Tsukishima: Tokyo's Monjayaki Island

Tsukishima is a small artificial island in Tokyo Bay created in the late 19th century that is now famous throughout Japan as the home of monjayaki — the runny, umami-rich Tokyo variation of the savoury pancake tradition that defines the island's culinary identity. Monja Street (Monja-dori), a 200-metre shopping arcade running through the middle of the island, is lined on both sides with monjayaki restaurants that have been serving the dish in its various forms — squid and shrimp, corn and cheese, mentaiko cod roe — for generations. Tsukishima is the essential destination for those interested in the genuine regional food culture of working-class Tokyo: a meal unlike anything available in the city's more fashionable districts, cooked at the table on an iron griddle and eaten with small spatulas in a communal format.

The island's older shitamachi character, preserved in the blocks behind Monja Street, is one of Tsukishima's unexpected pleasures. Unlike much of central Tokyo, the island retained a substantial stock of wooden townhouses and small workshop buildings well into the 21st century, and while development has taken its toll, the lanes behind the commercial street still contain clusters of older buildings that give a sense of the neighbourhood's working-class history. The island's location in Tokyo Bay means the views across the water towards the Rainbow Bridge and Odaiba are particularly good from the waterfront park at the island's southern tip, and evening walks along the bay edge are among the neighbourhood's genuine pleasures.

The Kachidoki Bridge connecting Tsukishima to the mainland is one of Tokyo's most interesting historic infrastructure pieces, a 1940 bascule bridge designed to open for large ships that has not operated since 1970. The bridge offers excellent views in both directions along the Sumida River as it enters Tokyo Bay. The nearby Tsukuda neighbourhood, the original fishing village that predates the artificial island, preserves a historic townscape around the Sumiyoshi Shrine that is among the most atmospheric survivals of old shitamachi in central Tokyo. Tsukishima Station on the Oedo and Yurakucho lines provides direct access from Roppongi, Shinjuku, and Ikebukuro in under 20 minutes.