Komazawa-Daita Neighborhood Guide

Komazawa Olympic Park was the second venue complex of the 1964 Tokyo Games. It handled soccer, wrestling, field hockey, and volleyball, while the National Stadium in Shinjuku had the opening ceremony and track events. The women's volleyball final was played here, the match where Japan's team, nicknamed Toyo no Majo (the Oriental Witches), beat the Soviet Union for gold. It's still one of the most-watched television broadcasts in Japanese history.

Before the Olympics this was Tokyo Golf Club, the city's first golf course, opened in 1914. In 1922 Crown Prince Hirohito played a round here with Edward, Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII). The course was cleared for the 1940 Olympics, which were cancelled, and after Tokyo won the 1964 bid the site was rebuilt from 1962 to 1964 as a campus of purpose-built sports facilities.

The architect Yoshinobu Ashihara designed the gymnasium and the 50-meter control tower in the central plaza, which held the Olympic flame during the Games. Its stacked horizontal platforms narrow as they rise, borrowing from traditional Japanese timber construction, except it's built in concrete. The concrete was left raw at first and painted white later. If you like mid-century Brutalism, it holds up next to Kenzo Tange's better-known Yoyogi gymnasium, and nobody here is photographing it. The stadium, by Murata Masachika, was finished in 1962, and its main stand uses large triangular consoles to keep the rain off spectators.

The park wasn't reused for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, so its 1960s character survived intact.

Twelve sports facilities run on the grounds today. The 2.1-kilometer jogging course around the edge is busy every morning with residents in worn-in shoes doing their daily loop. Weekends bring families and dogs to the central lawn, and Komazawa University students sit on benches with textbooks and canned coffee. On weekend evenings the tiled central plaza turns into a hangout, with couples on the steps, pickup basketball, and dance groups rehearsing jump-rope routines.

The park covers 41.3 hectares, roughly 30 percent of it green space. The cherry blossoms in late March are lovely and far less crowded than Ueno or the Meguro River. Entry is free, it's open all year, and the jogging course stays lit after dark.

Komazawa University goes back to 1592, when the Soto Zen sect set up a seminary called Sendan-rin at Kichijoji Temple in Surugadai, Edo, to train young monks in Zen practice, Buddhist texts, and the Chinese classics. It changed names several times: Soto-shu Daigakurin Senmon Gakko in 1882, Soto-shu Daigaku in 1905, and finally Komazawa University in 1925, when it became a full university under the imperial university ordinance.

Shunryu Suzuki, the Soto Zen teacher whose book "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" introduced millions of Westerners to Zen, studied at Komazawa before he left for San Francisco in 1959.

The campus is right next to the Olympic park. Its Museum of Zen Culture and History is free and worth a stop even if Zen isn't your thing. The building, Kounkan, was designed by the architect Eizo Sugawara and built in 1928. It looks like a Frank Lloyd Wright prairie church dropped onto a Japanese campus, with strong horizontal lines and burnt brown brick tiles, and nothing like the modern buildings around it.

There are a lot of cafes and bakeries around Komazawa-daigaku Station (Tabelog lists over 30 bakeries nearby), and almost nothing about them exists in English. They cook for the neighborhood, and quality stays high because the same people come in every morning and would notice if it slipped.

Paon Shogetsu (パオン昭月, 2-18-11 Komazawa) started in 1946 as a wagashi shop. Postwar sugar shortages made Japanese sweets impossible to produce, so the owners baked coppe-pan instead, the plain bread loaves that fed Japan while it rebuilt. They never went back. The shop now stocks over 100 kinds of bread and has a retro Showa-era look, with character dolls in the window. The seasonal nama cream anpan (October through May) sells out so fast you need to reserve it. "Shogetsu" comes from the era, and "Paon", French for peacock, was added later to sound less old-fashioned.

Patisserie Naoki (パティスリーナオキ) dates to 1964, the year the Olympics came to Komazawa. During the Games the founder opened Hasebe Yogashiten, a Western-style cake shop a few steps from the park. His son Naoto trained as a pastry chef in Alsace and reopened it under the current name in December 1969. The Komazawa store is a small shop today, mixing traditional French pastries such as Pets de Nonne with the Japanese take on Western sweets his father began with. The chiffon cake has a following.

daco? Komazawa (ダコー? 駒沢) opened on September 11, 2024. It combines two popular brands: daco, from the Fukuoka-based AMAM DACOTAN bakery group, and I'm donut?, a fresh doughnut chain. The shop near the park's west entrance has around 80 kinds of bread, doughnuts, and drinks, welcomes dogs, and has a cafe space to eat in. On weekend mornings the doughnuts go early.

KIKYOYA ORII (桔梗屋織居) opened in Komazawa in late 2023, a new venture from the 19th generation of a wagashi house founded in 1607 in Iga City, Mie Prefecture. This branch focuses on mochigashi, inventive daifuku and ohagi, served with espresso. No English-language guide covers it.

Nobody travels across town to eat near Komazawa-daigaku Station. The food is good and fairly priced, and whoever is at the next table probably lives three blocks away.

adito (アヂト) has been running since 2002 in a three-story standalone house about a 12-minute walk from the station. It's known for the "Otona-sama Lunch" (大人様ランチ), a grown-up version of the okosama lunch, the classic children's meal at Japanese department store cafeterias. It costs 1,200 yen, comes with a little flag and octopus-shaped wieners, and the portions are real. The movie GANTZ, starring Arashi's Ninomiya Kazunari, filmed here, and regulars still ask for the "GANTZ seat." Coffee comes by the pot, and people stay for hours.

KARICOMA (カリコマ, 4-18-18 Komazawa) is a spice curry shop that is also a cafe, done up like a renovated old house. You can get keema, yellow, or a seasonal curry, or two of them on one plate, with toppings like cheese, egg, and fried chicken. There's also chai, craft beer, and a curry bun to take away. Closed Tuesdays.

Plan on roughly 1,000 to 1,500 yen for lunch at most places around the station. Dinner with drinks runs 3,000 to 5,000 yen.

Setagaya-Daita is one stop south of Shimokitazawa on the Odakyu Line, about 12 minutes from Shinjuku. "Daita" comes from Daidarabotchi, a giant in Japanese folklore. A hollow near what is now Moriyama Elementary School filled with rain and spring water in a shape villagers thought looked like a giant's footprint, and the village that grew up around it took the name Daita. The station was just "Daita" until 1946, when it was renamed "Setagaya-Daita" to avoid confusion with other places of the same name.

Daita Hachiman Shrine is in the middle of the neighborhood. Seven former samurai retainers of the Kira clan, lords of Setagaya Castle, founded it in 1591. Their overlords, the Hojo, had been defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, so they took up farming and invited the spirit of Hachiman from the main Setagaya shrine to protect their new village. The torii gate at the entrance dates to 1785, is the second-oldest in Setagaya Ward, and is a ward cultural property. The shrine grounds lost roughly half their area in 1961 when Route 7 (Kan-nana) was widened through the neighborhood.

Today it's quiet and residential, popular with people who want Shimokitazawa's energy nearby without living in the middle of it.

STREAMER COFFEE COMPANY (2-31-12 Daita) opened at Setagaya-Daita Station on March 25, 2017, with its entrance outside the ticket gates. The long, rectangular room has high chairs at the counter, sofa seats, and a big shared wooden table. It's known for latte art and serves doughnuts and homemade sandwiches with the coffee. There are power outlets and Wi-Fi at the counter, and pets are welcome. It opens at 8:00 AM on weekdays and 10:00 AM on weekends and holidays.

Komazawa-daigaku Station is on the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line. From Shibuya it's three stops and five minutes, with no transfers.

Setagaya-Daita Station is on the Odakyu Line, about 12 minutes from Shinjuku.

No train line connects the two stations, but they're close enough for one day with a short bus or taxi ride between them.

The nearest entrance to Komazawa Olympic Park is a 15-minute walk south from the station along Komazawa-dori. The walk takes you through residential streets full of the independent restaurants and shops the area is known for, so take your time.

Combine with Sangenjaya: one stop toward Shibuya on the same Den-en-toshi Line. Do coffee and the park in Komazawa in the morning, then Sangenjaya in the evening for the izakaya alleys of Sankaku Chitai.

Combine with Shimokitazawa: Setagaya-Daita is the very next stop. Start in Shimokitazawa with vintage shopping and lunch, then ride one stop to Setagaya-Daita for afternoon coffee. Shimokitazawa is loud and likes an audience, and Setagaya-Daita is the quiet one.

Combine with Nakameguro: a short bus ride or 20-minute walk from Komazawa. In cherry blossom season, the Meguro River in Nakameguro followed by the quieter trees in Komazawa Olympic Park gives you a full day of hanami without being packed shoulder to shoulder.

Spring, late March to April, for cherry blossoms in the park with a fraction of the crowds at Ueno or the Meguro River. Bring a blanket and something from one of the bakeries.

Autumn, October to November, when the tree-lined paths look their best and you can sit on a cafe terrace all day.

Weekday mornings are good any time of year: the joggers are out, the cafes are quiet, and the park is empty enough that the wind in the trees is the loudest thing around.

Skip summer weekend afternoons, when the park is hot and crowded.

Komazawa and Setagaya-Daita make more sense with some background: the 1964 Olympic architecture, the Zen university's 430-year history, why a bakery born in a sugar shortage still matters to the neighborhood. A guide who lives in this part of Tokyo can tell you why a particular shop matters, or what it says about the area that it has five independent coffee roasters within walking distance.

The Ordinary Tokyo tour is 8 hours, from $550 for 2 people, and covers different sides of residential Tokyo, from Komazawa's quiet park life to the backstreets of older wards. For a broader introduction that mixes residential neighborhoods with the main sights, the Tokyo Essentials tour does that in 6 hours, from $430 for 2 people.

At Hinomaru One, we design private Tokyo tours for first-time and seasoned travelers, unhurried and always built around you.

Is Komazawa Olympic Park worth visiting?

Yes. The 1964 facilities and Ashihara's control tower matter architecturally, but the bigger draw is watching how residents use the place: morning joggers, families with dogs, university students, weekend flea markets. The neighborhoods around it use the park like a shared living room. Entry is free and it's open all year.

How do I get to Komazawa from Shibuya?

Komazawa-daigaku Station is three stops south of Shibuya on the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line, about a five-minute ride. From the station the park is a 15-minute walk south along Komazawa-dori.

Can I combine Komazawa and Setagaya-Daita in one day?

Yes. They're in the same ward and close enough to link with a short bus or taxi ride. A natural plan is the morning at Komazawa Olympic Park and the cafes by the station, then the afternoon in Setagaya-Daita for coffee and the shrine, with the option of carrying on to Shimokitazawa (one stop north).

What is the best time of year to visit Komazawa?

Late March to early April for cherry blossoms (quieter than the famous spots), or October to November for autumn color and comfortable walking weather. Weekday mornings at any time of year show the neighborhood at its most typical. Avoid summer weekend afternoons.

Are there good vegetarian or vegan options near Komazawa?

Mr. FARMER, at the edge of Komazawa Olympic Park, opens at 7:00 AM and has a vegetable-focused menu with vegan options throughout. The morning crowd is runners and dog-walkers, and it makes a good breakfast before a walk in the park.