Old bird visits a Royal Academy near Tokyo (7)

I believe the answer is:

odawara

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'near tokyo' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'old bird visits a royal academy' is the wordplay.
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'bird visits' becomes 'daw' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'royal academy' becomes 'RA'.
'o'+'daw'+'a'+'ra'='ODAWARA'

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I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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