Kagurazaka

Known by many as ‘little Paris’ due to its significant French presence, Kagurazaka is in fact a very old dining district closed to Iidabashi Station. There you will find many fantastic little restaurants, French or not, as well as some upscale restaurants and ryotei hidden in the many, small backstreets.

Besides its many restaurants and French community, another of Kagurazaka’s unique particularities is that the flow of traffic in its main, one-way street, switches from one direction to the opposite one, depending on the hour of the day. The reason for that, according to many people living in Tokyo, is due to the many visits of a former Japanese Prime Minister to his mistress, who was living in the area. It was decided at that time to change the street direction in order to ease the comings and goings of the Prime Minister to and from her house.