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Yodobashi Dai 4 Elementary's Secret?
Yodobashi Dai 4 is in Shinjuku ward, right? near the Yotsuya end of things. tbh the tree lore is prob less about the sakura itself and more about the school being one of the few that survived the 1945 firebombing mostly intact, old trees on surviving grounds always pick up stories like that. the kids call it the "negai no ki" and there's a little ritual where you write your wish on a tanzaku during tanabata and tie it to a low branch, which is where the sunset thing comes from since that's when the festival stuff happens. so it's not just a random blossom, but it's not magic either, it's just decades of kids doing kid stuff around one stubborn old tree.
theres a thing locals do that nobody here mentioned, the tree sits on the old 青梅街道 route so before the school existed people used it as a landmark when the road was just dirt. thats where the "older than the school" feeling comes from, its not really about the tree being ancient, its that the spot was a meeting point way before any classroom showed up. cousin's kid is prob picking up on that without knowing why. go look at it on a weekday around 3 when classes let out, the noise and the light together is the actual thing, not the wish ritual.
if ur cousin's kid is actually a student there they can get u in legit, there's a parent visitor pass at the shokuinshitsu for stuff like this. the tree itself is whatever but the reason the wish thing survived is the school merged with dai 2 in the 90s and the alumni association kept doing the tanzaku thing to hold onto some identity. so its less magic tree more old neighborhood memory project.
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Tokyo rent 2026: what are you actually paying?
I pay 128,000 for a 1LDK in Nakano, five minutes from the station, and I moved in last spring. Setagaya has crept up more because of the redevelopment around Futako-Tamagawa. For Levain bread, I'd look at Sasazuka or Daitabashi, one stop from Shinjuku, quieter, and you can walk to the bakery on weekends.
Worth checking the Nanpeidai side too, quiet but close.
Sangenjaya, 138,000 for a 1LDK.
138k tracks for that side of town, though the walk to Komazawa-dori is what really keeps those units priced where they are.
kyodo, 122k, moved this winter