Yanaka Ginza is a 170 metre shopping street in north east Tokyo that should not still exist. The Second World War air raids that flattened most of the low city missed this pocket, and the redevelopment that took the rest of it never arrived, so what is left is an ordinary mid twentieth century shopping street still doing the job it was built for.

It is not preserved and it is not a museum. The butcher sells croquettes to people who live here. The route below runs one way from Nippori Station down to Ueno, taking about three hours with stops, and it does not double back on itself.

The west exit of Nippori Station, the starting point for the Yanaka Ginza walk

Need to Know

  • Start: Nippori Station, west side
  • From Shinjuku: about 20 minutes on the Yamanote Line
  • From Shibuya: about 30 minutes on the Yamanote Line
  • How long: three hours at a walk, longer if you sit down
  • Cost: nothing except what you eat

💡 일본 여행 꿀팁: Bring cash. A lot of the street food stalls here are small, family run and card free, and the whole point of the walk is eating as you go.

Tennoji Temple

Come out of Nippori on the west side and Tennoji is straight ahead. Founded in 1274, it is quiet, green and almost always empty, which makes it a better place to start than the shopping street itself.

The thing to look at is the seated bronze Buddha, cast in 1690 and sitting out in the open under the trees rather than housed in a hall. It has been there through everything that happened to this part of the city.

Seated bronze Buddha under trees at Tennoji Temple

Yanaka Cemetery

From the temple the route runs through Yanaka Cemetery, which is more park than graveyard. Wide avenues, cherry trees along the main path and stone markers going back to the Edo period. The last shogun is buried here.

It is a normal thoroughfare, people walk their dogs and cut through on the way to the station, so walking it is not intrusive.

Stone markers and trees along a path through Yanaka Cemetery

The Sunset Steps and Yanaka Ginza

The approach matters. Come at the shopping street from the top and you arrive at Yuyake Dandan, the Sunset Steps, which drop down to the entrance and give you the whole run of it in one view. It is named for the west facing sunsets and it is where everyone stops for a photograph.

Looking down the Yuyake Dandan sunset steps toward the shopping street

At the bottom the street runs flat for 170 metres under a low arch, with about seventy shops along it. Craft shops, a butcher, tea sellers, sweet shops and several places doing food to eat standing up.

The Yanaka Ginza shopping street with shoppers and low shopfronts

Two things to eat. The menchi-katsu from Niku no Suzuki, a minced meat cutlet fried to order, and the cat tail doughnuts from Yanaka Shippoya, which are twisted, sugared and come in about a dozen flavours.

Baskets of chopsticks outside a craft shop on the shopping street

💡 일본 여행 꿀팁: Eat as you walk rather than sitting down. Most of the good food here is designed to be carried, and the street is short enough that you can work down one side and back up the other.

The Cats

Yanaka has been associated with cats for decades, partly because a lot of them actually live here and partly because the shops leaned into it. Maneki-neko Yanakado sells handmade beckoning cats, including ones matched to your birth date, and Cafe Nekoemon next door will let you paint a plain ceramic one yourself over a pot of tea.

White maneki-neko lucky cat figures displayed outside a shop in Yanaka

💡 일본 여행 꿀팁: Look at the professionally made cats in Yanakado first so you know what you are aiming at, then paint your own next door. It takes about an hour and they fire it for you.

Kayaba Coffee

The walk ends at Kayaba Coffee, a kissaten in a black timber corner building from 1916. It closed in 2006 and was reopened after a careful restoration, and it now sits on the boundary between Yanaka and Ueno.

The black timber corner building housing Kayaba Coffee

The thing to order is the tamago sando, a thick cut egg sandwich that is the reason most people queue. Upstairs is tatami seating rather than chairs, and it is worth asking for.

Thick cut egg sandwich and iced coffee at a Tokyo kissaten

What to Do Next

Ueno Park is a five minute walk from the door, which puts the Tokyo National Museum, Ueno Zoo and Shinobazu Pond within reach if you still have an afternoon left. Our Tokyo museum guide covers what is worth your time once you get there.

For more of old Tokyo at full scale, Asakusa is the obvious next one, and the museum in Koganei has whole streets of this kind of architecture rebuilt on one site.

FAQ

Is Yanaka Ginza worth visiting?

Yes, if you want a part of Tokyo that survived the war and the rebuilding. It is a working shopping street rather than a preserved one, it costs nothing to walk, and the food is the point. Three hours covers it comfortably.

How do you get to Yanaka Ginza?

Nippori Station on the Yamanote Line is the closest, about five minutes walk. That is 20 minutes from Shinjuku and 30 from Shibuya. Sendagi on the Chiyoda Line is a similar distance from the other end.

What should you eat in Yanaka Ginza?

The menchi-katsu from Niku no Suzuki and the cat tail doughnuts from Yanaka Shippoya are the two things the street is known for. Both are made to order and eaten standing up.

Why is Yanaka full of cats?

A large stray population settled here decades ago in an area of low buildings, temples and cemeteries with plenty of space, and the shops built an identity around it. There are fewer real cats now than the merchandise suggests, but you will still see some.

How long does the Yanaka walk take?

About three hours from Nippori Station through Tennoji, the cemetery, the shopping street and Kayaba Coffee, finishing at the edge of Ueno Park. Add an hour if you paint a cat, and another if you sit down for the egg sandwich.