Central Tokyo · YanakaNo.348★★Open in map →
Yanaka Ginza
— 170 metres of old downtown Tokyo
A shopping street about 170 metres long in Yanaka, Taito City, with roughly seventy small shops, entered from the Nippori end down the Yuyake Dandan sunset steps.
Yanaka Ginza is only about 170 metres long, which is part of the point: it is a single street of roughly seventy small shops, most of them family-run, and you can walk its whole length in three minutes if nothing stops you. Something always stops you. The street took its present form in the years just after the Second World War, growing out of a local market, and it survives because Yanaka itself escaped the worst of both the 1923 earthquake and the 1945 air raids — which is why the low wooden buildings and the narrow lanes around it are still here at all. The approach from the Nippori side is down the Yuyake Dandan, the "sunset steps," so named because on a clear evening the sun sets directly down the length of the street below. Yanaka is also cat country, and seven carved wooden cats sit on the shopfronts and roofs along the street; finding all of them is the local game.
Why it stays quiet
Most first-time visitors do the Asakusa-Ueno-Akihabara line and never turn west out of Nippori, which is a five-minute walk away. It is also one of the few places in Tokyo where eating in the street is normal and expected rather than frowned on, so it works as an informal food street in a city that mostly does not have them.
Background & history
The street took its present shape in the years immediately after the Second World War, growing out of a local market that served the surrounding neighbourhood. Yanaka's older character survives because the district escaped the worst of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and the 1945 air raids that flattened much of low-lying Tokyo, leaving the low wooden buildings, temple grounds and narrow lanes largely intact. The area is now known collectively as Yanesen — Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi — and the shopping street is its commercial spine.
What to look for — in walking order
- Yuyake Dandan
- the flight of steps at the Nippori end, named for the sunset that falls straight down the length of the street
- The street itself
- about 170 metres and roughly seventy shops, most of them small and family-run, from butchers and greengrocers to sweet shops
- The seven wooden cats
- carved cats placed on the shopfronts and roofs along the street — spotting all of them is the local game
- The Yanaka lanes beyond
- the residential back streets, temples and cemetery that continue west and south from the far end of the street
How to enjoy it
Allow an hour for the street itself and two or three if you continue into the surrounding lanes. Come in the late afternoon on a weekday: shops are open, the crowds are lighter than at weekends, and the sunset down the steps is the reason the steps have their name. Buy small and often — menchi-katsu, grilled skewers, rice crackers, croquettes — and eat standing in front of the shop, which is the local convention. From the far end, walking on into Yanaka Cemetery and down to Nezu Shrine turns this into a half-day on foot without touching a train.
How to actually get there
- Ueno Stn → Nippori Stn (JR Yamanote Line, ~4 min, trains every few minutes).
- Nippori Stn West Exit → Yuyake Dandan steps on foot (~5 min).
- Down the steps into the street; walk its 170 metres and continue into the Yanaka lanes beyond.
- Ueno Stn → Nippori Stn (JR Yamanote Line)
- From Ueno Station take the JR Yamanote Line two stops north to Nippori Station — about 4 minutes, with trains every few minutes. Leave by the West Exit, walk straight ahead for about five minutes through the quiet residential lanes, and the street opens out below you at the top of the Yuyake Dandan steps.
- Return to Nippori, or walk on through Yanesen
- Retrace up the steps to Nippori Station for the Yamanote Line back to Ueno, Tokyo or Shinjuku; trains run until around midnight. Alternatively walk on west and south through Yanaka and Nezu to Sendagi or Nezu Station on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line, about 15 to 20 minutes on foot through the old lanes.
Before you go
- Cash
- Many of the small shops are cash-only, and change is easier if you carry coins and small notes. Individual items are inexpensive — most street food here is a few hundred yen. The JR leg accepts Suica and PASMO.
- Closing days
- Most shops open between 10:00 and 11:00 and close around 19:00 or 20:00, and a number close on Mondays — arriving in the early evening on a weekday gets you both the sunset light and open shops. Eat in front of the shop you bought from and use its bin rather than walking on with food in your hand; this is what the street asks of visitors. The steps are the most photographed spot and get crowded at dusk on weekends.
- Another way
- Sendagi Station on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line is about 5 minutes' walk from the far end of the street, which is the easier approach if you are coming from the Otemachi or Omotesando direction. Keisei Line trains from Narita Airport also stop at Nippori.
- After you get off
- From Nippori Station's West Exit, follow the road slightly uphill and then west for about 5 minutes; the Yuyake Dandan steps drop straight down into the shopping street.