Ikebukuro Travel Video Guide

Ikebukuro Travel Itinerary

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Northwest of central Tokyo, Ikebukuro is dominated by two vast department stores glaring at each other from opposite sides of its equally confusing station. The district west of the train tracks, Nishi-Ikebukuro , is the more interesting to explore, particularly the wedge of streets going out towards the attractive Rikkyo University campus, if only for its plethora of bars and restaurants. Across the tracks, Higashi-Ikebukuro is the main shopping centre, and has a good reputation for its discount stores, with cameras and electronic goods at prices rivalling Akihabara . Apart from a pretty tacky entertainment district, Higashi-Ikebukuro's only other draw is the monstrous Sunshine City, a sixty-storey building whose prime attraction is a museum of ancient Oriental art.

Marsh and farmland until a hundred years ago, Ikebukuro is a product of the trainy age. Its first station was completed in 1903 and now six lines connect

the area with central Tokyo and the low-cost dormitory suburbs to the north and east. Cheap accommodation and good transport have attracted an increasing number of resident expatriates, typically Chinese and Taiwanese, but covering a broad sweep of nationalities, which lends Ikebukuro a faintly cosmopolitan air. It has always been viewed as rather un-hip and downmarket, but there are signs among the trendy new fashion stores, clubs and restaurants that Ikebukuro is beginning to be discovered

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