Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BEST OF IKEBUKURO AND THE NORTH
Ding ding train
Ride Tokyo's last remaining tramline (see p.131)
Gardens
Take it easy at Rikugi-en, Kyū Furukawa or Koishikawa-Kōrakuen (see p.131, p.132
& p.133)
Tokyo Dome
Get a handle on the Japanese baseball obsession (see p.132)
Spa LaQua
Dip into the exquisite onsen waters (see box, p.201)
Mutekiya
Join the queues for tasty ramen (see p.158)
Around one million passengers pass through
Ikebukuro Station
every day - it's second
only to Shinjuku (see p.120) in numbers - and its warren of connecting passages,
shopping arcades and countless exits is notoriously di
cult to negotiate. Two of the
largest department stores in Japan, Tōbu and Seibu, square off against each other from
opposite sides of the tracks. The area to the west,
Nishi-Ikebukuro
, is the more
interesting to explore; across the tracks to the east,
Higashi-Ikebukuro
is the main
shopping centre and has good discount stores.
Garden lovers should also head to
Komagome
in northern Tokyo to visit
Rikugi-en
, one of the city's most attractive Edo-period gardens, as well as the
nearby and equally lovely
Kyū Furukawa Gardens
, combining Western and Japanese
styles of horticulture. Follow this with a stop in
Mejirodai
for
Chinzan-so
, the
garden of the former estate of Prince Aritomo Yamagata, a nineteenth-century
politician and statesman.
12
Nishi-Ikebukuro
ା
The area west of Ikebukuro station is surprisingly nice to stroll around, particularly the
wedge of streets spreading out towards the attractive
Rikkyō University
campus, which
boasts a plethora of bars, restaurants and good, old-fashioned sleaze.
Myonichi-kan
໌ؗ
• 2-31-3 Nishi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku • Tues-Sun 10am-4pm, closed during functions • ¥400; ¥600 including coffee or Japanese
tea and sweets •
T
03 3971 7535,
W
jiyu.jp • Ikebukuro station
Fans of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright should track down one of his
lesser-known but still very distinctive buildings, the
Myonichi-kan
, or “House of
Tomorrow”. While working on the
Imperial Hotel
(see p.136), Wright and his
assistant Endo Arata also designed this complex to house the Jiyū Gakuen school.
The geometric windows and low-slung roofs are trademark Wright features, but
the buildings are best appreciated from inside, where you get the full effect of
the clean, bold lines, echoed in the hexagonal chairs, light fittings and other
original furnishings.
Rikkyō University
ཱڭେֶ
• Nishi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku • Ikebukuro station
Fronted by a square, red-brick gateway,
Rikkyō University
was founded as St Paul's
School in 1874 by an American Episcopalian missionary. Through the gateway, the
old university courtyard has an incongruous Ivy League touch in its vine-covered
halls, white windows and grassy quadrangle, making it a favourite venue for film
crews. Originally located in Tsukiji, the university moved to Ikebukuro in 1918 and
weathered the 1923 earthquake with minimal damage except for one toppled gate
tower. The lopsided look was left, so it's said, as a memorial to those who died, but
a deciding factor was perhaps the sheer lack of bricks.
