Tokyo · Asakusa and Sumida
Nakamise-dori Street
Nakamise Street starts at Kaminarimon Gate and ends at Senso-ji's Hozomon Gate: about 250 meters and 87 shops, 52 on the east side and 35 on the west. It began in the late 17th century, when the neighborhood residents who were responsible for sweeping the temple grounds received in return the right to open stalls along the path.
In 1885 the city ordered all the stalls cleared, and in their place rows of brick shops were built that same year. They were destroyed in the 1923 earthquake, and the rows standing today were built in 1925. What is sold has changed less than the walls: ningyo-yaki, roasted senbei, combs, fans and festival clothes, alongside cheap souvenirs you can skip.
Good to know
- After 11:00 you walk the street at the pace of a queue. If you come to shop, arrive early, and if you come to take photos, arrive after 18:00, when the stalls are closed and the street is empty.
- Eat next to the stall and not while walking. There are signs about it on the street, and it is also the custom in Japan.
- The two streets that cross Nakamise, Denboin-dori and Shin-Nakamise, are quieter, and some of the good shops in the area are on them.
What is nearby
Approximate walking minutes from the entrance of Nakamise-dori Street.
- HereNakamise-dori Street
- 1 min
Kimuraya Ningyo-yaki Honpo Food
One of the first to bake ningyo-yaki, small cakes filled with red bean paste in the shape of a dove, a pagoda, a lantern and the god of thunder. Buy a bag hot from the oven.
- 1 min
Denboin-dori Street
About 200 meters of Edo-style storefronts that cross Nakamise in the middle. Less crowded, and many of the good shops in the area are on it or next to it.
- 1 min
Shin-Nakamise Shopping Street Street
The big covered arcade of Asakusa, about 380 meters. This is the street for a rainy day.
- ~2 min
Asakusa Menchi Food
A fried meat patty of wagyu and pork, about ¥400, eaten standing next to the stall. Cash only.
- ~2 min
Fujiya tenugui Shopping
Tenugui that is dyed by hand in a traditional method and not printed, in the family's designs since the forties.
- ~2 min
Asakusa Nakaya Honten Clothes and crafts
A shop for the festival clothes of Asakusa: happi, jinbei and tabi. Jinbei, a light cotton suit, is a souvenir you really wear at home.
- ~4 min
Coffee Tengoku Cafe
A Showa-era coffee shop, only 15 seats. Order the hotcake with the character 天 branded on it, with coffee, ¥1,100 to ¥1,400. Cash only.
- ~5 min
Asakusa Kagetsudo Honten Food
A giant melon-pan, crisp outside and airy inside, since 1945. Opens at 09:00 and closes when it sells out.
More in Asakusa and Sumida
Appears in: Asakusa, Ueno and Skytree: old Tokyo in one day