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.