Nakano Broadway Through My Eyes: A Journey Into Tokyo’s Hidden Maze
Just a few minutes from Shinjuku, I got off at Nakano Station and walked through the covered shopping arcade. At the very end, Nakano Broadway suddenly appeared. To be honest, my first thought was: “This looks like an old, run-down mall.”
But stepping inside felt like crossing into another world. The hallways are dim, the lighting a little yellow, and every corner is filled with figures, vintage posters, secondhand books, and strange little shops selling Showa-era trinkets. It’s overwhelming, like going on a treasure hunt without a map.
What struck me most was Mandarake. Each branch is dedicated to something different — figures, doujinshi, retro goods. Walking from one to the next felt like moving through different worlds, each stranger and more fascinating than the last.
I stopped at a tiny kissaten (old café) tucked into a corner and ordered Napolitan pasta. The whole place felt frozen in the 1970s. It wasn’t polished or touristy, but authentic, as if I had slipped behind the curtain of Tokyo’s daily life.
Compared to Akihabara, which feels curated for visitors, Nakano Broadway is chaotic, alive, and unapologetically itself. And that’s exactly what makes it one of the deepest places I’ve ever explored in Tokyo.
