The underrated Tokyo neighbourhoods you need to visit

Spend time on any online travel forum about Tokyo, and you would think there are just about no other neighbourhoods beyond Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza and Asakusa. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

The city has so many more diverse and beguiling areas to explore, some of which barely rate a mention from the hordes of Australians who are flocking to Japan in record numbers.

Sure, if you’re planning your first trip, you’ll need to tick off all those bucket-list places, but if you also want a taste of something different, here are six neighbourhoods well worth visiting.

Shimokitazawa

This is rapidly becoming Tokyo’s worst-kept secret as the city’s equivalent of Brooklyn – in fact, a spacious outpost of industrial-chic cafe Brooklyn Roasting Company sits near the railway station. Less than 10 minutes by train from Shibuya, Shimokitazawa feels like a different world. Its narrow, winding streets prioritise pedestrians over cars, making it very walkable.

There are more vintage clothing stores here than any other part of the city, along with record stores (check out Jet Set, Pianola Records and Flash Disc Ranch, which had a starring role in the film Perfect Days) and cool bars (including jazz joint Lady Jane, power-pop/garage-rock bar Poor Cow and soul/funk listening bar Little Soul Café). Over the past few years, Shimokitazawa has also developed a number of hybrid spaces, such as Bonus Track and Reload, where clusters of cafes, bars, eateries and stores have been established in hubs around courtyards and communal areas.

At weekends, market stalls sprout up around the station. And as for food, you’re spoilt for choice, whether it’s ramen, curry (there’s an annual curry festival here) or the light-as-a-feather souffle pancakes at Flipper’s.

Kichijoji

If you’ve been to Tokyo before and somehow managed to navigate the infamously convoluted and frighteningly competitive process to secure tickets to the Ghibli Museum, then you will have visited Kichijoji. But this neighbourhood has much more to offer than the famous anime attraction. The studio sits in Inokashira Park, a quiet oasis of greenery set around a picturesque lake where you can hire paddle boats shaped like giant swans.

In late March and early April this is one of the prime spots in the city for hanami (cherry blossom viewing). A 10-minute walk away and you’re in the neighbourhood’s main shotengai (shopping street), Nakamichi Dori, filled with quaint, stylish stores with names such as Paper Message, Cotswolds and Nostalgic Garage, devoted to design, homewares, gifts, crafts and stationery.

If you’re feeling flush with funds, try renowned Matsusaka wagyu steak at Satou; if, like me, you’re on a budget, line up at its take-out window and munch on one of its minced beef croquettes. And after sundown, make your way to Harmonica Yokocho, and find lantern-lit alleyways lined with tiny, smoky and lively izakaya, find a spare stool and sit elbow-to-elbow with locals eating grilled meats on sticks and sipping frosty beers.

Nakano

Are you visiting Tokyo as an otaku, or you have one in tow? An otaku is a nerd, a collector, someone obsessed with pop culture of one form or another. The travel forums inevitably mention Akihabra for otaku, but if you’re after a slightly less crazy, chaotic experience, but you’re into manga, toys, comics, robots, dolls, train sets, or just about anything hobby-related, Nakano should be top of your list.

Catch a Chuo line train to Nakano, and soon you’ll be walking down Nakano Sun Mall, a long strip of stores in a covered shopping street. That eventually becomes Nakano Broadway – you’ve reached nerd nirvana. Over three floors, there are about 30 Mandarake stores, each one specialising in something slightly different. The tin toy and robot store is particularly impressive. It has traditional red tori gates at the entrance and a jaw-dropping collection of vintage toys from decades past, all beautifully displayed in glass cabinets. The price tags are eye-watering, but it’s like a very cool museum, and the window shopping is priceless.

Dig deep into some of the other stores that sell various pop culture artefacts, and you can find great souvenirs and maybe a few bargains, along with dredging up memories of Japanese cartoons, monsters and manga of the past such as Astro Boy, Gigantor, Godzilla and Ultraman.

Nakameguro

The Meguro River in Nakameguro is really more of a canal, but don’t let that put you off. Lined with cherry trees, in blossom season it’s a postcard-perfect picture of pink joy as the trees bow down to the water below – and even in other seasons, it’s the ideal place for lazy wandering. Up and down its length are small boutiques, galleries, eateries and cafes. At one end is a Starbucks Roastery – even if you’re not a fan of the ubiquitous Seattle-based coffee giant, it’s worth a look inside this beautifully designed, gargantuan temple to the bean.

It’s also worth ducking into the many side streets, where design, craft and gift stores proliferate, along with the area’s famed coffee shops, such as Jaho Coffee, Sidewalk Stand and Onibus. Underneath the tracks around the station is a more recent addition to the area – Nakameguro Koukashita is a warren of cafes, restaurants and stores, including an outlet of Tsutaya Books and the insanely popular, and strangely named, I’m Donut?, which has had to install nightclub-style ropes outside to accommodate the lines of people wanting to taste their treats.

Koenji

There are 13 temples and shrines in this neighbourhood on the Chuo train line, a little west of Tokyo’s centre. And the annual Awa-Odori dance festival has been going for almost 70 years, taking over the streets and attracting more than a million people each August. But despite all these traditions, Koenji is one of Tokyo’s hippest hoods. It is renowned as ground zero for punk rock and alternative culture in the ’70s, you can still feel that spirit today.

A number of record stores cater to every taste and genre (try Be-In Records, Los Apson?, Kuroneko), and music venues – called live houses in Japan – are also popular here. Check out venerable underground club Jirokichi (which has been around since 1975), Koenji High (a modern venue with state-of-the-art sound) and Sub Store (a dive bar/record store that hosts DJs and indie acts). Koenji is also known for its long pedestrian-only shopping streets covered with a transparent roof. The three most popular are Look, Pal and Junji shotengai, and they’re all filled with inviting stores.

As night falls, the arcades and alleyways under and around the train tracks open their shutters and Koenji starts hopping with bars, izakaya (Japanese pubs) and yakitori (small eateries serving grilled meats on skewers).

Yanaka

Affectionately known as “cat town” because of the number of stray felines wandering around, Yanaka celebrates its furry heritage everywhere, especially on its bustling shopping street, Yanaka Ginza Shotengai. Here you’ll find gift stores with cat-themed trinkets, toys, souvenirs and pictures; statues of cats peeking from balconies and roofs; cat-tail shaped doughnuts; and at Maneki-ya, the taiyaki, traditional Japanese waffle cakes usually shaped like fish, are instead shaped like cats. It might sound strange to recommend a walk through a graveyard, but Yanaka Cemetery is an idyllic, peaceful space for a wander, plus you’ll probably find a few cats to pat.

With its traditional Japanese architecture, Yanaka feels like it’s from another era – that’s because this is one of the few areas in the city that escaped bombing during World War II. Once you’ve traversed the shopping street, turn left or right and explore the little side alleys, which are full of tiny bars, galleries and stores.

And if you’re feeling homesick for Australian coffee and food, then Cibi – a transplant from Melbourne’s Collingwood – has you covered, with flat whites, scrambled eggs, ham and cheese toasties and fresh salads.

THE DETAILS

Fly
ANA flies twice a day from Sydney direct to Tokyo; from Perth, flights are daily between December 1 and April 20 and three times a week otherwise. See ana.co.jp

Stay
The Mustard Hotel is a modern, minimalist, budget-friendly hotel that opened in Shimokitazawa in 2021. Each room comes with a turntable, and you can borrow records from a vinyl library in the foyer, where there is also a bagel cafe. See mustardhotel.com

The writer travelled at his own expense.