Katsushika

Katsushika has the second-highest number of entries on this site, and the reason is Tateishi. Rivers and canals made goods easy to move by boat, and after the Great Kanto Earthquake factories pushed out of central Tokyo took root here, bringing workers. Their habit of stopping for a drink on the way home built the bar district.

Tateishi is called the original senbero town — a thousand yen and you are thoroughly drunk. A market appeared south of the station in 1946, the year after the war ended, and was organised into the Nakamise shopping street in 1954. The same year saw the founding of the association that later became Nonbe Yokocho. That alley, however, ended seventy years of history in 2023 under redevelopment. The neighbourhood is changing fast.

Shibamata is a different proposition. Its temple approach survives intact, with shops keeping their older form. A drinking town and a pilgrimage town sit inside the same ward, so if you want both in a day, plan the route first.