Walk in Yanaka

Walk in Yanaka

[ Jan.2015 ] After visitin Asakura Museum of Sculpture, we had a walk around Yanaka area in Tokyo.

The damage from Great Kanto earthquake in 1923 and WW2 was relatively small in this area, so there are many old houses.

Also there are a lot of temples here, too.

We went into some interesting shops, one of which was “Space Oguraya”.

It was selling Japanese small articles in a renovated old storehouse.

Anyone can enter here free to look inside.

They were exhibiting some paintings of this town of old time.

We also visited a speciality shop selling only merchadise related to cats.

Both Fumio Asakura and our friend who took us here love cats.

We bought a cat toy which repeats whatever we say to it.

There was also a shop called “Kouno” which was selling Japanese hand made paper and baskets and so on all made in Shinshu (Nagano prefecture).

The shop owner buys goods directly from the artisans and he told us about their hardship.

The goods there were attractive, but it was too expensive for me to buy on inpulse.

At the end of our walk, we had a rest at a restaurant called “Darjeeling”.

We saw the sign from afar and went there and when we got in, we all were surprised, because it was India there.

The quite dark space was crowded with the furnishings which seemed to have been brought from India.

The person who served us was an Indian.

We had tea and cake, but they seemed to serve proper Indian foods.

It may be famous among curry lovers.

By the way, our friend told us that this area of Yanaka with Nezu and Sendagi is called “Yanasen”.

I felt like walking around here again when the weather is better.