AFTERNOON IN YANAKA #1

AFTERNOON IN YANAKA #1

Thursday, 11 April 2013

OH I AM SO IN LOVE WITH YANAKA!

Yanaka made me feel as if I were somewhere like Kanazawa, it didn't feel like Tokyo at all to me and that feeling was quite interesting. It has all the shitamachi (areas where we find old Tokyo*) feel everywhere, but still it felt so much different from other shitamachi areas that I have seen in Tokyo like Asakusa, Nihonbashi, Kanda etc. Not just because there are many traditional shops, but there is definitely something that is so unique about Yanaka, I don't know what it is I need to go back to get to know more about this lovely quaint neighbourhood. (I should probably say Yanesen area not just Yanaka, which stands for Yanaka, Nezu & Sendagi.)

I enjoyed strolling around every street around Yanesen Area with Ros and Kat, what a fun afternoon we had there!
There are so many traditional shops scattered around everywhere, 2 of my favourites seen in the above photos are Isetatsu - lovely washi chiyogami paper store since 1864, and Koishikawa Kintaro-ame - the. best. lolly. shop. ever!  We all loved that man at the lolly shop he was so sweet.

Matsuno-ya (top photo) was one of the shops I had always wanted to check out. Great place to find non mass-produced well crafted daily goods for home made by Japanese artisans.

More from Yanaka in the next post!

Isetatsu
2-18-9 Yanaka Taito-ku 110-0001 (google map)

Koishikawa Kintaro-ame
1-22-12 Nezu Bunkyo-ku 113-0031 (near Nezu Shrine) (google map)

Matsuno-ya
3-14-14 NishiNippori Arakawa-ku 116-0013 (google map)