On this tour, we’ll style Yanesen’s edible heritage: unagi from a real specialist, sembe and wagashi from century-old candy outlets, shukurimu cream puffs from grasp cake maker, and cutlets, tempura, sashimi, and yakitori paired with sake on the energetic purchasing avenue. We’ll pause in retro kissaten espresso homes, cease into temples and galleries, and wander the residential backstreets that give Yanesen its intimate character. It’s a uncommon likelihood to expertise Tokyo at its most nostalgic, atmospheric, and scrumptious.
We start with onigiri, the common-or-garden rice ball elevated to an artwork kind, then cease for drinks in a transformed bathhouse — a reminder of the general public gathering areas that after anchored neighborhood life. At a standard unagi store, we’ll watch a grasp at work, making ready freshwater eel with experience. The candy tooth is spoiled right here: century-old confectioners nonetheless promote sembei, wagashi, and shaved ice, whereas in a former miso store, a baker has perfected shukurimu, the Japanese cream puff with French roots however native id. We’ll sit down in a retro kissaten, one of many espresso homes the place Western eating advanced into one thing uniquely Japanese, earlier than strolling via the purchasing avenue lined with meals stalls providing freshly fried cutlets, tempura, yakitori, and sashimi — good pairings for our sake tasting.
Between bites, the day winds via temples and cemeteries, artwork galleries and hidden alleys, the place the spirit of previous Tokyo lingers. It’s an indulgence in each the edible and atmospheric pleasures that outline Yanesen, and an expertise onerous to seek out wherever else within the metropolis.
