Neighborhood Discoveries
5 (31)

Explore Tokyo's coolest retro neighborhood: Shimokitazawa

3 hours English
5 (31)
100% Personalized

Voted one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world, you'll explore a maze of quirky stores, boho coffee shops, live houses, and artist studios

Bucchi
Bucchi
Susumu
Susumu

Match with one of our local hosts

Be matched with a host based on your interests and preferences, to tailor your perfect day.

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100% Flexible: Adapt in real time

Your host will fine-tune the experience in real time to match your mood.

Experience Overview

Time:

3 hours

What to expect:

Fully tailored to your preferences

Language:

Hosted in English (Other languages may be requested)

Meeting point:

Starbucks Coffee - Shimokita Ekiue - The host will be waiting in front of the cafe

Cancellation:

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience

What to bring:

  • We recommend wearing comfortable shoes and carrying a light bag for your essentials.
  • Public transport may be used during the experience - please bring a travel card or small amount of cash for fares.

What’s Included:

Private & personalized experience
3 hours with a Host
A coffee or non-alcoholic drink at one of the neighborhood’s quirky bars or coffee shops
Walking experience

What’s Excluded:

Additional food and drinks
Tickets to any attractions
Transportation costs
Gratuities (optional)

Key Highlights:

  • Explore one of Tokyo’s trendiest neighborhoods with a helpful host along for the ride.
  • See a very different side of Tokyo, where art and music are all important aspects of life.
  • Navigate the area’s maze of streets, lined with quirky galleries and tasteful vintage stores.
  • Catch a break - or a wakeup - at one of Shimokita’s many popular coffee shops.
  • Immerse yourself in the vibrant live music scene, and jam to some good tunes.

What travelers think of our Tokyo experiences

P
Peter 1 July 2025

Excellent trip - Shohei is a fabulous guide

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D
Dalal 1 April 2025

Amir was a fantastic guide! He is very multicultural and multilingual which makes his perspective very interesting and relatable. His knowledge of the area was exactly what we needed. It was away from anything touristy and that made the experience even more special! Thank you Amir! My kids really loved it too! They also found so many unusual and unique pieces to buy. Definitely happy about choosing to do this activity!

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M
Michelle 1 January 2025

Kieran as a guide was absolutely fantastic and prior to our experience contacted me to tailor the tour exactly to my needs. He was very knowledgeable and made many suggestions for visits along the way. Great sense of humour - great tour! Highly recommend- 5 stars from me!

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M
Melanie 1 November 2024

Chisato is a wonderful generous, guide who tailored a wonderful tour around Shimokitazawa. We had a lot of fun going to places we would never have found without someone with local. We had a lot of laughs and learned so much along the way. We highly recommend Chisato if you’re heading to Tokyo and need a guide to show you a local perspective

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M
Melanie 1 November 2024

We had a wonderful day with Chisato. Not only was she a great tour guide, she is a wonderful person too. She tailored the tour to suit what we like and wanted to do. She was also generous in sharing her local knowledge so we learned lots along the way. She even made sure we got on the right train on the way home. We highly recommend a tour with Chisato for an engaging, fun, and insightful Tokyo experience. Thank you again Chisato, it was an experience we will never forget. We feel very luck to have met you ♥️

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G
Gwen 1 September 2024

The Shimokitazawa neighborhood is awesome! Our guide Nobu was so friendly and answered all of our many questions about Japan not just Shimokitazawa. He also gave us some ideas to do for the next part of our trip. We really enjoyed this activity and our guide, Nobu.

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What you’ll do

Head for the hipster heart of alternative Tokyo, where tiny streets burst with trendy vendors all manner of retro finds. You could shop till you drop at vintage shops like Garage Department Store, which stocks all kinds of funk, or you could sift through mountains of old CDs at Flash Disk, where the only school is old-school.

If you’re hungry, you could choose from jazzy joints like City Country City, where good music meets even better coffee, or swap out for a cocktail at Shimokitazawa Mother, where Gaudi-esque decoration compliments fine Okinawan cuisine. 

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