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It’s the old story: karaoke, green tea, huge red knickers and Zimmer frames

IN TOKYO, a city without a geographical centre, glittering sub-districts compete for the title of the heart of the megalopolis. There is Shinjuku, with its giant video screens, skyscrapers and sci-fi Bladerunner sheen. There is Harajuku, where the young and fashionable parade with glazed expressions.

But for an authentic glimpse of future Tokyo, there is only once place to visit: a street of cheap, old-fashioned, but extremely busy shops in the little-known area of the city called Sugamo. Its proper title is Jizo Avenue, after a Buddhist temple halfway down. But it is best known as “Old Biddies’ Harajuku”, after those who patronise it — Japan’s population of astoundingly healthy and alarmingly numerous elderly people. Sugamo is a geriatric playground, an environment carefully calibrated to