Take the Pandabus in Asakusa or at Tokyo Skytree

If you do not want to walk from Asakusa to Tokyo Skytree, you can choose between train, taxi, ricksha, and panda. There is a boy panda bus and a girl panda bus with faces, ears, and paws. All the passenger seats inside have their own small ears. And the bus is free.

Take the Asakusa line route to visit Tokyo Skytree. Easy to find bus stops are in front of the ROX building (stop number 1) at the Asakusa Tsukuba Express station and in front of Senso-ji temple’s Kaminari-mon gate (stop number 3). Tokyo Skytree (stop number 5) is less than 2 km from Asakusa, so it is only a short ride. But when can you travel with so much crazy cuteness?

Especially on weekends seats on the small bus fill up quickly, so it is worth to wait at the first station near ROX. If you stay on the bus or take it from Tokyo Skytree, you will take a circular tour that brings you back to Asakusa through some of the quieter back streets.

You can get on and off the bus at any of the stops, if you can find them. The bus stops are marked with a small round sign saying Asakusa Pandabus - 浅草パンダバス - on the top. I took a picture at stop number 13 where an additional helpful poster is attached to a vending machine. This shows you how quiet Asakusa can be away from Senso-ji temple.

The official Pandabus website is in Japanese. On the red navigation bar on the left, click on 路線案内 to see the bus route map. It is the first button under HOME. The next button down, 時刻案内, is the schedule. There is usually one bus per hour, with an hour long lunch break for the driver in the afternoon. Or maybe the pandas get tired.

In case you missed them on their rounds, the pandas sleep in the back of Asakusa's small Hanayashiki amusement park.

http://www.pandabus.net