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