Tori no Ichi Festival in Tokyo’s Asakusa district

(Photo by Tokyo Reporter, November 26, 2011) Read more

Tokyo Sky Tree near the edge of the Sumida River

(Photo by Tokyo Reporter, January 1, 2011)

Tour of Asakusa

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo can be crudely described as a metropolis of soaring and undulating concrete collectively illuminated by a glow of garish neon. Yet bordering the Sumida River in the east is the Asakusa district, which adheres to many of those characteristics but also retains certain cultural elements of life back in the Edo Period (1615 – 1868).

Tourists and locals will often flock to the area’s temples and shrines, which create a lively atmosphere around the New Year’s holidays, a prelude to the various festivals and carnivals held throughout the year.

It was once Japan’s version of Vaudeville, with one district having offered many performance theaters, a legacy that still lingers today.

Ladies in kimono shuffling through Asakusa’s narrow alleys is not an unusual site as it is one of Tokyo’s six remaining hanamachi, literally “flower town,” a reference to the locales in which customers can be entertained by a geisha.
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Sunday afternoon at the Nakamise shopping arcade in Asakusa

(Photo by Tokyo Reporter, May 30, 2010) Read more

Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa

(Photo by Tokyo Reporter, May 16, 2010) Read more

Geisha prepares to bloom in Tokyo

TOKYO (TR) – Not far from the banks of Tokyo’s Sumida River, below a towering expressway, is Sumida Ward’s sleepy district of Mukojima, the largest of Tokyo’s six remaining geisha quarters, or hanamachi (literally, “flower towns”).

The area is home to roughly 120 of Japan’s iconic traditional entertainers, who, in the evenings, regale well-heeled guests with performances of classical dance and music, lighthearted games and conversation as they dine at the 16 traditional ryotei restaurants scattered within the packed district’s hodgepodge of aging wooden buildings.

One of the youngest of the local geisha is Manten (her geisha name), 20, who decided to enter the profession after realizing that she was not well versed in Japan’s traditions following two visits overseas as a teenager. Read more

Nakamise shopping arade in Asakusa

(Photo by Tokyo Reporter, February 27, 2010)

Denki Bran at Kamiya Bar in Asakusa

(Photo by Tokyo Reporter, February 27, 2010)

Seen at the Sanja Matsuri

(Photo by The Tokyo Reporter, May 2007)

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‘Cabaret bus’ carries customers to a carefree night on the town

Have you got 40,000 yen to blow on a tour of Tokyo night life? Well, suggests Shukan Post (March 20), you might want to consider showing up at Tokyo Station at 6:30 p.m. for a “Basu Kyaba Tsuaa” (cabaret tour by bus). The tours, initiated from the end of February, take in three cabarets in the Asakusa, Ueno and Roppongi areas.

What’s more — and this part sounds almost too good to be true — the interior of the bus is partitioned with tables and hostesses go along for the ride, pouring customers’ drinks and making the whole experience a nonstop party on wheels — except when the signals turn red.

According to Mr. “A,” the writer who reports on his experience, the customers were joined by eight charming gals, including the lovely 21-year-old Naomi who was clad in a revealing pink camisole. Read more

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