Tokyo backstreets by bike: Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi in one morning

Tokyo from a saddle is a different city. Quiet lanes, short lights, and in one morning you cover three times what you would on foot. Four hours across three adjoining old neighbourhoods with NO single train line connecting them — which is exactly why they survived: the wartime bombing and the redevelopment that followed both went elsewhere.

It starts at a bike shop near Nippori Station: saddle height, helmets, and ten minutes on Japanese road rules — ride on the left, when the pavement is allowed, and why nobody here uses their bell. Then into Yanaka cemetery, with its cherry avenue and very quiet slopes. In Nezu you get off and walk the bikes, because the wooden lanes there are narrow and people live in them. In Sendagi you stop at the neighbourhood bakery for coffee.

The light meal is on Yanaka Ginza — the stepped slope Tokyoites climb to photograph the sunset. Bikes back at one, tour ends. Bike, helmet, water and same-day cycling insurance are included. You need to be able to ride; the terrain is nearly flat, with one gentle climb in Yanaka.