A Walk in the Neighbourhood (Part II)

This is the second part of my walk around the neighbourhood. If you are wondering where the first part is...scroll down. It seems that blogs are posted in chronological order. The buggers!

OK, we left off walking down Waseda Dori past the temples and the police post. Now we will keep on our way for a bit, then turn onto the roads and alleyways leading back past the apartment. Just as a reminder, I am staying with a five minute walking radius of our place and taking pictures of the more common sights in order to give you an appreciation of our day to day lives here. Well, at least when we are hanging about the immediate vicinity.


Picture 22 - Community Billboard (Waseda Dori)

I get a sense of community spirit when I walk through the neighbourhood and certainly these boards are evidence of that. They can be found every so often and appear to be announcements just like you see back home. The only difference is that there are lots of them and they are not posted at the local grocery store or post office, but rather on the street for all to see. I suppose it can be interpreted as another tool to establish the priority of the "all" versus the "individual", but perhaps I an being too cynical. There sure are a lot of them though...I'm just saying....



Pictures 23 and 24 - Neighbourhood Ads

We have now turned left off Waseda Dori and are heading northwards though the winding streets that make up the surroundings of our apartment. Here are a couple of common sights. What I take to be political election signs can be found at several intersections. They have been up since we arrived in the area, yet there does not seem to actually be an election on. We have even come across what I took to be politicians standing at street corners with bullhorns expounding upon their platform. Yet...no election. Beats me. They look like real estate agents. The drink machines are everywhere. In fact, there are a couple just outside our building. Handy that! Soft drinks, water and a multitude of coffee-laced drinks are to be hand. Cigs too I think. You are not supposed to purchase them and then walk down the street gulping away. Rather, you are to remain at the machine and drink it to completion right there, else take them back home unopened. These machines are one of the most common sights around the city for sure.



Pictures 25 to 27 - Generic Residential Area Scenes

I wanted to give you an idea where folks live. These buildings and streets are very typical. The buildings can be single family homes or divided up into apartments. Looks a bit more like Asia again doesn't it? I think so. I quite like meandering around these streets and despite being here for several months I still manege to get turned around. Yes, cars do make their way along there, but since every street is one-way it is not too bad. It is common to see the actual street pavement marked as well as the "normal" signs that are found back home. Every so often there will be a business on the ground floor selling anything you can think off. Restaurants and bars are common, but there are also tiny vegetable markets, fish stalls, housewares and even a fellow selling chicken roasted on a spit. Anyway, I had a number of pictures like these, but will limit it to three since I think you get the idea. Unfortunately on this day there was no construction/road work being done in the area. We like repair work as it can bring out a small army of light-wand waving folks to carefully guide pedestrians, bicyclists and cars around the "danger". These protectors of the public take their jobs very seriously. I like to say "konichiwa" (hello) to them as well which they seem to enjoy. Perhaps it is my pronunciation?


Pictures 28 and 29 - The River

As we moved along the narrow streets we have been on a slight decline as we near the river that will mark the northern boundary of our walk. It is a cute little thing, but as you can see it is heavily concreted up and could do with a good cleaning as there are a few grocery carts and various flotsam in it. Not a lot, but I find it a bit surprising to have any litter to be honest. The river is very shallow and moves along at a steady pace. It is home to lots of ducks, some tri-coloured wagtails that I have yet to identify and even egrets. The neighbourhood large-billed crows often hang out here too, but they are not shy about visiting the building roofs either. There are several small bridges that span the river and the northern bank has a very nice pathway, which we are about to follow as we turn east.


Pictures 30 to 32 - Signs Signs Everywhere Signs (The River Path)

Of the many things that jump out at you when going for a walk are the multitude of signs. True as well in many areas of the city, from subway trains to restaurants. These examples were found along the river path and I thought they might interest you. The first is by a school and denotes that this is a neighbourhood meeting point in case of disaster. Note that this is also written in English near the top. It is chock full of good information to take in when earthquake, tsunami or attack by giant Toho movie monster strikes. The Japanese take disaster preparedness seriously. We also have an example of a sign telling children to beware of strangers or shadows. I suspect that that dog one reminds us all to keep Rover on his leash. The point that I am trying to make is that signs are omnipresent during your time in Tokyo. More community control?


Pictures 33 to 35 - Train Crossing

The river path eastwards takes us under Yamate Dori (north from where were started our walk) and into a cute little grotto filled with shops, coffee houses, restaurants and a bakery. There is also another subway station (our third) where the trains run above ground. You may recall that I mentioned the subway waits are not long at all? Well, those train crossing arms are coming down about every two to five minutes I would guess. I got all artsy-fartsy here and took three pictures in succession with the gates down while the "crowd" slowly gathers waiting for the train to pass. Yep, more drink machines.


Pictures 36 to 38 - Homeward Bound

Time we turned around and made a move back towards home. We will head south and then after a few blocks turn west towards Yamate Dori. There is one more thing I want to show you there. In the meantime, here are some typical scenes along this stretch. The restaurant has a fine example of decoration. We have never eaten there though, but really should try it if for no other reason than it looks cool. The corner shot has a typical mirror that is helpful to cars coming up to these narrow intersections. The little plot of land is an example of a construction site that is about to get underway. We have seen this on a number of occasions and we think it is a good luck offering or ceremony display. The square formed by the four trees sometimes has something sitting in the middle on the ground. I kind of like it even though I am not a believer in affecting luck through offerings. Assuming that is what this is of course. Ahhh, foreigner cluelessness is my friend.


Pictures 39 to 43 - The Journey's End

Here we are back at Yamate Dori, which we are about to cross again into our immediate neighbourhood. I saved one last thing for you and that is one more temple. This one is by far the biggest and also holds a graveyard. Popping over to take a closer look, as per usual I am most interested in the detailing on the building, in this care the roof apex. Now, I am not sure about the buckets. I have seen ritual watering fountains at temples before, but they had small, hand-sized cups. These are buckets. So, what are they for? Water for the grave site? Perhaps. I like the Buddha statue with the flowering tree just behind and above it. Oh, and if you were not sure if this was a Buddhist temple, the pile of Buddhas is a giveaway. I was stupa-fied by them. Hardy har har. I did not take pictures of the graves themselves out of respect, but they appear to be marked with upright, narrow wooden stakes.


Well, that is that. From this point it is just a relatively short hop through the narrow streets to return to the apartment. Angela will be waiting for me so we can go out and get something to eat perhaps. Or head off on the subway to parts unknown. I hope this was not too dreary for you as it was an honest representation of the area where we live. I really enjoy the ability to simply walk out the door and check out something interesting within a few minutes walk. It is quite a difference from the car culture that we are slave to back in Calgary.

I am not sure where this blog is heading next time. Perhaps something more touristy or more built up? Time will tell.

Adios.

A Walk in the Neighbourhood (Part I)

Several of you have asked what it is like to live here. That is a bit difficult to summarize as there are so many considerations, topics of discussion, etc. to cover into order to be able to tell someone what it is like. Other than to simply state "It's neato".

Where do you start? Tokyo does not encompass all of the nation, so I could not give an opinion as to the pros and cons of living in some small town along the coast of the Sea of Japan. If I limit myself to just the city, then I can state that it is one of my favourite places to be. It is not all peaches and cream as there are aspects of the society that are not to my liking, but there are many that are very much so. I dread the day of having to deal with customer service back in Calgary. Gives me cold sweats just thinking about it. Tokyo has just the right amount of "Japan" and "West" to make living here convenient and fun. I want of little from the material world back home except a comfortable place to live (see my description regarding residing in a shoebox apartment for more). In addition, I have access to many things that I cannot dream of getting once we return to Canada. On the top of that list be being able to visit many, many places by foot or by using a public transit system that is actually fast, cheap and dependable within a city that is interesting by day and fascinating by night.

In many ways, it will be difficult to leave all this.

However, that is pretty generic stuff to you, dear readers, as it does not go into any detail. It would also be a bit pointless for me to simply have blog post after blog post yammering about one tourist locale or another. You have told me that you want an impression of the more mundane aspects of day to day living. So, to that end I will take you on a small trip through the neighbourhood. Now, it is definitely not a tourist area so it will not be exciting in that respect. It should, however, give you an idea as to what it looks like here and, thus, some concept of the sights that greet us daily. I leave the sounds and smells to your imagination.

All were taken on a quick outing one coolish afternoon in February. My intent was to stick within a five minute walk of our place in order to provide as accurate an idea of what is "normal" for us as possible. Camera in hand, I spared no boring shot since limiting myself to just unique images would be to twist reality somewhat.

So, here we go...remember, I am staying within a five minute walking radius of home.


Pictures 1 and 2 - Corner of Yamate Dori and Waseda Dori

We are standing on the street corner about a minutes walk from the apartment. Doesn't look too exotic now does it? I wanted to give you an idea about our access to some familiar touches of home. We live in a neighbourhood called Kamiochiai. Now, "kami" is a Shinto spirit or perhaps the spirit of the dead whereas "ochiai" means a meeting place. The corner of Yamate Dori (street) and Waseda Dori is certainly a meeting place as both are pretty major routes, in particular the former which will run for many miles north and south through the western part of Tokyo. The small Waseda Dori meanders along like a old cattle path, which it may well have been at one time. Who knows? Not me. The McDonalds is pretty much like any such place anywhere. One of their burgers tastes like it came from Calgary. The Dennys is a different animal all together. Don't be looking for a Grand Slam here. The menu is more directed to the Japanese palate. Yep, that is a 7-11. In fact, I passed three others on my walk today and many other different convenience stores. The locals call them "combini" and they are pretty much like ours back home. No hoagies or six-day old hotdogs, but perhaps steamed buns and winter stews. Combinis are ubiquitous sights during a stroll through most any neighbourhood that I have been in. The low structure in the foreground is the entrance to one of our subway stations.


Pictures 3 and 4 - Corner of Yamate Dori and Waseda Dori

Heading south along Yamate Dori, I turned and took a few shots of the businesses fronting Waseda Dori. The business with the yellow sign is a gyudon (beef bowl) restaurant; one representative of many such chains that are almost as common as combinis. This is a cheap meal option for many a Tokyoite. Normally there will be a machine just inside the entrance. It is a ticket dispensing device with a button for every item on the menu. Plunk in your money, select your item then take the ticket to the waiting server. You are eating in less than five minutes. The other picture is of a restaurant on the other side of Waseda Dori from the gyuden and I thought you would like to see the signs. Just a little reminder that we are in Japan. Oh, the bike area is large and has an attendant. Bike riding is common on the sidewalks, so you have to have your head on a swivel at times. Also, some parents fit two child seats on them for a seemingly hazardous family outing.


Pictures 5 and 6 - Yamate Dori Subway Station

Further south along Yamate Dori, past several apartments, restaurants and a car dealership is an entrance to another subway station. In this case, the Higashi-nakano (East Nakano) station on the Oedo Line. The subway in Tokyo is not one unified system. Rather, many different companies run many different lines which snake their way throughout the area, meeting at stations. In fact, Higashi-nakano is home to two such companies operating three different lines. Confused? It can be rather perplexing, but not really in the smaller stations like this one. Many lines can be identified with a romanized character in addition to being colour-coded and each station along the line has a number. In the case of this station, the sign clearly tells us that it is pink E21. There is no other pink E21 station in the network. The sign also shows you that English can be found in the system at least on major signs. The exits are also uniquely marked, in this case "A2". There are no less than three stations within five minutes of the apartment, which house at least five different lines. The trains often run about five minutes apart. Seriously! Talk about convenient.  The rounded building is the station itself across Yamate Dori.


Picture 7 - Ginza (Yamate Dori entrance)

We have reached the limit of my five minute walking radius south along Yamate Dori and are about to head back northwest. Instead of retracing our steps, we can take the Ginza back. No, not that Ginza. Our Ginza is a narrow, twisting street filled with restaurants, markets, etc. All that twisting and electrical wires makes it look a lot more like Asia now, doesn't it? It is not uncommon for these shopping streets to have an archway like this one to make it stand out. The Ginza will meander back to Waseda Dori, but west from where we started our walk. This little street is one of our favourites in the neighbourhood as it has atmosphere and also several shops that we go to. Just to my left is the second McDonalds in the area plus a KFC. Yah!


Pictures 8 and 9 - Ginza Shops

As mentioned, there are many different shops and restaurants that line our Ginza. I will show you a select few to give you an idea of the place. Here is a vegetable market not too far from where we entered the street. It is tiny, but when something is in season it can often be best to pick it up here. Shops such as these are common in all residential neighbourhoods that I have been in. It is hard to make out, but there is a large can there that is cooking the best sweet potatoes you can imagine. If you are interested in something larger, further up is the "Life" store which is two floors of clothing and the basement grocery store which is about the size of a small Safeway. There are two such sized grocery stores along our walk and another two that are about the 1/4 the size of a Safeway. Lots of options.


Picture 10 - Ginza Pharmacy

I included this picture of a pharmacy along the Ginza as it nicely illustrates the idea of an open-air store. Yep, this is just a regular pharmacy like back home except that the access is on the street. Now, this feels like Asia to me as I have encountered similar scenes in India. I am so used to this idea by now that I do not find it odd in the least, but I wonder if folks back home might? Maybe not. There are probably a half dozen pharmacies along our walk. Maybe more. Most are indoors.


Pictures 11, 12 and 13 - Ginza Restaurants

I hope this is not boring you, but I am trying to capture some of common aspects in the neighbourhood (and within the city to be honest). Here we have three very common sights for restaurants. I have not counted the number of places to eat along the Ginza, but I would guess that there are 20. In our walk we will pass upwards of 50. I would bet that if you walked down every nook and cranny within five minutes of the apartment you would approach close to 80. No kidding. Remember that small apartment with the equally small kitchen we live in? Now imagine cooking and eating in it all the time. Ugh...no thanks! These restaurants cater to cravings to leave the house as well as the very active "outdoor" aspect to living in the city, by which I mean folks here get out and about as pedestrians much more than back home. The working men and women coming home late can easily stop by such a place and gobble down a dinner. Which is why the areas around most stations have particularly dense collections of these places. The sight of an outdoor menu with pictures is extremely normal. If a place wants to kick it up a notch, they can use plastic food displays found in the other picture. There is an entire industry dedicated to making plastic food displays.  Many places specialize in the type of food offered; in the plastic display case we can see that it is a tonkatsu restaurant (pork cutlet).  The place with the red lanterns is a little further along the street and, again, typical. The colour of the lanterns here tells us that it is an izakaya or pub/restaurant. In my humble opinion, the Japanese take food very seriously. Very.


Picture 14 - Ginza (Waseda Dori entrance)

Hey, we made it through the meandering Ginza and have now reached where it intersects with Waseda Dori west of where the latter meets Yamate Dori. In essence, Yamate Dori runs north/south, Waseda Dori runs east/west and the Ginza connects the two by running northwest/southeast. More geography than you wanted I am sure. There is a little bakery at the corner here, one of two standalone bakeries on our walk. We will turn left (west) from here and walk a few minutes along Waseda Dori as there are some cool things to see. I have to be careful to not go beyond a five minutes radius from our place, but I should be OK.


Pictures 15 to 20 - Waseda Dori Temples

Remember that we are in Kamiochiai and that "kami" is a Shinto spirit (for lack of a better term)? Also, "ochiai" is a meeting place? Well, the neighbourhood has plenty such spirit meeting places and Waseda Dori has several temples lining it. At certain times of the day we can faintly hear the temple bells from the apartment, which is rather cool. Now, I must admit that I am not sure if these are all Shinto, Buddhist or some combination. Not being a spiritual man, I have only a passing interest. What I am interested in, though, is the architecture and grounds of these places. The first picture is taken across Waseda Dori and marks the limit of my westward trek. Afterwards, I crossed the street so as to give you better pictures of the buildings and headed back east. There were three or four such places along this stretch of road. I like the sloped roofs and the detailing. Not to mention the tree pruning. That last shot is of an open-air drain spout that I thought was nifty.


Picture 21 - Waseda Dori Police Station

This is for my police friends out there. This is the local police .... station is too grand a term. I would instead say police post. Japanese society is one where order, or perhaps fear of disorder, is paramount. One way to help preserve that order is by having police presence within neighbourhoods and this is our local unit's HQ. It is not an uncommon sight to see see several officers on their white bicycles on patrol. I try to remember to say hello to them as I wonder if folks say "hello" to each other around here. They seem to appreciate it anyway. Oh, I do not want to make it sound like this is a police state. It is certainly not that. It is just different. Actually, I kind of like the idea of community policing as it breaks down the barriers between the public and its police force which I think would be a good lesson for back home to be honest. I would not like the feeling of being monitored mind you nor, given the history of the country, its potential for abuse here. Anyway, they are friendly and have been helpful to us of several occasions as we need directions from time to time. Note the recruiting poster. The fire station further along the street has a similar one.


Well, that is a pretty long post. I think I will split this up into two. So in the next post we will continue our walk from this point. We will turn north into the bowels of the neighbourhood and then circle back to near where we started. Until then....