About 40 minutes west of central Tokyo on the Chuo Line, Kunitachi is a quiet college town centred on Hitotsubashi University. Because much of the area was once a US military base, it is greener and more spacious than most station towns on the western Chuo corridor — which also makes it one of the more expensive suburbs in the area.
Kunitachi is best known for Daigaku-dori, the broad avenue running straight south from the station, lined with cherry trees on both sides. When the blossoms come out in late March to early April, the street fills with sightseers walking beneath a kilometre-long canopy of pink. It is one of the better hanami spots in western Tokyo.
Hitotsubashi University, split by the avenue, has an attractive campus of wooded grounds and Meiji-era brick buildings. The university library is open to the public and has an unusually strong collection of foreign-language periodicals.