One Full Turn at a Tokyo Intersection

I stood at one Tokyo intersection and turned all the way around. 32 seconds.

Chidori-cho, Tokyo 0:32

Meguro River: Take the Early Walk

An early-morning walk along the Meguro River in Tokyo, on the stretch south of the station.

Jiyugaoka, Tokyo 1:30

Skip Dotonbori. Try Fukushima.

A short Osaka food film: it starts in Dotonbori, then heads to Fukushima. Watch before choosing where to spend your evening.

Osaka 1:26

Skip the scramble. Go to Kamata instead.

Take a look around Kamata in Tokyo’s Ota ward. A short film for when you want to get off the usual tourist route.

Shibuya, Tokyo 1:25

A Quiet Moment at Yonge and Eglinton

A quiet 80 seconds at Yonge and Eglinton in Toronto.

Toronto, Yonge-Eglinton 1:20

Shibamata: Walk to Taishakuten

Walk the street leading up to Taishakuten temple in Shibamata, in Tokyo’s Katsushika ward. A short look at the neighbourhood and its temple street.

Kappabashi, Tokyo 1:30

One Tokyo Evening, in 90 Seconds

Trains, neon, and alleyways from a Tokyo evening. 90 seconds of an ordinary Tokyo night.

Meguro Ward, Tokyo 1:30

Skip the hotel buffet. Try Ameyoko.

A quick food walk through Ameyoko market in Ueno, Tokyo.

Ueno, Tokyo 1:30

NOTES FROM STEVIE

One Full Turn at a Tokyo Intersection

How to Read a Tokyo Neighborhood

You can map any Tokyo neighborhood by its bakery. Find the bakery the locals walk to in the morning, and you’ve found the gravity well. Everything else — the coffee shop, the dry cleaner, the small bar — orbits it.

Chidori-cho, Ikebukuro

Chidori-cho is one of those Ikebukuro-adjacent neighborhoods that has nothing to do with the JR Ikebukuro circus. Quiet streets, small two-storey houses, autumn leaves still hanging on into November. A neighborhood that does its own thing while half a million people swirl through the station two stops away.

Why Bakeries

The Japanese bakery is its own genre. Half pastry shop, half French boulangerie, half something that doesn’t translate. Curry buns. Custard cream pan. The melonpan that’s nothing like a melon. Stevie filmed the morning rush at one of them and it tells you more about the neighborhood than any landmark would.

The Morning Move

Get there before 9 AM. The good stuff is gone by 10. Watch what the regulars order — that’s the actual menu. The decorative stuff in the window is for tourists. The corner where the locals are pointing is the food.

Getting There

Tobu Tojo Line from Ikebukuro. Get off at Chidori-cho Station, two stops in. Walk five minutes in any direction. There’s a bakery within five minutes of every Tokyo train station. Find it.

Read the transcript

A 360 of a Tokyo intersection. The whole city in one rotation.

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