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Come with us and explore one of Tokyo’s most famous downtown areas, Yanesen. Our feature in this video is a hidden tart shop that is a special tucked away deep in the backstreets of Sendagi – The Little Tart Shop Shiomi. We also visit the Yanaka Ginza shopping strip, Nezu Shrine and the Great Himalaya Ceder tree of Yanaka so sit back and enjoy!
0:18 Yanaka Ginza (
0:50 Yanaka no Shippo-ya (
1:11 Niku no Suzuki (
1:30 The Little Tart Shop -Shiomi- (
3:34 Nezu Shrine (
4:29 The Great Himalaya Cedar of Yanaka (
※ABOUT YANESEN
YANESEN is an area in Tokyo made up of three neighbourhoods: Yanaka, Nezu, and Sendagi. It is one of Tokyo’s most well known shitamachi (downtown) areas.
Shitamachi invokes images of temples, narrow streets, small local businesses like green grocers, fishmongers & butchers, eateries, izakayas, traditional sweets, public baths and so on. Today it has also become a hot spot for cafe culture, with some of them nested away in the backstreets and very easy to miss if you are not paying attention.
The area miraculously survived the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, and was spared from the Tokyo firebombings of WWII. It is a popular tourist destination because of its nostalgic, retro Japanese atmosphere that has been preserved since the post-war period.
Yanesen has so much to offer that it is very easy to spend at least half a day here, and worthy of multiple visits as each time will always be different.
※THE LITTLE TART SHOP SHIOMI
Open Friday and Saturdays only between 10:00 and 15:00.
The shop will also close early if all items sell out. According to the owner, she has at one time closed as early as 1hr after opening!
Google Maps:
※THE GREAT HIMALAYA CEDAR OF YANAKA
There is one rather famous tree that often gets featured in photo collections about Yanaka. The tree has an interesting history apart from being outright impressive in how it is towering over an old shop and neighbouring temple.
The plot of land on which the tree is located, is called Sanbochidana (三方地店), surrounded at 3 sides by temples. The tree is said to be planted before the war by the grandfather of the current shopowner of the Mikado Pan shop, starting out as a potted plant.
Google Maps:
※ACCESS TO YANESEN
Most people start the journey from JR Nippori station which is closest to Yanaka, but you can also start from either Nezu or Sendagi stations – it’s up to you!
#TokyoHiddenGems #DowntownTokyo #TokyoStreetFood
Alo Japan.