A lane of old shops baking fish-shaped cakes
Ningyocho is an old merchants' quarter in central Tokyo, a few stops from Ginza on the Hibiya subway line, where long-running sweet shops line a lane called Amazake Yokocho. Buy taiyaki, fish-shaped cakes filled with sweet red bean paste, and ningyo-yaki, small cakes baked in the shapes of lucky gods, warm in paper bags. Eat them as you walk, then stop at Suitengu, a shrine where families pray for a safe birth.
A taiyaki shop that has grilled the fish-shaped cakes here since 1916. The shell is thin and crisp, and the bean paste reaches right to the tip of the tail. There is often a line, and it can sell out and close early.
A shop that has baked ningyo-yaki for more than a century, with craftsmen filling and baking each cake by hand. The small cakes are molded as the Seven Lucky Gods, a group of gods said to bring good fortune, with bean paste inside. Buy a warm bag and eat them as you walk.
A sweets shop known for toraya-yaki, a soft pancake with tiger-like stripes folded around sweet bean paste. It is said to stand where the amazake seller once was, whose sweet, warm rice drink gave the lane its name.
A shrine where Tokyo families have prayed for safe childbirth since the Edo period, before 1868. On the Day of the Dog, which comes every 12 days, it fills with expectant mothers, because dogs are said to give birth easily. Anyone can walk the grounds and buy a charm.