The links stop at the museum-to-sushi taxi change; use the guide for the carried-snack break and the dinner fallback.
JAPAN 2026
KNIVES
PAPER
EDO
SUSHI
TAITŌ & SUMIDA — TOKYO
HIROSHIGE AT RYŌGOKU BRIDGE
2026
DAY II · 3 SEPTEMBER · 蔵前
KNIVES, PAPER, AND EDO
A day with no temple in it. Breakfast is eaten properly for once, coffee is Oslo's, and the morning goes on buying two things on purpose — one knife on the tool street at Kappabashi, one notebook built to order in Kuramae. Then no lunch at all, only a carried snack and one stop on the Ōedo Line to Ryōgoku, where Edo and Tokyo are laid out indoors while the afternoon burns off outside. Dinner is Edomae, at a counter that opened in 1903.
Nothing before the museum needs a train. Asakusa to the tool street is a walk, the tool street to Kuramae another, and the only rail all day is a single stop on the Toei Ōedo Line — Kuramae E11 to Ryōgoku E12, ¥356 for two on IC. Coming back at 16:20 the taxi is the plan and not the fallback: it is what protects a 17:00 counter. In oppressive heat or rain, take a short taxi to Kuramae rather than cutting the notebook.
The Annex serves from 07:00: take one main, then work the buffet for protein, rice and fruit instead of grazing. It is published at ¥3,600 a head and the booking inclusion is still unverified, so carry the money either way. At 08:10, coffee — only coffee — at Fuglen, whose room is furnished with the 1950s and 60s Scandinavian pieces it also sells. This is the meal that replaces lunch. Running late cuts Fuglen, never the breakfast.
Tsubaya has sold nothing but kitchen knives here since 1952, and it keeps more than a thousand of them out on the wall and the shelves instead of under glass — the whole point is that you pick them up. Walk in with the type, the steel and the budget already decided. Dengama, for Mino, Arita, Kutani and Mashiko ware, only after ten and only against a written list. No list, no Kappabashi: start at Kakimori instead.
Kakimori opens at eleven, which is when you get there. Sixty-odd covers in leather, cloth and paper; a core paper range in blank, lined, dotted and grid with a tester for each; then the binding, the fastener, and optional foil initials set by hand. They assemble it while you wait — usually about half an hour, sometimes longer. No booking needed on a weekday. Then the only lunch there is: the carried onigiri and fruit, water and electrolytes, finished by 12:25.
One stop on the Ōedo Line, and the whole afternoon sits under one roof: the permanent Edo and Tokyo galleries, ¥800 an adult, bought online or at the first-floor counter. On the fifth floor the feature exhibition — the museum's own woodblock holdings shown with the Idemitsu Museum of Arts for the first time, on Edo's theatres and its pleasure quarters — is covered by the same ticket and runs to 27 September. Shorten that, never the 16:20 exit. Nothing else in Ryōgoku today.
Kibun has been a sushi shop in Asakusa since 1903 and was picked for Tabelog's Sushi Tokyo Top 100 in 2025 — twenty seats, counter included, English menu, and an old wooden room that is half the reason to go. Take the recommended sushi at ¥8,800 a head and add the simmered hamaguri only if the course does not carry it. If two counter seats at 17:00 are not there, book Bentenyama Miyako Sushi's Asame instead: ten nigiri, ¥8,800, at an Edomae shop founded in 1866.
2-9-10 Asakusa, Taitō — two nights, the second and last of them. Lights out at 20:30, because the courier handover tomorrow is at 04:45. Before that: measure both cases and pre-fill the two TA-Q-BIN waybills.
¥356
TOEI ŌEDO LINE, PARTY KURAMAE → RYŌGOKU, ON IC
¥1,850
TAXI, PARTY — ESTIMATE MUSEUM → THE 17:00 COUNTER
¥1,600
MUSEUM, PARTY PERMANENT PLUS THE FEATURE
¥33,000–36,000
DAY TOTAL, TWO TRAVELLERS MEALS AND MUSEUM — PURCHASES EXTRA
IF THE HEAT WINS — Dengama goes first, then the whole of Kappabashi, before Kakimori or the museum are touched; in oppressive heat or rain take a short taxi to Kuramae, or go straight to Ryōgoku. Breakfast missed → YUWAERU's ¥1,000 set and museum entry at 13:35. No 17:00 counter at either sushi shop → Koyomi inside the museum from 18:00, sets ¥3,500–3,800 a head.
The links stop at the museum-to-sushi taxi change; use the guide for the carried-snack break and the dinner fallback.
JAPAN 2026KNIVESPAPEREDOSUSHITAITŌ & SUMIDA — TOKYOHIROSHIGE AT RYŌGOKU BRIDGE2026
DAY II · 3 SEPTEMBER · 蔵前
KNIVES, PAPER, AND EDO
A day with no temple in it. Breakfast is eaten properly for once, coffee is Oslo's, and the morning goes on buying two things on purpose — one knife on the tool street at Kappabashi, one notebook built to order in Kuramae. Then no lunch at all, only a carried snack and one stop on the Ōedo Line to Ryōgoku, where Edo and Tokyo are laid out indoors while the afternoon burns off outside. Dinner is Edomae, at a counter that opened in 1903.
Nothing before the museum needs a train. Asakusa to the tool street is a walk, the tool street to Kuramae another, and the only rail all day is a single stop on the Toei Ōedo Line — Kuramae E11 to Ryōgoku E12, ¥356 for two on IC. Coming back at 16:20 the taxi is the plan and not the fallback: it is what protects a 17:00 counter. In oppressive heat or rain, take a short taxi to Kuramae rather than cutting the notebook.
The Annex serves from 07:00: take one main, then work the buffet for protein, rice and fruit instead of grazing. It is published at ¥3,600 a head and the booking inclusion is still unverified, so carry the money either way. At 08:10, coffee — only coffee — at Fuglen, whose room is furnished with the 1950s and 60s Scandinavian pieces it also sells. This is the meal that replaces lunch. Running late cuts Fuglen, never the breakfast.
Tsubaya has sold nothing but kitchen knives here since 1952, and it keeps more than a thousand of them out on the wall and the shelves instead of under glass — the whole point is that you pick them up. Walk in with the type, the steel and the budget already decided. Dengama, for Mino, Arita, Kutani and Mashiko ware, only after ten and only against a written list. No list, no Kappabashi: start at Kakimori instead.
Kakimori opens at eleven, which is when you get there. Sixty-odd covers in leather, cloth and paper; a core paper range in blank, lined, dotted and grid with a tester for each; then the binding, the fastener, and optional foil initials set by hand. They assemble it while you wait — usually about half an hour, sometimes longer. No booking needed on a weekday. Then the only lunch there is: the carried onigiri and fruit, water and electrolytes, finished by 12:25.
One stop on the Ōedo Line, and the whole afternoon sits under one roof: the permanent Edo and Tokyo galleries, ¥800 an adult, bought online or at the first-floor counter. On the fifth floor the feature exhibition — the museum's own woodblock holdings shown with the Idemitsu Museum of Arts for the first time, on Edo's theatres and its pleasure quarters — is covered by the same ticket and runs to 27 September. Shorten that, never the 16:20 exit. Nothing else in Ryōgoku today.
NEITHER IS BOOKED小鰭 — KOHADA, THE EDOMAE TEST¥8,800 EACH
FIVE O'CLOCK · 紀文寿司
EDOMAE, SINCE 1903
Kibun has been a sushi shop in Asakusa since 1903 and was picked for Tabelog's Sushi Tokyo Top 100 in 2025 — twenty seats, counter included, English menu, and an old wooden room that is half the reason to go. Take the recommended sushi at ¥8,800 a head and add the simmered hamaguri only if the course does not carry it. If two counter seats at 17:00 are not there, book Bentenyama Miyako Sushi's Asame instead: ten nigiri, ¥8,800, at an Edomae shop founded in 1866.
2-9-10 Asakusa, Taitō — two nights, the second and last of them. Lights out at 20:30, because the courier handover tomorrow is at 04:45. Before that: measure both cases and pre-fill the two TA-Q-BIN waybills.
¥356
TOEI ŌEDO LINE, PARTY KURAMAE → RYŌGOKU, ON IC
¥1,850
TAXI, PARTY — ESTIMATE MUSEUM → THE 17:00 COUNTER
¥1,600
MUSEUM, PARTY PERMANENT PLUS THE FEATURE
¥33,000–36,000
DAY TOTAL, TWO TRAVELLERS MEALS AND MUSEUM — PURCHASES EXTRA
IF THE HEAT WINS — Dengama goes first, then the whole of Kappabashi, before Kakimori or the museum are touched; in oppressive heat or rain take a short taxi to Kuramae, or go straight to Ryōgoku. Breakfast missed → YUWAERU's ¥1,000 set and museum entry at 13:35. No 17:00 counter at either sushi shop → Koyomi inside the museum from 18:00, sets ¥3,500–3,800 a head.
