Three Alternative Places in Tokyo You Have to Visit
Serenity matcha latte and sakura snacks
Once you hop off the plane at Narita airport there are several places eager-eyed tourists always gravitate to. The Shibuya Scramble crossing, Akihabara and, for some reason, the ramen chain Ichiran where people wait for up to two hours in the cold despite there being 10,000 other ramen shops in Tokyo.
Let me preface this blog post by saying I hate the phrase ‘hidden gem’, it’s one of my least favourites – alongside the dreaded ‘moist cake’ and the excruciating nature of ‘circling back’. There’s no such thing as a hidden gem in the vast expanse of Tokyo, but there are places often overlooked by international tourists who might not realise there’s more to do than knock back sake in the tiny bars in Shinjuku.
So here’s my list of three alternative places in Tokyo you have to visit when coming to Japan:
Jimbocho - The Town of Books
Perusing the special edition James Bond booklets
A street filled with independent bookshops and cute stationary? I don’t need to say much more, but I will. Jimbocho has a whole host of specialty bookshops where print media still reigns supreme and you can find pretty much anything if you’re willing to sort through the endless labelled boxes speckled with dust.
Recently Sam spent over an hour raiding the archives of one book shop and came away with an original copy of a 1980s wrestling pocketbook that listed all the champion wrestlers from the year 1984. He assures me this is akin to discovering the Philosopher's Stone. The perfect day in Jimbocho would look something like this:
Head to Cafe Ataraxia for a special-origin coffee.
When a coffee shop in Japan looks like this you have to make a detour
One of the best things about Tokyo is the endless supply of amazing cafes where the cafe owners take immense pride in brewing their wares. My tip is that the longer they spend making the coffee, the better it will be. Some of the best coffees I’ve ever had are in Tokyo and I’ve waited up to 15 minutes before for a single cup. I can assure you it’s worth the wait.
Cafe Ataraxia also has classical music playing on an old-school gramophone and some delicious snacks like a four-berry cheesecake and homemade chocolate cake. It’s a special and authentic Japanese experience that can’t be replicated by some of the more ‘Instagram-leaning’ cafes that all feel a bit soulless after a while.
Check out the Independent Book Stores
Books lining the streets of Jimbocho
I can’t stress how many bookshops there are in Jimbocho. And if you’re a bookworm like me then this can easily take several hours to really make some headway, especially if the bookshops have a cafe attached to them.
Some of my favourites are Jimbocho Book Town, Kitazawa Bookstore, Book House Cafe and they even have an entire bookshop dedicated to cats called Anegawa Bookstores Nyankodo. So if you’re a feline lover with a hankering for some cat literature then this is definitely the shop for you.
Go to a Historic Tempura Restaurant for a Lunch Set
A crispy batter thing of beauty
After traipsing around the bookshops, you’ll have worked up an appetite so I recommend heading to one of the best tempura restaurants in the city, Kanda Tempura Hachimaki. It’s always busy (a good sign) and the fact that the grease build-up from 80 years of frying can be seen coming out of the vents shouldn’t deter you in the slightest.
The full tempura set which has conger eel, two shrimps, vegetables, fish and squid will set you back 2200 yen (around £11 in January 2025) which is for the ravenous diner, whereas the lighter option will cost you 1200 yen (approximately £6 in January 2025).
2. Shimokitzawa - The Town of Vintage Clothes
Feelings of inadequacy and vintage clothes
If there’s one place I definitely didn’t feel cool enough to be walking around it’s Shimokitzawa. Filled with artisan shops, highly-curated 2nd hand clothing stores and plenty of delicious food options and cafes – it’s where stylish people go to make themselves even more stylish than they already are.
You can easily spend a whole day wandering the little lanes, pausing to snack on a Totoro cream puff at Shiro-Hige’s Cream Puff Factory or get a vegan (yes vegan options do exist in Japan!) french toast at Universal Bakes and Cafe. Some of the unmissable spots in Shimokitzwa are:
Ten to Sen.
I think about this bowl of ramen at least once a week
A ramen place that specialises in curry soup ramen which is a cross between ramen and all the favours of a Japanese-style Indian curry. Ramen purists would say this breaks about 15 rules of what a proper bowl of ramen should taste like but as someone who’s always waiting to have her next curry, this is the kind of fusion I can get behind.
The broth is spicy, complex and has a depth of flavour which smacks you in the face – and the addition of the array of vegetables and spicy nuts gives you texture that sometimes I miss in a standard bowl of ramen. Vegans and vegetarians are also able to pull up a chair at this establishment, as there are plenty of customisable options allowing you to omit any meat or animal products if required.
It’s a very popular place and opens at 11.30 am so my advice is to get there a few minutes before it opens to ensure you aren’t waiting too long for this excellent bowl of noodles.
Sujigane Coffee Roaster
Don’t you dare ask for milk - especially almond or oat milk
When I say the guy who runs this place is a true artist, I don’t mean it lightly. I’ve never waited so long for two coffees and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Looking at the Google reviews, a lot of people agree with me.
Kimm thinks he probably takes coffee a bit too seriously
Tyrone is a fan of their ‘punk coffee’ that punches you in the face
It’s the type of place that looks a bit intimidating at first. They make it very clear that THEY DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ADD MILK OR SYRUPS to any coffee apart from the lattes. I expect the owner doesn’t even want to make lattes, but this is his way of compromising. He hand selects each bean that goes into every cup and will discard any that don’t meet his high expectations. There’s also nowhere to sit down and they have skull-and-crossbones on their cups – this is truly the rock and roll equivalent of coffee making.
They have slogans on their merch like ‘Coffee or Die’ and ‘Hardcore Beanz’ and I expect the owner truly believes this philosophy. Watching him make my drinks was akin to watching Monet paint waterlilies or Maya Angelou recite ‘And Still I Rise’.
Any of the Second-Hand Clothing Stores
Yes, I know this is a photo of toy fish - I forgot to take any picture of the clothes
It’s difficult to say which are the best shops for vintage clothes, as it’s dependent on a person’s individual preferences and style. There are so many places that when I first went I got a bit overwhelmed by all the choices and bright lights.
Some ones that stuck out to me were TreFacStyle Shimokitazawa for vintage 1980/1990s stuff, Big Time Shimokitazawa for unique pieces and Kinji Shimokitazawaten for more general thrift items. The fun of thrifting is you never know what you’re going to come across so I’d be prepared to do some rummaging.
Prices range from £30-£100 depending on the type of clothes you’re looking for. On average I’d say most items were £40-50 so it’s not the same as charity shop prices, but the quality and range of clothes is much better in Shimokitazawa. There are also several much cheaper places if you hunt for them. There’s a particular leaning towards 1980s/1990s style clothing and also Americana-inspired items like sweatshirts, jackets and jeans.
3. Shibamata - Town of Tora-san
The very famous Tora-san
Popular with domestic tourists, Shibamata is famous for its beautiful temple complex and also the fact it’s home to the character of one of Japan’s most popular film series ‘Otoko wa Tsurai yo’. It’s the longest- running film series in history with a single actor, with 48 films being made between 1969 and 1995.
The films follow ‘Tora-san’, a travelling salesperson who’s searching for love but is never able to settle down — it’s something of a cult classic in Japan. There’s even a statue of him in Shibamata as soon as you exit the train station.
Some fun things to do in Shibamata are:
Get a matcha at the Yamamoto-tei Tea House
Budget matcha but not when it comes to taste
One mistake I always see tourists making is to pay over the odds for a Japanese tea ceremony that’s catered to Westerners. There’s a beautiful tea house in Shibamata that has great views of a zen garden where you get practically the same things in a tea ceremony but at a fraction of the cost.
We paid 700 yen each for a matcha and snacks (£3.50 in January 2025) at Yamamoto-tei and it also granted you access to look around the house and gardens as well as your drinks. I’ve never known serenity like sipping a matcha whilst looking out on a perfectly sculpted Japanese garden and I highly recommend doing this at least once if you’re doing a Tokyo trip.
Pay the robot dragon for a dance at the Shibamata Taishakuten Temple
This dragon can certainly dance
One of my highlights of Shibamata was finding out they had a robot dragon where you pay 200 yen for a number of different dances. And I was certainly impressed by the range of movements this dragon could muster.
In Sakura season (cherry blossom season) I imagine the temple complex gets incredibly busy with domestic tourists but it’s a stunning complex that’s well worth a visit any time of the year.
We visited at New Years so they also had an incredible range of street foods including gyozas, candied fruits and massive squids on a stick that were all around 500-700 yen.
Some of the street food around some of the bigger temple complexes can be a little on the pricey side. But the more local spots tend to be cheaper and have more interesting snacks to try.
The busiest street food stand in Shibamata was actually the jacket potato stand, with the queue snaking far down the street. I have witnessed the slow ‘Jacket Potatoification’ of the world in the past year or so and my theory is jacket potatoes are the new smash burgers of 2025 and beyond. You heard it here first.
Anything can be improved by putting it on a stick
Visit Shibamata Haikara Yokocho - the old sweet shop
Perfect for any sugar rush
If you like the old-time allure of a sweet shop and wondered what the Japanese equivalent is, this is as authentic as you’re going to get. The shelves are lined wall-to-wall with all the sugar highs you could possibly imagine and in any form you could possibly think up.
I’ll confess I don’t know too much about Japanese confectionery items apart from the ever-looming presence of the 10,244 different flavours of KitKats they have, including one that they recommend grilling in the oven.
But if you’ve got a sweet tooth then this is the one-stop-shop for you. My personal favourites were the shinkansen-themed lollipops and the Kirby gummies, but alas I didn’t purchase anything due to my fear of already consuming 500 grams of sugar that day through various bakery items.
Three Alternative Places You Have to Visit in Tokyo: A Round Up
If you’ve gotten this far, my advice is that out of these three alternative places you have to visit in Tokyo… visit them all. With many tourists opting to do the Japanese holy trinity of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto over two weeks it can be hard to plan out your days and feel like you’re packing enough in and not missing anything vital.
Some of my best days in Tokyo have been places that aren’t so popular on the tourist circuit so don’t be afraid to veer off the beaten track a little.
As long as you're close enough to a metro stop or JR Line (5-10 minutes walk is ideal) then you can reach practically anywhere in Tokyo in under an hour.
The train system is one of the best in the world and as long as you know what exit you need – although don’t talk to me about Tokyo Station, that's a whole other beast – then you’ll be fine.
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