Asakusa

Old Tokyo's front door, best before the tour buses arrive

Asakusa gets dismissed as touristy, and at 2pm on a Saturday it is. Go at 7am instead. Senso-ji with incense drifting and almost nobody around is a different place entirely, and the backstreets west of the temple still feel like the shitamachi Tokyo that most of the city paved over decades ago.

Asakusa is the old downtown, the shitamachi, and it still runs on an older clock. Senso-ji's main hall opens at six and dawn is by far the best time to see it: incense smoke, sweeping monks, empty Nakamise stalls with their shutters painted like ukiyo-e. By ten the crowds arrive and the neighbourhood changes character entirely.

Stay for the edges rather than the centre. Kappabashi's kitchenware street sells the knives and ceramics chefs actually buy, Hoppy Street pours cheap stewed beef and beer from mid-afternoon, and the Sumida riverside walk gives you the Skytree mirrored in the water. Asakusa is also the launch point for the Tobu line to Nikko if a day trip is on the menu.