Little Tokyo

Those searching for a glass, steel and neon vision of downtown Tokyo in London will be disappointed. "The Japanese don't do things that way," laughs Mariko Sasagawa, a local writer. "It's not like Chinatown."

But Little Tokyo is lurking behind the suburban fa?ades. Acton has two Japanese kindergartens and two schools, and the majority of the 1,000-strong Japanese community live on a large Tudor-bethan estate between Ealing Common and West Acton. A number of businesses have sprung up in the area to serve the community, including OCS Books which sells manga comics, a brace of sushi restaurants, the Japanese Recycling Centre, and Atari-Ya Foods (the name loosely translates as 'hit'), a Japanese supermarket next to West Acton Tube.

The genial Mr Sakai has run the business for about ten years, surveying the garish sea of Japanese foodstuffs (Choco Baby, Black Fungus, Hello Kitty Candy, Bean Jelly Cake) from the sushi counter. "Business is OK," he says brightly. "Japanese people are very particular about their food, so we're kept on our toes." This is borne out by a steady stream of mama-sans casting a critical eye over the tuna steaks. If you want some slivers of dried witch for your bento box, there's no better place to come than W3.