If you’d like to experience a quieter side of Tokyo, Hotaka’s house provides a good opportunity. It is situated about 10mins walk away from the Seibuen train station, and an hour on the train from Shibuya/Shinjuku, not entirely inconvenient to get to if you’d like to drop in to do some shopping. There’s a nature park in the neighbourhood where you can spend half a day just wandering around and soaking in the forest energy. Special mention to the sushi bar round the corner from the station. The food there was good and the people there were amazing. Even though my husband and I barely spoke Japanese, and they hardly spoke English, we enjoyed the interaction so much and ended up having a karaoke session with them on our last day! This experience was definitely the highlight of our trip.