Tokyo Skytree Station Walking Guide — Four Spots Linking Mukojima's Temples, Shrine and Local Museum

Around Tokyo Skytree Station (とうきょうスカイツリー駅) there are four walking spots: two temples, a shrine, and a local history museum. All of them are a 7- to 10-minute walk from Tokyo Skytree Station, so they connect into one continuous walk that leaves the bustle at the foot of the tower, turns into quiet residential streets, and heads toward the Sumida River. The area is Mukojima in Sumida City (墨田区向島), a neighborhood that grew up alongside the river.

A suggested order

Start with Hongyoji Temple and Josenji Temple, both a 7-minute walk from the station. Each one suits being combined with the other temples and shrines nearby, so grouping the two closest stops first keeps the walk simple. From there, continue 10 minutes on foot to Mimeguri Shrine as you approach the riverside, and finish at the Sumida Heritage Museum, also a 10-minute walk, where you can find out how the ground you just covered came to look the way it does.

Hongyoji Temple

A temple a 7-minute walk from Tokyo Skytree Station. Leaving the bustle at the foot of the tower and turning into a street lined with houses, you come to its main gate. After paying your respects, the grounds have the settled, unhurried feeling of Tokyo's old downtown. It is also an easy place to pause on the way through to the Sumida River.

Josenji Temple

Another temple a 7-minute walk from Tokyo Skytree Station. Its grounds sit on a quiet street one turn off the main road, so you can catch your breath while you are there. Stopping here and stepping into the local back streets after walking with the tower overhead, you meet a different face of the same neighborhood. It works well walked together with Hongyoji Temple.

Mimeguri Shrine

A shrine in Mukojima, east of the Sumida River, a 10-minute walk from Tokyo Skytree Station. Its name comes from a legend that when the shrine was being rebuilt, a white fox circled three times around a sacred image that had emerged from the earth. Because the Mitsui family made it their guardian shrine in the Edo period, a pair of lion statues relocated from the Mitsukoshi department store stands in the grounds. It falls naturally on the way from Skytree down to the river.

Sumida Heritage Museum

A ward-run museum in Mukojima, Sumida City, a 10-minute walk from Tokyo Skytree Station. Through documents and models it tells the story of how people lived and worked on this land alongside the Sumida River, including records of the Tokyo air raids. Visiting after a walk along the riverbank, you begin to see how the scenery you have just passed through was made. It is the only exhibition space among the four spots, so placing it at the end ties the whole walk together.

One closing tip

Since all four spots are within a 7- to 10-minute walk, you can split the route and do just Hongyoji Temple and Josenji Temple, both 7 minutes out, if you are short on time. With more time, head from Mimeguri Shrine out toward the Sumida River and walk back along it, thinking over the riverside life you saw described in the museum.