Koenji: the old-Tokyo cool
The Pal and Junjo arcades, second-hand racks, tiny izakaya, and the summer dance that owns August. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Koenji Station, south exit
Get out on the south side and you're already in it — the arcade mouth is a few steps from the gates. *Koenji* wears its punk-and-vintage reputation lightly; the place is friendlier than its haircut suggests.

2. Pal shotengai
The covered *shotengai* (covered shopping street) running south from the station — roofed, so it's the wet-weather spine of the walk. Second-hand shops, cheap eats and old family businesses share the same arcade.

3. Look shotengai
Pal runs straight into Look, the open-air continuation, where the vintage gets sharper and the cafés multiply. The two arcades together are a kilometre of browsing if you let them be.

4. Junjo Shotengai
*Junjo* — 'pure love' — is the arcade north of the tracks, named after a local novelist and kept deliberately old-fashioned. This is the *Koenji* that fewer visitors find; the shops lean local rather than thrift-tourist.

5. The izakaya alleys
The lanes around the station are thick with tiny *izakaya* (pub-eateries), many seating eight at a push. Too early to drink? Note the ones with hand-written menus and come back; this is the heart of *Koenji* after dark.

6. Koenji Hikawa-jinja
The local *jinja* (shrine), and the only one in Japan with a sub-shrine to the weather. Quiet, green, a short walk south — a clean full stop before the metro at Shin-Koenji.

Koenji: the old-Tokyo cool