Nakano Tokyo: Broadway, Maguro Mart & How to Get There

Nakano is a good area for seeing a shopping street, a park and a decent meal in one trip, with Nakano Broadway at the centre of it.

It is close enough to Shinjuku that an afternoon is plenty, so the shopping route through Broadway, a walk through Central Park and Shikinomori Park, and dinner at the tuna restaurant Maguro Mart all fit into one outing.

What kind of neighbourhood Nakano is

Nakano is a neighbourhood in western Tokyo, close to Shinjuku but with a completely different feel. The best known place here is Nakano Broadway. Figures, manga, second-hand goods and the Mandarake stores are all gathered here, which is why it comes up so often as a Tokyo subculture destination.

Broadway is not the whole of Nakano, though. The shopping street running from the north exit of Nakano Station is lined with restaurants and shops, and a little further on you reach parks like Nakano Central Park and Shikinomori Park.

Fitting shopping, subculture and a walk into one day's route is the biggest draw of a trip to Nakano.

Getting to Nakano: lines, exit and the route to Broadway

Nakano is in western Tokyo, under 10 minutes from Shinjuku by train.

Nakano Station is served by the JR Chuo Line and Chuo-Sobu Line as well as the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line, and Nakano Broadway and the Sun Mall shopping street are both on the north exit side.

Nakano Broadway: the shopping town that starts at Sun Mall

Nakano Sun Mall (中野サンモール)

Come out of the north exit of Nakano Station and you are at Nakano Sun Mall, a covered arcade. Follow it for about five minutes and you reach the entrance to Nakano Broadway.

📍 Nakano Sun Mall on Google Maps

Nakano Broadway (中野ブロードウェイ)

Nakano Broadway opened in 1966 as a mixed commercial and residential building. It was not built as a subculture complex. In 1980 the second-hand manga specialist Mandarake started here in a space of about two tsubo, other collector shops followed, and that is how it became the place it is known as now.

📍 Nakano Broadway on Google Maps

Mandarake Nakano (まんだらけ 中野店)

Mandarake is the subculture store most associated with Nakano Broadway.

It is split across several spaces from the first floor to the fourth. The second floor has genre-specific shops including the card hall, cosplay hall, film-still hall and LIVE hall; the third floor holds the main store and the buying counter; the fourth has the animation hall and the collector hall. The shops are bigger and more spread out than you expect, so on a first visit it helps to check the floor guide before you start walking.

📍 Mandarake Nakano on Google Maps (12:00 to 20:00)

Second-hand watch shops

Vintage and second-hand luxury watches are another part of Nakano Broadway worth seeing. The second and third floors have specialist shops handling brands like Rolex, Omega, Seiko and Patek Philippe.

Stock and prices on expensive watches move a lot, and the terms for tax-free purchase, warranty and condition checks can differ from shop to shop. If you are actually buying, check stock and warranty terms before you go, and go over the item's condition and what accessories come with it carefully in the shop.

Daily Chiko (デイリーチコ)

On basement floor one of Broadway is Daily Chiko, known for its soft serve. It was selected for the Tabelog Sweets TOKYO 100, and if you go for the extra-large size you get eight flavours at once. Cash only, so bring some.

📍 Daily Chiko on Google Maps (opens 10:00)

A walk around Nakano Station: Central Park and Shikinomori Park

After you are done shopping in Nakano Broadway, walk north of the station towards the parks. The atmosphere changes completely.

📍 Nakano Central Park and Shikinomori Park on Google Maps

Nakano Central Park and Nakano Shikinomori Park are two green spaces that run into each other. You can walk there from the north exit of Nakano Station, and the area around them holds the Nakano ward office, a university campus, offices, cafes and restaurants.

The restaurants and cafes around the parks are a good place to sit for a while looking at the greenery. I ordered the Peach Peach Milk Frappuccino, the Japanese Starbucks summer seasonal drink.

Events are sometimes held around the parks at weekends. The day I went there was a Taiwanese culture festival on, and coming across it in a park in the middle of Tokyo made for an unusual scene.

Nakano Sun Plaza, the landmark that stood in front of Nakano Station, closed in July 2023 and is now waiting on redevelopment.

Maguro Mart: good value tuna in Nakano

The last stop of the day is Maguro Mart, a tuna izakaya that works well for dinner after Nakano Broadway and the walk through the parks.

Maguro Mart works with fresh bluefin tuna and puts it on the menu in a lot of forms. Beyond sashimi there is yukhoe, sushi, simmered dishes, tempura, grilled dishes and rice bowls. For a specialist tuna restaurant the prices are reasonable.

If you have not booked, the only option is to be there when it opens. I got there about 10 minutes before opening on a weekend and was shown up to the second floor with no wait.

Maguro Mart signature single dishes

Maguro Mart has both single dishes and courses. The figure in brackets is the tax-included price.

The otoshi at Maguro Mart is sushi. Two pieces per person came out, and for a 440 yen otoshi it did not feel like money wasted.

Maguro Mart asks for one alcoholic drink or soft drink per person. The staff recommended the Honmaguro junmai ginjo on our visit (1,380 yen per go).

First was the Maguro Mart mori, six cuts of tuna in one plate (1,180 yen per person). I ordered it because it starts the course, and the tuna was thick, springy and sweet. It needs two people minimum.

Second was the maguro yukhoe, mixed with egg, spring onion and sesame oil (880 yen). It has something of beef yukhoe about it while keeping the soft texture particular to tuna, which makes it work as a drinking dish.

To finish we went with rice and chose the aburi torotaku (炭火炙りとろたく) in the half size (980 yen). Charcoal-seared tuna, pickled radish and vegetables to roll in nori, and for two people the half size was enough to share.

Maguro Mart courses

If you want the signature dishes in one go, there are courses.

• Maguro standard course (3,780 yen): maguro yukhoe, maguro sushi, Maguro Mart mori, simmered tuna, bluefin nakaochi, sushi rice and nori, tuna miso soup
• Maguro premium course (4,480 yen): the standard course with a sea urchin dish added

※ These prices are before tax.

Tuna and sake for two came to 7,040 yen including tax. For the quality and the amount of tuna that was a reasonable price, and if your plan runs through to dinner in Nakano this is the one I would recommend.

A Nakano route: our recommended half day

Nakano keeps a friendly back-street look that is hard to believe given how close it is to Shinjuku. An afternoon covers Nakano Broadway shopping, the subculture browsing, a walk in the parks and dinner at Maguro Mart.

We recommend Nakano as a half-day route that runs from afternoon into evening. Look around Nakano Broadway and Sun Mall first, take a break in Central Park and Shikinomori Park, then move on to Maguro Mart in the evening. That order flows best.

If you want a longer day, pair Koenji in the morning with Nakano in the afternoon. Koenji has plenty of vintage shops and local restaurants, and it is close to Nakano while feeling like a different place.

At night you can head back to Shinjuku for Omoide Yokocho or Golden Gai. Enjoy the local feel in Nakano, then carry on into Tokyo's night side in Shinjuku, and the day's route works naturally.

👉 Koenji Tokyo: 100+ Vintage Shops & Where to Eat

👉 Koenji Tensuke: Tamago Lunch, Menu & Wait Times

👉 Golden Gai vs Omoide Yokocho: Which Shinjuku Alley?

If you want to see a local side of Tokyo rather than the famous sights, Nakano is a good neighbourhood to slot in as a half-day plan.