18 Otsuka／大塚

Before the World War II, Otsuka was a major shopping and entertainment district rivaling Sugamo and bigger than Ikebukuro.  The only streetcar remaining in Tokyo and a major bus line replacing a major streetcar line in 1960s are the traces of such prosperous times.

Otsuka is known as a town of Japanese sake.  There are good inexpensive “Izakaya” restaurants serving excellent Japanese sake and dishes.  Some of such restaurants hang at the entrance a “sugidama”, a ball made from springs of cedar, which has been a sign of sake breweries for hundreds of years.

In 1920s, a geisha town was established in Otsuka.  Before the World War II, more than 300 geisha girls worked in the town.  After the war, the geisha town was restored and many restaurants and geisha houses reopened, however, the geisha culture sharply declined since 1960s and today no geisha works in this town regularly.

During the last ten years, numbers of foreign people from Asian counties and Asian food restaurants have been increasing constantly.  Today, many people from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, etc. live in this area.

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