Golden Week in Tokyo - Yanaka (My Neighborhood)

[shawn]

It's Golden Week in Japan, and I remembered I own a camera and at one point in time meant to take pics on a semi-regular basis; I'll try this week to put up some stuff from around my neighborhood of Yanaka, near Tokyo University. There are lots of narrow, angled streets barely wide enough for a taxi to weave through single-file. I have absolutely no idea how a fire engine would get down here if we had a serious fire.

2 bonus pics from Yebisu Garden Place Tower / my office:

 

[FK4]

Those are beautiful pics... What an interesting city it must be. I'd love to visit. I love the plant life everywhere, and that azaleas are a common street shrub.

 

[blade_bltz]

Awesome pics!

Bunkyo-ku would be a great place to live. But seems like a brutal commute to Ebisu!

 

[393b40]

Beautiful. I'd love to visit Tokyo at some point.

 

[shawn]

Thanks guys, I'll try to get more up this week.

Bunkyo-ku would be a great place to live. But seems like a brutal commute to Ebisu!

It's actually not so bad. Sendagi Station on the Chiyoda-sen to Hibiya Station (10 mins), change to Hibiya-sen for Ebisu (15 mins with transfer). I used to hate it, but now the entire route is G4-enabled between stations.

 

[shawn]

I love the plant life everywhere, and that azaleas are a common street shrub.

I actually mean to make a whole thread dedicated just to the elaborate planter arrangements people make on their little strips of property abutting streets. You can see some examples in in the first pic and of the alley next to the Yellow Jacket store towards the end - but they can get way more sophisticated, with little goldfish ponds / tanks, lemon trees, topiaries. etc. This citizen-lead, individually-led micro beautification makes Tokyo's admittedly banal post-war cityscapes way more intimate. You'll see this in every Japanese city.

 

[JohnAKeith]

Thanks for the photos.

What I noticed before even looking at them in depth was how clean the streets looked. Absolutely no trash anywhere. There is a lot of "clutter" for lack of another word but no trash. I mean, there are garbage bags at the curb but you know what I mean.

 

[bolehboleh]

I lived in Japan for a year back in 2004 (Shizuoka City) and I remember the cities being very clean except for Osaka. The other exception and location where i often saw trash was on the beaches. People would go to them to drink and have picnics and do a lousy job cleaning up.

Also, as much as I loved the narrow streets I found the architecture to be quite boring in most cities. Living in a studio apt so small that i could cook and shower at the same time was a little off putting.

 

[Matthew]

I have a friend flying into Narita as we speak... wish I could have joined him, but have these pesky obligations this month... blah.