Shimokitazawa

This guide to Shimokitazawa traces a Tokyo neighborhood shaped by a highway that never got built. Drawn up in 1946 to cut straight through the district, the road sat forgotten for decades while narrow lanes and cheap rents let a scrappy theater scene take root, starting with a former actor who opened two tiny stages in the early 1980s. Look for the poster walls papered with tonight's show times, tucked into alleys barely wide enough for two people to pass.