Ikebukuro: Walk underground!

If you plan & research well for your future trip to Tokyo, you are highly likely to see the name of stations like Shinagawa, Shinjuku or Shibuya, which require most tourists to transfer to other train lines. But how about this station? Ikebukuro. Despite being one of the hub stations on Yamanote loop line, this area hasn't been a tourist attraction unlike Shinjuku or Shibuya (which are the destinations of most tourists)

This station is well known as a home of two major department stores, Seibu, located on the east side of the station...

...and Tobu on the west.

The greatest thing with Ikebukuro station area is its extensive underground passages, which connect major shopping spots including those two department stores. You can feel its benefit especially during a harsh winter time here. 

But at the same time, that's the real culprit which makes our sense of direction totally useless in this particular area. You can easily guess how complicated it could be if 6 different train lines, 2 department stores & other major fashion buildings are all connected up underground as one huge system. 

Refer to this video to watch what it actually looks like in rush hours.

However, getting lost (intentionally) is definitely  the best way to fully enjoy a new place. If you have enough time to roam in Tokyo, this area could be one of the options!

I'm gonna dig down deeper this area on our next post!

Thanks for reading.

Posted by 3e-Tokyo