Yanesen refers to Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi, the neighborhoods near Ueno and Komagome. It’s one of Tokyo’s old shitamachi districts and has been getting really popular lately. I’d stumbled into it once before on my way to Chocolatier Inamura Shozo and found it very impressive. This time I set out to explore it properly.

Nezu Shrine

This shrine sits at the heart of Yanesen. It’s a fairly big one.

Shrine entrance

A cake shop

Walking along, you see lots of small, charming shops. So this is Yanesen! In Korea, once a street gets popular, Starbucks, Pascucci and the like move in and the charm goes out the window, so building a street full of shops like these can’t be easy.

A bookshop

It’s right in the middle of a residential area, and the design is lovely.

A coffee shop

There’s a great shop in every little alley.

Places like this, too

There’s a neighborhood bakery as well.

Tokyo Melonpan

The melon pan here was delicious.

A street in Yanaka

A shop in Yanaka

A shop in Yanaka

Chocolatier Inamura Shozo

Maybe because it was White Day, the line was unreal.

Toritsubaki

This place is famous from Solitary Gourmet (Kodoku no Gurume), and here it was, tucked away in a spot like this.

Ameyoko Market in Ueno

So many people.

A home smoker

This thing is really neat; I’d love to buy one.

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