As I walk past block after block of weathered grave markers, many with their kanji lettering worn by the passing of centuries, the sound of a shamisen drifts through the quiet cemetery. At least I think it is a shamisen, the three-string Japanese instrument that some compare to a banjo. Why would I hear a shamisen, and the plaintive refrain of a female singer, in the depths of Tokyo’s historic Yanaka cemetery?

A friend and I follow the sound, and soon we come to a young woman playing her instrument in the crisp late-fall air.

She finishes, looks up and smiles. She tells us that she’s playing a jamisen. It is a string instrument of Okinawan origin, the precursor to the better-known shamisen, identified by a distinctive snakeskin covering stretched tight over its base.

I ask if I can take a picture of her singing. The young woman smiles, bows and then begins to play.

When she’s done, I put down my camera, and my friend and I clap and thank her. But our entertainment isn’t over. The young woman then asks if she can sing a song just for me. Of course, I say yes.

The young woman sings another song, using a large cow-horn pick to pluck the strings. My Japa­nese is too poor to understand what she’s singing, but I can hear that it is close to her heart. When she’s done, I bow deeply in appreciation. I hope she knows that my gratitude is heartfelt, too.

The jamisen serenade is yet another delightful surprise in Yanaka, which is one of Tokyo’s most inviting neighborhoods. It is a throwback to another era, before postwar Tokyo sprouted a mish-mash of concrete buildings, before U.S. bombers in World War II turned much of the city into ash heaps, before the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 leveled huge swaths of Tokyo and surrounding cities.

Yanaka today represents a distinctly Japa­nese Tokyo, not the Edo of samurai films, but rather the city of the Meiji era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Japan transformed itself from a feudal into a modern society. It is the Tokyo of intimate neighborhoods, a corner of a metropolis of 12 million people that’s understandable on a human scale.

Yanaka, with its historic wooden homes, a "shopping street" that’s devoid of international branded fast-food restaurants, beautiful temples tucked into side streets, and a thick canopy of cherry trees that drop pink petals like snowflakes in the early spring, attracts both Japa­nese as well as astute visitors. The area known as Yanaka anchors a corner of Tokyo also known as Yane­sen. It is a contraction for Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi, three abutting neighborhoods that have maintained a nostalgic visual charm and sense of place that’s unlike much of contemporary Tokyo.

Situated next to the well-known Ueno district, with its world-class museums and huge park, Yanaka cemetery is the heart of the area. The cemetery is a reminder that this was a spiritual center in Edo, and there are still scores of shrines and temples in the neighborhood, including the beautiful Tennoji Temple, founded in the 15th century, which has small but beautiful grounds and a large, picturesque statue of Buddha.

The cemetery itself is an attraction, both for its historic appeal as well as the magnificent cherry and ginkgo trees that are found throughout the large necropolis, which is said to hold more than 7,000 graves. Yanaka cemetery is a popular destination in March, when the cherry trees are in full bloom. But the cemetery also has its attractions in the fall, when the leaves of the ginkgo trees are bright yellow.

Of particular interest is the large, two-part plot for the famous Toku­gawa family. Toku­gawas ruled as shoguns for 21⁄2 centuries. Japan’s last shogun, Toku­gawa Yoshi­nobu, is buried in the family plot in Yanaka cemetery. He ruled in the mid-19th century and died in 1913.

But Yanaka’s attractions include more than its picturesque cemetery. Because the U.S. firebombing of Tokyo in World War II didn’t directly affect the area, many wooden homes and businesses (and a number of homes serve both purposes) from the 19th and early 20th centuries can be found throughout the Yansesen district. Walk the quiet streets of Yanaka and you’re far removed from the noise and urban energy of Tokyo’s Shibuya, Shinjuku or Omotesando, all popular with visitors. And it isn’t just the peaceful beauty of Yanaka that attracts — there are delightful surprises to be found around nearly every corner.

I walked down one street that had a number of old wooden homes and, it turned out, a few shrines. Then I turned down a small lane and saw a small display built into a fence. Stopping, I looked carefully at the items in this unusual window, which let me peek into the family compound, too. It turned out to be a display for tortoise shell jewelry, ranging in color from dark brown to pale yellow. Crafting jewelry and implements from tortoise shell is practiced by relatively few artisans in Japan these days. Yet in Yanaka I found a tortoise shell artisan, and all I had to do was ring the bell at the gate to chat about the beautiful jewelry on display.

Strolls down many streets in Yanaka also will reveal the fascination area residents have with beautiful fences and walls. Walls are a common sight in many Tokyo neighborhoods. With most homes crowded together on small lots, walls provide a modicum of privacy even if the yards are just strips of grass or gravel. But in Yanaka the walls themselves are often works of art. The area’s best-known wall is the Tsukijibei fence, part of the Kanonji Temple. The wall is often photographed, and reminds one of scenes from samurai dramas on television. It is about five minutes from the Yanaka cemetery.

But I also came across walls with horizontal rows carefully applied to its surfaces, suggesting a traditional Japa­nese rock garden. And there was a lovely bamboo fence that gave a quiet side street the feeling of being in a remote forest. Just across the lane from that fence, I found a stand that stored bamboo buckets. The buckets had the name of the shops that carve grave markers for the area’s cemeteries. Staff from the shops use the bamboo buckets to wash the grave markers that they carve, a service to the families that hired them.

When you tire of exploring the past, Yanaka Ginza is the place to go. It is the area’s major shopping street, a fixture in nearly every neighborhood with a train station. Nippori Station is just down the hill from Yanaka Ginza.

Every shopping street has its own character, and in Yanaka it ranges from cool to kooky (and don’t go on Monday, when many shops are closed).

At the top of the street, nearest the cemetery, I stopped at Midori-ya, a shop that sells exquisite hand-carved bamboo implements. For those on a budget, the shop offers easy-on-the-wallet items such as a bamboo comb or special long chopsticks for cooking. For those with bigger budgets, there was a stunning bamboo vase, including a spray of bamboo ribs that were also lacquered. The price was about $800. The family that runs the shop produces all of the goods sold at Midori-ya.

A few steps farther down the street is a small clothing shop that sells cat-themed T-shirts. More on cats in a moment. I bought a T-shirt for my wife. Roughly translated, the shirt with a cat says on one side, "Don’t touch me," and on the other it says, "Unless you’re going to feed me." You get the idea.

Cats. Yanaka has this thing for cats. Cats stroll along parts of Yanaka Ginza, stopping to roll on the pavement to soak up the sun. Many shops have cat motifs, including one that sells family name stamps decorated with cats. There are carved cats on the eaves of shops. I even came across fat, fluffy cats in the cemetery. Two strolled up to me and began rubbing up against my pant legs. But when they realized I didn’t have any food, they gathered up their dignity and strolled off.

Farther down Yanaka Ginza, I passed a shop selling freshly roasted chestnuts. Next to it was a store that made doughnuts, with a cook in front of the shop ready to make one fresh for you. Across the way was a footwear shop. And what to make of the store selling freshly made foodstuffs that had a Barack Obama mask in front on display?

The shop that really caught my attention was Yanaka Coffee. In a city filled with cafes — and Tokyo has no shortage of them — Yanaka Coffee enjoys a special niche. Its cafes are about the size of a big walk-in closet, but here you choose the green beans you want (Ethiopian, Kauai, Indonesian, etc.), and the staff then roasts the beans for you. It takes about 20 minutes to roast a bag of beans, and you can order a coffee while you wait. There are now Yanaka Coffee cafes scattered throughout Tokyo, but there’s something special about sipping a cup of freshly brewed Yanaka Coffee blend, smelling beans being roasted, while sitting at a small cafe table.

I make sure I spend at least part of a day exploring Yanaka whenever I get the chance to visit Tokyo. I can’t think of another neighborhood where I can stand on a quiet street, turn in a circle and see a rice cracker shop, a famous soba restaurant, a hula studio, a pet store called Live Dog, a liquor store with neighborhood retirees sitting on brightly colored plastic beer crates catching up on the gossip, and a historic cemetery that traces its beginnings back centuries.

And the other day I got to thinking: I wonder what Yanaka cemetery looks like in the winter under a blanket of snow. I hope I’ll find out on my next trip to Tokyo.