As this posts we are hopefully on a plane bound for our home in the U.S.A. It has been a wonderful year, but now it is over.
I took over 20,000 pictures, of which less than 5% have appeared on the blog so far. In other words, if you’re still interested, I’ll keep sharing them.
Right next to Suwa Jinja, southeast of the Takadanobaba Station, is Genkokuji. I stopped by there on my way home from a recent bike ride. It was actually beginning to rain when I took the above picture so I didn’t stay for too long.
I recently picked up Foot-loose in Tokyo, not because I thought it would be useful (due to when it was written) but because I thought it would be fun to see what things were like along the Yamanote Line in the 1970s. The funny thing is many of the things the author, Jean Pearce, thought would quickly disappear are still here and many that were thought to be permanent fixtures are long gone.
The book is very interesting to read even though the contents are so dated. Perhaps the fact they are so dated makes it an even more enjoyable read. I read the whole book on the train (the Chuo Line, not the Yamanote Line) one day. The contents changed the way I think about many of the Yamanote Line stops.
The entry for Takadanobaba shows surprisingly few differences from the book’s era until today. Big Box, Omokage-bashi, Mizu Inari Jinja, Waseda University, Kansenen–all are the same today, decades later. One entry caught my eye, dealing with an ancient tree on a street I walk down nearly every day. I had no memory of seeing this ancient tree so I figured, as did the author, that the tree’s location had turned into a parking lot or apartment building in the ensuing years.
“You may see the tired remains of what was once a majestic old shiinoki (sweet acorn) tree which in other days was encircled by a Shinto rope to commemorate its venerable age, said to be more than 500 years…
Years ago there was a five-story pagoda here. It was destroyed during the wartime bombings; only the trees remain. The property is presently a parking lot, but once it belonged to a daimyo family.” (p. 114)
So I looked for the majestic old shiinoki and, in so doing, discovered that what was always there I had never before seen. Sure enough, it still fills the corner of a parking lot and probably goes completely unnoticed by the vast majority of people who pass. There is no sign (as there frequently is in Japan) commemorating its age or history. The Shinto rope (shimenawa) is back up and around its trunk however. A sake offering rests at its base.
After eating ramen at Ippudo (一風堂) I was presented with coupons for free gyoza at Chanpon Taro, a chanpon restaurant that recently opened in the neighborhood. Never having tasted the stuff before I wanted to give it a try. I immediately became a fan of chanpon (pictured above), sort of a variation on ramen. However, I must say that each time I eat chanpon it is a little less good. That first bowl was the best, and now I’ve run out of free gyoza coupons. 
I like the fact that both Ippudo and Chanpon Taro are smoke free, but next time I think I’ll be back at Ippudo.
Last week we took a very short bike ride to Yakuoin (薬王院) to see the blooming tree peonies (ボタン). We were not alone as it was a holiday–Showa no Hi (昭和の日). Even with the crowds, the scene was very nice. Not only were many of the peonies at their peak, but a late blooming sakura was snowing its petals on us.
Yakuoin is between Takadanobaba and Shimo Ochiai Stations on the north side of Shin Mejiro Doori. For more details see A Flower Lover’s Guide to Tokyo.
The jizo had a nice view from the top of the stairs.
See if you can spot the “living statue” in the above photo.
I’ll give you a hint; it’s in the upper left and says ニャンニャン in Japanese.
I previously mentioned the line phenomenon in Japan. You see lines being touted on Japan’s countless food TV shows as well. A camera crew will walk around looking for long lines to get into restaurants. They then sample the food and interview customers. The conclusion is always long line = really good product.
I’ve come to the conclusion that it is the line itself that draws the line and not the product. Potential absence is also a cause.
For instance, the above photo was taken outside of 太麺堂, a ramen shop that opened with the promise of being a temporary ramen shop only open until the end of 2009. I never walked past the place during business hours when there wasn’t a line. Usually the line was very long. They closed, as promised, at the end of the year with a sign thanking customers. A few weeks later, they opened again. The menu is the same, the hours are the same, the potential absence of the place is now gone, and so are the lines. I haven’t seen a single line for the place in the past month.
Wendy’s (the fast food burger place) had a store near Takadanobaba Station, a bit of it can be seen in the fourth picture in this entry. It was usually more than half empty and reeked of cigarette smoke on the inside. All Wendy’s in Japan closed at the end of 2009. However, the thought of Wendy’s closing caused a dramatic increase in their business despite the horrible smell and mediocre food. For the last few days of the year there was a line out the door to enter. Alas, the doors closed for good at midnight on December 31.
We walked past Wendy’s, on our way home, on New Year’s morning at 1:36 a.m. when I took the above photo. The Wendy’s signs had already been covered.
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