Ikebukuro

What to see

Start on the quiet side. Jiyu Gakuen Myonichikan, a few minutes south of the Metropolitan exit, is the long, low school building Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the Jiyu Gakuen girls' school and finished in 1921. It's now an Important Cultural Property and open to visitors, and its geometric wooden window frames fill the double-height hall. Opening days shift around events in the building, so check the calendar before you go. Ten minutes north, the Rikkyo University campus is a red-brick enclave founded by American Episcopal missionaries. It's centred on ivy-covered Morris Hall of 1919, which turns red in autumn.

The east side is the other Ikebukuro. Sunshine City stands on the site of Sugamo Prison, and its Sunshine 60 tower has an indoor sky park on the 60th floor, renovated in 2023, looking north and west across a side of Tokyo that most observation decks ignore. Sunshine Aquarium sits on the roof of the building next door, where the penguins seem to swim over the skyline. Otome Road runs along the side of Sunshine City. Want a complete change of pace? Ride the Toden Arakawa tram from Higashi-Ikebukuro-yonchome to Kishibojinmae for Zoshigaya Kishimojin, a 16th-century temple you reach along a lane of old zelkova trees. There's a sweets stall in the grounds that has traded since 1781.

Where to eat and drink

Ikebukuro is a noodle town. Higashi-Ikebukuro Taishoken is where Kazuo Yamagishi, remembered as the god of ramen, made morisoba famous after opening his shop in 1961. Morisoba is the dipping noodle dish that became tsukemen, and it's the thing to order. The shop now trades a short walk from the original site. It's cash only and closed on Wednesdays. On Meiji-dori, two minutes south of the east exit, Mutekiya pulls one of the most reliable queues in Tokyo for its rich tonkotsu ramen and thick chashu, and it stays open until the small hours. The line moves faster than it looks. Mid-afternoon and late night are the short waits.

Beyond the noodles, the basement food halls of the Seibu and Tobu department stores are the easiest grazing on either side of the station, and the izakaya blocks off the west exit fill with office workers from early evening. Myonichikan serves coffee and a sweet in its old dining hall on a combined ticket, and there isn't a more civilised break in the district. With children, Sunshine City's restaurant floors are the practical choice after the aquarium.

Where to stay

Ikebukuro has one of the deepest pools of hotels in the city, most of them business hotels and mid-range chains within a few minutes of the station. The Yamanote Line puts Shinjuku ten minutes away, the Marunouchi Line runs direct to Tokyo Station and Ginza, and the Tobu Tojo express reaches Kawagoe in about half an hour, so it's the natural base for that day trip. It suits travellers on a budget, anime fans heading for Otome Road and Sunshine City, and families who want the aquarium on the doorstep. If it's nightlife and atmosphere you're after on a first trip, you'll still do better in Shinjuku.

How to do it in a day

Begin at Jiyu Gakuen Myonichikan when it opens, with coffee in the old dining hall, then walk north past Morris Hall at Rikkyo University. Cross back through the station for an early lunch of morisoba at Higashi-Ikebukuro Taishoken before its lunch rush, or join the Mutekiya queue mid-afternoon instead. Give the afternoon to Sunshine City. Do the rooftop aquarium on a weekday, then the 60th-floor sky park at Sunshine 60 as the light turns. Walk down to Higashi-Ikebukuro-yonchome and ride the Toden Arakawa tram two stops to Kishibojinmae for Zoshigaya Kishimojin in the late afternoon, when it's calm, then come back to the west-side izakaya for dinner.