Tokyo New City Guide. Mayumi Yoshida Barakan

industrial zone, though now little remains of the district's early flavor. The station is still an important transfer point, but the surrounding area is best known for its hotels and for being the location of the Sony headquarters.

      Ningyocho

      Ningyocho is a quiet neighborhood, known to most foreigners as the location of TCAT, the Tokyo City Air Terminal, with its bus service to Narita Airport. Close to the central Edo period business districts, Ningyocho was a major amusement center with kabuki theaters, and the famous Yoshiwara geisha district. The area was named "doll town" for the number of shops selling dolls to the theater audiences.

      Ningyocho lost its geisha, and later its theaters, to Asakusa in the north. The city's doll shops are now in Asakusabashi. On the outer fringes of the Meiji period downtown development, Ningyocho escaped the era's modernization madness and settled into the quiet shitamachi (downtown) neighborhood it remains today.

      Along the main crossing is a shopping area. Some shops are historical. Kotobuki sells the same traditional sweets they've been famous for since the late 1800s. Suitengu Shrine is still visited by expectant mothers and those with newborn babies.

      Asakusa

      Tokyo passed through various stages of growth, and the districts of the city followed along, or were left behind, as modernization and new modes of transportation changed the patterns of urban life. The original shitamachi areas—Nihombashi and Ginza—moved with the city into its Meiji period growth, and are, now, more memorable as districts from the early modern era. But the feeling of the shitamachi era remains in a district that was, in the early Edo period, a very distant neighborhood of marginal interest to the central downtown populace.

      Asakusa flourished after the Edo period Tempo Reforms enacted by the financially unstable Tokugawa government. The theaters and pleasure quarters were moved here from the downtown districts in an attempt to encourage the merchants to lead more frugal lives, while the samurai class as a whole was slowly sinking into poverty. Asakusa thrived through the Meiji and Taisho periods, but when the railroads became important, Asakusa Station remained a minor stop, and the modernization that changed the real downtown areas never affected it. Today Asakusa retains more of the old Tokyo shitamachi character than any other part of town.

      The district is centered around Senso-ji temple, popularly known as the Asakusa Kannon-dera. Dating from the eighth century, the temple enshrines a small golden statue of Kannon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, found by local fishermen in 628. At least that's how the legend goes. The statue is never on view and no one ever seems to have seen it, but its existence has never been questioned by the millions of pilgrims who flocked to the area and continue to come today.

      This northern tip of the city was originally underwater, and later became a fishing village. As the temple attracted ever greater crowds of worshippers, the surrounding area filled up with shops, and the sometimes bawdy forms of entertainment typical of many Edo period temples. When the theaters and pleasure quarters entered the area its amusements increased and so did the crowds.

      Moved from its original Ningyocho home, Yoshiwara to the north was the most famous of Edo and Meiji period geisha districts. The downtown merchants traveled by boat from the southern parts of the city along the Sumida River, often finishing the trip on foot through the cherry-tree-lined park that stretches from the main Asakusa bridge north on both sides of the river.

      At the start of the twentieth century, Asakusa was still largely rural in character, and much of the city's rice land was found in the area. But by the end of the Meiji era, the district claimed the highest population density in the city. The Yoshiwara geisha quarter had declined with the advance of modernization, and was destroyed in the fire of 1911. When the district was rebuilt, its days of glory were clearly over.

      Asakusa continued to prosper through the Taisho and early Showa periods. The Kabuki theaters moved back to their original downtown homes as the new day made the old popular culture respectable. Movie houses took their place and the first film showing in Japan was held in Asakusa in the early thirties.

      The district was badly scarred by the war. Fire bombing destroyed most of its monuments. Asakusa and its temples were rebuilt, but the postwar city looked more to the western districts and Asakusa was gradually left behind.

      Asakusa is one of the last strongholds of the Edokko, the born and bred child of Edo. The shitamachi spirit and sensibilities remain here. Craftsmen work in their traditional shops, in the traditional way, maintaining the sense of pride for which the Edokko was famous.

      Ueno

      When the fabled cherry blossoms burst out in spring, the favorite viewing spot for the average Tokyoite is Ueno Park. Since the Edo period, Ueno Hill was famous for its blossoms, but, surrounded by the Tokugawa family temple complex, the viewing was kept fairly sedate. Things have changed and now Ueno draws huge crowds to frolic beneath the blossoms.

      It is quite a spectacle, though not nearly as poetic as might be imagined. On approximately four tatami mat-sized sheets of plastic (about eight square meters), cardboard or cloth, the parties gather. A row of shoes fringe the sides of the mat and each area is separated from its neighbor by ropes and strings tied between the trees. By day things remain quiet, with families making up the greater part of the crowd. But after dark, thousands of office workers make a mad rush for the little plot saved by a junior co-worker whose assignment was to sit in the park and hold that space. Until 10:00 P.M. when the park closes, the crowds will eat, drink, and sing songs, getting for the most part absolutely plastered and feeling very Japanese. Stray foreigners are almost always invited to join a group—which can be amusing for a while. When the crowd disperses, the park is left quiet, filled with the pink blossoms and mountains of garbage deposited by the nature loving revelers. This is one cultural experience you shouldn't miss.

      During the Edo period, Ueno was one of the city's main temple districts. Being in the northeast quarter of town, the temples served to protect the castle from this traditionally dangerous direction (demons were believed to favor this route of attack). The temples were also planned to double as forts in the event of a military attack on the city. The main temple was Kan'eiji, where six of the fifteen Tokugawa shoguns were buried.

      In of the Meiji Restoration, the city of Edo was turned over to the new government without a fight. The few remaining Tokugawa loyalists retreated to the hills surrounding the temple and a final battle was fought. The loyalists were soon defeated, but most of the temple complex was burned.

      In early Meiji, plans were drawn up to build a medical school on the former temple grounds. When a German doctor was consulted about the project he suggested that the medical school be located elsewhere and the hill be turned into a park. His suggestion was followed and in 1873 Ueno became the first public park in the city. Officially named the Ueno Royal Park, the land was transferred to the royal family in 1890, and on the marriage of the Showa emperor in 1924, was returned to the city. The renaissance-style building of the National Museum in the park was a gift from the citizens of Tokyo in commemoration of the emperor's wedding.

      The park was the first place in Japan to have a museum and a zoo. It now has four major museums and the zoo that is famous for its pandas and the rather sad condition in which the animals are kept. Shinobazu Pond in the western portion of the park was originally part of the marshlands that covered most of the downtown districts. Annexed to the park in 1885, it was a favorite spot for viewing waterlilies.

      Aside from its cultural attractions, Ueno is known for the large numbers of country people who stream into its station from the north. Less sophisticated than downtown Tokyo, old shops and restaurants remain from the Edo period when its main street was one of the busiest shopping areas in the city. After the war a large black market flourished beneath the railroad tracks. The market is still there and, though no longer a black market, Ameyoko retains much of the flavor of one.

      Further north of Ueno is Yanaka, a continuation of the Ueno temple district. This area escaped the fires of the earthquake and World War II; numerous small temples, shrines, and old shops remain. The Yanaka cemetery is another famous spot for cherry blossom viewing.

      Asakusabashi—Kuramae—Ryogoku

      Asakusabashi is