【4K】Tokyo Evening Walk, Ikebukuro, 池袋, November 2020#Japan#tokyo#Ikebukuro

【4K】Tokyo Evening Walk, Ikebukuro, 池袋, November 2020#Japan#tokyo#Ikebukuro

#Japan#tokyo#Ikebukuro (池袋)
Ikebukuro (池袋) is one of Tokyo’s multiple city centers, found around the northwestern corner of the Yamanote loop line. At the district’s center stands Ikebukuro Station, a busy commuter hub traversed by three subway and multiple urban and suburban train lines. The station handles over a million passengers per day, making it the second busiest railway station surpassed only by Shinjuku Station.

Ikebukuro offers plenty of entertainment, shopping and dining opportunities. It is the battleground between the Tobu and Seibu conglomerates which operate large department stores on each side of the station, as well as train lines from Ikebukuro into the suburbs. Seibu furthermore has a stake in Sunshine City, a large shopping and entertainment complex not far from the station.
Ikebukuro has also become the site of a more recent clashing of two of Japan’s largest electronic retailers, Bic Camera and Yamada Denki. Bic Camera had been dominating the district for decades with its main store until Yamada Denki opened its first outlet there in 2007. Since then, the two retailers have been engaging in fierce competition in multiple branches around the station.

While not as large or well known as Akihabara, Ikebukuro is also a center of otaku culture. Unlike Akihabara, Ikebukuro caters more to a female clientele with butler cafes and anime, manga and cosplay related shops such as Animate, Mandarake and K-Books. The center of the female otaku scene is located along Otome Road just north of Sunshine City. It is also said to be a good place to find dojinshi, or self published manga or novels, especially those produced for women.