Grandma's Harajuku, and she means business.

Sugamo Station opened in 1903, one of three stations added to the Yamanote loop after planners had to reroute around Sugamo Prison. Long before the railway, this was already a stop: the first rest point on the Nakasendo highway out of Nihonbashi, where travellers heading toward Kyoto paused to shop and eat.

That habit never really stopped. Jizo-dori Shopping Street has earned its nickname "Harajuku for Grandmas" honestly — a flat, easy-to-walk street lined with over 200 shops selling clothing, traditional snacks, and goods aimed squarely at an older crowd, still going strong more than three centuries later.

The street's spiritual anchor is Togenuki Jizo, the "thorn-removing" Jizo enshrined at Koganji Temple. The temple was founded in 1661 and relocated here from Ueno in 1891; the name comes from a story of a woman who swallowed a paper charm bearing the Jizo's image and was cured of an internal ailment. Inside the grounds, a queue forms daily at the Arai Kannon, a statue dating to 1657: visitors wash whichever part of it mirrors their own ache, then press the damp cloth to the spot.

Step off Jizo-dori and you'll find Sugamo's other specialty: red underwear, sold shop after shop as a wearable charm for health and longevity, aimed at visitors over 60. It's not a tourist gimmick — red has been considered a lucky, protective colour in Japan for over a thousand years, and grandmothers here take it seriously.

Pricing note: This is a private tour priced per person. Solo travellers: ¥18,000. Groups of 2–6: ¥15,000 per person.