How much money do you need to live in Shimokitazawa ?

Shimokitazawa is one of a popular town in Tokyo.  Many young people want to live in Shimokitazawa.  Because pop culture and many popular shops attract young people.

But, it is not easy to live in Shimokitazawa.  High rent prevents them.  You needs 6-70,000Yen (= 750USD - 880USD ) per month for single room type apartment in Shimokitazawa.  It is 1.5 times of Hachioji, Takahatafudo, etc (These towns locates 1 hour distance by train from Shinjuku/Shibuya). 

If you want to buy a house in Shimokitazawa,  60,000,000Yen (= 750000USD) (or more) is bottom line. And lowest house has only 3-4 rooms ! 

Japanese Tea Café “TSUKIMASA”

In Shimokitazawa, there are many cafés and fast food shops.

If you like Japanese green tea,  I strongly recommend  “TSUKIMASA”.  TSUKIMASA is only one café that you can enjoy Japanese tea.

 

Have you drink Japanese green tea ?  Do you know how to serve and drink it ?  It is not so complex and hard.  Please look in this picture.  A brown one on the upper-left is a tea pot “KYU-SU”.  The lower-left is a tea cup you can understand easily.  The lower-right one are chips made by rice “A-RA-RE”.  And the last one, the upper-right, do you know what it is and how to use it ?

You don’t use the boiling hot water to brew Japanese tea.  So you don’t pour the boiling hot water to the tea pot directly from a jar.  You pour the hot water once in the upper-right one, and leaves a few minutes to cool the hot water.  Then, the water puts into the tea pot.  This is the right way to brew Japanese green tea.

When you visit to Shimokitazawa,  you try and enjoy the Japanese style tea time in TSUKIMASA.

100 Yen Shop is a wonderland

100 Yen shop is very popular in Japan.  In Shimokitazawa, many shops exist and are crowded with young and old people.  Many of their goods are made in China and other Asian countries.  They are cheap, but their quality is not bad.  You can buy an umbrella, a T-shirt, a Halloween’s mask and so on for 100 yen. And you enjoy with just looking.

The prices are low in Shimokitazawa compared with the town of other same grades.  So, young people want to live in this town.

* 100 Yen shop : All goods are sold for 100 Yen.  I heard, there are 99cent shops in USA.  100 Yen shop and 99 cent shop are similar one.

Used clothing stores

In Shimokitazawa, there are many used clothing shops.  “CHICAGO” is one of biggest shops in this town.  Thrift clothings in this shop are all in good condition.  So, it is a popular shop for young men and wemen.  They choise clothes by their own  liking.  Their style is called “Shimokita-Casual” or “SHIMO-KAJI”. The clothes are cheap but their style is original and cool.  “KAWAII” style in Harajuku is famous in the world now.  But SHIMO-KAJI is not KAWAII one.   So you can find another fashion mode in Shimokitazawa.

Shutter art in Shimokitazawa

Many shops in Shimokitazawa are decorated by shutter art.  A boutique’s shutter has a picture of colorful flowers, these are imaged fancy clothes.  Many vegetables are drawn on a shutter of a fruit and vegetable shop.

And the above picture, this is a shutter of a japanese style bar.  They hold a bottle, written with Japanese characters “BI-SHU”.  BI-SHU means “good liquor”.  The style of this bottle looks like Chinese, and their wears are so. Young(?)  painter didn’t care about such a thing.  Or chaotic style itself is Shimokita-style.

Shimokitazawa station is under construction

Odakyu line is always heavily crowded.  So, now, construction of building 4track lines (double up from now) and undergroudnizing is performed.  This construction was started at Sep/2004, and will be ended in several years.

The number of passengers is 120,000 (Odakyu line) plus 130,000 (Inokashira line).  Total passengers is about 250,000 every day.  Around Shiomokitazawa station, many many people (esp. young men and women) go there and here in confusion.

Autumn Festival in Shimokita

In first weekend of September, cars disappear from the main street in Shimokitazawa.

Autumn Festival of KITAZAWA-HACHIMAN shrine is held.  It is a cause that many festivals of Japan celebrated the harvest of autumn.  MIKOSHI, which people are carrying on their shoulder, is a miniature version of a shrine.  Temporarily god of KITAZAWA-HACHIMAN moves in this MIKOSHI.  So, by shouldering this mikoshi, people are united with their god.

Every block of the town has own MIKOSHI.  About twenty MIKOSHIs gather in the shrine.  The precincts of the shrine fill with people.  It is a climax of this festival.

Today , 2nd of September, is this year’s festival day.

KouShinTou : Small shrine of travelers guardian god

Shimokitazawa is famous for Pop culture, theaters, Used clothe shops , and so on.  Shimokita is a town for younger.  But until a quoter of century, Shimokita had been one of the ordinary twons in the suburbs.  So, in the town, you can find some old buildings and ruins.

(kou-Shin-tou) is the name of this small Shrine.  The height is the same as an adult man (about 180cm).  In this small shrine,  a small stone statue of “Douso-Jin” is deified. Douso-Jin is the guardian god for travelers and village people.   The statue of Douso-Jin was made hundreds years ago.  And people of Shimokitazawa have deified this god over the century, and even now,  some one do an offering thing for this god.

My home town “SHIMOKITA”

Odakyu line and Keio-Inokashira line cross at SHIMOKITAZAWA station.  They call the area around SHIMOKITAZAWA station  “SHIMOKITA”.  SHIMOKITA is near Shinjuku and Shibuya. But it is not big and one of old downtown.   Many small theathers are in this small town.  So SHIMOKITA is known as a town of theater.  If you are lucky, you can see famaous actor and actress at a cafe and a restaurant in SHIMOKITA.

I live at SHIMOKITA for half a century.  So I know old face of SHIMOKITA, and have new experiences in this town now.  This blog is for your travel guide of SHIMOKITA.  When you make a travel in Japan and visit my town SHIMOKITA, I hope you enjoy your trip with my blog.