A park town of yakitori smoke and swan boats
Kichijoji, about 15 minutes from Shinjuku on the JR Chuo Line, is a lively neighborhood in western Tokyo with a big park at its edge. Between the station and the park, a yakitori restaurant (yakitori is chicken grilled on skewers) that started as a butcher's shop in 1928 still sends charcoal smoke into the street. Have a few skewers and a fried meat cutlet, then walk around the pond and take out a boat.
A yakitori restaurant founded in 1928, where skewers sizzle over charcoal and the smoke drifts out into the street. Order a few kinds and compare them, the way regulars do. It fills up in the evening, so come early.
A butcher's shop known for its round menchi-katsu, a cutlet of minced meat coated in breadcrumbs and fried, sold hot to eat as you walk. A line forms at lunchtime, and it is cash only.
A large park built around a long pond, where you can rent a swan-shaped pedal boat or a rowboat. Paths and benches circle the water, and in spring cherry trees along the shore bloom out over the pond. It is about a five-minute walk from Kichijoji Station.