There is more to Jiyugaoka than meets the eye. Off the main streets, for example, it is quite common to suddenly come across chic French restaurants and other unexpected delights. Just past one of the area's old shrines, meanwhile, lies a shopping complex modeled on the city of Venice, featuring a canal surrounded by Italian-style buildings and even a gondola that was ordered especially from Italy. When night falls, and the buildings are reflected on the surface of the canal, you could easily be forgiven for thinking you really were in Italy.

Jiyugaoka has been described as an open-air shopping center, because in the small area surrouding the station there are some 1,500 shops of one sort or another. One unique feature is that none of these is a vast superstore of the kind that dominates many areas. Businesses that stress low prices at the expense of quality do not succeed in Jiyugaoka. Spurred by the strong preference among local residents for good, authentic products, stores and eateries place the emphasis firmly on quality and taste. Every shop strives to offer something unique, with the result that the whole district is brimming with originality.

Jiyugaoka is like a young girl whose tastes become more and more refined as the years go by. The latest development has been the opening of Jiyugaoka Sweets Forest (site is Japanese only), a food theme park bringing together 12 famous confectioners and cake shops. Visitors to this facility can sample freshly made cakes while watching the work of expert pâtissiers, including one who won an international cake contest and one who learned his trade at a three-star restaurant in France. Since opening in November 2003, the park has been attracting about 260,000 visitors a month and has given people yet another reason to visit Jiyugaoka.