KAWAGOE
 

Is there any other place around Tokyo - less than one hour train ride.. that is like Kawagoe.. ?
Old streets.. kind of reminds me of Takayama or Kanazawa..

There's the outdoor museum that has moved old buildings from all around Kanto. A different version, Boso no mura, exists out by Narita town.

I imagine you could find some old streets off the Enoden line in Kamakura, like around Gokurakuji?

If you have a Rail Pass (I assume you do), just hop on a train and look around, and when you feel like getting off, do. ^_^

If you REALLY want some names, try Shimokitazawa. It was featured on a TV show (Shimo Kita Sundays).

A lot of the northern half of the Yamanote loop is actually older, especially the stations in between key interchanges. Komagome is often overlooked.

Kawagoe seems to me to be really not all that different from non-Minato-ku parts of Tokyo, really, but if you want to try your luck, along the Keihin-tohoku line you'll find Ouji and Akabane (that might be too new), and further south you could try Tsurumi. (Oomori is nice too, but again, might be too new.)

I don't know. I can't think of any part of Tokyo that has such old buildings in such a large concentration as Kawagoe does. So many of them were destroyed during World War II. But you're right in saying that the northern part of Tokyo is less international-looking than the southern part, although only Yanaka has a significant number of old buildings.

For a view of working class Tokyo, take the last remaining streetcar line from Otsuka (on the Yamanote line) or Waseda (on the Tozai subway line) to Minowa.

I had been told that the island of Tsukudajima in Tokyo Bay retained some of the flavor of yesterday, but evidently I saw it too late. The builders of high rises have already arrived. It does, however, seem like a cohesive community and has a couple of side streets that have so far escaped the developers.

Otherwise, one of my favorite activities in Tokyo is to pick one of the major "named" streets, such as Waseda-doori or Eitai-doori or Kasuga-doori and walk as much of its length as I can. I always find something of interest. I forget which such walk it was, but I once encountered a neighborhood of shops devoted to selling every conceivable kind of brush, from paintbrushes to floor-sweeping brushes.

thanks for all the info people! 7th trip and still lots to see. ^

I always stay in a ryokan in Yanaka area. :)