Yanaka Historical Walking Tour in Tokyo's Old Town
Description
Join a tour by MagicalTrip, proud winner of the Tripadvisor Best of the Best Award. Each experience is led by a MagicalTrip Certified Guide, professionally trained and carefully selected to ensure quality and authenticity. Experience a quieter side of Tokyo on this cultural walking tour. Begin at Nezu Shrine, one of the city’s oldest shrines, and pass through its striking red torii gates while your guide shares insights into Shinto beliefs and local history. Capture beautiful photos in and around the shrine’s tunnel-like paths. After a relaxing walk, take a break at a café in a traditional old folk house. Enjoy a drink and sweet while joining a unique workshop to paint your own lucky cat statue, a symbol of happiness and good fortune, as a special travel keepsake. The tour continues through peaceful backstreets, stopping by the famous Himalayan cedar tree before strolling Yanaka Ginza, a nostalgic shopping street that reflects the charm of Tokyo’s old neighborhoods.
Tour Options
Itinerary
You'll see the continuous Torii gates, which reminds you of the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. Feel the Shinto vibe as you cross a vibrant red arch in Nezu Shrine, a portal into another world After meeting at Nezu station, we'll head for Nezu shrine, one of the oldest shrines in Tokyo. You may recognize it, as it's a place famous for its tunnel of vermilion torii gates, also seen at Kyoto's Fushimi Inari shrine. While your guide shares cultural and historical tidbits about Japan, we'll take great photos in and around the tunnel. You can learn how one can pray at shrines and how to behave at them.
See around Yanaka area and have a traditional Japanese lunch. We'll stroll through a residential area where you can get a sense of real, local lifestyles. Sample a variety of local foods as you stroll around Yanaka Ginza and find yourself in a cozy house that serves Soba lunch, a food engrained in Japanese culture
Pass by Nezu Museum
Experience painting Japanese cat doll while having dessert and drink in a good Japanese old house cafe. Craft a lucky cat for your travel memory in a cafe of an old folk house After a nice long walk, we will rest in a cafe with a drink and sweets. This is the first cafe in Japan that provides workshops to craft lucky cat statues that bring luck and happiness. Paint a cat statue with your favorite color and patterns, and make your cat keep your memories from Japan for good.
A shopping street which has a nostalgic atmosphere. We will sample some street foods. We'll stroll through a residential area where you can get a sense of real, local lifestyles. You can pop into small places such as antique stores and sweets shops that line the streets.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- The itinerary for this tour includes some locations that are not accessible by a wheelchair or stroller.
- While you’ll enjoy some tasty food samples on this tour, a full lunch or dinner isn’t included. We suggest having a meal beforehand to make the most of your experience.
- Out of respect for other guests and to ensure the best tour for everyone, we must start the tour on time.
- You will not be able to join the tour, get a refund or reschedule if you are late for the tour and miss the group.
- Dietary requests made on the day of the tour cannot be accommodated. Please inform us at least one day before the tour if you have any dietary restrictions or allergies.
- Please note that we are unable to guarantee allergy-free or cater to dietary restrictions as the food is prepared in kitchens that do not belong to MagicalTrip. Additionally, there may be instances where substitutions are not possible at certain stops; however, we will make every effort to compensate at different stops throughout the tour.
- Japan's climate has become more extreme, with summer highs of 40°C (110°F) and winter lows of -5°C (20°F). Please prepare accordingly for the tour.
Reviews(198)
I enjoyed Mark as a tour guide. He was very helpful and knowledgeable. I would highly recommend him as a tour guide.
Thank you for your kind review! We're delighted to hear that you enjoyed your time with Mark and found him helpful and knowledgeable. We'll be sure to share your wonderful feedback with him. Thank you for your recommendation, and we hope to welcome you on another MagicalTrip adventure in the future!
Tadashi was an exceptional tour guide who clearly loves what he does. His enthusiasm, knowledge, and dedication made the entire experience unforgettable. He took the time to answer every question thoughtfully and always seemed to have an answer, no matter the topic. What stood out most was his ability to show us places we would never have discovered on our own. Thanks to his local knowledge, we experienced parts of the destination that felt authentic and unique. He was also incredibly flexible and attentive to the group's interests, happily adapting the tour whenever we wanted to explore something different or spend more time at a particular location. This was truly a one-of-a-kind experience, and a big part of that was Tadashi's passion and professionalism. I would highly recommend him to anyone looking for a memorable and personalized tour. Thank you, Tadashi, for a marvelous experience!
The tour was okay, compared to other ones we took in Kyoto and Osaka. The tour guide was very friendly and he gave us a good overview of Japanese culture, customs and society in general. Unfortunately we had a problem with communication as his English was not very good. But overall it was okay.
Thank you for your feedback and for your kind comments about our guide's friendliness and knowledge. We apologize for the communication difficulties you experienced and understand how this may have affected your tour. We appreciate your feedback and will continue working to improve our guides' language skills and overall guest experience. Thank you for joining us, and we hope to welcome you again in the future.
This is a special and unusual tour because you get to explore a historic part of Edo (old Tokyo). You get to see how people live outside the neon world of the Ginza and Shinjuku. Mark is a gracious and knowledgeable guide. We got to visit the Azalea Festival and the Nezu Temple shrine, which were wonderful. We also got to snack on local treats, Takoyaki and grilled mochi balls, which we thoroughly enjoyed as adventurous eaters. Neither were new for us. We also went to a cafe where we got to paint our own personal "Lucky Cats". So much fun. We also explored interesting local shops and engaged in "retail therapy". We opted to make this a private tour and have Mark meet us at our hotel and then we took a taxi to Yanaka and then a taxi back.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and detailed review! We’re delighted to hear that you enjoyed exploring the historic charm of Yanaka. We truly appreciate your kind words about Mark as well. He’ll be very happy to hear that you enjoyed his guidance and company. Thank you again for joining the tour with us. We hope to welcome you back for another unique experience in the future!
Molly was amazing! Very personable and knowledgeable. Nezu Shrine was a highlight! Highly recommend.
Thank you for your fantastic review! We’re delighted to hear that Molly made your tour so enjoyable and that Nezu Shrine was a highlight. We truly appreciate your recommendation!
Guide very interestinh, knowledgeable and helpful. A wonderful experience.
Thank you very much for your kind review! We’re delighted to hear that you found your guide interesting, knowledgeable, and helpful. It’s wonderful to know you had such a great experience. We truly appreciate your feedback and hope to welcome you again in the future.
Good experience with plenty of stops to savor the flavors and sights in yanaka
Thank you for your review! We’re glad to hear you had a good experience exploring Yanaka and enjoyed the variety of stops along the way. We appreciate your feedback and hope to welcome you again on another tour in the future!
It was an excelent guided tour to the old part of Tokyo
Mark was a friendly knowledgeable guide. The snake road, shrine visit and painting the cat were all highly enjoyable.
Thank you for your lovely review! We’re so glad to hear you enjoyed your time with Mark. He’ll be happy to know his friendliness and knowledge made a positive impact on your experience. It’s great that you enjoyed the different activities, from exploring Snake Road to visiting the shrine and painting the cat—such a fun mix! We hope to welcome you again on another tour soon.
Hadashi was a wonderful tour guide that shared fascinating facts and allowed us to experience an amazing day! We explored many interesting places such as temples and community shops. We had a great time trying a new dish and painting lucky cats. Overall we all had a splendid day with our excellent tour guide Hadashi!!
Thank you so much for your wonderful review! We’re thrilled to hear that you had a splendid day with Hadashi and enjoyed exploring the temples, community shops, and local experiences like trying new dishes and painting lucky cats. We truly appreciate your kind words and hope we can welcome you on another MagicalTrip tour in the future!
