THE COMPLETE GUIDE / UPDATED SEPTEMBER 18, 2026
Tokyo east of the Sumida River is eight wards, about four million people, and almost no tourists. It is the flat half of the city, the half that burned in 1923 and 1945 and was rebuilt cheaply, the half where the shopping streets still sell dinner to the people who live above them. It has the Skytree, sumo, Senso-ji’s back door, more public baths than anywhere in Japan, and canals that were the city’s roads for three centuries. This page is every guide on LOCAL SIDE JAPAN, sorted three ways: by ward, by what you want to do, and as three days you can copy. Everything was walked, priced and checked by the writer, who lives and works here.
How to use the east side
- Where it is: everything east of the Sumida River plus the northern wards along the Keihin-Tohoku line. From Tokyo Station, most of it is 15 to 30 minutes by subway: the Hanzomon line to Kiyosumi-Shirakawa and Oshiage, the Hibiya line to Minowa and Kita-Senju, the Toei Shinjuku line into Koto and Edogawa, the Keihin-Tohoku line north to Oji and Akabane.
- When: weekday mornings for the neighborhoods, evenings for the bars and baths, late March for cherry blossom along every canal, mid-August for the Fukagawa festival (every third year; next full one 2029) and the Sumida fireworks (last Saturday of July).
- Money: most of what is on this page is free or under ¥1,000. Carry cash; the shopping streets, baths and standing bars mostly do not take cards. The things worth paying for, with honest prices, are on the Experiences page.
- Manners: ask before photographing people, keep shop entrances clear, and remember that a shotengai is somebody’s grocery run. Why that matters →
By ward
Koto City: canals and the Fukagawa waterfront
- Things to do in Koto City: the 12-place list: the whole ward in order, nine of them free or under ¥600.
- Kiyosumi-Shirakawa on a weekday: garden ¥150, roasters, the Edo museum, the fire ritual. The best single morning on the east side.
- Fukagawa Edo Museum: tickets ¥400, hours, and the 1840s street you walk through.
- Sunamachi Ginza and the Onagi River: lunch on the best food street, then the Salt Road to Edo’s boat checkpoint.
- The ¥100 boat park: rowing boats for ¥100 and free wooden-boat rides on the Yokojukken.
- The Lucky Dragon No. 5 museum: a real H-bomb-fallout fishing boat, free, 15 minutes from Tokyo Station.
- Sumo tickets, honestly: the ¥3,500 official seat and how to get it, by someone who runs a stable here.
Sumida City: the Skytree’s back streets
- Things to do in Sumida beyond the Skytree: the 10-place list: the ward in order, eight of them ¥600 or less.
- Sumida River on foot: the 3 km free route from the tower to Senso-ji that most people do by train.
- Edo Kiriko cut glass: the ¥4,400 way to cut your own, and what the ¥22,000 tours add.
- Tattoo-friendly sento: three baths that say yes in writing, and the etiquette.
- Kyojima and Kirakira Tachibana: a Showa-era shopping street two hours from anywhere famous.
- Yakatabune dinner boats: the 400-year-old cruise and the two ways to book it.
- The apartment firewall: 1.2 km of housing built to stop the city burning.
- fcFA football shirts: three shops beside the Skytree for anyone who travels with a club.
Taito and Arakawa: Yanaka, Kappabashi and the old edge of Edo
- Yanaka on a weekday: the free loop from Nippori to Nezu, and three tours worth the money.
- Buying a knife on Kappabashi: which shops, what to ask, and the sharpening class.
- Asakusa workshops ranked: which hour is worth ¥7,000 and which is not.
- Jokanji, the Throw-in Temple: where Yoshiwara’s women were buried.
- Kozukappara execution ground: Edo’s killing field beside Minamisenju Station, and the anatomy book it produced.
Adachi, Katsushika and Edogawa: the far side
- Kita-Senju: the post town, the public fish market, the garden bath and the ¥1,000 drunk.
- Nishiarai Daishi: the one-kilometer temple train and the salt-covered Jizo.
- Shibamata: the last old town before Tokyo runs out, and the ¥200 rowing ferry.
- The buried Komatsugawa lock: a 1930 river gate standing inside a park.
Kita and Itabashi: the northern arc
- Oji, the fox town: fox shrine, river park under the station, free hill railway.
- Akabane Hachiman: the shrine with a Shinkansen underneath it.
- Kondo Isami’s grave: the Shinsengumi commander, executed beside Itabashi Station.
- The Tokyo Daibutsu: a 13-meter Buddha nobody visits, with Edo-period stone demons.
Tokyo hidden gems, by what you want
- Free walks: Sumida River, Yanaka, Onagi River, Oji, Kyojima.
- Food streets: Sunamachi Ginza (in the Onagi guide), Kirakira Tachibana, Shibamata’s approach (in the Shibamata guide), Kita-Senju’s standing bars.
- Make something: cut glass, kintsugi (every Tokyo workshop by area), tea ceremony (by area), sushi classes (by area), ramen and soba noodles (by area), food tours (by area), Japanese cooking classes (by area), candy, matcha, calligraphy, a ring, calligraphy, ikebana and wagashi (by area), Skytree and teamLab tickets at the official price, rickshaws and Asakusa walking tours, sharpen a knife.
- Wear something: kimono rental in Asakusa, by what each price includes, samurai armour and the dojos behind the costume.
- Water: ¥100 boats, yakatabune, the ¥1,000 water bus, the Yagiri ferry, the buried lock.
- Baths: tattoo-friendly sento, Takara-yu’s garden (in Kita-Senju).
- Dark history: Kozukappara, Jokanji, Kondo Isami, the Lucky Dragon, the firewall.
- Sumo: tickets, and morning practice vs shows vs the tournament.
- How Japan works: pachinko and the three-shop system, sento etiquette, the real rules, senbero, the ¥1,000 drunk.
Tokyo off the beaten path: a 3-day itinerary you can copy
Day 1: the river
Senso-ji at 6:30 before anyone arrives, breakfast in Asakusa, then the river walk in reverse to the Skytree via Sakurabashi and Ushijima Shrine. Lunch at Mizumachi. Afternoon at the Edo Kiriko workshop (book ahead, ¥4,400). Bath at Koganeyu. Dinner on a yakatabune from Azumabashi if you booked it, or at any counter in Kyojima if you did not.
Day 2: the canals
Kiyosumi Garden at 9:00, coffee, the Fukagawa Edo Museum, fukagawa-meshi for lunch and the 13:00 fire ritual at Fukagawa Fudo-do. Then the Toei Shinjuku line to Nishi-Ojima for the ¥100 boats and the walk along the Onagi River to the checkpoint museum, with dinner bought on Sunamachi Ginza on the way.
Day 3: the north
Morning in Yanaka, from Nippori to Nezu. The Hibiya line to Minowa for Jokanji and Kozukappara, an hour of hard history. Then one stop to Kita-Senju: the post town street, the river and Basho, Takara-yu at opening, and the standing bars from 17:00. Last train after midnight.
Who writes this
Kizuku, who runs the Sunamachi Ginza Sumo Stable in Koto City and lives and works on the east side. Every price and opening time on the site carries the date it was checked; the paid experiences carry affiliate links, declared on each page, and the free route always comes first. More about how this site is made →
This page is updated whenever a new guide is published. Last update: September 18, 2026, 36 guides.