Enjoy Tokyo/Kichijoji

Kichijoji

Available Railways

Chuo Line, Sobu Line, Tozai Line and Keio Inokashira Line

History

The meaning of the word “Kichijo” is “A Sign of Happiness” and “ji” means “Temple”. In the Edo era, there was temple named “Kichijoji” near Suidobashi area though that was burned down in a fire and people cultivated new place, Musashino, and named that area “Kichijoji” as a relic. Nowadays this town is popular among both young and old people, because it has many faces. Old, big and well-cleaned park is just 5 minutes from the Kichijoji station, on the other hand there are lots of new shop (both popular department store and minor / original shop only found in Kichijoji). Recently Kichijoji attracts OTAKU people and foreign people as well, with its studios of animation and events of animation.

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Tourist Attractions

Inokashira Park

entrance

This park is called "Inogashira Kouen ("kouen" means "park")" or "Inokou" as a nickname (many people misread kanji. Ino"KA"shira is the correct answer.) The official name is Inokashira onshi kouen.
This park is 5 minutes walk from Kichijoji stationﾕs South exit, and it is amazing to see a beautiful nature with only 5 minutes walk. In spring there are full of cherry blossoms, in winter there are lively with waterfowl (a bird of passage) in the lake.
Lots of people are having a good time freely in this park. Having a date, jogging, taking a walk with their dogs, drawing, playing with kids, feeding ducks (in fact it is prohibited), sleeping, doing performance...even there are some popular people, like great blues street singer (old man with guitar)!!
There are lakes in the middle of this park and you can enjoy rowing a boat in a sunny day. Also there are beautiful fountains, so if you want to have a relaxing time you can settle down on the bench near the lake with fountains and just see them. That would be great.
You can also enjoy seeing animals at Inokashira Shizen Bunkaen in this park. It is not a big zoo, but there are some rare animals (an endangered species), for example, Tsushima yamaneko. 1 year passport ticket is 1600 yen.

ducks

sleeping...

park:

Open:

24 hours.

Address:

1-18-31, Gotenyama,Kichijoji, musashino-shi, Tokyo

Tel:

0422-47-6900

HP:

http://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/park/format/index044.html

Boats:

Open:

9:00 - 17:00

Fee:

Rowboat (max 3 adults): 600 yen/1 hour
Bicycle boat (max 2 adults and 1 child): 600 yen/30 minutes
Swan boat (max 2 adults and 2 children): 700 yen/ 30 minutes

Zoo:

Open:

9:30 - 17:00
Closed every Monday

Fee:

Adults: 400 yen
Jr. high students: 150 yen
Under Jr. high students: free
Over 65 yrs old: 200 yen

HP:

http://www.tokyo-zoo.net/zoo/ino/index.html

GHIBLI MUSEUM MITAKA

outside

A world famous animation director, Hayao Miyazaki produced this museum. This is a kind of animation museum, but not that only. It's in the Inokashira Park, and if you want to enter you have to buy ticket beforehand.
There are 3 ways to reserve museum ticket:

Go to LAWSON (convenience store) on 10th and check online selling machine "Loppi"
call 0570-084-633 (10:00〜24:00) on 10th
Access LAWSON ticket dot com (http://www2.lawsonticket.com/)

Then you have to pay at LAWSON. If you select a weekday and if it is an early time, getting a ticket would be not so difficult but on Sunday or Saturday it's really hard to get a ticket. Therefore, why don't you take a day off and get lost in GHIBLI world...!!
In museum, there are exhibitions of showing and explaining how animation works and animation's history, original movie for this museum that is not able to see in any other place, special exhibition about something related with studio GHIBLI or Hayao Miyazaki, a reading room (there are not only books about / by studio GHIBLI but also some books recommended by Hayao Miyazaki and some books referenced by staffs when they were making movies), original goods shop managed by MAMMA AIUTO (see "Castle in the Sky" !), a restaurant, a well, kids' small playground with Nekobus and Makkurokurosuke (characters appears in "My Neighbor Totoro"), etc... Anyway, there are many additional (sometimes needless) places like small tunnels, bridges and a small spiral staircase, so children would be so exited. Be careful if you bring children to this museum, because they will disappear suddenly (maybe too excited to forget about you)! If you carefully look around, you can find stained glass windows and lamps are all GHIBLI characters-shaped, and a restaurant serves totally delicious food, so adults are also able to have a really good time.

well

Open:

10:00 - 18:00
Closed on Tuesday

Fee:

Adults 1000 yen

Jr. high & high school students 700 yen

Elementary school students 400 yen

4 yrs old and over 100 yen

Address:

1-83, Shimo-renjyaku 1, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo

Tel:

0570-055777

HP:

http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/

Harmonica Yokocho

entrance

inside yokocho

Walk to the left a little bit from North exit of the station, you can see a sign of it. The origin of the name is that an appearance of shops jostling each other looked like a harmonica. Really old shops have been there for 50 years, with 2 or 3 generational changes. You can feel Japanese "Shitamachi" atmosphere, that means this place is full of friendly communications between customers and salesclerks. There are lots of small bars, and you can also find a delicious spaghetti restaurant, a Chinese-style dumpling restaurant, a fresh tuna food restaurant, jeans shops and accessory shops!! Anytime you walk there, anytime you can find your new favorite shop that you want to be a regular customer or something like that!

HP:

http://www.good24.jp/search/map/area?c=st&area=1

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Personal Recommendation Best 3

Hidden Cafe

Once you visit some of cafe written below, I’m sure you will really like there and never would like to tell others, or just want to bring your truelly important friends.

★BEST 1★

ilcafe

entrance

entrance close-up

Every pieces of furniture are different, and that is the characteristic of this cafe. You can enjoy different view and comfortableness of chairs every time you visit there, or if you find your favorite place you can sit there every time and relax. However, this cafe is popular so sometimes it is full or you cannot choose your favorite place. You see some chairs are almost broken, though that points make you feel you are invited to your friendﾕs house and thatﾕs nice. Walls are white and bared concrete, and on that wall there is exhibition of new artists constantly. BGMs are nice and quiet pops and moderately dark.
There are TATAMI place and it deserves special mention! That is so comfortable that you can stay there for 2 hours or more. If your house does not have TATAMI, you should choose that place. It is so rare that a cafe has TATAMI, because it is could be mismatched, though this cafe is exception.

Xmas tree on Cappuccino!!

scones

Example menu:

Cappuccino 500 yen ＋Scone 500 yen

(Two of original flavoured scone and handmade jam)

★drink and sweets set would be 150 yen OFF

Open:

12:00 - 23:00
Open 7 days a week

Address:

Wakamatsu building 3F, 2-8-2, Hon-cho, Kichijoji, Musashino-shi, Tokyo

(5 minutes walk from North Exit）

Tel:

0422-20-1306

★BEST 2★

yucca

clockmadam set

can you see a big tree?

This cafe is newly opened. 2006 November, a chef of a bakery in Kichijoji started it. It is located on the 4th floor and the buildingﾕs entrance is small, so it is kind of difficult to find.
Just a minute walk from the station, you can enter another world. There is a big tree in the middle of the floor and you can see picture books of many countries here and there. It is not a busy and crowded cafe, so you can relax and read or have a talk. BGMs are jazz, bright at noon and dark at night. The size of the floor is not so small, though intervals of tables are wide, so other customers would not bother you.
Food menu contains plenty of kinds, and liquor menu too, so sometimes you may feel it is restaurant or bar. Original curry (950 yen) with a lot of spice is delicious, and when you order it you can add garlic, cheese, sunny-side up or vegetables on it.

Example menu:

Clockmadam set 900 yen

Open:

11:30 - 23:00
Closed on Tuesday

Address:

Higashiyama building 4F, 1-2-2, Minami-cho, Kichijoji, Musashino-shi, Tokyo

1 minutes walk from South Exit

Tel:

0422-48-6556

HP:

http://www.cafeyucca.com/

★BEST 3★

Kasendou

entrance

Japanese style...

Old Japanese style cafe which contains European style in it.
Customers wearing kimono would go well with this place. BGMs are classic, total furniture concept is dark brown, and lights are always kind of dark and relaxing with calm mood (and it could be too dark to read something sometimes....) Maybe you can see some old customers visit there. Almost all of the dishes are white with blue floral pattern and that is beautiful.
Cafe au lait and some other drinks are served with Japanese tea set. Sugar pots, doorknobs and ornaments are all Japanese style with careful selections. You can drink siphon coffee with only 500 yen, and also buy original blended coffee beans.
There are many chairs and tables inside, though this cafe is so popular and its location is noticeable so sometimes you have to wait before you enter, especially on weekends and holidays.

Example menu:

Soya milk and green tea: 750 yen

Open:

Mon〜Sat 10:00 - 23:30
Sun&Holiday 10:00 - 23:00
Open 7 days a week

Address:

Kichijoji KS building B1F, 1-8-4, Minami-cho, Kichijoji, Musashino-shi, Tokyo

3 minutes walk from South Exit

Tel:

0422-40-9022

HP:

http://www.towafood-net.co.jp/cafe/kasendo/index.htm

Shopping for small present

If you are looking for small present that is something different from others, there are lots of nice shops in Kichijoji. All of them are small, though items are really special.