Kichijoji

Inokashira Park, harmonica-alley bars, and west-Tokyo ease

Kichijoji regularly tops the surveys of where Tokyoites actually want to live, and an afternoon here explains why. Inokashira Park has swan boats and buskers, Harmonica Yokocho packs dozens of micro-bars into a former black market, and the whole place runs at a friendlier speed than the city centre.

Kichijoji tops Tokyo's most-livable-neighbourhood polls nearly every year, and a single afternoon explains why: Inokashira Park's swan boats and buskers, a proper shopping arcade, the Ghibli Museum on the park's far edge, and Harmonica Yokocho, a post-war market alley that flips from daytime shopping to lantern-lit drinking as the sun goes down.

It sits on the Chuo Line's express run, fifteen minutes from Shinjuku, which makes it the easiest taste of Tokyo's residential west. Pair the park in daylight with the yokocho after dark, and if you have Ghibli tickets (book on the 10th of the month prior, they vanish in minutes), build the day around them.