I have been living in Shinjuku ward, Yochomachi neighborhood for about 6 years. It’s my fifth apartment since I moved to japan 11 years ago. Despite its location (center of Shinjuku ward, inside the yamanote line circle and close to Shinjuku sanchome and Kabukicho) Yochomachi district and wakamatsu kawada station is not a popular area of Tokyo; there is nothing here to catch the attention of a tourist; it’s mainly a residential area for families. The district is mainly known for its hospitals. There are 3 big hospitals (Tokyo women’s medical university hospital, the National center for global health and medicine and the Red cross headquarter); there are also many clinics of all types and drugstores and therefore many doctors are living in the area.
The weird thing is that due to the proximity with Kabukicho (red light district and clubs district area) this is also a district where many escorts are living. You can see them (very recognizable looking) living their apartments after dinner time to get a taxi towards Kabukicho.

Other than hospitals, Wakamatsu Kawada station is known because it’s the location of the most famous Spanish restaurant in Tokyo: Ogasawara hakushakutei (http://www.ogasawaratei.com/en/rest/).
The restaurant is right behind the station exit building. It’s impossible not to notice the restaurant because the building has nothing to do with the surrounding. The complex is quite big, considering building and the surrounding garden. The restaurant is a Spanish colony style building with a beautiful courtyard and a an enormous tree near the entrance. Despite the traditional Spanish looking façade, the building does not look kitsch at all but rather elegant and well placed.
Right next to the entrance near the beautiful big tree there is the entrance to the café.
My wife Yuri had the pleasure to have dinner at this restaurant a couple of time for work and she was extremely satisfied about it from the appetizers till the desserts and the wine selections … and I always trust her opinion about food! It’s not cheap though: it’s around 15’000 -20’000 Yen a person for a dinner course but apparently it’s worth it! For sure there are not many building like this in the entire Japan.

Do you like bread? Me and My wife do love bread! I tell you this because we got lucky in living in a neighborhood where there are 2 great bakery shops so that we are never out of good bread:
Tedukurinopammineya bakery on Maneki street and Bakery Donsuke .
They are not simple shops; they are mainly bread laboratories and mainly they produce breads for other restaurants. None of them are fancy shops and they do not have table, stools or just a place where eventually seat to consume the bread that you have just bought. I suggest you to take a visit to them if you are a bread lover like us.
Yuri’s favorite is Bakery donsuke but I personally prefer the one in Maneki street.

What else? Well on the way to Akebonobashi we do have apparently a famous yakitori place (Yakiniku Hiromiya: https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1309/A130903/13177366/)… famous enough that we never managed to get a table there ... We will try soon or later and we will give you our personal opinion about it ;) Right before there is one of the best ramen restaurant in tokyo (top best ramen in Tokyo 2016 and 2018). The name is “Noodle house Chitose” or “MenanChitose” (https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1305/A130504/13182327/). It’s a bit hidden and it’s not located in a street where many people pass by but it is definitely worth a visit if you are around and you love ramen like myself.
There is also another ramen restaurant in at the nukebenten crossing; it’s a curry Tsukemen ramen, (https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1304/A130401/13131036/). It’s a bit heavy but the spicy tsukemen ramen is really good.
Additionally we have also a good old style sushi place with a reasonable price (https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1304/A130401/13058678/). We go there very often…. or at least we used to before the Covid.

As we said the district is mainly a residential area and therefore we do have a lot of pet-salon, coin laundries, supermarkets and playground. Some of them are truly beautiful.

On the neighborhood there is also a traditional tatami shop (one of these days I might ask to the old guys who owns the place for an interview; it would be nice to make a video about his work). It’s right in front of our apartment. We got also a decent pizza place despite the weird name: Panda pizza (https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1305/A130504/13199481/).
In 15 min walking distance there is also my favorite bar in the area: Jeremiah ( https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1066457-d15668529-Reviews-Jeremiah-Shinjuku_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html) .

Within 20 min walking you are in center Shinjuku or at Kagurazaka.

*Here above a photo of a cocktail from Jeremiah bar in Shinjuku, my favorite bar in the area.*

Additionally we got even some interesting temples and shrines around. At the Nukebenten crossing there is a very small but extremely nice one with a little water basin with some colorful carps.
Another one is accessible from the Maneki street on the way to Higashi Shinjuku station. It’s particularly nice during the night and the best way to approach it it’s probably from the Higashi Shinjuku side by the steep entrance stairs. The other one is called Kokoku-ji and its closed to the Ushigome Yanagicho station. Before the old pavilion there is a new building with hundreds of little buddhas lighted with different colors. All of them are worth a visit.