Asakusa is a beautiful area of Tokyo that is great to wander around on foot, but if you want to see it in style then why not take a rickshaw tour?
When you arrive in Asakusa you can't possibly miss all the buff-looking rickshaw drivers hanging around the Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate) trying to get your business. There are many different companies offering different lengths of tours. We had our tour with Ebisuya rickshaw tours. The shortest tour they offer is a one block tour and the longest is two hours.
We took the one-hour tour which was long enough to see a lot of the Asakusa area. Once we met our driver, he showed us the rickshaw engine (his very muscly legs) and away we went.
Our first stop was Denboin street, which is a street along the edge of Sensoji Temple with many different shops and restaurants. We also stopped to take a picture so make sure you bring your camera. We then took a tour through the streets including Hoppy Street and the Rox area which used to be Tokyo's biggest entertainment area 100 years ago. To the north of Sensoji we passed through Kan-non-ura, a geisha town with an old "sento" (bathhouse), but unfortunately no Geisha sightings.
The last couple of destinations are perfect for more photo taking. The Nitenmon Gate is one of only a few structures in Asakusa that survived the Great Kanto Earthquake and World War II and is the east entrance into Sensoji Temple. Our final stop was on the banks of the Sumida River which is the perfect place to take a picture with the Tokyo Skytree in the background.
Our tour finished back where we started, but we could have chosen another location in the surrounding area if we wanted to. In typical Japanese style, we were then showered with presents at the end of the tour including some postcards with hand drawn rickshaw pictures on them, a sticker, a voucher for a snack from a nearby shop and a discount voucher for whenever we should want another rickshaw tour.
The tour is a lot of fun and our tour guide, Yoppy, was very energetic and informative. It is a very enjoyable way to see Asakusa whilst learning lots about the area that you would never find out just wandering around the streets.
