A great big, and adorable, reason to brave getting lost inside Ikebukuro Station.

Shibuya and Shinjuku are usually the names that come up when people are talking about the most massive, labyrinthianly confusing train station in Tokyo. Shibuya Station’s floorplan, after all, has even been used as the map for a dungeon crawler RPG video game.

However, I’ve always thought that the true title of Tokyo’s most difficult station to navigate should go to Ikebukuro. Eight different train and subway lines, managed by four separate companies, pass through Ikebukuro, so the place in unavoidably big and complex. What really makes it easy to get lost in Ikebukuro Station, though is how the layout is made up primarily of long, straight subterranean corridors that look almost identical and have few intersections. It’s very hard to visually distinguish one passageway from another, and if you screw up and head down the wrong one, it’s probably going to be a long time until you can switch to another and correct course.

Really, the place could do with a few more big, easily recognizable landmarks, and thankfully three have just been added.

Yes, there’s now a gigantic Chiikawa hanging out in Ikebukuro Station. If something about the beloved character and this part of Tokyo rings a bell, it’s because July 28 was the grand opening of Chiikawa Park, a new Chiikawa-themed mini amusement park/immersive space inside Ikebukuro’s Sunshine City entertainment complex, located just a short walk from Ikebukuro Station (once you find your way out of the station, anyway).

To celebrate Chiikawa Park’s opening, giant statues of Chiikawa and pals Hachiware and Usagi have been placed around pillars in the station’s Azalea Road passageway. Since they’re part of the station, the trio can be visited morning, noon, or night, as long as trains are running and the station entrances are open.

▼ Azalea Road is in the east side of Ikebukuro Station, and is located outside the ticket gates, so you can go say hi to Chiikawa even if you’re not actually hopping on a train at the moment.

However, Chiikawa and friends are only going to be serving as Ikebukuro Station landmarks for a limited time, as the statues will only be in place until August 10, which means there’s just enough time to find your way to the station to them if you start ASAP.

Related: Chiikawa Park official website
Source, images: Chiikawa Park
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