Experience the best of Musashino

Musashino lies on the Chuo Line in western Tokyo, a residential city whose heart is Kichijoji station and the streets around it. Harmonica Yokocho, a tangle of tiny bars and food stalls beside the station, and the covered Sun Road arcade sit among department stores, record shops and cafés. Shinjuku lies east along the same railway.

The pond of Inokashira Park, lined with cherry trees, has rowing boats and swan boats and a small shrine to the goddess Benzaiten. The park spans Musashino and neighbouring Mitaka, where the Ghibli Museum stands at its western end. Quiet residential streets and small neighbourhood shops fill the districts beyond the centre.

Bakeries, yakitori skewers, ramen and old coffee shops line the lanes around the station, and the cafés by the pond are busy on weekends. The cherry blossom in early April is when the park fills, and the autumn leaves turn in November.