Let’s wander through a faux Meiji Era town eating savory Japanese dumplings at Gyoza Stadium, check out the spooky streets and weird ice cream, then roam around the LABI electronics superstore to see all the strange toys and appliances!
Inside a huge shopping complex called Sunshine City, there’s an odd only-in-Japan indoor amusement park called Namco Namja Town, designed to look like an old-fashioned Meiji Era (pre-war) town. Its corridors are designed to look like vintage streets…
with many genuinely antique details, like this charming cigarette vending machine featuring a friendly but health-unaware grandma.
Included in the admission price is this obake-yashiki haunted neighborhood. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here!
The streets here are lined with interactive hidey holes that might scare the pants off you! (Fair warning, Japanese haunted houses are the scariest in the world.) Fortunately, unless you seek them out by investigating the nooks & crannies, you can avoid the jump scares ><;;
Avoid, for example, this murderous clown, who’s not afraid to use his cleaver when you stick your hand in that little window.
But my favorite reason to visit Namja town is this: Gyoza Stadium! The stands lining this quaint “street” offer the best savory dumplings from famous makers all over Japan.
Designed to look like a pre-war street, you can wander from dumpling stand to dumpling stand at Gyoza Stadium, ordering absolutely delicious savory bites and beer.
Be sure you save room for dessert – there’s an ice cream shop at the end of the gyoza street with dozens of flavors that range from weird to fantastic. Not only do they have delicious fresh fruit flavors and various kind of chocolate, they also have really strange ones. Wasabi, oyster, miso ramen, muskmelon, and Indian curry are only a sampling of the flavors you can try at the Gyoza Stadium ice cream store.
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Afterwards, let’s wander into the magnificent LAB1 electronics superstore. It has a really quirky toy department. I mean, isn’t an AnpanMan sushi roll maker at the top of every kid’s birthday list?
The bullet train sushi delivery toy. Words fail.
The Japanese appliance department at this store is entertaining too—they not only have a large selection of only-in-Japan appliances like electronic toilet seats and futon dryers, they also carry miniature countertop dishwashers
And we can’t leave Ikebukuro before stopping in at the Mega-Pokemon Center! This shop often has only-in-Japan Pokemon merchandise for sale.
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And here are the other places I take my friends when they come to town
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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly e-magazine Japanagram, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
Jonelle Patrick writes about Japan 