Asakusa at dawn: an early walking route before the crowds arrive

Asakusa does two things in the early morning that it rarely does later: it goes quiet, and it goes back to being a neighborhood. Shopkeepers set up for the day, residents stop at the temple on their way to work, and the main street is still calm. This route is built to catch that window. It is a loop that starts at Kaminarimon. Read the Tokyo city guide for context on the wider area and the Japan guide for entry and money basics.

The order matters: the temple first while it is empty, the river second while the light is low, then back through the shopping streets as they open, ending where you can buy a good knife or a plastic model of a bowl of ramen. Distances are modest and the route is mostly flat, so most of the time goes on lingering. Build in extra time if you like photography.

• Kaminarimon, then Nakamise-dōri with the shutters down

• Sensō-ji main hall, the pagoda and Asakusa Shrine

• Azuma-bashi and the Sumida River, north along Sumida Park

• Back west along Denbōin-dōri

• Kappabashi Dōgu-gai while the street wakes up

• Breakfast

Start at Kaminarimon, the gate with the huge red lantern, and take the photo from inside the gate looking back to the street. Walk up Nakamise-dōri while the stalls are shut: the painted shutters show scenes from Asakusa's festivals, and you can only see them while the shops are closed. The stalls themselves usually open later in the morning, so the street is a different place by midday.

Through Hōzōmon, the second gate, you reach the courtyard of Sensō-ji. The temple's own site lists the main hall as open from 6:00 from April to September and 6:30 from October to March, until 17:00, and describes a bell sounded at 6:00 each morning. The morning is a quiet time of prayer, with locals stopping on their way to work and incense smoke drifting in the low light. Drop a coin in the box, bow, and take a moment; it is a working temple and the early visitors are there to pray, not to sightsee. If you want to draw a fortune, the counters near the main hall are the place, and the story behind why Sensō-ji hands out so many bad fortunes explains what to do with a bad one.

Before you leave, walk to the right of the main hall to Asakusa Shrine, a smaller and calmer complex. It is a good place to stand for a minute before you head for the river.

Leave the temple by its east side and walk to Azuma-bashi, the red bridge over the Sumida River. From the middle of the bridge you get the view known from postcards: the Tokyo Skytree to the east and, on the far bank, the Asahi Beer buildings, one of them topped with a golden sculpture. Early in the day the river is quiet apart from rowers and the odd barge.

Walk north along Sumida Park on the Asakusa bank. It is lined with cherry trees, which makes this the best part of the walk in late March and early April, and busy with joggers and dog walkers the rest of the year. The Sumida River Walk, a footpath attached to the side of the Tobu railway bridge, lets you cross to the Skytree side and back if you want a longer loop. In summer this is the time to be by the river, before the heat builds.

Walk back west past the temple and turn onto Denbōin-dōri, which runs west toward Kokusai-dōri. Its shops are built to evoke an Edo-period street, with wooden fronts, hand-painted signboards and tiled roofs, and early in the day many are still closed. That is the point: you can look at the buildings rather than the goods, and stop in the middle of the street to photograph them.

A few places open early for delivery drivers and shopkeepers, and you may smell grilled rice crackers from somewhere nearby. If you want a snack before breakfast, this is where to find one. Otherwise keep walking west across Kokusai-dōri toward Kappabashi through quiet residential streets.

Kappabashi Dōgu-gai is the street where Tokyo's restaurants buy their equipment. Knives, lacquer bowls, noren curtains, bamboo steamers, and the plastic food models you see in restaurant windows are all sold here, mostly to the trade but happily to anyone. A giant chef figure on a building marks the street.

Shops set their own opening hours, so early in the morning some are still shuttered and you watch the street wake up. The Kappabashi association's site has a shop search and publishes monthly notices of shop opening information, which is the best way to check a specific shop. If you plan to buy a knife, ask the shop how to pack it for the flight and check your airline's rules for checked baggage; shops that sell to visitors are used to the question.

You will be hungry after the walk. Asakusa has plenty of options, and the right one depends on how much time you want to sit down.

• Kissaten. Old-style coffee shops serve a "morning set" of thick toast, a boiled egg, a small salad and coffee. Many kissaten serve it until late morning, but hours vary by shop. They are the most Asakusa way to end the walk.

• Teishoku and gyūdon chains. Some open early or around the clock near Asakusa Station, with a breakfast set of grilled fish, rice, miso soup and pickles. Fast and filling.

• Bakeries. Asakusa has several long-running bakeries; buy something and eat it on a bench in Sumida Park.

• Convenience stores. Onigiri, hot coffee and a seat at the window, if the store has one. The fastest option if you are joining a day trip afterward.

If you would rather have someone else lead the walk, small-group dawn tours start early at Kaminarimon and add the history of the temple and the neighborhood as you go.

This walk suits first-time visitors who want Sensō-ji without the crowds, photographers who like low light and anyone staying in or near Asakusa, since the walk begins close to the hotel door. It is also a good first morning after a long flight, because jet lag makes an early start easier.

Skip it, or shorten it, if you dislike early starts, if you are traveling with a large group that moves slowly, or if you arrive in the middle of a major festival, when the temple is crowded from early morning. If you cannot manage a dawn start, the same route in the late afternoon is quieter than midday and has softer light, though the shops will be open.

Mistakes to avoid: arriving at Kaminarimon hungry with no plan for breakfast, assuming every shop on Denbōin-dōri and in Kappabashi is open, and treating the temple like a stage set. It is an active place of worship, so keep voices low, follow signs about photography and stand aside for people praying.

The walk works well with children if you trim it. The temple, the river and Sumida Park are the parts that hold attention. Denbōin-dōri and Kappabashi interest adults more than children, although the plastic food models in Kappabashi are the exception. Plan toilet stops and a snack, since an early start means an early appetite.

In rain, the temple is at its quietest and the stone paving in the courtyard shines, so it is still worth an early start. Skip the river, walk the covered lanes around Nakamise, and head to Kappabashi, where many shops have awnings. If it is pouring, a kissaten breakfast and a later start at Kappabashi is a good plan B.

In late March and early April, the walk is at its best and busiest: Sumida Park's cherry trees are in flower and people come early to stake out picnic spots. Aim for the opening of the main hall if you want the temple to yourself. In June the rainy season makes the river section damp but the temple is at its greenest.

In July and August it is already hot in the morning, so start early and finish in an air-conditioned kissaten. Autumn is clear and mild, and in December and January the low sun makes good light for photographs of the gates, though it is cold and the sun rises late. Avoid the first days of January, when the temple is packed for New Year prayers.

The walk starts at Kaminarimon, close to Asakusa Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza line. The Toei Asakusa line and Tobu trains also stop at Asakusa. Check the first train times for your line, because the earliest services differ by line and by day. The route ends in Kappabashi, where Tawaramachi Station on the Ginza line is the nearest station for the ride onward.

If you want to be at Kaminarimon before anyone else, staying in Asakusa or Kuramae makes the early start much easier; the where to stay in Tokyo guide covers both, and the Asakusa neighborhood guide maps the streets around the temple.