Kagurazaka

This guide to Kagurazaka in Tokyo starts with a nickname locals gave one of its side alleys, Kakurenbo Yokocho, Hide-and-Seek Alley, for how quickly its narrow cobblestone bends swallow you from view. From there it traces the hillside's life as an Edo-period geisha quarter, its fan-shaped paved streets built so kimono hems wouldn't drag in the mud, through the 1923 and 1945 fires it survived, to the French schools and bistros that later grew up beside its ryotei.