6 posts tagged “nakameguro”
Ah, back at home once more from a long weekend trip to Okayama Prefecture, west of Kobe and Osaka.
I headed down by shinkansen for a 3ish hour ride to Okayama city where I was picked up by some friends that live in Osaka. Off we drove into the hills and ended up at a wonderful villa and ryokan with an onsen spa.
We were racing against time trying to beat the literal oncoming storm, as Japan was hit with the "biggest typhoon on record (since 1951 when they started)" starting with Okinawa on Friday afternoon. The worst of it seemed to pass us by, and the central part of the storm itself, judging from the satellite maps, just grazed the Pacific edge of the Nippon island chain. This, combined with the mountain shelter left us with a rather unimpressed view of the whole thing. It certainly rained heavily and for a long time, but the super strong winds seemed to miss us completely. And while the river the villa was close to certainly did swell, it didn't overflow and there was no flooding in our area at all.
Sunday we trekked closer to Okayama city and rented some bikes and took a little bike tour through a set bike path weaving in between rice paddies and temples to reach a spectacular wooden pagoda overlooking the fields. In my incredible wisdom I failed to pack sunscreen or even sun glasses not expecting there to be perfectly blue skies following the typhoon's passing. So, I have a very nice red glow; sunburn on my arms and face. Thankfully not too painful, lets hope it stays that way.
I was going to take a whirl-wind tour of the garden and castle in Okayama city today before returning, but the beautiful weather from Sunday didn't last and it was alternating between pouring and spitting. So after taking the bumpy, 45 minute train from Takebe to the shinkansen station, I wandered around to see if I could find a coin locker that wasn't already full. Alas, to no avail. At that point I figured that with the sunburn being irritating, lugging around a suitcase and the rain, maybe I should just hop on the next shinkansen back to Tokyo. So I did.
After being back a couple of hours, just heading out to the store to grab something to have for breakfast tomorrow, I run into one of my flat-mates gathering everyone to head just up the street to the Yutenji temple and shrine as there's a festival going on today.
Flocks of young girls in kimono (for what reason, I don't know yet ... wikipedia or google might help me out here ...) giggling and carrying on, circulating through masses of other people enjoying lots of festival food like tako-yaki, okonomiyaki, yakitori, and wow, so much junk food and booze! It was quite a sight. in the centre of it all a stage with dancers and drumers with more dancers dancing in literal circles around it all. So much excitement, running children high on candy floss and bonking each other with inflatable hammers. So many smiles, so much laughter and just joy at being alive and there at that moment.
It's Wednesday, well, for another 40 minutes. But what's so special about Wednesday, you ask? Well, that's drunk salaryman singing night. At least in my neighborhood.
Like clockwork at 11:15pm some random drunk guy stumbles home past my house. I think he's either listening to his iPod or just had a very good night at karaoke, cuz he's always singing at the top of his lungs. Both times I've heard him, now, it was so loud I thought he was inside my house!
I'd find it kind of annoying save for a few things: I am a night owl, his singing is actually damn good, it's English pop-songs. Now, I only hear 3-4 words as he stumbles along, but it always sounds like some sappy love song. I wonder if he continues his acapella for his wife when he gets home ...
It's been days! Hello Vox! I spent many afternoons wandering around Meguro River for hanami, cherry blossom viewing. It was very crowded, and the trees were so strikingly beautiful. It made me fully realize why so many haiku have been written about the magical presence of the pink and white little flowers.
I would have loved to spend endless hours outside in the warm weather, drinking nihonshu (aka, sake) and eating takoyaki or grilled mochi, but alas, the time would always come that I'd have to head to work and being half-drunk might not be the best of plans. :D
Saturday afternoon was spent walking from Shibuya to Harajuku to Daikanyama to Nakameguro. It made me realize just how close I live to all of these places. It felt like walking from Yonge Street and Queen through West Queen West to the edge of Trinity-Bellwoods park.
During the trip, I found no less than five pairs of shoes I wanted to buy. That'd have set me back almost $600! Some may not know, but I have, unlike most men, a small obsession with shoes. I'm good though, I don't go overboard on shoe buying. I mean, I only have 2 pairs here in Japan that I brought with me. In the end, I opted to buy something a little less pricey during my voyage, a cellphone strap.
Here, you can see it pictured next to my phone. He's a daikon! The back of his jacket says, 茶 (cha) which means "tea". Haven't translated the other kanji, but I do know one of them, 開, means "open". The other one is hard to read.
Darkness started slowly creeping up on me by the time I got to Meguro, and a light sprinkle of rain was edging it's way onto the swollen crowds watching the sakura petals falling into the river. I decided to get myself home to relax. I had also spotted a pair of camo pants in Nakameguro I think I'll have to go back and try. Very unique design.
Sunday I went out to Chiba city, which is an hour away by train, to get a proper haircut and hang out with my new hair-stylist friend, Yasu. Starbucks are everywhere in Japan, and even more dense in Chiba than Tokyo, which I found incredible. Went for Korean at a restaurant on the top floor of Parco Chiba, part of a chain of depato (department store) in Japan. It was damn fine food, and included noodles, a big bi-bim-bap and some kind of thing that resembled a pizza, which i couldn't catch the name of. Kim-chi in all of it of course.
Then I caught the train home and tried to call it an early night, which of course didn't happen.
I can't seem to fall asleep before 1am these days, which results in my waking up quite late in the morning. Usually never before 10am, but never later than 11am. Ah-well, I still can usually get a lot done in the hours before work (although today I'm being a little lazy because it's raining). After work is the same thing. But, for some reason I feel guilty and lazy for having a non-standard waking life. Truly, I get more done in a day now than I did back in Toronto. I should just fully embrace my nocturnal tendency and not get hung up on being out of synch with a lot of the world.
It's almost time for cherry blossoms!
I took a quick trip around the corner to see how they were coming along blooming by the river. Not yet, not yet.
I'm rather looking forward to when they bloom fully. It will be quite pretty down here. With it means warm weather all of the time and not freezing my ass off at night in the uninsulated house. Heater or not, it's just damn cold at night.
Soon, though, warm days, cool nights and hanami will begin. Down at the riverside it might be hard to actually sit under the trees. But I think walking up and down the roads running along side with a beer in hand would be a fun evening.
The decorations are already to go, the lights are up. All we need now is a few more degrees on the thermometer and for those flowers to start the show
So, it's been awhile since I've been able to take some time to write or take photos. It's been a busy week training and moving into a new apartment. While the last place was fine, it wasn't in the area of Tokyo I wanted to live in. Yesterday and Thursday was spent moving my stuff over here to Nakameguro. Still haven't had any time to take pictures around town as I like to do, but it's Saturday, so I'll be up to no good with a camera again.
Last night one of my housemates was having a party. Great fun and met a lot of ex-pats from all over the world. I think the Brits took the prize for being the most numerous.
Got my Mac back a couple of days ago. I was anticipating a 4-5 day wait, but, guess it was slow in the repair shop at Apple Shibuya. It's good to have a computer back. Despite the fact that I'm taking a break from programming, I'm still a big nerd. Technology is a very interesting thing in the world, especially in a city such as Tokyo. "Technology" is ubiquitous here. Lights, sounds, keitai, iPods, micro-notebook computers in shops with people yelling at you to buy stuff. I needed a bit of a break for that so I went to Ueno Park. It's not exactly as peaceful as Yoyogi and Meiji Shrine, but it's a definite extraction from the regular city noise that makes up much of my life here.
Like many parks in Tokyo, Ueno-koen has a shrine in it, two in fact. It also contains the Tokyo National Museum, The National Science Museum, The National Museum of Western art, a concert hall and a zoo. I didn't visit these last things, as I wanted to make this a totally free day. Well, free from paying entrance fees. Sadly, that meant I didn't get a good angle or look a the 5-story pagoda, either. It appeared to be contained within the zoo compound.
It was, as I alluded to, quite busy while I was there. Being the weekend, the fact that the park contains 1000 cherry blossom trees (sakura, 桜) and that have already started blooming, and the wonderfully warm and sunny weather that day, many people came to see the pretty white flowers coming out. It is very early in the year for the cherry blossoms.
It makes me wonder if Climate Change (aka., Global Warming, the worst phrase I've read describing the phenomenon) has anything to do with it or if this is just an unusually warm spring for other reasons. The petals had not started to fall, and many of the trees were still without blossom, so be assured that it'll be perfect in time for April hanami there. At least it will be consistently warmer by then. It goes from 14º in the day to 3º at night these days.
Today was spent wandering around Nakameguro. While I'm sure many people haven't heard of it, it's becoming increasingly well-known, at least in Tokyo. It's distance from Shibuya and Harajuku put it in a similar league as West Queen West in Toronto. Not quite mainstream cool like Queen West has become, but certainly very interesting with many boutique-type shops, tiny artist-run art galleries, a multitude of 5-seat izakaya and just a bit of attitude.
At the end of one of the Tokyo subway lines, it's actually where I wanted to move to when I came to Japan. In fact, I'm moving there next month. When I arrived, I discovered that there was a room opening up just after I moved into my current place. So, I booked it, and off I'm going to go.
Situated at the end of one of the subway lines (and also along a Tokyu train line), it's a little closer to the "center", as it were, of Tokyo. It has a, well, I'd like to say beautiful river, but it's hardly beautiful at all. More of a channel, now, with concrete walls. Either way it is one of the few places in this city that has running water nearby other than the bay. Nakameguro also has, I suppose like many other stations, quite a few pachinko parlors near it. Another endearing feature is that the cross-walk below the tracks plays a little tune when it's time to cross. Far better than the squawk-squawk that many crossing-areas have in Toronto. Makes me smile every time it starts it's tune.
So, I took a walk down the riverside, as much as it was, then wandered up and down side-streets marveling at the resourcefulness of shopkeepers who have a shop literally under the subway track. The trains run raised about 25ft up, and there's shops, galleries, bars and restaurants taking up 2 floors of space underneath. I'll have to go back and see just how noisy it is inside one of these places. Nothing interesting was open, nor was I really in the mood to flex my beginners Japanese to secure a seat and food.
