Towns that do one thing — sixty antique shops, seven theatres, fifty tonkatsu counters
In Tokyo, certain trades cluster in one neighbourhood. There is always a reason.
Walk around Tokyo and you find places where a single trade has gathered in one neighbourhood. It is rarely accident; usually something from a century ago is still holding.
Antiques — a street made by an earthquake
Forty to sixty shops north and south of the station, centred on Kotto-dori.
Antique dealers concentrated in Nishi-Ogikubo because of the 1923 Kanto earthquake. Displaced cultural figures resettled here, and as furniture and fittings from the houses they built came onto the market, the trade grew. By the 1980s the identity was fixed.
How to approach it
- Not a single arcade — shops are scattered through side streets
- Trying to see them all is exhausting. Wander instead
- Many open at 1pm. Mornings will find doors shut
- Third Sunday monthly — the Shinmei-dori morning market, running since 1975
- Third weekend of November — a walking event where shops serve tea
Theatres — a district built by one man
Opened 1982, 386 seats. Where Shimokitazawa became a theatre town.
Shimokitazawa's theatres exist because of one person, Kazuo Honda. After opening the Honda Theater in 1982, he kept adding venues to the same few streets.
| Theatre | Seats |
|---|---|
| Honda Theater | 386 |
| The Suzunari | 170–230 |
| Ekimae Theater | 180 |
| Geki Small Theater | 130 |
| OFF·OFF Theater | 80–90 |
All within a few minutes on foot. The smaller the room, the more likely an emerging company is using it.
Tickets run about ¥7,500–8,800 depending on the production, but there are separate under-22 and under-25 rates at ¥3,800–5,500, exchanged on the day against photo ID.
One warning: there is no cloakroom and there are no lockers. Seats are not wide either, so leave large bags in a station locker.
Tonkatsu — technique that split off from Ueno
Over fifty shops compete. Maruichi, Aoki and Maruyama Shokudo are the big three.
Tonkatsu concentrated in Kamata after the cutlet boom in Ueno. Cooks trained there went independent and opened here, and the technique spread through sister shops and noren-wake.
The big three use the same branded pork — Hayashi SPF from Chiba — yet fry it differently, so the colour of the cut face and the texture diverge. Same material, different outcome: that is the point of comparing.
Queueing
- Staff take your order while you wait. Decide beforehand
- At Aoki, the custom is to begin the line across the road
- At Maruichi the top loin has sold out around 11:10, the next grade by 11:30
- Maruichi opens in the evening on Wednesdays and Saturdays only
- Local consensus: eat it with salt rather than sauce
Same principle, different trade
One building, the same trade stacked floor on floor.
Nakano Broadway is the same clustering compressed into a single building rather than a district. Concentration makes comparison easy; easy comparison draws people. The mechanism does not change.
In short
- Nishi-Ogikubo — afternoons, no fixed destination. Better on a third Sunday
- Shimokitazawa — bags in a locker. Check the youth rate if under 25
- Kamata — arrive before opening. Use the salt
Hours and performance schedules change. Please confirm before travelling.