12 min walk from the tea room
Sugamo
巣鴨
Sugamo is what locals affectionately call Harajuku for the elderly. We mean that as a compliment.
The Jizō-dōri shopping street runs four hundred meters and is, on the 4th, 14th, and 24th of each month, the busiest place for two kilometers. Older women come for healing-salt at Togenuki Jizō, then move on to red underwear (a local good-luck specialty), then to lunch.
Eat where the queue is. The unagi shops are good. The shio-daifuku at Mizuno is the thing to bring back. The temple itself is small and unassuming — the point is the street it sits on, and the people on it.
From Sugamo to the tea room is twelve minutes on foot, mostly downhill. A nice route is: Jizō-dōri, then south through the back streets, then the ceremony, then a coffee.
Combine this neighborhood with a tea ceremony.
Reserve a seat
