The Freeter
フリーター (freeter), someone living on flexible work outside the career track.
MICHIKUSA family道草Finds a coffee shop, a park and a random shop nearby and suddenly four hours have disappeared.
Unhurried, flexible and happy letting a neighbourhood occupy the entire day. You like Tokyo one neighbourhood at a time, with no list and nowhere to be.
Your four letters
OffbeatDiscovery
Prefers local, niche, unexpected or lesser-known experiences.
The other side is C, Classic.
SpontaneousPlanning
Likes flexibility, improvisation and changing plans.
The other side is P, Planned.
Tokyo, for an OSZN
Where to stay
Kichijoji or Kiyosumi-Shirakawa. A park, good coffee and everything else on foot.
Kichijoji and Inokashira Park
A pond, a bench, side streets of small shops. That's the day. That's the whole plan.
Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
Coffee roasters, a garden and a quiet canal-side neighbourhood.
Tomigaya and Yoyogi Park
Ten minutes from Shibuya, a different planet.
What to skip
Anything with a timed entry.
Your people, and your problem
MICHIKUSA道草
“The detour is usually the point.”
Michikusa literally means eating the grass by the roadside: what a horse does when it wanders off the route. Michikusa travelers treat the plan as a suggestion and the side street as the destination.
How to travel: Book the bed and almost nothing else. Pick a station you've never heard of, get off, and walk. Tokyo is one of the safest and densest cities on earth to be aimless in.
Not sure this is you?
Two minutes, no wrong answers. Koko works out your four letters and picks places in Tokyo to match.
Take the quiz
koko