Tokyo’s Sugamo district, where it’s cool to be old. Photo / Getty Images
Venturing beyond Tokyo’s neon-lit tourist hubs are the tradition-steeped streets of Sugamo, which reveal a charmingly different facet of the city, writes Denise Stephens.
Sugamo Station doesn’t receive a second glance from most visitors travelling on Tokyo’s circular Yamanote line to the tourist hotspots of Shinjuku, Shibuya and Harajuku, searching for neon-lit streets and wacky food. In Harajuku, throngs of tourists and suburban teenagers cram Takeshita Street, taking selfies with rainbow candy floss and cream-laden crepes. On my last visit to Tokyo, I decided to avoid the crowded centre of Japan’s youth culture and instead headed to Sugamo to mingle with my peers in “Harajuku for grannies”.
Sugamo’s main shopping street, Jizo-dori, is a short walk from the station. Beyond the red arch marking the entrance, people browsed shops selling traditional snacks and ingredients, herbal and conventional medicines and other goods aimed at the older customer.
Jizo-dori was part of the Nakasendo road, one of the historic routes for travel between Tokyo and Kyoto. Nowadays, it’s often closed to through traffic, allowing shoppers to stroll freely across the broad street. Many of them looked over 60, with a few using walkers, but there were younger people too. The shopkeepers were a similar vintage to their customers, and service was unhurried. Outside a shop selling dried fish, the proprietor answered questions as a couple sampled his products. At one of several tea shops, I was offered a cup of tea.
Aromas wafting from the shops tempted me to take a closer look. A sweet smell led to dorayaki, little pancakes filled with red bean paste, while a toasty smell turned out to be rice crackers. These were large golden squares sprinkled with sesame seeds or seaweed flakes. My first purchase was a korokke, a Japanese croquette coated in crunchy panko breadcrumbs. As I don’t speak Japanese and the shop staff didn’t speak English, choosing a flavour was a bit of a lottery, and I made my decision based on the korokke’s outside appearance. Biting into it, I tasted seafood of some sort, but it wasn’t until I Google Translated the receipt that I discovered it was a creamy cod roe croquette.
A sweet shop was crammed with many different types of sweets – boiled sweets in a range of flavours, rice snacks, sweets decorated with cartoon characters or cats and dogs. Deciding what to buy was difficult, but finally, I chose a bag of purple and green grape jellies. The woman behind the counter handed me a bonus lolly with the change.
Tokyo seniors also come to Sugamo to buy sensible items of clothing such as cosy slippers and hats to protect against the sun, rain and cold, but the clothing item Jizo-dori is most famous for is red underwear. Red is a colour that is traditionally said to bring good luck, especially if worn next to the skin. The pants on display ranged from very durable red flannelette-lined numbers to more glamorous lacy knickers. All styles seemed to offer ample coverage. There were also red vests and socks for those wanting a complete lucky outfit, and towels for those who’d rather not wear any of these garments.
The fourth, 14th and 24th of each month are market days, with stalls selling more street food, traditional ingredients and second-hand goods. Even on these busy market days, Jizo-dori is uncrowded and seems far away from the frenzy of central Tokyo.
Shopping is not the only reason people come to Sugamo. Halfway along Jizo-dori, Kogan-ji temple attracts people hoping for their ailments to be cured by a statue of Arai Kannon. The faithful stood in line under a haze of incense smoke, waiting for their turn to wash the affected body part on the statue. Each worshipper began by ladling water over Arai Kannon, and then soaking a cloth to rub the statue. After watching them for a while, it seemed backaches are common, and one woman vigorously rubbed Arai Kannon’s jaw. Several people washed the statue all over, as though to guard against future bad health rather than for anything specific.
The shopping area ended at Koshinzuka Station on the Toden Arakawa line, the last remaining tram line in Tokyo. A small cafe opened directly on to the platform, with its menu displayed by plastic food models in a glass case outside. The wooden interior suggested it had been in business for decades. I ordered an iced coffee and a rice ball covered with sesame-flavoured sweet bean paste, with the help of the food models and Google Translate. It was only once I’d ordered that I became aware of the syrupy strains of American country music playing in the background - not what I’d expected from an old-style Japanese cafe.
I lingered over my coffee and rice ball, looking out onto the tram line as bells at the level crossing signalled the arrival of trams every few minutes. Some trams, like the cafe, had obviously seen decades of service. Eventually, I joined the queue on the platform to board a tram that wound through unfamiliar suburbs back to modern Tokyo.
For more things to see and do in Toyko, visit japan.travel/en/au.