Senso-ji and Asakusa: Tokyo's Oldest Temple, and When to Go

Senso-ji's outer grounds are open around the clock, and the Kaminarimon gate, the five-storey pagoda and the main hall are lit at night. The main hall itself opens at about 6am, 6:30 in winter, and closes at 5pm.

That means there are two completely different Asakusas. The daytime one is among the busiest religious sites on earth, with the 250-metre Nakamise-dori shopping street moving at a shuffle. The night one — after about 8pm, once the stalls have shuttered — is a lit, empty temple complex you can walk through alone.

Most visitors only ever see the first. If Asakusa is on your list and your schedule is flexible, go late. The photographs are better, the place is quiet, and it costs nothing.

The stall street running from the Kaminarimon gate to the temple is not a modern tourist invention. Shops have traded on this approach since the late 1600s, when local residents were granted the right to sell to pilgrims in exchange for cleaning the grounds.

What to actually buy: ningyo-yaki, small sponge cakes filled with red bean and pressed in moulds, sold hot; kaminari-okoshi, a hard puffed-rice sweet named after the thunder gate; and *senbei* rice crackers grilled in front of you.

A note that saves annoyance: eating while walking down Nakamise is discouraged and several shops ask you not to. Buy, step aside, eat, then carry on. The street is narrow and it is a temple approach, not a food court.

Almost everyone walks the same line — gate, stall street, temple, back out. Step one street sideways and the crowd disappears.

Denboin-dori, running west off Nakamise, is a short street dressed in Edo-period shopfronts. The blocks north and east of the temple hold *senbei* makers, knife shops, and Japan's oldest amusement park, Hanayashiki, opened in 1853 and still running a rollercoaster through a gap between buildings.

Asakusa is also the best place in Tokyo to see genuine craft supply shops — Kappabashi, the restaurant-supply street, is a ten-minute walk and is where the city's kitchens buy their knives, ceramics and the plastic food models that sit in restaurant windows.

Asakusa station is served by the Ginza, Asakusa and Tobu lines. The Ginza line is the oldest subway line in Asia, opened in 1927 between here and Ueno, which is a small piece of trivia that becomes obvious once you see the station's age.

The natural pairing is the river. A water bus runs from Asakusa down the Sumida to Hamarikyu Gardens and Odaiba, and it is a far better way to move through Tokyo than another subway ride. Tokyo Skytree is one stop away and visible from the temple grounds.

For a full day, Asakusa in the early morning, Yanaka's old lanes at midday and Akihabara or Ueno in the afternoon covers the eastern, older half of Tokyo that most first-time itineraries skip in favour of Shibuya and Shinjuku.

Asakusa holds most of our hands-on sessions: the samurai sword lesson with armour, the coin ring workshop, sushi making with vegan and halal menus and full-day kimono rental.