between the tower and sumo : September 26 2025

my revisit to the tokyo skytree area was full of adventure. this was taken in sumida park with two small fox statues as bookends. i don't know if you love it but i do, and i will be submitting this to Hive account@bucipuci 's #aroundtheworld challenge.

intro

it was last sunday when my planned nightwalk to kinshicho was disrupted by a sudden rainfall. and i have never forgotten about how that nightwalk could have been. it would also be my revisit to the tokyo skytree. although this tower is clearly visible from home, i have never been close in the past months. so here is the "great" kinshicho nightwalk with my special guest, housemate g.

edomachi street

while walking, i badly needed to use the toilet; we have fast forwarded around 20 minutes of nothingness in this nightwalk by this point. and this park was the closest with a public toilet. lo and behold, the street at the other side was full of life.

this side street was a surprise to me. i have walked along this general direction for countless times but i have always used the main roads which were lifeless. i have always thought that this whole area was lifeless and yet tonight with this detour i was proven wrong. but please don't be too adventurous, it may be well lit with an energetic atmosphere but most of these were brothels and hostess clubs with a 33,000 yen fee for 2 hours of service. i'm not sure what services are included, but yes this place is a remnant of the old yoshiwara pleasure ditrict, a licensed red-light district created in the 17th century. and yes, it is that kind of "pleasure".

sumida park and the bridge

the sumida park straddled both banks of the river. my cover photo was taken in this spot. do you see those small metallic objects in front of the sitting man on his phone? that was how small those fox statues were.

loved how scary looking nio statues have. well you were tasked to guard a temple, then i guess you would have the same expression after seeing thousands of hard headed people enter either seeking guidance or just plainly curious.

housemate g and i were discussing how rich japan is; building a wide foot bridge over this river must have costed a lot. and it wasn't a simple bridge at all, just check out sakurabashi's design. but the view from it is really beautiful.

at the other side of the river was the other half of the park. it was still under renovation the last time i visited the area. the pond area is finally open. the ushijima shrine also looked very pretty, founded in the 9th century it surely has withstood time. and yes another photo of the skytree. it was just so domineering not to take pictures of.

rivulet side sights

sorry but i do not know the name of this tiny river, but i was compelled to call it a rivulet just to distinguish it from the very wide sumida river earlier.

the first picture was taken on genmori bridge, a very famous spot for taking pictures of this tower. how did i know? there were lots of tourists taking pictures there as well.

the rivulet side was really a walking course, with lots of restaurants and even a hotel under the train track elevations. i referred to these three men in front as f3 (a nod to the very popular taiwanese boy band f4 back in the days), whereas housemate g called them the three stooges: such a generation gap.

sports facilities like the earlier wall climbing and this paddle tennis can also be found here. up ahead is of course the skytree, it gets harder to take a picture of it the closer you are. the base of that tower is a shopping mall.

kinshicho

finally reached kinshicho! i could finally tick this off my list. finally took a photo of that station name. we were surprised to see a crowd in front, it was a friday night after all and this place had lots of fun this to do. stopped for a while check out this live busking. he was good!

restaurants were bustling! a little walk further and our last view of the tower came into view.

we decided to walk until the next station though and found out how apartment filled the in between stations area were. we found branches or versions of proud flat, an apartment complex developer, in just meters apart.

ryogoku

the last stop came, we were exhausted and wanted to eat something light. sadly, the place do not cater to small eaters. we were in sumo town afterall. (most of the shops were also close as it was late.)

everything revolves around sumo in this area, even the indoor decors. but this designed ignited my wish once again, i wish to see a live sumo match some day.

and here was the station stamp, quite unique from the rest of the jr train line stamps. you can check my past posts, the other jr line stations featured one kanji character of the name with symbols of things that station is known for. this station on the otherhand flat out showed what it was known for, sumo.

here was the complete route that night. looked like a hook. we could no longer walk any further after that station. we rode the train from then.

hope you had some fun with me on this adventure.

as always, AMPING KANUNAY!

_{all content is by yours truly unless otherwise specified}

^{all photos are taken with a galaxy s23 ultra}

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