Sasazuka

Daniel's old stop on the Keio Line

Sasazuka was Daniel's neighbourhood for a year, two stops from Shinjuku and completely off the tourist map. It is an ordinary, brilliant slice of residential Tokyo: a station mall, a shotengai, standing sushi worth queueing for, and Mil Tacos, the tiny taco joint where he held his wedding dinner. No neighbourhood in this guide carries more weight on this site.

Sasazuka is two stops from Shinjuku on the Keio Line and a world away in register: a working residential neighbourhood of shotengai arcades under the tracks, standing bars, and small restaurants run by people who remember your order. Daniel lived here, and it is the neighbourhood this site measures all others against.

There is nothing to see in the guidebook sense, which is exactly the value. Come for dinner, drink where the counter seats six, and you will understand more about how Tokyo actually lives than a week of sights can teach. The Keio crossing with the trains rattling overhead is the whole aesthetic.