welcome to Tokyo Tuesday if you're a regular viewer welcome back today we're

exploring the back streets of Tokyo's shitamachi. right now we're hanging out in

between Ueno and Asakusa and some of these little streets are really

amazing let me show you this I was originally gonna do a totally different

video today but every now and then I just want to do a video for those of you

who are living vicariously through the vlog so let's check it out look at this

are these tiny little street we could actually go in here look how narrow this

is it's just absolutely unbelievable let's go this way

even little areas like this are fully populated and they have full service

from the city like garbage pickup and everything just as I was coming in here

a gentleman who's coming through and collecting all this garbage right here

it's just so amazing all right we have a lot more to explore

a lot more adventure to have today so let's get out of this area

exploring the Shitamachi or backstreet areas of Tokyo is honestly just one of

the best ways to enjoy the city itself it's something that I've done ever since

I came to Japan back in like 2005 and moved here in 2007 and it's something

that I'll probably continue to do for years to come there are just so many

little secrets hidden in the back street while the main areas of Tokyo are

chopped full of excitement and amazing places to visit the back streets are

home to a lot of neat little secrets like this one right here I'm just down

the road from a wano station and this right here is an old sento or public

bath

this particular sento or public bath is called Kotobuki Santo and it's always

actually been one of my favorites it's about 460 and to get in but more

amazingly is what's right beside it check this out

one thing to note about the temples that you will find in the back streets of

Tokyo's shitamachi area is that a lot of these temples will be home to local

graves so if you're gonna come in and check them out don't be afraid to greet

the caretaker and be sure to show respect let's head back out into the

city and do a little more exploring

despite being home to a lot of these older buildings in structures one of the

things that I love about Tokyo's Shitamachi the most is just how peaceful it is

you're not gonna be fighting crowds you're not gonna be running into a ton

of people and you will have a lot of exploring to do like there is a lot of

tiny stuff to find like just walking down that street a moment ago I found

like a little mechanical shop I don't even know what they were making inside

these little alleys everywhere

like this spot here is by far one of my favorites

so let me show you this tunnel here this tunnel here is where the Ginza line

comes out from the winnow station the Ueno station is just over there but when

they want to do some maintenance or cleaning this is where it all comes

you can actually see them like cleaning up one of the trains over there let's go

around to the other side and see if we can't get a better view

probably not let's try all right yeah we don't really have that much better

overview but you can kind of see the top of some of the Train anti-climatic I

know sorry all right let's keep going there's a lot more like if this doesn't

say Japan I don't know what does it's an old Senbei (rice cracker) shop every time that

I come across the place like this it just puts a smile on my face and that

reminds me of something about a week or two I did a podcast

called is Japan dying and if so should we let it and I did that podcast because

things like that sembei shop or like the scent oh that we saw at the beginning

we're starting to fade away they're starting to disappear and I figure

there's no time like the present to capture it all and put it in here

because who knows actually that reminds me there's one place I really want to

show look at that so many tiny back streets anyway back to what I was saying

that reminds me there's one place right around the corner from here that I want

to show you it's really close to in oh

I'm pretty sure that's it down there let's go there

if this building behind me right here this is an old abandoned element

elementary school it's an old abandoned elementary school I know that for two

reasons number one because I once posted a photo on Instagram and someone was

like hey that's my old school and number two I just double-checked it on google

map and as cool as this angle is it doesn't really paint the picture as well

as the other side does so let's go over there this is the other side over here

and despite all the cars that are parked in there right now yes this is abandoned

it's just the government office the the city hall which is almost right next to

this uses this as additional parking spaces from the looks of it let me let

me show you

also just down the street in front of me there's like a set of small building

that I absolutely love let me show you this Ueno police station right here and

then right in front of it you have this little set of buildings here while

everything else was getting built up around it somehow this set of buildings

right here managed to hang on to this too and like look at these buildings -

look at this

I have so much love for just that little spot right there for those of you

interested this little shrine here is probably about a one to two minute walk

from a widow but despite being right beside you I know it's really peaceful

let's go down this way you come out to an area like this and it's not just good

for photography both daytime and night but it's just good for overall

relaxation just hold so much tranquility there's just so much history and there's

so much exploration I always find something new there's always some kind

of little hidden treasure or excitement a shop that I never noticed or a street

that I never went down little hidden alleys

that guy's punch perm was like the best thing in the world how about you guys

are you bigger fan of the more touristy spots or like these backstreet areas I

had actually had a lot of people be like can you do a video of just walking

through the back streets because I'd like to see what it's like I hope that

this does it justice but I kind of feel like this is gonna be just part one more

than anything else I think one of the things that makes it really great is

just the contrast between the back streets and the main center of Tokyo and

believe it or not there's an entire genre of this area that I haven't even

been able to touch on today and that's the number of temples that are scattered

throughout this area there's no way I would have been able to fit all of this

into one video if I'd also hit the like dozens and dozens of temples but anyway

guys I know pretty much this entire Tokyo Tuesday has just been me walking

around these back streets shitamachi area and rambling to you guys but I wanted

this to be a video that obviously the explorers and those living vicariously

through the vlog would be able to enjoy and since it was such a requested video

I figured to be the perfect day to do it is there any specific area that you guys

would like to see if so definitely let me know let me know also it would mean

the world to me if you guys would take a second to leave a like on this video you

know I'll be hanging out with you down in the comments so I'll see you down

there if you're new to the channel definitely hit subscribe I would love to

have you and you guys know I will see you again real soon