Under the looming Tokyo Skytree is the dense
shitamachi (downtown) district of northern Koto Ward. This part of the capital is criss-crossed by waterways, haunted by old industry and strewn with residential sprawl. Slotted among it all are eminently discoverable areas, enterprises once etched out of necessity, which grew into livable spaces.
One of these is the Yokojikken River, a working waterway turned warren of waterside parks and pathways forming an enormous outdoor space much loved by local residents. Close by, with its fortunes made on feeding factory workers, is Sunamachi Ginza. Both are rooted in a regenerating city of the past and both endure, important as ever; something that can be difficult to see among the jumbled crowds of inner Tokyo.