The charm of Ikebukuro

Right on the place where I was standing when I took this photo, 30 years ago was located the infamous Sugamo Prison, built during the 1920s for political prisoners... But the whole neighborhood changed drastically in 1978, when on this place was built the Sunshine 60 skyscraper, which at the time was the tallest skyscraper in Asia, with a height of 239.7 meters.

Later, the panorama was completed by the beautiful Toyota Amlux building, housing the Toyota showroom (the blue building in this photo). And the special charm of the area is accented by the street in the forefront of the view, known as the "Otome Road", one of the 3 main areas of anime and otaku culture in Tokyo (next to Akihabara and Nakano Broadway).

Whether you're interested in the otaku culture or you just want to "sample it", here you can visit several interesting otaku dedicated shops (you can see in the photo the largest one, Animate). And the fact that they're specialized in merchandise for girls (anime, manga and cosplay) makes them a bit more attractive than the ones in Akihabara, especially because the general atmosphere is a lot more lively in a store dedicated to girls... (^_^)