists; you SHOULD go, but I advise going early at 8, 830am, seeing the lantern and temple part, then coming out just as the stores are getting busy.)
posted by whatzit at 10:39 AM on February 22, 2010

My best advice for seeing the real Tokyo is to walk between the tourist sites. The weather should be nice this time of year and there will likely be sakura (cherry blossoms) blooming throughout the city, depending on when exactly you're going.

Take a map of the Tokyo trains, like this one for example: JR Map or Tokyo Metro Map and make a trajectory of your day. For example, take one day to explore the west side of the Yamanote line (the green loopy line in the middle). I did this once while I was in Tokyo staying in Shinjuku -- my dad and I grabbed breakfast at a cafe in Shinjuku, walked south towards yoyogi (roughly following the train line), see Meiji Jingu, walk through Shibuya, let your son go shopping at the 109, see Hachiko, and the famous Shibuya crosswalk that was featured in Lost in Translation, backtrack to see Harajuku (more potential shopping for your son)... then see what time it is and re-evaluate.

If you come up with several of these little trajectories, you can do one per day or so, and maybe ride a train to a particular spot you'd like to go to either before or afterwards. If you don't strategize about where to go when, you'll lose a lot of time and money riding trains. The train system is wonderful and punctual and fast, but Tokyo's a huge city and getting from A to B still takes a while.

Also, for the record, Asakusa is most certainly a tourist spot, for both foreign tourists and Japanese travelers. I have been there several times (and there's always a fair number of tourists), but after this year have vowed never to go on New Years Day again. There were enough people there that policemen had to contain the crowd.

And some final tidbits of advice:
- eat on the sidestreets. Cozy, delicious restaurants are plentiful.
- don't get too caught up in seeing EVERYTHING. You only have 3 days, you can take in a lot, but make sure to enjoy the trip and what you do get to see.
- have fun!!
posted by mokudekiru at 10:54 AM on February 22, 2010

My best advice for seeing the real Tokyo is to walk between the tourist sites.

Good advice!
posted by KokuRyu at 12:35 PM on February 22, 2010

I was reading that the place to see the cosplayers was in the park on Sunday

I indeed saw them on a Sunday morning.
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 7:27 PM on February 22, 2010