5 ACTIVITIES YOU CAN’T MISS ON YOUR VISIT TO TOKYO’S IKEBUKURO

ENDLESS ENTERTAINMENT…WITH A SURPRISE AT THE END!?

BY SCRAP Global Team

Ever been to one of Tokyo’s most prominent, urban entertainment districts? Ikebukuro is a lively cultural hub for arts, music, cuisine, otaku culture, interactive entertainment, and more! With two major department stores on opposite sides of the station, Ikebukuro offers an abundant selection of shopping facilities and is the second most visited station in Tokyo.

Here are 5 activities we suggest you consider for your visit to Ikebukuro.

1.Sunshine City

Sunshine City is a massive shopping complex with many large-scale indoor attractions to keep you entertained for hours. With a variety of stores and restaurants, the building almost feels like its own little city—hence the name “Sunshine City”!

Inside you can find the Sunshine Aquarium, an observatory, a planetarium, and even a hotel. And for anime and manga fans, check out the Bandai Namco Cross Store—a multi-purpose space where you can shop, view, and play everything Bamco, NAMJATOWN—an indoor carnival-style theme park featuring countless collaborations with popular game and anime IPs, as well as the Pokemon Center and Pikachu cafe! Appropriate for all ages, there’s no shortage of entertainment to be found here.

2.Search for Owlsa

If you find yourself in the Ikebukuro neighborhood, take a close look around and you might notice something interesting—there are owl motifs everywhere!

The word “Ikebukuro” is written with two characters in Japanese, and the second character (pronounced “bukuro”), is similar in pronunciation to the Japanese word for owl (pronounced “fukuro”). Based on this linguistic similarity, the city went as far as to adopt the owl as the city mascot, leading many establishments in the area to create owl motifs with their own unique flair.

If you keep an eye out, you’ll find a lot of interesting takes on the owl representation and find yourself hooked on how many you can spot! It’s a fun activity to do while simply wandering around the area.

From left to right, a monument in Ikebukuro Station, a corner of a building, a post box

3.Visit Japan’s Largest Animate

Ikebukuro is home to Japan’s largest Animate, a popular store for anime and manga fans. Here, you’ll almost always find the latest merchandise of your favorite series. While you may have heard of Akihabara as a well-known center for otaku culture, Ikebukuro comes to a close second. However, unlike Akihabara, Ikebukuro is catered more towards female audiences, with a prominent presence of fashion and cosplay shops. The central street is even dubbed “Otome Road”, with the Japanese word “otome” meaning “young lady” or “maiden”.

4.Have a Relaxing Picnic

Despite the bustling streets, there are a surprising amount of wide-open plazas and parks in Ikebukuro. We recommend visiting Minami-Ikebukuro Park. Its wide-open stretch of green is perfect for having a picnic on a nice day, and if you’re there during the spring, you can view the cherry blossoms! There’s also a play area for kids and an outdoor cafe where you can grab a hearty bite to eat.

And last but not least…

5.Visit SCRAP’s New Ikebukuro Location!

That’s right! SCRAP opened a brand new location in Ikebukuro, where some new Real Escape Game events such as “Escape from the BLUE ROOM”, and “アイテムだらけの部屋からの脱出” (Unofficial English title: Escape from the Never-Ending Items) have made their debut!

SCRAP fans may be familiar with “Escape from the RED ROOM”, one of our longest-running English games that has won many international awards. This long-awaited continuation of our color room series has been highly anticipated by our Japanese and overseas fans alike.

In addition, the event “Escape from the Never-Ending Locks and Keys” which was previously held at our Shimokitazawa location, is making a come-back in Ikebukuro, along with the brand new addition to the series, “アイテムだらけの部屋からの脱出” (Unofficial English title: “Escape from the Never-Ending Items”). This is a room-type game where you must use all kinds of items in all kinds of ways to aim for escape!

Currently, at this location, we have 9 events running daily, and we’ve already received many requests to create English versions. We’re considering some of these projects with an open mind and hope to open them up to our English-speaking audiences as soon as possible! Keep an eye out on our social media accounts for more updates!

Check out this video introduction of our new store!

(Only in Japanese as of the posting of this blog)