Find Your Own Tokyo

by Michael Kanert

From the historical to the futuristic,Tokyo is a city of enticing surprises.Join us and discover your Tokyo.

The people of Tokyo don’t get enough credit in the travel guides. Whether it’s pointing you to the right train line in the baffling halls of Shinjuku Station or dutifully taking your dropped wallet to the nearest police box, they’ve got a quiet decency that can often be overshadowed by the extroverted exuberance of Osaka to the south.

Tokyo people don’t jump out at you. You have to take a moment to stand still to create those little moments of interaction: Sit for a tea ceremony. Take a taiko drumming lesson. Sign up for a cooking class.

Nakamise Shopping Street

©momo / PIXTA

Go beyond the obvious. Duck around the bustling Kaminarimon Gate at Sensoji Temple, then slip past Nakamise Shopping Street and its souvenir-seeking tourists, and you come upon Denboindori Street, an almost quiescent avenue seemingly frozen in time. Two more turns down the interconnected streets, and the giant floats of a festival emerge to fill the narrow roadways, completely unobserved by the crowds back at Tokyo’s oldest temple.

An organizer emerges to explain the event’s history. Five minutes later, she insists that I take selfies with the participants, and I soon find myself having to rush back for my shamisen lesson at the Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center. My instructor is kind enough to act impressed that I can plonk out the notes to “Sakura” after 15 minutes of instruction. Then I drop back down to street level to catch the ultrahigh-tech Hotaluna ferry and ply the Sumida River south to Tokyo Bay.

Hotaluna ferry

©PIXTA

I take one of the city’s spotless subway lines to Tsukishima, seeking out a taste of monjayaki, a Tokyo specialty akin to a runny okonomiyaki pancake. At one of the 100-plus restaurants in the area, the staff demonstrates the correct way to mix, pour and cook the ingredients on a hotplate built into my table, forming a sort of cabbage atoll before filling it with batter and then mixing it all up to be eaten with tiny metal spatulas called hera. It’s intimate, personal. I’m so relaxed I nearly burn my hand as my hera idles too long on the pan.

In the late afternoon, staff at the VR arcade walk me through the controls so I can shoot a kamehameha. In the evening I chat with travellers and residents from a dozen countries in a British pub in the heart of Shinjuku. Later, I’m greeted with an upbeat “Irasshaimase” as I wander into a convenience store for a snack—and maybe another beer.

Behind a noren half-curtain, the yakitori shop in Omoide Yokocho is alive with voices as Tokyo lets down its hair. I amble inside, indicating on my fingers how many people are in my party, and sit at the bar beside a pair of businessmen on their third or fourth pint. Pointing to the first item on the menu placards on the wall—whatever it might be—I let myself sit still long enough for Tokyo to find me all over again.

Michael Kanert

Michael Kanert is a writer, editor and designer living in Toronto. Since his wife became pregnant, he's been posting comics about their shared journey at thekanert.com/ writing.