Within walking distance from our apartment, just across Nippori station, lies Yanaka, which was a religious centre of Tokyo during the Edo period. It seems every family at that time established their own temple, and as a result the neighbourhood now abounds in them. Yanaka has between seventy and eighty Buddhist temples today, seven of those on my pilgrimage to the Eighty-eight Places Within Tokyo (of which I have seen nine so far). I started going to the Eighty-eight Places Within Tokyo in addition to the Thirty-three Places in Kanto, because those are quite difficult to reach, but I will not begin visiting the Thirty-three Places of Edo or the Other Twenty-one Places Within Tokyo before I am done with either of them.

Yanaka also has a big cemetery. Cemeteries in Japan function as public parks, too, and as it is sakura season and perfect weather now, it was packed with people sitting on blue plastic sheets, having barbecue under the cherry blossoms.