December 13, 2008
Shitamachi/Nippori
Today I went to Nippori (it’s on the Yamanote Train Line). It is considered the ‘poor/commoner area’ of Tokyo
With a guide (and his grandson) who knows my great aunt and mother, we wandered around the streets, looking at the unique Meiji/Taisho/even earlier era buildings that littered the streets.
Things to Do:
- Walk around the streets near the station and look at the old buildings
- Eat food-
- Ramen - Chinese style noodles in thick broth. I can give you specific directions if you comment.
- Pork- Same shop as the Menchikatsu, see below
- Dango – Small balls of rice paste that have been cooked over a flame. Nippori is known for ‘Habutae dango’, which are abnormally non-spherical and not very glutinous
- Manju – Small cakes; the ones found in Nippori are hitokuchi (literally: one mouth, indicating they are small enough to be eaten in one go) and come in delicious flavours such as Black Sugar, Green tea and yuzu (a Japanese winter citrus)
- Crumbed mince- you will immediately be able to tell when you come across the famous stall selling these menchikatsu (mince katsu, ‘katsu’ referring to the Japanese answer to Schnitzel); out the front of the store are a number of signs plastered with screenshots of various Japanese TV stars eating the famed menchikatsu. They are really very nice, and there is often a queue.
- Karintou - hard biscuit-type things covered in sugar.
- Go to the puppet shop - 笑吉 is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If there are more than 3 people about you can watch a cleverly performed puppet show and you can even have the puppet draw a picture of you. Or, if you’re feeling particularly spendthrifty, you can have a puppet made to look like you. Unfortunately today was closed because the shopowners had a special event to perform at, but I may go back.
- Buy Chiyogami- Chiyogami is Japanese paper, often hand made, with designs printed on using traditional carved wooden blocks.
My experience of Nippori was somewhat rushed. My guide kept insisting on taking photos of me with everyone in sight and was slightly inebriated, which was unpleasant. Trying to avoid him unwittingly led to me walking through the interesting parts of Nippori too quickly. I hope to go back alone sometime, at which time I can tell you more about the area.
