A temple street where candy is cut to a rhythm
Kawasaki Daishi is a large Buddhist temple in Kawasaki, between Tokyo and Yokohama, and the shopping lane to its gate is known for tontoko ame, a hard candy rolled into long sticks and chopped with a big knife. On weekends and festival days you may hear the tap-tap of the knife as shopkeepers cut it in rhythm. Try kuzumochi, a soft, chewy cake with roasted soybean flour and dark syrup, too; the temple is about 25 minutes from Shinagawa on the Keikyu Line, with one change.
A candy shop at the entrance to the lane, selling tontoko ame in small bags that make easy souvenirs. The candy is cut by hand mostly on weekends, holidays, festival days and at New Year, at no fixed time, so if you hear the knife, stop and watch.
A branch of the same candy shop partway along the lane, where you can also buy tontoko ame. It is handy when the main shop at the entrance is crowded.
The lane leading to the temple's main gate, lined with candy shops, kuzumochi shops and souvenir stores. It is very crowded on the 20th and 21st of each month, the temple's fair days, and at New Year, when crowds come for the first prayers of the year, so pick another day for a quiet walk.
A shop making kuzumochi, the lane's local treat: a soft, chewy cake made from fermented wheat starch, served with roasted soybean flour and dark sugar syrup. You can sit down and eat it in the shop.
A temple known across the Tokyo area for yakuyoke, prayers to ward off bad luck. Every day in the great main hall, monks perform goma, a fire ritual in which they burn wooden sticks inscribed with prayers while chanting and beating drums. Entering the grounds is free.