Along the 800 metres of the temple avenue there are about sixty eel restaurants.
From Narita Station, the street climbs for about 800 metres to the temple gate: once the pilgrimage to Naritasan became fashionable in the Edo period, eel (a restorative food for those arriving on foot from Edo, 70 km away) became the local speciality. Today there are about sixty eel restaurants and over 150 shops in all, some in business since the Meiji period.
The street is known as ‘unagi kaidō’ (the eel road). Among the oldest establishments: Kawatoyo Honten (founded in 1910), Surugaya (over 220 years of history) and the sweet shop Nagominoyoneya (founded in 1899).
ℹ️ Open pedestrian route, accessible at all times. Every summer (17 July–30 August in 2026) the ‘Narita Unagi Matsuri’ is held, with a stamp rally across about a hundred shops (source: maruchiba.jp).
🚉 Narita · 12 min walk
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