so odds are if you're coming to tokyo asakusa is one of the districts you're going to visit
first and it's a beautiful part of town though it's become a little bit of a victim of its own
success over the years certainly in the nine years that i've been coming here it's probably
changed more than any other district in all of tokyo there's lots of hotels and generic shops
that have been popping up to cater to tourists so in this video we're going to try and find some
of the more historic and authentic places around town that hidden around the district and hopefully
when you come to asakusa you can visit these places and see what makes this district so special
asakusa is one of the few districts in tokyo where you get a sense of the city's past at the heart of
it all is the picturesque sensoji temple tokyo's oldest temple dating back to the 7th century
and one which is dedicated to canon the buddhist goddess of mercy wandering through
the intoxicating smoke of a dozen incense sticks and the bustling umbrella wielding crowds on a
rainy day you can easily see why so many tourists flock to this quarter of town but when walking
the streets just be careful for any shady unsavory characters that you might bump into along the way
i'm your guide today oh for god's sake what do you think though asakusa this is like the first place
you should come when it comes to japan oh before sendai right right normally
what do you think makes sense so special oh just well i don't know it's the whole like big big big
temple with a huge lantern the lantern is i think they're very symbolic i guess i think it's one of
the biggest temples in tokyo it's certainly the most vibrant like that street filming down that
street nightmare you come here anyone take photos it's probably one of the most photogenic places
in tokyo but it comes at a price it's pretty difficult to take photos because it's so busy but
even in the rain people love coming here and as annoying as it is to walk down the street
in the rain like seeing all the coloured umbrellas really adds to the atmosphere yeah so what we're
doing now then uh you must be hungry i am hungry yes you are right and so i've got some hidden jam
hidden jam hidden gems jim jim jim jim sorry jack in the chat good job
before going to taste ryotaro's hidden gem the sentence i never want to send to a microphone
again we decide to get a bird's eye view of asakusa and see what the district looks like
from above unfortunately just across the road is the perfect spot oh hidden gem so just across the
road from sinsoji temple there's amazing views here from the tourism office eight stories up
not only do you get a sweeping view across asakusa but over there you've got a clear
shot the tokyo skytree 634 meters if you want to get a good sort of observation deck view i've
said this is the place to be like you can see straight into the temple and it really is
pretty damn amazing and it's free and it's free the best things in life are free generally
look at tokyo sky tree in the clouds and next to that is the asahi beer company
the building and look at that it's a golden beer with the actual white fog on the top
how crazy is that who actually thought of building a building like that
tonight ryota and i have decided to stay locally and our traditional inn
is tucked away on a side street neighbouring the sensoji temple it's about as perfect a location as
you can get and even more perfect when i discover riota and i are sleeping in separate rooms
welcome to my room sir come on in thank you come on in big room a big room for a full
forbidden tokyo i guess this is all right this is all right not bad is it big enough to handle
your ego though never never never bake for that so can i show you one thing that's definitely worth
steak in this room all right you can see the five-story pie water right in front of you
well being quintessential japan view me and five story pagoda how luxurious that
you've got perfection and terror all in the same shop for affection more perfection not quite
at last the time has come for ryotaro's hidden jam oh god and to find it we're going underground
beneath the streets of asakusa into a series of gritty alleyways and restaurants around
the old subway station that look like something straight out of blade runner blade runner with jam
jesus christ what's going on fortune telling hair salon some dodgy massage place
it's like another dimension another like blade runner
it's serious it's not it's not light-hearted blade runner serious blade runner
down here in the depths of serious blade runner you never know who you might run into
okay i thought the girl with blue hair was your friend because you sort of stood here
and then you were like oh hello and i thought your choice no no just a stranger you just wanted to
be a part of the video it's quite it's kind of scary like it was a little bit scary many things
happen in underground absolutely but look at this place it is honestly like going back to the 80s
and places like this are very much disappearing across tokyo right true right the olympics has
been sort of a catalyst for the gentrification of the city a lot of old buildings are going from the
naga king capsule building harajuku station sega a lot of places everything is becoming like more
fashionable stylish and everything but still like if we just look around this kind of place still
exists unfortunately because it's sunday nearly all the restaurants are shut down
here it's quite quiet right so we've got to try and find someone to eat fortunately it's not
long before we find one decent restaurant open serving up yakisoba fried noodles
we're getting some beef yeah soba so fried noodles with beef tenderloin should be nice
this is like the antithesis of our normal tourism videos right like most asakusa videos are like
really shiny nice tourist destinations we've got these like gritty rough around the edges
places with rough around the edges people me i'm the more stylish fashionable shiny
look at that 500 yen look at the portion with beef in it evan i love it's so simple you take some
noodles you fry them a bit of soy sauce drizzled over some wonderful chopped beef and it's the
ultimate sort of filling dish isn't it oh good for the first time i think ever we sat in the proper
location so we don't have to touch each other with the chopsticks oh yeah it's true ryotaro and i
always sit the wrong way around so he's on this side i'm on that side then we're always banging
each other and do not ever sit next to the side of who's a left-handed person because otherwise we're
like oh yeah yeah that's what happens we should work this out after like five years of doing this
but this time the first time in five years we've sat on the correct side it's
a game changer got a whole video to film and uh camerawoman's like the slowest eater in the world
come on alex you can do it it's like an eating contest for alex like at the monster
ramen gyoza challenge it's just like some noodles i finished it like 60 minutes ago
that's not true three million years later after alex has finally finished her noodles we go
looking for dessert and back above ground it's not long before ryotaro finds a place serving up
ice cream it looks like it's been covered in jam at last what is that what seriously what the hell
is that it's massive it's a shaved ice cream with a strawberry like serious strawberry sauce on the
top serious strawberry sauce so i've got this nice elegant dessert red bean paste mochi ice cream