When you go on trips, do you like to walk around alone or go with some special friends, without a tour guide? A trip walking around the foreign town, following what you get interested in, must be really relaxing and exciting. On the other hand, you might feel a little bit anxious because you are surrounded by the foreign language in the foreign place. To you, who come all the way to Tokyo and want to use the best of staying here, we recommend visiting YANESEN.

YANESEN Tourist Information & Culture Center in Yanaka

At YANESEN, they offer tourists information about shops and sightseeing in the area around Yanaka. Yanaka is part of Tokyo's downtown area, and it still has remarkable traces of the Showa era from about 50 years ago, such as retro Showa era cafes or old Japanese-style houses. It has an old, nostalgic townscape and is the very perfect place to take a walk around town. Before starting your stroll around Yanaka, why not visit YANESEN, get a brochure, and ask them about our recommended routes for tourists? They can your tailor your route to suit you.

YANESEN isn't just a tourist information center; they also offer short Japanese cultural activities! The cultural activities available are calligraphy, flower arranging, wearing kabuki costumes, and Japanese-style tea ceremonies. I recommend the calligraphy activities. In just one hour, you will learn the basics from a calligraphy teacher, and learn to actually write your favorite kanji on Japanese calligraphy paper with a brush. You will feel especially satisfied when, after much practice, you can write a clean, beautiful character. The calligraphy activity is one in which you can feel the stillness and concentration of your mind when writing characters, and so it is not just about writing beautiful characters, but can also be a spiritual experience and a memory that will be hard to forget. The characters you write will be a memory of your trip to Japan. There is also an option to have them printed on a T-shirt to take back　 with you, which would make a lovely souvenir.

To get to YANESEN, leave the north exit of JR Nippori station and walk along the main road, and when it forks continue to the left. When you come out onto a T-junction turn right and then take a left at the crossroads. Take a right when you reach the big T-junction, from where YANESEN is about a one-minute walk. It takes about eight minutes in total from the station.

Address: 3-13-7, Yanaka, Taito-ku, Tokyo

Due to the COVID-19, the currently available programs are the calligraphy and the tea ceremony programs.
Please check in advance for business hours and holidays if you want to visit it.