Tachikawa Culture Guide: Ballet, Ice, Anime and Art Near the Station

The town that modelled “Academy City”: an anime pilgrimage site becomes an autumn festival

In 2010, the Tachikawa Tourism Association, forerunner of the Tachikawa Tourism and Convention Association, ran its first collaboration with the TV anime A Certain Magical Index. The reason: scenery resembling the city of Tachikawa appears in “Academy City”, where the story is set.

Ten-odd years later, in the 2025 edition of the “88 Anime Spots in Japan You Want to Visit”, chosen by the Anime Tourism Association on the basis of votes by anime fans in Japan and abroad, the city of Tachikawa was selected as the model for “Academy City” for two works: for A Certain Scientific Railgun, for the eighth year running since 2018, and for A Certain Magical Index, for the seventh year running since 2019. The voters are not only people in Japan. Fans across the ocean, too, count Tachikawa among the places they “want to visit”.

The pilgrimage site has become an annual festival as well. According to the association, 2026 is the year the broadcast of the series’ latest anime, Toaru Anbu no Shojo Kyosei (roughly, “A Certain Dark Side: Girls Living Together”) began, and on 14 and 15 November “Regional Promotion of a Certain Municipality 2026” (Toaru Jichitai no Chiiki Shinko) will be held as part of “Tachikawa Rakuichi 2026”, a town fair. The association writes that the event “is becoming one of the sights of autumn in Tachikawa”. On 22 February 2026, the series’ first film concert was scheduled at TACHIKAWA STAGE GARDEN, and the association prepared a “hospitality programme” around town for the fans who came. Hear the anime’s music in the hall, then walk home through a town that resembles the story’s setting. Having the pilgrimage site and the hall within walking distance of each other is a strong hand.

Looking through the list of collaboration goods, it’s hard not to smile. A “Gekota dorayaki” (a pancake sandwich with sweet bean filling) costs 1,340 yen. Quite a bold price for a dorayaki, but then, you’re dealing with Academy City. The names of the clear files include Showa Kinen Park, Sun Sun Road, the monorail, Tachikawa Bus and JR Tachikawa Station. Tachikawa’s everyday scenery is being sold, just as it is, as the backdrop to fans’ favourite characters.

A Certain is not the only series set in Tachikawa. Saint Young Men, in which two gods spend a holiday in a Tachikawa apartment, and the TV anime Kaiju Sekai Seifuku (Kaiju World Conquest), set in the city, and others: the stories of works and their locations are told in this series’ piece on filming locations. The city’s Fifth Culture Promotion Plan calls subculture, beginning with film, manga and anime, “a cultural resource unique to Tachikawa”, and sets out to make active use of it and broadcast it. Being an anime pilgrimage site is now part of the language of the city’s plan.

After the pilgrimage site, I want to talk about the future of the “museum” that has been standing in front of the station for thirty years.

The next thirty years for a museum of 109 works: Faret Tachikawa Art and the underpass murals

In Faret Tachikawa, just north of Tachikawa Station’s North Exit, there are 109 works of public art by 92 artists from 36 countries. The district was completed in 1994 and marked its thirtieth anniversary in October 2024. The mystery of why ventilation shafts and bollards count as art was solved in this series’ piece on Faret Tachikawa Art. Here I will write about its next thirty years.

The city’s plan places Faret Tachikawa Art at the core of its “the whole town is a museum” vision, and writes that, as a body of work of worldwide value, it must be protected and handed down. It is not only the city that protects it. The owners of the district’s buildings, the citizens’ group Faret Club, and the Faret Tachikawa Art Management Committee, made up of the city and others, have been responsible for maintaining and conserving the works. Faret Club is a volunteer group born in 1997 that has kept up cleaning the works and running guided tours.

The big event of its year is “Faret Tachikawa Art Museum Day”. In 2026 it falls on 12 October. From 6 October, a special exhibition in the first-floor gallery of the I’m Women’s Centre will show works made by fifth-year pupils from municipal primary schools after their art-appreciation visits, prize-winners from a photo contest chosen from 130 entries, an archive of concept drawings and film records from the planning stage, and works by students of Musashino Art University. On the day itself there is also a “Theatre Parade”, in which giant puppets process down Sun Sun Road.

I want to say a little more about the appreciation classes. Every year since 2008, the city has run “Primary School Faret Tachikawa Art Appreciation Classes” for fifth-year pupils at all 19 municipal primary schools, and so far more than 10,000 children in total have toured their local art. Members of Faret Club guide them, and the children see about 45 works. In the minutes of the city’s culture promotion committee, one member says they often see groups of a few primary-school children going round on the deck, and that it is remarkable to think every primary-school child in the city ends up seeing the works. A child who grew up in Tachikawa may, as an adult, be able to name the country of the artist who made a bollard by the station.

Art spreads below the station too. “Art Brut Tachikawa”, which presents works by artists with disabilities, began in 2015 with an exhibition at Isetan Tachikawa and has gone on exhibiting every year at places around the city since. The walls of the East Underpass at Tachikawa Station have been brightened with murals by Art Brut artists. On the walls of an underpass you hurry through every day, someone’s “raw art” is painted.

“Tachikawa Sozosha”, which uses the school building of the former Tamagawa Primary School, is another workshop for Tachikawa’s culture to come. The school closed in 2004; its building and gym were kept as they were, and in October 2015 it opened as a culture factory “beside the Tama River, with a view of Mount Fuji”. The “Tachikawa Theatre Project”, a partnership of the city, its local cultural promotion foundation and Sozosha, has since 2016 continued a series of stage shows for children and adults to enjoy together around Christmas; the ninth was The Town Musicians of Bremen. Since fiscal 2022 there has also been a “citizens’ creative seminar” for residents who want to make theatre themselves. Turning people who watch into people who make: a mechanism with that much in its sights is running inside an old school.

So with what words is the city bundling these movements together, and where is it trying to lead them? Let me open the city’s plan.

What does the city’s arts plan aim for? Reading the Fifth Culture Promotion Plan

Tachikawa first drew up a culture plan in fiscal 1995. The “Tachikawa City Culture Promotion Plan”, covering fifteen years from fiscal 1996, consisted of 100 action programmes spanning the whole of the city’s administration, from welfare and the environment to urban development, education and industry. Counting from there, the current plan is the fifth.

The “Tachikawa City Fifth Culture Promotion Plan” runs for five years, from fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2029. Its purpose, it says, is to let everyone experience culture and the arts close to home and to support a wide range of cultural and artistic activity. Beyond that, it pictures a cycle in which culture and the arts permeate daily life and citizens’ wellbeing and the vitality of the area lift each other up.

There are four pillars, each given a name in soft hiragana script: “touch, enjoy”, “nurture, support”, “convey, deliver”, and “connect, spread”. According to the plan’s secretariat, the new elements this time are strengthening the system for advice and support for cultural and artistic activity, and considering what a “culture and arts coordinator (provisional name)” should be. The coordinator is a role that links the community with artists, and citizens with companies and universities, and ties culture and the arts to welfare, education and the environment. It is still at the “provisional name” stage; what kind of person will be placed where is left to future discussion.

Another thing that catches the eye is how the plan cut back its yardsticks. The previous, fourth plan set 14 outcome indicators, but they were badly shaken by the COVID-19 restrictions, and by the end of fiscal 2023 only 6 of the 14 had reached their targets. The fifth plan narrows the indicators to two. “The share of citizens who regularly have opportunities to experience culture and the arts”, from 50.3% to 53.0%. “The number of events co-hosted with citizens’ groups active in culture and the arts”, from 15 to 18. Fewer numbers, sharper aim. It sounds a bit like a diet manual, but compared with getting lost trying to measure what can’t be measured, it may be an honest choice.

The plan also includes work on the city’s history. Under a plan running from fiscal 2015 to fiscal 2028 (Reiwa 10), Tachikawa is compiling a “New Edition of the History of Tachikawa City”. (Reiwa is the current era, which began in 2019.) About fifty years have passed since the last city history was published, and the townscape has changed greatly.

The plan does not say everything is going smoothly. Read the minutes of the city’s culture promotion committee and the points of contention come into focus. A voice saying the targets for children’s and students’ participation were not met, and that, given the falling birth rate, the targets may need revising. The city’s explanation that space to keep the materials for the city history is running short. A report that, just as citizen writers had multiplied and the publicity had begun to run well, the budget could no longer keep up. And a committee member’s point that art, especially fine art, would not even qualify if measured by concrete indicators like those used to assess grants, and that a culture becomes rich precisely by scooping up what is not understood and what is new. How to protect what cannot be measured by numbers while running a plan by numbers: that question is probably not Tachikawa’s alone.

The same minutes also record an opinion that turning attention to travellers from overseas might be a way to increase the number of people joining Faret Tachikawa Art tours. There was also a voice saying that the area needs to work with neighbouring cities and put out information that brings people in as a region. So, for people coming from across the ocean, how within reach is Tachikawa’s culture?

For visitors from abroad: from the airport to Tachikawa, and walking it in English

From Haneda Airport to Tachikawa Station, Tachikawa Bus and Keikyu Bus run the “Haneda Airport Line” express bus, which stops at both the North and South Exits of Tachikawa Station. According to Tachikawa Bus, the adult fare is 2,000 yen. You can reach the front of the station without hauling big luggage from train to train.

On the third floor of ecute Tachikawa, the shopping zone in Tachikawa’s station building, is one of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s tourist information centres. Of the six in Tokyo, this is the one in Tama, and it is open every day of the year. You can pick up a map of Faret Tachikawa Art here too. TACHIKAWA STAGE GARDEN has English information pages, which say it is 8 minutes’ walk from the North Exit of Tachikawa Station. According to its Japanese pages, it is about 25 minutes from Shinjuku on the Chuo Line Special Rapid.

The artists of Faret Tachikawa Art number 92, from 36 countries. A traveller from overseas walking in front of the station may come across a work by an artist from their own country, in the shape of a bollard or a ventilation shaft. Tripping over the art of your homeland outside a foreign station: a reunion with rather a lot of flavour, don’t you think?

The city is working on a “Future Vision for the Tachikawa Station Area (provisional name)” to sketch the future of the area around the station. As background to that work, the city wrote that Tachikawa lies midway between transport hubs such as Tokyo Station and Haneda Airport and the nature and sightseeing spots of Mount Fuji, Mount Takao and Okutama, and can be expected to play the role of a “gateway”. From the airport, through central Tokyo, and on the way to the mountains, spend a night in Tachikawa and hear a concert. A trip put together like that is still only my own idea, but on the map it works perfectly well.

The mystery solved: why do dancers aiming at the world come to Tachikawa?

Back to the question at the start. Why did children aiming at the world dance on the grand steps of Tachikawa?

The documents allow three answers. The first is that the vessels are here. A hall of about 2,500 seats, an international-size rink with a 1,000-seat stand, and an arena for 3,000 people, all within a few monorail stops of each other. The second is that there are people who make them work. It was the Tachihi group that invited the Japan round of an international competition, and that has worked with the college and the city to put on a concert for children three years running. The third is that the city wrote into an ordinance that “the bearers of culture are the citizens”, and has run its plans through five editions. Vessels, people and systems. Had any one of them been missing, Swan Lake in front of the fountain would probably never have happened.

From here on, this is my own view. What makes Tachikawa’s culture interesting is that “the world” and “close to home” always happen on the same weekend, within walking distance. Next to the venue of an international competition, a free plaza welcomes families. Past overseas fans touring the anime pilgrimage sites walk fifth-year pupils touring Faret Tachikawa Art. The city’s plan writes “for everyone, close to home”; Tachihi’s announcement writes “opportunities to encounter the real thing”. The two phrases seem to face different directions, but they meet up in front of the same station.

Tachikawa is sometimes called a plain town. But in Tachikawa this autumn, dancers aiming at the world leap on the grand steps, children kick off across the ice at Mao Asada’s rink, and fans of Academy City are waiting for their festival. One train on the Chuo Line from Shinjuku, one train on the Nambu Line from Kawasaki. Come and see one performance in Tachikawa some weekend. On the train home, your impression of this town will have shifted a little.

Quiz answer

The answer is A, udo inari. It is listed as a collaboration item at 800 yen on the Tachikawa Tourism and Convention Association’s page for “Regional Promotion of a Certain Municipality”. B, udo pie, is a Tachikawa speciality certified as one of the “Tachikawa no Taikoban” (Tachikawa’s officially recommended souvenirs), but it doesn’t appear in the list of collaboration goods. Even residents of Academy City eat udo when they come to Tachikawa.

Before you go

• TACHIKAWA STAGE GARDEN: N1, 3-3 Midoricho, Tachikawa, Tokyo. 8 minutes’ walk from JR Tachikawa Station, 7 minutes from Tachikawa-Kita Station on the Tama Monorail. About 25 minutes from Shinjuku Station on the JR Chuo Line Special Rapid or Ome Special Rapid (according to the official site). For performance schedules see the official site: https://www.t-sg.jp/ (English: https://www.t-sg.jp/en/ )
• MAO RINK TACHIKAWA TACHIHI: 935-1 Izumicho, Tachikawa, Tokyo. 5 minutes’ walk from Tachihi Station on the Tama Monorail. Check skating sessions and prices on the official site: https://maorink.com/
• Faret Tachikawa Art: the district just north of the North Exit of JR Tachikawa Station. Museum Day in 2026 is on 12 October (according to the city): https://www.city.tachikawa.lg.jp/kanko/bunka/1003079/1003104/1025242.html
• “Regional Promotion of a Certain Municipality 2026”: scheduled for 14 and 15 November 2026 as part of “Tachikawa Rakuichi 2026” (according to the Tachikawa Tourism and Convention Association). Latest details: https://tokyo-tachikawa.org/toaru/
• Two December concerts: 12 December, “Special Concert for the Grown-ups of the Future”; 19 December, “TACHIKAWA Sound of CHRISTMAS 2026”. Both at TACHIKAWA STAGE GARDEN. For tickets and programmes see Tachihi Holdings’ announcements: https://www.tachihi.co.jp/news-release/
• From Haneda Airport: the “Haneda Airport Line” express bus stops at the North and South Exits of Tachikawa Station. Check times and fares on Tachikawa Bus’s official site: https://www.tachikawabus.co.jp/highway/haneda/
• From Kanagawa: the JR Nambu Line runs from Kawasaki Station to Tachikawa Station without a change.
• Combine with: GREEN SPRINGS, home of STAGE GARDEN, is across from Showa Kinen Park, and Faret Tachikawa Art lies on the way from the station to the hall. Listen in the hall, rest in the park, look at the art by the station on the way back, and you have half a day’s cultural walk.
• General tips: carry an IC card such as Suica or PASMO for trains, buses and the monorail, and check opening days on the official sites before you go.

After the show, at Tachikawa Station’s North Exit

During a concert, people hold their bodies more tensely than they realise. Hands clenched ready to applaud, breath held waiting for the last note. In the eight minutes’ walk from the hall to the station, you can feel your back gradually loosening.

A one-minute walk from the North Exit of JR Tachikawa Station, on the third floor of the Etoile Building at 2-14-10 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, Tokyo, is On the Shore Tachikawa (オンザショア立川店). It is a hot yoga studio with heated lava-stone floors, and it also offers room-temperature yoga, Pilates, women-only kickboxercise, boxercise, HIIT and personal training, with more than 25 kinds of yoga lessons.

It is open every day from 8:00 to 23:30, so there is time to drop in after a matinee or before an evening show.

For first-timers there is a trial yoga lesson for ¥1,980 including tax, with two bath towels, one face towel and mat rental included, so you can come with nothing but your ticket and your wallet.

Pregnant guests cannot join lava-stone hot yoga, but room-temperature maternity yoga is available. Many of our yoga instructors speak English, and the studio’s owner, Naomi Fujita, often helps guests from the US bases in English herself. She holds Eiken Grade 1 and a perfect TOEIC score, once worked as a translator and overseas interpreter at Nomura Securities, and lived in Alaska for three years. If you don’t speak Japanese, just mention it when you book.

• On the Shore: https://ontheshore.jp/
• Book a trial lesson: https://site.locaop.jp/C0aVK?_src=hp

After watching people leap on a stage, stretch your own body with your own breath. In a town of culture to watch, step round, just for a little while at the end, to the side that performs.

Cover photo: The front of TACHIKAWA STAGE GARDEN, with a colourful sculpture of stacked numbers before its glass wall (Photo: Kakidai / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons)

Information as of October 2026.

More Tachikawa Walks

• Tachikawa Air Raids: WWII History and a Memorial Walk Guide
• Tachikawa Autumn Leaves Guide: Ginkgo, Zelkova and Where to Walk
• Tachikawa Base Town History: Cola Bottles, Yuming, the Laundry Gate
• Tachikawa Air Base History Walk: The Sunagawa Struggle and After
• Tachikawa Sento Guide: Public Baths, Their History and Bath Etiquette
• Tachikawa Disaster Base and Life Safety Learning Center: A Guide
• Tachikawa Bridges Walk: ‘Nameless Bridge’ to a Double-Deck Crossing
• Tachikawa Cinema City Guide: Tokyo’s First Multiplex and Its Big Sound
• Tachikawa Museums Guide: Art, 2,558 Instruments and Things to Do
• Tachikawa Cycling Guide: Showa Kinen Park’s 14 km and the Tama River
• Tachikawa Festivals Guide: Bon Dances, Flamenco, Nebuta and Yokai
• Tachikawa History Walk: Famous People, from Seiji Ozawa to a Comet
• Tachikawa History Walk: Famous People Who Passed Through the Town
• Tachikawa Public Art Walk: A Guide to the 109 Works of Faret Tachikawa
• Tachikawa Farms Guide: Farm Stands, Harvest Days and Tokyo’s Fields
• Tachikawa History: Japan’s Firsts, from Electric Cars to Sazae-san
• Tachikawa Folktales and Legends: A History Walk Through Old Stories
• Tachikawa Walk: Fusai-ji Temple’s National Treasure and Suwa Shrine
• Tachikawa Business Guide: Where West Tokyo Works and Starts Up
• Tachikawa’s Green Future: Zero Carbon, Farmland and Springs Guide
• Tachikawa for Foreign Visitors: Haneda Bus, Things to Do, Future
• Tachikawa Population and Family Life: A Guide to the Town’s Future
• Tama Monorail Extension: When It Opens and Tachikawa’s Future Guide
• Tachikawa and Tokyo’s Next Big Earthquake: Disaster Base Guide
• Showa Kinen Park Guide: The Future of Tachikawa’s Unfinished Park
• Tachikawa Station Redevelopment: A Guide to the Future Station Area
• Tachikawa’s Next Decade: Tachihi, GREEN SPRINGS and a New Hotel Guide
• Tachikawa GREEN SPRINGS Guide: Goats, a Rooftop River, Things to Do
• Tachikawa Travel Guide: Things to Do, Walks and History West of Tokyo
• Tachikawa Walk: Slopes, River Terraces and a Flat City’s Hidden Tilt
• Tachikawa History Walk: How a Mulberry Village Became Tama’s Hub
• Tachikawa Airfield History: The 2:12 a.m. Flight to London, 1937
• Tachikawa Was Once in Kanagawa: A History Walk to the 1893 Transfer
• Tachikawa Keirin Velodrome: History, Guide and the Grand Prix’s Home
• Tachikawa Childhood History: Candy Shops, a Base Christmas, Showa Kids
• Tachikawa Aviation Shrine History: The First ‘Tokyo Airfield’ Walk
• Showa Kinen Park Guide: Komorebi Village, Japanese Garden and Bonsai
• Tachikawa Libraries Guide: Raccoon Dogs, Lucky Cats, Local History
• Tachikawa Live Music Guide: Basement Venues and Where TM Meant Tama
• Tachikawa Manga Park Guide: 40,000 Manga in a Former City Hall
• Tachikawa Fireworks Festival Guide: History, Tips and Things to Do
• Akishima Day Trip from Tachikawa: Whale Fossil, Wisteria and History
• Fussa Day Trip from Tachikawa: Yokota Air Base History, Route 16 Walk
• Fussa Sake Brewery Walk: Day Trip from Tachikawa, Water and History
• Hachioji Castle Ruins from Tachikawa: History Walk and Silk Town Guide
• Mount Takao Day Trip from Tachikawa: Hiking Guide, History and Forest
• Hino Day Trip from Tachikawa: Shinsengumi History Walk and Guide
• Kokubunji Walk from Tachikawa: Otaka-no-Michi Springs and History
• Kunitachi Walk from Tachikawa: Daigaku-dori, History and Yaho Tenmangu
• Mount Mitake Day Trip from Tachikawa: Wolf Shrine, Valley Walk Guide
• Ome Day Trip from Tachikawa: Showa Retro Walk, Things to Do, History
• Tachikawa Walk: Nekawa Green Path to the Tama River, a Riverside Guide
• Tachikawa Cat-Return Shrine Guide: History, Ema and Suitengu
• Tachikawa Night Views and Mount Fuji at Dawn: A Walking Guide
• Tachikawa at Night: Bar Alleys, Black Markets and Cinema History Walk
• Tachikawa Ramen and Udon Guide: Ramen Square and Noodle History
• Tachikawa vs. Central Tokyo: Why the West Side Wins on Space and Sky
• Tachikawa Old Villages Walk: History Guide, Shibasaki to Nishisuna
• Tachikawa Oni Park Guide: A Red Demon Slide and Trains for Kids
• Tachikawa Parks Guide: Things to Do Beyond Showa Kinen Park, a Walk
• Tachikawa Place Names: A History Walk Through Its Town-Name Origins
• Tachikawa Antarctic and Arctic Science Museum: Free Guide and History
• Tachikawa on a Rainy Day: Indoor Things to Do, a Local Guide
• Tachikawa History Museum Guide: Local History and Folklore, Free
• Tachikawa Cherry Blossoms Guide: Where to See Sakura, and the History
• Tachikawa Schools Walk: History of Night Classes, Bells, Antarctica
• Tachikawa Filming Locations Guide: Anime Pilgrimage and TV Dramas
• Tachikawa Silk History Walk: Japan’s No.1 Mulberry Village, Sunagawa
• Tachikawa Shopping Guide: Why It Has Everything, a History Walk
• Showa Kinen Park, Tachikawa: A Walking Guide to Highlights and History
• Tachikawa and San Bernardino: The History of Tokyo’s First Sister City
• Tachikawa Souvenirs Guide: What to Buy, from Tokyo Sake to Paper
• Tachikawa Sports Guide: Things to Do for Fans, Runners and Walkers
• Tachikawa Station Guide: The History Walk of Tama’s Busiest Station
• Tachikawa in Summer: Things to Do, Water Play and Heat Tips Guide
• Tachikawa Sun Sun Road Walk: History, Festival and Winter Lights
• Tachikawa Tachihi History Walk: Aircraft, a Beach and Things to Do
• Tachikawa History: The Samurai Clan Behind the City’s Name, a Walk
• Tama Monorail from Tachikawa: A Guide to Views, Mt. Fuji and History
• Tachikawa Tama River History Walk: Floods, Ferries and Bridges
• Tachikawa Walk: Tamagawa Aqueduct and Sunagawa History Guide
• Tachikawa Udo Guide: History of Tokyo’s Underground White Vegetable
• Tachikawa Trains Guide: Railway History and Where to Watch Trains
• Tachikawa Water History: Where the Tap Water Comes From, and Wells
• Tachikawa History: Why Tokyo’s First IKEA and Cinema Complex Came Here
• Tachikawa Wildlife Guide: Birdwatching, Fireflies and Tanuki Walks
• Tachikawa Yagawa Green Space Walk: Springs, Hake Cliffs and History
• Tachikawa from Yokota Air Base: A Weekend Guide and Things to Do

All Tachikawa Walks (English)