Otsuka deserves more attention as a nighttime destination

Friday, August 23, 2019

Across streetcar tracks and under a torii-shaped arch, Italian restaurants, bars and ethnic food markets can be found amid labyrinth of narrow side streets near the south exit of Otsuka Station on the Yamanote Line.

“We see fewer people than usual outside around here tonight, and it’s been like this all week,” said Daisuke Kusabiraki, an assistant manager at Titans Craft Beer Taproom & Bottle Shop.

Locals feel that Otsuka deserves more consideration as a nighttime destination packed with exclusive establishments.

Like Otsuka, Japan has myriad nightlife areas that are well known among local people but are comparatively unknown and unexplored by foreign tourists.

“Since long ago, Otsuka has been ‘a night town’ but that fact is not well known,” said Nobuhide Kidokoro, who has lived there for 61 years. “People in this town know that and so do fans of Otsuka. It hasn’t been able to promote itself more widely.”

Kidokoro said that his hometown has a much longer history than the busy hub of Ikebukuro and the concentration of local eateries is a symbol of its past as a hanamachi (geisha district).

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