Know your Tokyo - Ikebukuro, Toshima City

Whenever I take the metro to Ikebukuro, Toshima City and emerge from the east Seibu exit onto Meiji Dori into the twilight, I feel alive. Why friends? Because it is like stepping out into a set from Blade Runner. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the east part of Ikebukuro (which has no fewer than three Bic Camera stores - all each with their own building), a LABI (Yamada Denki) and others will give you a real feeling of being on the deck Battleship Tokyo, more so than even parts of Shinjuku, which isn't quite as claustrophobic and imposing around its station. Toshima City is one of the eight central wards of Tokyo (out of the 23 special wards) and Ikebukuro is the second busiest train station in the world, at about 2.8 million passenger transits each day (Heathrow Airport, London, England has only 60 million a year) and the busiest metro station in the world (Marunouchi, Yurakucho, Futokushin lines). The Toshima City entotsu (translation: chimney)is something to behold friends, and it is the third tallest structure in all of Tokyo (after the Tokyo Sky Tree and the Tokyo Tower). It is the distinctive gleaming white polygonal column, an ode to the great wonders of the ancient world, with flashing red eyes that sits above the cavernous confines of the streets of east Ikebukuro. I will take you on a tour of Ikeburo in my forthcoming podcast, so stay tuned and ask your questions below.
Peace
Tokyo Joe