The Yanaka neighborhood in Tokyo came to me as a surprise. I wasn't quite ready for it. In the context of all the urban neighborhoods I've been promised or walked through, it stood out in a particular way. There's the history but also kind of an ease of being that reminds me now in retrospect of great art or a certain kind of superior athlete that achieves something special without seeming to expend any particular effort. It just is. And walking past the crooked and narrow alleyways off the main street you imagine a thousand mysteries living there waiting to be unravelled. The old and the new are perfectly compatible here. We went inside a shoemakers shop where I was drawn in by a perfectly-made pair of brown boots.  All along it was like that. Little storefronts stuffed to the brim with their crafts and their secrets.