Life in Old Tokyo

On my last visit to Japan I wanted to stay in an area I have long enjoyed and explored but not stayed in – Kiyosumi Shirakawa.

If you are lucky enough to visit Tokyo, you could be forgiven for thinking its one homogenous mass. It certainly feels like that at first. But like any major global city, Tokyo is broken into neighbourhoods each with their own atmosphere, history and people.

Since 1996 my go to neighbourhoods have changed over the decades. At first I was attracted to the bright lights, colourful people, bars and restaurants of Shibuya and Harajuku. Then the back street atmosphere of Yoyogi Uehara and its proximity to the travel hub of Shinjuku. And for the longest time the commercial area of Hamamatsu Chou / Shinbashi has been my home from home. This area known for it’s lively night-life, good food and short walk to the glitz of high-end entertainment and shopping in Ginza, is also the terminus for the Haneda International airport bound monorail which means from baggage collection to hotel room is around 30-40 minutes. Imagine that Londoners !

But on my last visit to Japan I wanted to stay in an area I have long enjoyed and explored but not stayed in. Koto City, only 5 mins by Subway from central Tokyo, is divided into areas including Ryogoku, Monzen Naka Chou and my base this time Kiyosumi Shirakawa. Often referred to as Shitamachi (downtown) it is separated from Chuo City (central Tokyo) by the Sumida river to the west and from Edo City by the Edo river to the east. For obvious reasons bridges and rivers are key features – lots of them.

Architecturally this area is delightfully human in scale, comprised of small businesses operating out of shop houses (shop below, house above), small workshops, and low height residential buildings. You can still see traditional family run businesses such as hardware shops, Kimono suppliers, Tabi makers (Japanese split toe socks), Woodyards etc, as well as the shrines, restaurants and grocers required to support these small scale industries and residents.

As you walk around you will see that some of those old shop houses and workshops have been renovated and occupied by trades of the 2020’s including custom bike makers (TokyoBike), honey product makers (Bee Friendship), artisan beer and my former colleague Ricca Tezuchi’s own design store (ALL) amongst them.

But the area is currently most famous for coffee. Blue Bottle Coffee, Iki Espresso and many other well known brands are born or based in Kiyosumi Shirakawa. So much so, in that typically Japanese way, there are walking guides taking you from one coffee shop to the next. Now, I love coffee, but signing up for a table, waiting in line and then paying ¥1800 (£10) for coffee and a scone is not something I want to repeat too often. However, in addition to the coffee and artisan stores, there is also the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT), the beautiful Kiyosumi Gardens and if you are interested in Japanese Haiku (poetry) the Basho Memorial Hall.

If you walk north from here towards the Tokyo Sky Tree and Oshiage, you will pass through Ryogoku the area that Hokusai, Japan’s most well known artist, lived and worked. Globally famous for his ‘36 views of Mount Fuji’ series of prints you can visit the stunning Hokusai museum to explore his huge range of work and the arduous and complex life he lived. And if you look carefully you can see the enduring influence of his visual style in the design of nearby buildings, the paved and landscaped public spaces and street furniture that use his iconic ‘Wave’ motif.

Kiyosumi Shirakawa and Koto City more broadly, is a very relaxing and attractive area to visit and spend time in. The combination of rivers and bridges, people doing ‘normal stuff’ and the slightly world weary two and three storey buildings (compared to the homogenous architecture of central Tokyo) even for an old hand like me, feel like home.

On reflection if you look at Hokusai’s prints of Old Edo (Tokyo) from almost 200 years ago, you can see the same rivers and bridges, shophouses, tradesmen plying their trade and couples relaxing and strolling along the river banks. All of which depict a story as relevant to life in this part of Tokyo today as it was back then.