North, Tokyo: neighborhood guide

North Tokyo here means three wards: Kita, Itabashi and Nerima. They sit outside the Yamanote loop and run up to the Saitama border. Ikebukuro, on the loop, is the closest thing to a city centre, and most trips into the middle of Tokyo start there.

The streets are residential: low-rise houses, small supermarkets, schools, local shotengai shopping streets and parks rather than department stores. Nerima keeps pockets of farmland and market gardens. Itabashi and Kita are denser and more ordinary, with the JR lines running through them.

Sights are thin on the ground compared with Ueno or Asakusa, but there are a few good half-days: Asukayama Park in Ōji, one of Japan's first public parks and a cherry-blossom spot with about 650 trees; Kyū-Furukawa Teien, a Western-style mansion and rose garden in Nishigahara; and the red Akasuimon floodgate on the Arakawa, a riverside walk rather than a monument.

The big single draw is the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter in Nerima, reached from Ikebukuro on the Seibu Toshima Line to Toshimaen. It needs a timed ticket booked ahead (check).

Yes if the price matters more than the postcode, or if you are travelling with children and want a room bigger than a central business hotel. North Tokyo also works for a long stay, a working trip, or a base for Saitama and the studio tour.

No if this is your first visit and you want to walk out of the hotel into food, bars and sights. Every morning and evening becomes a train ride, and the last trains matter more when you are 30 minutes from the centre. Shinjuku, Chiyoda, Shibuya and Minato put you in the middle of the trip; Ueno and Asakusa are cheaper than those and still central.

A middle option: stay around Ikebukuro, which is in Toshima ward but functions as the gateway to this area, with JR, Seibu, Tōbu and two subway lines under one station.

Food here is everyday Japanese rather than destination dining. Expect station noodle shops, ramen counters, tonkatsu and curry places, izakaya under the tracks, and supermarket food halls with discounted bento in the evening. Ikebukuro, one stop away for most of these wards, has the widest choice.

Nerima has a small farm-to-table streak: a few restaurants and cafés use vegetables grown in the ward, and farmers' markets run on some weekends (check). Itabashi and Kita are known more for old shopping streets and cheap lunch sets than for any single dish.

If you want a proper food evening, plan it in Ikebukuro, Shinjuku or Ueno and take the train home. Note that many small places close by 21:00 and some shut one weekday.

Kita is served by the JR Keihin-Tōhoku line at Tabata, Kami-Nakazato, Ōji, Higashi-Jūjō and Akabane, and by the JR Saikyō line at Itabashi, Jūjō, Akabane, Kita-Akabane and Ukima-Funado. The Namboku subway line reaches Akabane-Iwabuchi and Ōji.

Itabashi is best covered by the Toei Mita line, with a small piece of the Tōbu Tōjō line. Itabashi station on the JR Saikyō line sits in the far southeast corner of the ward, barely inside it.

Nerima is reached on the Toei Ōedo line and on the Seibu Ikebukuro and Seibu Shinjuku lines from Ikebukuro and Seibu-Shinjuku. At Kotake-Mukaihara the Tokyo Metro Yurakuchō line splits, with some trains continuing to Wakō-shi in Saitama and on to the Tōbu Tōjō line, and others running through to the Seibu Ikebukuro line.

From Narita, take the Keisei Skyliner or JR to Nippori and change; from Haneda, the Keikyū line to Shinagawa then JR. Both routes involve at least one change (check). A Suica or PASMO card covers all of these lines and buses.