The Skytree is 634 metres of broadcast tower that landed on the low east bank in 2012 — the tallest tower in Japan, briefly the tallest in the world — and the interesting walk is not up it but around it, watching the old shitamachi edge hold its ground at the foot of the thing. Three kilometres, afternoon light, ending on the river.
You don't have to go up the tower; honestly, don't bother queuing. Walk out through Tokyo Solamachi at its base to the Kitajukken-gawa, the cherry-lined canal on the north side that doubles the Skytree in still water and that almost nobody finds. From there bear toward the Sumida and Mukojima — the largest of Tokyo's surviving geisha quarters, greatly reduced but still working, a few low streets of ryotei you walk past rather than into.
Then the river. Sumida Park runs the embankment opposite Asakusa, one of the city's old cherry-viewing stretches. Follow it south to Azumabashi, where Philippe Starck's golden Asahi Flame has sat atop the beer hall since 1989, refusing all polite description. Asakusa's across the bridge; the Asakusa line is a few minutes back.
