A Week in Tokyo: Nakano Broadway

In May, I got to spend a week in Tokyo, Japan. It was a complete spur of the moment decision. My friend and I were talking about how much we wanted to go to Japan, so we jokingly checked ticket prices to Tokyo, found some really cheap tickets and BOOKED THEM the next day. It was kind of crazy and totally last minute, but we were over-the-moon excited. We wanted to go to the Studio Ghibli Musuem (maker of My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo, Howl's Moving Castle, and many other classic animated Japanese movies), eat sushi and bento, buy tons of manga, and buy soooo many kawaii things. Basically, we wanted to get tourist on.

Well, we didn't get to go to the Studio Ghibli Museum (tickets sold out!) and I spent 9 hours in a Chinese visa office one day (a soul crushing nightmare), but I totally don't regret booking the ticket! It was a whirlwind week and we only scratched the surface--but I am in love with Japan.

Nakano Broadway

We stayed in the tiniest, skinniest hostel ever (YADOYA Guesthouse) in the heart of the Nakano area of Tokyo. I highly recommend staying here, it was one of my favorite places in Tokyo. There are a ton of shops, restaurants, and arcades. The streets are just...pleasant. Everything is orderly, clean, and walkable. Oh, and tiny. Everything--the houses, cars, alleyways--are teensy and cute. For such a gigantic city it felt very quaint, which is something I love in a city.

There are so many arcades, bars, photo-booths, restaurants, 7-Elevens (more on that later), and bookstores in Nakano that I was tempted to spend my whole week here. We did spend quite a few hours wandering through all the quirky shops and manga stores at Nakano Broadway, the main shopping complex. Did I mention I was on an extreme budget? I was trying to spend under $1,000 on the entire trip including the ticket (which I think I pulled off). I can't tell you how hard it was not to spend all my savings on manga, Totoro figurines, and Hello Kitty merchandise. So. Hard.

Games, colorful lights, and whimsical touches everywhere.

The only thing that really sucked was not being able to read Japanese, which meant I couldn't read any of the Manga. Towards the end of the trip I was kicking myself for choosing to learn Chinese (not really). I did buy a used kawaii cat-themed book and a copy of Death Note, but it was 10x as expensive since its imported from the US. I bought it for $8-10 and it only cost about half as much for the original Japanese version. Oh well.

Buying manga at Mandrake--Nakano Broadway

I'll be posting more about my trip to Tokyo soon. Stay tuned!