A temple town frozen in 1960s Japan
The temple approach in Shibamata still looks as it did in Otoko wa Tsurai yo, a film series shot here from 1969 that holds a Guinness record as the longest-running with a single star. Old shops along it sell kusa dango, sweet rice dumplings made with mugwort, and beyond the temple you can cross the Edo River on a hand-rowed ferry. It is about 25 minutes from Ueno by train.
Founded in 1868, this dango shop has a wooden storefront on the approach street, where you can buy kusa dango to go or sit down inside with tea.
The dango shop closest to the temple gate. Grab a pack of kusa dango and eat as you walk up the approach.
The main hall is wrapped in ten large wooden panels carved with stories from the Lotus Sutra, which took more than a decade to finish, up to 1934. A covered walkway lets you see every figure up close. The grounds are free; the carving gallery and garden charge admission.
A museum of the Otoko wa Tsurai yo films, with a full-size recreation of Kurumaya, the family dango shop at the center of the stories. Closed on the third Tuesday of the month.
A 1920s house that mixes Japanese rooms with a Western-style parlor. Sit on tatami with matcha and a sweet, looking out on a garden that Sukiya Living, an American journal of Japanese gardens, ranks third in the country.
The last ferry crossing left in Tokyo, where a boatman rows you across the Edo River to Matsudo in about 5 minutes, for 300 yen. In winter it runs only on weekends and holidays, and it stops in bad weather.