Staying at a hotel in Shinjuku? Need a place to visit during your short stay in Tokyo? Suginami will be the place for you. Suginami is only 10 minutes from Shinjuku via train (Chūo Line)!
The very first location I’d like to introduce to you is Tenguyu located in Nishi-Ogikubo. Public baths in Japan have been decreasing, hence now becoming a rarity. If you’ve ever wanted to try out the public-bath house in Japan, now is the chance. Tenguyu is known for their cloudy “milk bath” and their beautiful hand-painted paintings on the bath walls. Within the bath there are more attractions for you to enjoy such as the unique Japanese-style stone floors that help stimulate the back of the foot for a massage which also improves circulation, helps with relaxation, and provides stress relief. In addition, if you’d like to enjoy a good stretch right after a nice warm bath, there is a pull-up machine which could help stretch and elongate your back muscles! And if you’re a cat lover, Tenguyu will be your next favorite spot. Some individuals visit Tenguyu just for their famous cute mascot cat!
Next stop, Ogikubo! Are you into letterpress printing? Good! Nakano Print Shop is one of the few shops here that still crafts business cards with a letterpress machine. And for those of you who do not know much about letterpress printing, it is when the metal “printing type” lines up and presses onto paper, giving a texture that cannot be reproduced in digital printing. Why could that be? This is because they use colors as well as textured impressions that are hard to generate through normal printing, thus, maintaining their popularity to this day. If you’d like a souvenir to take home from this store, they sell postcards full of vibrant colors with the textured impressions!
Our third location is TOKYO POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY SUGINAMI Animation Museum. Suginami is known to have the most animation companies in Japan. In this museum you can learn the history and the get a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes of anime creation that you may not have known. And don’t you worry, there are voice guides in English! You can also have first-hand experience by trying out “flip animation”, which is the basis of anime! Through this experience, you can digitize 5 pictures which can easily be turned into an animation.
Now we’ll be moving onto Asagaya! The fourth location I’d like to introduce is A-San No Niwa located in Asagaya, which is a park designed by Hayao Miyazaki, Japan’s leading animation director. The park itself has a cozy feel with lots of nature and snippets of traditional Japan. One of the wells in the park resembles Miyazaki’s masterpiece, “My Neighbor Totoro”.
The fifth location is the Fishing Pond Suzuki-en located in the middle of a residential area. A fishing bait and pole will be provided, and you can enjoy fishing in a relaxed environment!
It’s our last stop: Kōenji! Kōenji is famous for its clothing and design stores. If you’d like to shop for clothing, this is the shop for you. Located inside Kitakore Building, Hayatochiri offers fashionable clothing that you may not find elsewhere. Lady Gaga is said to have been to this shop! It’s best not to miss out on this rare opportunity!
