When the poet Bashō set out in 1689 on the journey that became The Narrow Road to the Deep North, he left from Senju, on the Sumida river, where friends saw him off. This finish lies in that same old northern edge of Edo, in Arakawa ward, a neighbourhood of narrow streets, small workshops and wooden houses that still feels more like shitamachi, the old downtown, than the glassy Tokyo of Shinjuku and Roppongi.
The Toden Arakawa line, Tokyo's last surviving streetcar, rattles through the district, and in spring the roses planted along its tracks bloom in great banks of colour. Minowa, at one end, is close to the old Yoshiwara pleasure quarter, and temples in the area tell stories of the city's past, from the Edo period to the fire-bombing of 1945.
Coming back into Tokyo after a day in the Gunma mountains, the final stretch is a test of patience. The expressways are often congested, and the surface streets are a maze of traffic lights, narrow lanes and pedestrians. If you filter, do it gently; cyclists, delivery scooters and pedestrians appear from every side street.
Arakawa ward has convenience stores, small restaurants and izakaya on every corner. The local food is simple and hearty: monjayaki, a runny cousin of okonomiyaki, belongs to the old east side, and the counters near Minowa and Minami-Senju grill skewers late into the night. A beer there, among locals who have never been near Gunma, is a fine way to let the mountains go.