Ito Shika

Ito Shika (いとう歯科クリニック) is a neighborhood dental clinic tucked inside a residential building in Higashi-Shinkoiwa, Katsushika — one of Tokyo’s quieter, more local-feeling wards. This is not a slick Shibuya clinic with a bilingual receptionist and an English intake form waiting for you. It’s a community dentist serving the people who actually live around here, which means the experience will be pretty Japanese.

The clinic does have some English content on its website, which is a decent sign — they’re at least aware that non-Japanese patients exist. But whether that translates to smooth in-person English communication is genuinely unclear. If you speak zero Japanese, bring a translation app and have your symptoms typed out in advance. If you’ve got basic Japanese or a Japanese-speaking friend to call ahead, this becomes much more manageable.

For expats living in Katsushika or eastern Tokyo who need a local dentist without trekking to central Tokyo, this is worth a shot — especially for routine stuff like cleanings or fillings where language barriers are easier to navigate.