Took out the trusty old mountain bike late last night and went for a bit of a cruise around the north reaches of inner Yamanote* Tokyo, passing among other things the city's only remaining tramline, known as the Toden.
Being nearly midnight, the streets around the residential parts of Waseda and Edogawabashi were quiet to the point of desertion, leaving the whole city, it seemed, to me and my bicycle.
In other cities, this night quiet might leave a person feeling wary, but not Tokyo. Last night, with the temperature down a few degrees from the oppressive daytime heat and wide areas of the centre of one of the biggest cities in the world all mine, was one of those mundane experiences you'd never predict would become the one of the real happy memories of a person's relationship with a city.
* The Yamanote Line is a loop train line in the centre of Tokyo, along which many of Tokyo's various centers are located. The area inside it, including the Imperial Palace, the Ginza shopping district, parliament and government, universities, hospitals, businesses, the financial center, plush new residential "city-complexes" and quaint older residential areas, could be called central Tokyo. The north reaches of this area are home to universities including the famous Waseda University and Tokyo University and many of the old-style residential areas.
Posted by Setsunai at July 16, 2004 3:39 PM | TrackBackI got that tram once back in 1999. It's a nice run through North Tokyo and ended up somewhere that seemed to be unique in not having a train station nearby. I eventually found one and this turned out to be a station delibarately constructed as a punishment to foreigners too lazy to learn the language as nothing seemed to be in English. Eventually someone offered help and I got home.
Tokyo at night is special especially the quieter areas. Try biking around (if you haven't already) Ebisu and Meguro near the main road that links them.
Took that tram for the first time this weekend as it happened. Very pleasant trip indeed, and cheap too. Also did a bike ride along a road that goes right across the whole city (Shinobazu Dori) in the height of the sun yesterday. Lost a fair bit of fluids along the way, and had to spend a lot of time dodging aging punters, but still a nice ride. Haven't tried biking around Meguro or Ebisu. I like Meguro a lot but I'm not a fan of Ebisu at all. I'd say I'm about as anti-Ebisu as they come actually. The only stations I like less are the two directly north of it on the Yamanote. Your old havens if I remember correctly!
Posted by: Setsunai at July 20, 2004 3:29 PM | Permalink to CommentSince you are referring to Takodanobaba then I agree but Shin-Okubo? It only seems to contain ladies of ill-repute beckoning men to follow them into love hotels. I have walked through that way from Kabukicho when the old Footnik was open and never have I been so glad for extra loud earphones!
Ebisu I have got to like only the last few years and there are some nice posh Izakayas as venture away from the sattion and the other side from the geijin pubs. There's also a famous ramen shop that sells only two flavours and which people queue on the street to get in.
As for Takodanobaba, didn't one of our group (!) once set a fire estinguisher off there?
Nah, I'm not suggesting you love Shin-Okubo. That would be slanderous. I mean the two stations north of Ebisu, not Shinjuku. The two stations north of Ebisu are Harajuku and Shibuya. Ebisu is mainly fake posh for me. Overpriced, overtense, overfashioned and overrated, but I do like Good Day Books and some of the restaurants and pubs.
Posted by: Setsunai at July 23, 2004 9:40 AM | Permalink to Comment