Festive promiscuity

It was fiesta day in and around the Kanda Myôjin temple in Tokyo. The omikoshi, movable shrines, were touring the adjacent streets bringing good luck all around. The crowd was thick, a sea of heads as seen from the camera lens. Omikoshi are mostly paraded by males with a few girls toughing around. A parade of sweat and crude bragging that comes as a stark contrast with everyday life. There are tiny omikoshi for children, but I saw this one exclusive women only omikoshi.

Male groping of female passengers in packed subways being now heralded as a social major concern, subways and trains operators are cloning each others in offering women only carriages at traffic dense time or late at night. This packed women only omikoshi is certainly unrelated with this issue.

Technorati Tags: Tokyo

Petit tour at Hie Jinja

A petit tour at Hie Jinja - Hie shrine - near the Capitol Tokyu Hotel and the Diet building. Policemen that definitely look slender than your average neighborhood' policebox dwellers are spread all over the area. A sterile area the Hie shrine does not cheer up, despite the foliage still in Spring hues. Hie shrine has everything one is looking for on a Japanese postcard. The red pillars contrasting with stripes of white. The shining gold curled edges of the roofs, the silence blanketed by the continuous noise of the traffic outside, strange monkey faced guardians on the precinct, the Prudential Financial mighty white building in the distance, dwarfing the main hall (let's not start the yawningly usual tradition meets modern cliché),
the barrels of sake (70 liters each) at the entrance - corporations' gifts to have the gods get drunk for sure, the wisteria roofed small cluster of red tables like benches covered with plastic sheet. A surprising feature is a collection of fighting hens, alive in cages - gifts from an association for the protection of ... fighting hens. Hens from Kochi - in Shikoku I assume - good for chicken broth, better than fighting. I will never suggest you to visit Hie shrine. Too sterile to be true. It was rebuilt circa 1970. This may explain that.



On an wish wood plaque, someone wrote a strong wish to be absolutely granted a job at mobile phone carrier DoCoMo. DoCoMo Anywhere in life.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

Bunkagakuin art school

The Bunkagakuin art school on top of the hill of Ochanomizu is a delicious European building that invariably attracts photographers on week-end. I took a few pictures there the other Sunday, daring and peep inside as well. There are powerful reminiscences of my high school in Paris despite the somewhat British atmosphere. This piece of article makes for an interesting reading and may wet your appetite to visit the school area.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

New Walk in Tokyo

I added a fifth walk PodText guide to the collection of minimalist directions to enjoy walking around in Tokyo. The new one is a night walk that starts again from the Hotel Grand Palace and leads up to Ochanomizu then back. It's a one hour legs stretcher and mind relaxation stint going through a variety of micro areas that are very quiet at night but very busy during week days.

You can see an html version of the document here, or download a PodText version here for your iPod with Notes function integrated.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

Static mode stroll

A piece of street in Sarugaku district at a stone throw of the book shops district of Kanda-Jimbocho in Tokyo. The requisite to take a still picture is to stop. The requisite to take interest and find it in the banality of an anonymous street is to stop too. Standing is still too risky though. It allows to move again too fast. The companion to flânerie mode walking pace is seating still. So let's seat down. That's were the first problem starts. Tokyo has no benches along the streets. Like dust bins, those are to be found mostly in parks. But I sat down, on a tiny piece of staircase along a green curtain of shrubs that separates the street from a junior high school. I had a bottle of tea and chocolate from a convenience store nearby. Strategy to defuse the natural conspicious look of passersby, although few they were. Stillness in the street is suspect. For the self, stillness is a conscious, focused exercise. Only birdwatchers are pre-qualified to observe the streets.

On the opposite side of the street, the grayish two-stories building is a rice shop, and probably a rare survivor of WWII bombardments. The yellow shop on the right is Kandahar, a mountain trekking goods and apparels shop that does not turn into a surfboard outlet in Summer. A rare case of single activity dedicated shop in this area. Exhausting a place could mean going through all the nomenclature of each shop and restaurants making business here that are visible on that panoramic picture. Standing still and watching allows to discover in the daily surrounding that it is still full of unknown spots.

Technorati Tags: Tokyo

No more skyscrapers

The remnant residents of this tiny neighborhood of small houses in the center - that is, one of the centers - of Tokyo at a stone throw of Iidabashi station are opposing the sprouting of skyscrapers. It's a lost war already. The makeshift slogan reads chôkôsoku no more. The first word stands for skyscraper, the second is English rendered in Japanese phonetical scripting. What the residents want are the roji, that is the plain or crooked, mostly devoid of cars back alleys. Roji can be residential and cosy, but the true one shall be poor and derelict or crammed with tiny bars, eateries and the promise or commerce of sex.

The roji is the idealized topographical artifact of the good old urban days and a good reason enough to walk around Tokyo searching for such places that still exist, even drown in a sea of skyscrapers. There is a whole literature of nostalgia around the roji which can make for some fine picture books like this one.



The roji where the message calling for resistance is hanged looks like this on the following picture. An oddity in one center of central Tokyo.

Old houses Tokyo - Paris

An anonymous old and derilict house in Paris facing a rare case of old but refurbished stone building in Tokyo, Kanda-Jimbocho district. The Paris house was a cheap Hotel de l'Avenir - hotel of the future - whereas the Tokyo one is the delicious art material shop Bunpôdô, just behind the big bookshop Sanseidô behind Yasukuni avenue.

Night walk from Hotel Grand Palace

A pleasant night walk to stretch the legs for 30 minutes or more according to your pace. It starts from Hotel Grand Palace near Kudanshita crossing in Tokyo. The same walk applies from Hotel Metropolitan Edmont as well.

From Hotel Grand Palace, turn immediately right and walk along the avenue until you reach the Kudanshita large crossing. Turn right again and climb the avenue toward the Yasukuni shrine whose monumental tôrii - portal - should be illuminated. I never walked there too late and check at what time they cut the projectors. You can safely walk along the large alley inside until you bump into a transversal lane. You can see and go up to the shrine gates that are close on the opposite side if you wish and peek inside.

From that transversal lane, turn right, walk along and cross the street to enter a no-car small lane a little bit on your right that goes along quiet at this time schools. The path is winding a little but you basically go straight after the crossing - don't turn right along the steep slope. This residential area is very relaxing with very few cars to mare the silence.

You will walk until you bump into a wall and have no choice but to go right or left. Go left. You may see a policeman in faction there but don't worry. He is not waiting for you. After you turned left and walked for a few meters along a massive stone wall on your left side, turn right at the transversal slope and go down then opposite the street at the end where you will find a few steps to prop up you on this part of the Sotobori green lane. The view is quite nice from there. Turn right when you reach the lane and follow it until the end which is less than 200 meters. You leave the lane but go further on the same direction.

You will see on your left the nice Ushigome bridge that lays above the Sotobori outer moat and the Japan Railways track down under with the Iidbashi station building which is also a nice rare piece of countryside like architecture. The view from the bridge is rewarding. On the opposite side is the Canal Cafe which offers a nice view. The food and drinks are a no comment though so if you decide to relax there, a coffee shall be enough.

We go further round the circle by leaving the bridge from where we treated on it, walk straight until the first crossing, turn left then walk the same lane until we reach the large avenue where the hotel is located. Before that, you will see on the slope the Tokyo Daijinja shrine maybe lighted up but probably close. If you are staying in the Hotel Metropolitan Edmont, turn at the AM/PM convenience store further down the slope on your left and walk down a little bit before you see the hotel tucked in behind the avenue. For Hotel Grand Palace, do not turn but just go straight down the slope, then right along the avenue.

A relaxing walk.

Walking in Tokyo with iPod

I have uploaded the first Walkin' in Tokyo Project Walk Guide to display on an iPod with Notes function. This document you can download here contains right now only two walk courses indications. The walk starts from Hotel Grand Palace near Kudanshita. If you are staying or living in the area - including Hotel Metropolitan Edmont - and you are an iPod user, I would be delighted that you test the courses that a really nice and send me feedback on the usability of this tiny trial. Also coming with this iPod document is a hand drawn map for the first walk that goes up to the Hotel New Otani via Yasukuni shrine and Sotobori outer moat green walking trail. I will create and add maps for further walks when time allows. Again, feedback is very welcome as usual.

Kanda old houses

I have added a set of pictures showing old houses in the Kanda district of Tokyo. No filter, no fancy. Plain.

This is not intended to highlight the good old days when Kanda had a human sized face. You would not wish to live in any of these houses. Most often, these are restaurants possibly thriving enough to keep at bay for a while the bulldozers. Kanda is a sad place on week-end, and the sun shining today could not change the fact that here is a sad, sad place. I would suggest you visit Kanda on week days when it is thriving with salarymen and life. Some old houses are sometimes covered with copper plates. This explains the green moldy tone. Wood is replaced by stone in rare cases, and a multi-story office building in subdued colored bricks gives a glimpse at Kanda before second wolrd war (why put capital letters on this?).

For the interesting part of those buildings is that they are a rare case of war survival despite the bombardments. They also give a reminder that there was a time when the average building height was two stories. The surrounding of these buildings on death row is an eclectic but typical example of I build any kind of crap building I fancy about because I don't give a dam about perspective, the surrounding and the aesthetics at large. There are plenty of places like that, in urban Japan, and elsewhere as well. It is still worth the trip, but avoid week-ends by all means. You can go instead to Akihabara district which is located a stone throw from here, spend the money and be busy enough watching the crowd to forget that here again is a terribly dispiriting district. I could not refrain but remember sad and sorry Sundays in Paris while in Kanda on this Sunday, April 17th of year 2005.

The first picture you can see on this page is a little bit on the outskirts almost along Yasukuni Dôri avenue. The name is Matsuya, a soba restaurant closed on Sunday, but where you will want to slurp the delicious noodles and quickly enjoy the place. If you are not familiar with a soba restaurant, get there at 11:30 am before the crowd, or after 1 pm and just ask for cold zaru-soba, or even better, goma-zaru-soba with delicious sesame seeds sauce. A real treat! A nice page to read here dated 1997 but still valid.

Empty university museum

In the five month since my last visit to the small, must-see Meiji university museum, the museum shop has apparently closed. It was a full fledge museum shop with original artifacts at less than average prices. What has not changed is the emptiness of the place. I brought P. to the visit and we were alone for the 15 minutes we spent there. The torture instruments and the guillotine made their expected effect. The university must have spent considerable money for this small scale museum set in the basement of an impressive steel and glass tower. A considerable amount of money to make it look like a real museum.



The museum is located in the Meiji University Academy Common building seen in reflection on this picture.

Walking from Hotel Grand Palace to Hotel New Otani

This is the second post offering walking course suggestions to Tokyo visitors. This one will start again from the Hotel Grand Palace in Chiyoda ward, close to the Kudanshita crossroad. If you happen to stay in the nearby other hotels like Hotel Metropolitan Edmond closer to Iidabashi station, or even the Tokyo Dome Hotel, these walk tours still qualify. The purpose here is not to take you by the hand and indicate every other corner where you should turn and all the little streets you would feel sorry you missed if you knew. For that kind of service, consult the project Walking in Tokyo and come back to me. I assume you are staying in Tokyo with a guide book. You did some homework and consulted a few pages over the Internet. Good. Here is another one that may be a little more usable, I hope. This course was covered in more poetical way here.


From Hotel Grand Palace to Hotel New Otani via the Yasukuni Jinja shrine

This walk is a favorite of mine. Most of the trail follows a dirt walking path lined up with trees in the middle of Tokyo, and mostly safe from the busy traffic. It allows for a unique vista on the city from an unusual perspective. Our first destination is the Yasukuni Jinja shrine. By the way, Jinja means shrine so let me stop vocabulary redundancy starting from here

When you leave the Hotel grand Palace, just go on your right and follow the Meiji Dôri avenue down to the large Kudanshita crossroad. At the crossroad, turn right and start climbing toward the shrine colossal entrance.

Alternative path: after you leave the hotel, immediately turn at the first corner right and clim the steep anonymous slope that goes along the hotel and then the Philippine embassy. Have a look at the beautiful embassy from the outside, then go left, and after you pass under that elevated passageway that belongs to a school, turn right and go straight until the end of the street. The beautiful empty estate mansion you see on the left corner is my dream house in Tokyo.

The controversial shrine is the heart of nationalistic Japan. A visit to the the shrine's web site in English should make clear what is meant here. You can also read this past post.

There are more beautiful shrines in Japan than Yasukuni. But this one is especially interesting from a social point of view. Behind the central building after the majestic gate is a nice garden and a place where sumo is performed for free a few times during the year. The war museums are the incongruity of the place. Watching the people around is also part of the interesting things to do when in Yasukuni.

Leave the shrine from the side exit that is on you left when you look at the center shrine building just before you enter its precinct. The shady exit guarded by two stone lions is beautiful. Turn immediately right and follow the long shrine wall. At the first corner, turn right and follow the path that goes along the shrine's outer limit. When you come to the end of that street, go left and walk for two minutes until you reach a crossroad where a bridge pass over the railway track and the Sotobori moat. Do not cross the bridge but find your way to the strip of garden that follows the moat on the upper left side.

From now one, we will walk mostly on that elevated garden strip. Before we reach Ichigaya station, the strip ends with a small playground for kids where kids are a rarity. Go forward, past a subway entrance and cross the road just before the bridge to bum into Ichigaya station.

In front of the station entrance, turn left and walk around the right corner of the station building. Our mission is to find out where the garden strip we left starts again. If you have any sense of direction, this will be easy. After you turned right, you start climbing a street you will leave at the first opportunity at right to follow a lane that tries and go along the railway track down under. You will find the tiny staircase that props you up, back to that garden strip.

We are now leisurely walking toward Yotsuya station. When you reach there, the strip ends again and you will have to find it again after you cross the large avenue that passes along the Sophia university. I will skip all the interesting vistas you will enjoy along the way. The end of the track brings you somewhere on the left to the back of the Hotel New Otani. Follow the direction of the track you left, passing through the hotel backstage, along the hotel pool. You will enter without much knowing it the incredibly beautiful hotel Japanese garden with enticing restaurants, gorgeous pond and fishes. The best way to leave the hotel is first to get inside it.

The closest subway station from the hotel is Nagatachô. You can go back to the hotel by boarding the Hanzômon line to Kudanshita station which is the second stop.

A non stop-walk from the Hotel Grand Palace down to the Hotel New Otani via Yasukuni shrine would take one hour and a half. With all the things to see along the trail, three hours should be a minimum.

If you ever use this course overview, leave me your impressions and tell me whether it was useful.

Walking From Hotel Grand Palace to Ueno

I am going to post a few walking course suggestions here. The first few ones will start from the Hotel Grand Palace in Chiyoda ward, close to the Kudanshita crossroad. Of course, if you happen to stay in the nearby other hotels like Hotel Metropolitan Edmond closer to Iidabashi station, or even the Tokyo Dome Hotel, these walk tours still qualify. The purpose here is not to take you by the hand and indicate every other corner where you should turn and all the little streets you would feel sorry you missed if you knew. For that kind of service, consult the project Walking in Tokyo and come back to me. I assume you are staying in Tokyo with a guide book. You did some homework and consulted a few pages over the Internet. Good. Here is another one that may be a little more usable, I hope.


From Hotel Grand Palace to Ueno

This walk will bring you all the way to Ueno district. When you leave the Hotel grand Palace, just go on your right and follow the Meiji Dôri avenue down to the large Kudanshita crossroad. Tôri is Dôri is, street, avenue or boulevard. Go left and start walking all the way down that even larger avenue that is Yasukuni Dôri. I suggest you walk on the right side here.

After you cross the first large crossroad, you will start passing along the bookstores that are still many in this area near the subway station Jimbocho.

Go over the second crossroad where there is a large business attire shop for men on a corner. Turn right then left at the first traffic signal.

Your are now walking a nice small lane that runs exactly parallel to the Yasukuni Dôri we left. Go down that lane to bump again into Yasukuni Dôri that makes a right curb here.

Cross the Yasukuni Dôri. We are going to climb the hill of Ochanomizu, but instead of following the large Meidai Dôri, just follow the small first slope that start heres with the Victoria sports apparel store on your right. At the end of the street, turn right, walk some more then turn left where there is a tiny shrine waiting for you.

You will climb this slope whose name is Ikeda-zaka. Zaka or saka stands for slope. This saka goes up to the top of Ochanomizu hill, right into the Ochanomizu Japan Railway station. Before you reach the top. You will see on your right the Nikolai-do orthodox church. Don't miss it.

At the top of the Ikeda-zaka, turn right and walk a little bit more to the station entrance. Go over and walk along the large and elegant Hijiri-bashi (bashi, that is, hashi, stands for bridge). The cluster of green you see on the opposite side of the bridge is the Yushima shrine. here again is a beautiful place to spend some time.

After the bridge, go along the Yushima shrine wall, cross the street, turn right on that slope that goes down toward Akihabara. After a 100 meters, you will see on your left the lane that climbs toward the - again - beautiful and red Kanda Myojin shrine.

To leave the shrine, find the back exit that is after the shrine parking. There is a small and steep staircase that brings you down between modern buildings to a new large avenue.

When you land on that avenue. Go left and walk up to the traffic light. Cross on the opposite side of the avenue and follow that small steep street whose name is Shimizu-zaka. By now you know what zaka stands for.

By now, things are really straight forward. That Shimizu-zaka will bring you all the way up, then down to the Yushima Tenjin shrine. Definitely yet another place to walk inside out and enjoy.

After this shrine visit, find your way to the large Kasuga Dôri that curbs down toward Ueno district. At the first crossroad, you will see the Ueno Kôen - Kôen standing for park. The Kôen is huge and features many museum with a zoo. The commercial streets in the area deserve a guide book by themselves, which is not the purpose of this blog post.

A non stop-walk from the hotel down to Ueno would take one hour. With all the things to see along the trail, what with the Ueno district itself, three hours should be a minimum.

If you ever use this course overview, leave me your impressions and tell me whether it was useful.

Otoko-zaka

Spent some time on Otoko-zaka this afternoon, a straight slab of staircase running on a slope of Ochanomizu hill. Patches of green littered with detritus are yet a treasure trove of beauty granted the eyes focus on the tiny things. Like for instance this small - 5 mm in diameter at best? - red fruit. The missing one on the right was eaten by a bird, maybe. You can see additional pictures taken along this slope. Is there an equivalent for the French terrain vague in English? Lately, I am peeping into the interstices between building, like a voyeur under the girls skirt. Lots of small relics of the past, untouched patches of dirt soil.

Technorati Tags: Tokyo

A Spree in Ginza

Ginza crisp

Ginza at 10:00 am under the sun. Saturday. Bright blue. I grab my camera and shoot a few pictures at the Ginza crossroad in front of the Mitsukoshi department store. A woman waiting like us for the red light to turn green seems inspired and encouraged by my tourist attitude and props up her own camera for shooting in the same direction. 10 am. That's the time when the shops open. We came early to avoid the crowd that comes later. Through the Mitsukoshi window panes, we see the full staff of girls working for a famous brand I am not hiding - just can't remember the name - all clad in purple tee-shirts, standing the back facing the street, getting briefed in military style. Their faces reflected in the mirrors of their cosmetic trial desks make them look like an army of purple clones. After days of Minami-Aoyama commuting (yes, I am a Minami-Aoyama basher) Ginza is reaching higher stages in my biased ranking. Urban. that the key difference. We are playing rich walking along the avenue, passing by the Cartier and Vuitton boutiques, ready to spend way too much money in a few hours, the lack of it will generate a financial pinch in a few weeks. At a stone throw of the Apple computer church boutique is a tiny shogi and go sets shops where I buy a larger magnetic shogi game for more playing comfort next time we board a train or a plane. When? The Dalloyaux bakery cum restaurant lunch is no longer the super extra bargain it was, but still a good value. The cakes are ... haaa! luxurious. We are not on a discovery trail this morning in Ginza, just going through well known paths, the last one - a tradition lately - leading to a stop at the Washita shop at Ginza-1-chome. The closest spot to Okinawa in town, probably.

Tsubaki

tsubaki2.JPG
Originally uploaded by Lionel Dersot.

Tsubaki - Camellia - are littering the wet side street close to the school gate. The flowers are, thick, heavy, overweighted rather. They ridiculously plump down on the floor in full bloom and quickly start rotting, with the edges first turning black. They are the antithesis of the delicate - but for me dreary - cherry blossoms coming in about three weeks from now. I think the bloated Tsubaki are way much more exciting. Way much more Asian.

Manso Mango

We went to Manso fruits parlor in Kanda - Chiyoda ward. A fruits parlor is a tea lounge centered around fruits juice, ice creams and various desserts. It is the haute cuisine of fruits, a freshly squeezed, crushed or whipped glass of juice costing nothing less than US$ 9. But fruits parlors have pride of delivering the best, and this one delivers. The mango juice was paradisiac, the raspberry one forestial, and the strawberry parfait visually perfect - and deliciously light and not too sweet according to its eater. Manso is located in Kanda, at a stone throw distance from Akihabara. But the district does not belong to the Electric Town. Kanda is bland and ugly unless you start walking in the small streets to look out for old houses that miraculously survived WW2 bombs, fires and earthquakes. This is where I will walk in the coming days.

Quiet day in Yasukuni

On an uneventful Sunday late afternoon in Yasukuni shrine, I have a welcome plastic cup of hot amazake in the shabby food and drink shop in the middle or the large alley that leads to the main shrine building. A group of prewar - or more precisely - war Japan nostalgic people are having a party chanting tunes of those good old days when Japan had balls and no alliance with the US. They make an eclectic lot of men, and one woman, from age between less than 30 years to 70, maybe. One is clad in old army fashion and is taken in picture, martially posing with a real sword he hold like a rifle. A real sword in the middle of Tokyo! But Yasukuni is not Japan, nor Tokyo either. Yasukuni is ultra-Japan. Here, people freely smoke cigarettes despite the smoking ban in Chiyoda ward. They all giggle, sing, congratulate each other in friendly manner. An old guy is clad in a navy commander fashion. One young cuckoo imitates empty handed the gesture of a soldier running against the enemy with a bayonet plugged on an invisible rifle. At the time of second world war, he probably was not even a spermatozoid yet. I wonder who is the current enemy. The woman sports a black blouson with the war time Japanese flag showing a red shining sun in the back and a message calling the grandchildren of Yamato to raise and be proud. When times come to call it quit, they all stand in ranks at a safe distance from the Shrine, start a song in lieu of the national anthem, military salute then profusely bowi, before starting unending rounds of thanks around and let's meet each other again. At the same time, on the opposite side around the parking, a drove of thugs, mostly oversized men in black, pass by to board an eclectic collection of benz and ominous small buses with black windows. Yasukuni shrine does not proclaim to campaign against the mafia and must also benefit from these powerful visitors. After much showing off of power, they leave the place. Later, when the shrine shops are closed and the parking mostly empty, a policeman on a frail bicycle wearing a mask as any pollen allergy sufferer around does a tour of the parking, well after the parties are over. I go back home humming "What a beautiful world", like Louis Armstrong.

A Tune for Walking in Tokyo

Tokyo this morning felt exactly when we defrost the freezer from time to time. When doing so, spells of hard cold are kind of blowing out of the white empty cavity of the kitchen commodity. Tokyo too was defrosting after the snow. I left my camera behind, not on purpose. That is why I can't show how lovely the slope behind the Hilltop hotel on the Ochanomizu hill looked like under a brief dart of early Spring sun rays. Passing by that mysterious lump of wild forest snugged among university buildings, some machine started to shriek like baboons in the jungle, a perfect fit of atmosphere. Snow had almost vanished, but on a tiny mound of the white stuff, two kids were consciously making a bonsai sized snowman. I had no time to cross the enticing Yushima-seido shrine, and when back from an errand at Akiharaba, the landmarks of the hill were all calling for the attention they deserve under slow, very slow walking. After slow food, look forward for the slow walking next fad. I am inventing it right here. Practicing the art of slow walking requires time most anybody does not have. Behind Ochanomizu junior school, a cock - most probably dwelling and raised in the school - cackled all of a sudden, triggering spells of countryside memories in France. It is a marvel how a cackle can be so strongly associated with vacations in the countryside. The idea of the mostly in limbo Walking in Tokyo project was partially inspired by the deliciously fresh and nonchalant groove of the song Walkin' in New York by Brenda Russell ( in an album named Paris Rain - talk about Serendipity!!) first heard at last year's Manhattan Transfer Tokyo concert in a tropical rendering style. A song for walking in Tokyo is still in demand. Any idea? No enka please.

Walking alone, not walking alone

The best kept secret for tonight in Tokyo is that Spring is definitely coming. An unexpected errand brought be in the Yasukuni shrine district in the evening. Walking alone but in the company of souls. It's a matter of focusing while watching one's steps. Exactly a week ago, we buried Mother in a cemetery close to Paris. I don't want to cash on the pathos. I don't want to hide it either. So while walking alone, I decided to bring her with me for a while by the sheer power of mind. Walking does help do the trick. The shrine is closed at night but the large alley that leads to the main building is open. Not exactly eerie, not much beautiful (in daylight too, Yasukuni shrine is hardly a fantastic place..), but a welcome large open air space to walk through. Coming from Paris just the day before, the eyes are still requiring the symmetry a European city offers. Not much a local feature here in Tokyo. The landscape architect civil servants have had the good idea to bath Yasukuni in a yellow glow of projectors. But the avenue running along the Kudanshita slope is marred by bleak white street lights that exemplify the endemic incapacity to encompass the landscape into a symmetrical, coherent approach. Enough sentencing. This said, night walks are beginning again to be a pleasant and relaxing way to exhaust the pressure after a working day. If you are staying in a hotel around the Kudanshita - Iidbashi district and looking for one to two hours unusual stroll around, I will be your guide for a limited time - and for free - around March and April. Depaysement garanti! As an alternative, you can also walk alone and bring someone in your mind with you.

Soya milk

No, no. This blog is not over. Just a little bit busy. Blogging about daily life is literature, with its half truths and half lies. It took one month to correct the soya milk detour, but literature now merges with reality. I catched up and gulped it down at long last. If you can read Japanese, you can see the pun. Don't drown in soya milk though. By the way, it was quite good, absolutely unsweetened, unsalted, absolutely straight. The difference with industrial soy milk sold everywhere is mind-bogging (or is it mind-blogging?). At supermarket Fujiya this morning, they had Venezia paella! Turmeric yellowed rice with two shrimps and mussels. I love Chiyoda-ku in the morning.

Minami-aoyama provincial

Beyond Chiyoda-ku starts foreign provinces. Such is the case with Minami-Aoyama where I find my trails almost daily recently. Everything is foreign. I almost wish they would check passports at Omotesando station exit. I must write a tune, a walking tune on the step of "I don't belong to this". I have found a back street trail to avoid that crossroad where young underpaid masked girl bakers surrounded by a forest of fruits are building fruit tarts in a full transparent laboratory like kitchen open to the full view of the passersby. Fruit tarts looking totally tart. It is easy to sneer at Minami-Aoyama, so pretentious, so rich and tasteless. The Prada boutique, mostly glass, is so airy that it strongly suggests the fact that maybe not even 30 years ago, the area was a provincial, outskirt kind of land with no urban roots, a flatland where locals were growing vegetables. There were rice paddies maybe. The ridiculous side of Aoyama and Omotesando stems from that very fact: a provincial quarter pretending to be urban but stinking of earth all the same. Well, the arrogant riches are certainly not supported in a good way by the tasteless architects they hire. I realized that the glazed tiles that most modern buildings are covered with is a major factor contributing to the malaise that oozes from houses that look fake if not entirely dead like tombs. Surrounded by such despairing buildings stands this one empty oddity on the picture. A provincial home where some sleeping beauty may be waiting for a kiss. The bulldozers will certainly play the charming prince in the coming years. Different in style with my dream house in Kudanshita, it belongs all the same to a vanished unpretentious yet discreetly gorgeous time of rich people with taste and provincial estate mansions spelling the quietness of the countryside.

Year of the Chicken

Happy New Year of the Chicken. In Yasukuni Shrine we went. No journalist inquired whether this was an official or private visit. More than any time of the year, Yasukuni in the New Eve following days is a deep down local Japanese affair. The throng of elderly people bused from the provinces is thicker. Yakuza thugs and WWII nostalgics mingle with plain cloth policemen that are so easy to spot. Awfull amount of small coins are poured into the gods' purses for new wishes to be fulfilled this year. My 8 years old, already pragmatic as anyone around, threw in a 10 yen coin and a quick prayer to excel at rope-jumping. The small restaurant in the middle of the precinct offering the usual fare of ramen, yakisoba and oden is busy like hell. It is funny to see the patrons almost shivering under the cold despite all the thick winter coats, but relishing all the same on food that is of a definitely low quality and below the average taste when considered from a dry and nostalgia devoid point of view (avoid the yakisoba fried noodles and try instead the oden which are rather OK). The trees are now almost total black and bleak. The chickens on the exposed votive wood plates gathered from a battalion of shrines around the country make us dream of roast chicken. Plenty of roast chicken this year.

Landscape therapy

I planned for landscape therapy around the previous day we left Paris to come back home in Tokyo. Paris had been simply at times too gorgeous, with low sweeping sun rays and crisp blue sky around the Montagne Sainte Genevieve, the Jardin du Luxembourg and all the never boring 5th ward area. I consciously worked at seeping the landscapes which includes the weather conditions of the moment, of everyday life in the Parisian streets, rehearsing the moments when back in Tokyo, these will have to be retrieved from remembrance, still fresh and peppered at times with the insane realization that due to the extended day a non-sleeping traveler spends through at least 20 hours commuting to airports and flying between there and here, yesterday in Paris and today in Tokyo seem to have taken place within a gap of a few hours, whereas the truth is that more than 24 hours elapsed since departure and settlement back at home. I rehearsed therefore in the small angled public park Paul Langevin along the rue des Ecoles. I also rehearsed in the taxi from Paris center to Roissy airport, taking mental notes that the bleakness of the landscape along city outskirt's roads is equal to that of the pitiful view one gets from Narita airport to Tokyo downtown. One side of landscape therapy is to check against too harsh comparison and consciously reckon that contrasts between beautiful Paris versus ugly Tokyo is not a matter of black versus white, but that beauty and ugliness are simply common features of both sides. Easy to say, not easy to experience. Try it yourself next time.

To finish with this reentry into the Tokyo landsphere, let me tell you about the one final strategy I planned right inside the airplane from Paris. A strategy of walking. I decided of a useless time consuming detour for next Tuesday when going back to the office in the morning. This detour will see me walking first toward Ochanomizu hill which shares with the hill of the Montagne Sainte Genevieve to also be a hill. Slopes and their mystery have therapeutic properties.

But before reaching for the slopes, I may also add to the physical walking therapy a tasting side by dropping by that tofu shop close by and sip a freshly brewed tofu milk cup. This, I am devising right now while writing in Tokyo.

The detour strategy has a single purpose. The direct entry into a still foreign working landscape in another Tokyo ward, and an office located right along an urban elevated autobahn - dispiriting sight all over the world - would simply be too harsh. When back into the usual landscape, it should be mandatory to first spend a few time in ones preferred surroundings, especially when the longing for what was left over there is still acute and itching. The immigration authorities could also help in that reacclimating process by stopping asking a permanent foreign resident in Japan to fill the reentry form to be handed at the airport passport control gate where an awkward question asks after all these years the stupid "Purpose of reentry into Japan". Answer: I am simply coming back home, you dumbo! Home being the place where one is living, here and now.

Away from Tokyo

This blog is taking vacations in Europe and be back in about three weeks.

Early morning from home

Early morning from home
Originally uploaded by Lionel Dersot.

Crisp early morning sky of Tokyo with Mount Fuji in the distance. There are lots of urban sections in Japan called "Fuji-mi", that is "View on the Fuji". When in such Fujimi place, hilly locations usually, the game is to stand still and try and imagine how on earth Mont Fuji - a tall and majectic volcano - was visible from such place, a long long time ago. You need a heavy dose of imagination. Now that Tokyo is mushrooming up with always new towers erect in the sky, even a sight at Mount Fuji from the 20th floor of our appartment is jeopardized by ugliness. Our own tower participates to that ugliness but we don't see it. We live inside.

Just after the storm in Tokyo

After the storm in Tokyo
Originally uploaded by Lionel Dersot.

Just after the storm early Sunday morning in Tokyo, Chiyoda ward. It is December 5th but the temperature shall rise to 25 C, that is early Summer weather. The tropical depression was mighty. This deserted anonymous glistening street at 7 am close to home is drenched with rain and foliage scattered in bits all over the place. Depending on where one stands, the breeze now largely tamed down feels wet and tepid, mixed with sudden short bursts of cool air, as a reminder that today's weather is totally abnormal. The wind comes from the South and is pregnant with dreams of small islands in a blue sea. A tropical storm in Winter will have clean up trees from late Autumnal stubborn foliage, helping Winter to come and stay, maybe with a vengeance. But the coming days' forecast with temperatures above 15 C suggests that this Indian Spring is not over yet.

PAO Associates building

Despite the phone and power cables hanging in the air and the vending machine on the left, this is an iconoclastic beautiful company building house in otherwise derilict and soon to change Kanda Jimbocho 2-chome district. Why architect agency buildings are often better than the buildings they create for clients?

Kudankita 1-15-9 : my dream house in Tokyo

Dream house in Tokyo

My dream house in Tokyo is located on the top of the steep Nakazawa slope in the Kudan-kita 1-chome district, exactly at Kudankita 1-15-9. It is a short distance from the Grand Palace Hotel. It is even closer to the Philippines Embassy which shares the same Spanish hacienda atmosphere. It must have been some extremely wealthy people residence. It is now empty, not crumbling but in need of repairs that will certainly never come. The tiny ridiculous paid parking spot on one corner and ugly beverage vending machines are omen that this will be replaced in no time by a luxurious but bland condominium like the one already standing behind it. Close to the Yasukuni Shrine and the beautiful Kita-no-maru park, this stately building could be turned into a high class restaurant, a five stars Relais et Chateaux in a residential and green area notoriously lacking anything, no shops or restaurants, unless you go back down the slope to Kudanshita.

This place must have had a complex family history I have no clue about. The arched windows are all blinded. I fathom about the look of a garden I assume to exist but totally invisible behind the high walls. Children must have played there. In the heigh ceiling rooms, somewhere there must have been a piano. I wonder if the inside is of Japanese or Western style, or a mix of the two. The porch is of Japanese style but with yellow stucco tone that gives the whole a Southern kind of mood. There is a small door for the servants that used it when back from a errand to buy food in the downhill area that was - according to my past local barber, a thriving neighborhood with fresh food shops for fish and vegetables, and even shops selling futon that have all disappeared. I wish I could visit this house of dream before the bulldozers get in. If you know of that estate in Kudankita 1-15-9, please drop me a line.

Kanda Gothic

On the same Kinka-dori described in the previous post stands the Catholic Church of St. Francis Xavier. The 130 years old church looks so pristine under the sun with plastic joints between the stones I thought it was much younger than that. It gives of course a sudden surreal European look to the place.

Green individuality

A little green can make wonder to what would otherwise be an anonymous passageway. Kinka-dori in Sarugakucho district is such a street. It runs in the backyard of Route 301 between Suidobashi and Jimbocho. It is my favorite pathway when I go to the guitar school at night. I have walked in and out of it at every hours of the day as well. There is a stark contrast between week days and week ends as the street is lined up with lots of small to medium corporations and schools close by. On Sundays, with companies, shops and schools closed, it is a deserted area. The perpendicular lanes are all insipid and boring. But Kinka-dori has a charm of its own. Sure, there are a few but rare buildings of interest, but the charm is not generated by architecture but by the way the street sides are planted by trees and an incredible variety of other green stuffs. I assume the trees are part of the administrative street embellishment program, but looking closer, one cannot but marvel at the number of trees or smaller plants anarchically spread here and there, and at times cannibalizing the tiny plots of earth allocated to each tree in a sea of macadam. Locals have been laying here and there pots, shrubs and flowers that give a lush atmosphere in some spots, especially in Summer. On the front of the beautifull Kanda Bungaku-En entrance on the picture - which I suppose to be some kind of (cram?) school - an array of flower pots are on display. And on the right side of the building stands a big citrus kind of tree currently heavy with golden globes looking much like natsu-mikan oranges. This green, and apparently long time and unruled, initiative to individualize one's building front down to the public walk lanes is a feature one can notice here and there in oldish districts of cities and suggest how the front porch used to be more than today an agora of communication with the neighborhood and the passersby.

Scattered foilage

Scattered foilage in front of Tokyo Daijingu Shrine

This is not the result of a late typhoon in November but the leftovers of a big tree shaving works that was proceeded today just in front of the Michelin building in Fujimi-1-chome district. On the street opposite side is the entrance gate of the Tokyo Daijingu shrine, an old holy location for a rebuit shrine that oozes of money as the mint perfect hall suggests. This is a typical big business shrine with wedding ceremonies queuing up under the oh! so exotic sound of gagaku music I suspect to be recorded stuff rather than performed by real musicians. It is also a must-go spot on new year where worshippers buy good luck by exchanging money for merchandized gris-gris objects.


Japanese religion doesn't generate in me the slightest religious feeling. I can but only see the business practice, the shrine owners leading a tax-free life with brand new cars, vintage wines in the cellar, offshore trips to buy real-estates for the most sophisticated. I cannot stop and fancy the servant girls clad in red hakama and white tops simply being paid for an arubaito like any other, and going after the job is done to slurp instant noodle soup and spill over stress in a karaoke room. So much for the holyness.

The rest, that is the stern and consciously composed faces, the twigs balancing around, the holy scents fumes and vapors are all but props in a colorful carnival for postcards and fearers of powers mightier than their own. It is a tool of control, like elsewhere. Don't go wrong with what I write here. Shrines and temples, as welcome spots of relative silence in a busy city, are like churches but devoid of the gloom, that is places to stroll around whenever you have the opportunity to stop over. I am for the freedom of others to plonk a dime in the box in front of the hall, clap the hands, bow a little and request the local holy spirit a push in the luck bottom to succeed at the entrance exam of this or that university. I just plonk no dime and the nice thing about Japan is that I am not expected to plonk anything. Just like rice, language and the beauty of Kabuki, you, who is not a Japanese, are not supposed to appreciate. Sorry, I do appreciate. That is why I can write this blog and invite you to walk around places here in Chiyoda-ku or elsewhere, with an open smiling mind. I simply don't vote for holy things. I do love to visit shrines, especially the least showy ones. Only, the gods do not speak to me. The trees may be more potent candidates to start a holy conversation (I won't hug one though).

Roland Barthes' The Empire of the Signs was, with Vogel's Japan as Number One, two major books and the holy scriptures that brought me into the Japanese world. Thanks God (pun?), I was desinfected from the sequels of reading these after maybe 10 years in Japan. Rest in peace (piece) in the trashbox, ho! holy books. Over with that, over with academic exotism and the mandatory reverence in front of a dry stone garden (which I for one find boring). What is left is the simple pleasure to walk around these earthy places, earthy places of peace of mind among others. Tokyo Daijingu makes for nice pictures and if you have a chance, you should definitely walk inside and around it, wash your hand at the basin on the right side of the entrance (a delicious feeling even in Winter), and muse on whatever you may fancy about.

Deep Autumn

Imperial Palace Estate in Autumn - Tokyo

From our 20th floor, equipped with a magic wand like extensible hand, we could surely stroke the trees' top in the Kita-no-Maru park which is an annex of the Imperial palace green real-estate in Tokyo. I want to think it would feel like a rapping and a tickling kind of sensation on the palm, like some scrubbing brush. The deep Autumn rich hues also mean that Winter is coming fast now.

Last slope to Ochanomizu

Kanda-Awajirocho is the district on the East slopes of the Ochanomizu hill. It is kind of unsettling a place, packed with big boxes like corporate buildings mixed with a few small old houses of another age that still resist. Two urban small parks suggest that this was probably a residential and thriving district in the past century. Among yet new buildings popping up here and there, one can still find as on the picture extraordinary sights in the overall bleak surrounding. This postcard like Japanese house features a parking entrance at the extreme left. Air conditioners ugly units demonstrate that modern comfort matters for the people living in there. This house is mounted on stone walls, exactly like the Nicholai Do Orthodox cathedral which is a mere 5 minutes walk away.

Tokyo Byzantine

Nicholai Do
Originally uploaded by Lionel Dersot.

The wonderfully Byzantine Nicholai Cathedral stands under the sky of early winter in Tokyo. Walking around the Orthodox building and down the slopes that lead to the holy place from a district closer to Akihabara is another way at discovering encore Ochanomizu hill from yet a different angle.

Ex-police box

Ex-police box

I assume this tiny house in a corner of a street in Sarugaku-cho district was a police box in the past. It is now a storage place for chairs and tables used by the local residents' association. They deploy the wares during the shrinking down small neigborhood seasonal festivals of Chiyoda-ku. The building is quite beautifull and reflects nicely the sunlight and the day's sky mood. So much that in Summer or Autumn, when the sun rises low, it shines of an Italian gold kind of hue that is much pretty. I went past it one night while some movie or TV drama crew was flooding it with spotlights for film shooting.

Lunch with Confucius

Yushima-seido
Originally uploaded by Lionel Dersot.

Inside the Yushima-seido shrine at Ochanomizu, lunchers have a bento in the sunlight or in the shade. Yushima-seido is all in dark-grey with discreet touches of red. A hauntingly beautiful place where to have a lunch with Confucius spirit looming around. 20 degrees Celsius under the sky of Tokyo.

A jungle patch in Ochanomizu

P1010003_26
Originally uploaded by Lionel Dersot.

It was Indiana Jones in Ochanomizu albeit the danger and love scenes. The picture shown here may lack some spice for a Hollywood film. OK, skip the Holly but keep the Wood. For this tiny spot of green behind an open air parking at the foot of the hill of Ochanomizu is most probably part of an old remnant natural environment of the Sarugaraku district close to book town Jimbocho. Thanks to the steep declivity of the slope, no human construction can stand here. I had been intrigued by this patchy green trail that climbs from around here up to one of the Meiji university's many faculty buildings. This sunny day, I decided to have a detailed look at this tiny wood from many vistas along the path. I ended up climbing the steep slope that passes along the Hilltop Hotel's back and got at the closest in the back of Faculty building # 14 where the mountainous tiny wood ends up looking like some South-Asian kind of mysterious jungle entrance. Peeping deep into it, I could see some carved mossy stones that are without any doubt some unmarked remnants of a house, maybe a daimyo castle of the past. I want to stay with the impression that I am the only one to know those hidden stones. The Hill of Ochanomizu has immense tiny secrets for the adventurous flaneur to be discovered.

The past encapsulated

Nihon University College of Law Library
Originally uploaded by Lionel Dersot.

The new glass and steel library of the Faculty of Law of the Nihon University in Nishi-Kanda 2-Chome is a very well done building. I am often reluctant to say so but this one is definitely a nice achievement of contemporary architecture. What you see on the picture is what is left of the previous library building. This box is located right on the side of the new building. The front glass is inprinted with the previous building silhouette that was erected here in 1935 and served until 2002. It was a typical European heavy stone house. It was still up but left somewhat crumbling until a year ago. This slab of encapsulated piece of historical stone was part of the upper front of the old building. In other latitudes, the power to be would have considered keeping the old building, excavating the entrails and make it spick and span with stones outside and steel and glass inside. This is not what usually happens in Japan, even to the rare old stone buildings, thanks in part to earthquake concerns. The capsule was already done while the new building final touch were given until a few days ago. This way to encapsulate the past in glass mausoleum makes me feel a little bit uneasy and puzzled. I wonder what will happen when the next rainy season will perhaps prove that the casing is not much water proof and damp and dirt will mare the box. Access to the new library is restricted to students only, which is the saddest part of it.

Okuno Karuta

Okuno Karuta
is a favorite shop of mine I would definitely bring you to this spot on a walking trail around Ochanomizu and Jimbocho districts. Okuno Karuta sells mostly traditional and contemporary games in card formats as well as board games. The first floor is dedicated to traditional card games and Japanese board games like shôgi and igô. You don't need to be a gamer to appreciate the place. Traditional cards can reach whooping prices and make for beautiful gifts even if you don't know how to play those. There are lots of oddities to discover like pretty rare cards games from abroad - a large collection of tarot for instance - some at real bargain prices. Okuno Karuta is also a card game publisher with beautiful sets covering many genres from poetry to science and biology for kids. The second floor is more board games oriented with a selection of local, localized as well as imported games. The contemporary small Japanese wood games are nice. There a is also an interesting selection of chess boards of real beauty. Despite a short selection of electronic games, the whole shop oozes a delicious atmosphere of nostalgia and makes for a welcome mental break.
Okuno Karuta is located in that avenue that links Suidobashi and Jinbocho station. I don't know the name of that avenue but road names generally do not matter when finding one's way around. The interesting fact about that lively avenue is the contrast between the popular Suidobashi section with the Tokyo Dome and its amusement park on one side, with the still second hand book shop oriented Jinbocho district on the other end. What with the many universities around that add a thick student population to that area, there is much to discover on a microtourism level.

Meiji University Museum

Now located in the basement of the new glass and steel Academy Common in the Ochanomizu district, the Meiji University Museum is an absolute must off the beaten track destination. I went there on the morning of a business day which might explain the reason why I was virtual alone in the museum during all the visit. The small place is made out of four parts with disconnected relationships. One corner is about the university history itself, another one called Commodity is a collection of traditional handicraft Japanese products displayed in a wonderfully compact fashion that shows how those artifacts from lacquer bowls to wood spatula are effectively made.

The Archeology section accumulates excavated beautiful materials from various archeological sites around. But the main dish of the museum is yet a small but haunting section named Criminal Materials that gathers mostly various torture apparatus from Japan and some from abroad. I would seriously suggest sensible persons to skip it altogether. We often bring our 8 years old to museums but I will certainly think twice before bringing a child here. The display is not spectacular on purpose but the gruesome subject makes the section pretty much disturbing. From a pure academic point of view, it is of much interest, and probably the single place in the world where one can see a French guillotine and the so called Iron maiden of Nuremberg which is absolutely scary. The museum's shop features goods printed with a toned down version of that otherwise scary maiden emblem on tee-shirts and other artifacts. They don't sell a miniature version of any torture tool, thankfully. There is a minimum of English explanation to make the visit easy.

Mukashi-mukashi

A long Time ago in Iidabashi
Originally uploaded by Lionel Dersot.

This engraved copper plate stands somewhere on the street between Iidabashi and Kudanshita stations on the Mejiro avenue in Chiyoda-ku. The plate shows a map of the area as it was in 1976. The surprising thing is the title: Iidabashi, mukashi-mukashi. Mukashi-mukashi is equivalent to Once upon a time. Every other tale starts with mukashi-mukashi. Traditionally, mukashi-mukashi belongs to the past, but in contemporary urban Japan (and probably everywhere else in the modern world), there exists a distortion of the past as to when the past undocks from the present, current or recent, to recede into the domain where nostalgia starts. I find it amusing and shocking at the same time to see that 1976 is referred to as a long, long time ago. Of course, as times goes by, 1976 is sailing farther away from now. The Iidabashi shown on the map has not much changed in terms of topography. What it does not show though iis the destruction of whatever visual artifact left until yesterday that belonged to the past because it was indeed built a long time ago, way before 1976. In a city like Paris, the usual way to deal with the past is called museification, that is destroying buildings in the inside while keeping the facades and turning the result into ultra expensive apartments for bourgeois Parisians. In Chiyoda-ku, it means destroying everything and erecting a small historical information board to explain what was standing here yesterday. Sometimes, the result can be quite beautiful as I will show in the next entry.

Looking for an English Map of Tokyo

Frankly speaking, I wish I could plaster my entries with gazillions of useful links in English, and especially links with interactive maps. Yahoo!Japan map service is a killer application to find even an ant all over Japan. It is THE interactive map of Japan, period. Unfortunately for you (maybe) it is in Japanese only. The Japan Tourist National Organization has an interactive map in English with a dreadful interface that makes it practically useless. Besides that, nothing I am aware of.

A night walk, still again in Ochanomizu

November is such a fine season in Tokyo! I tested a short night walk this evening and discovered yet new spots and vistas around Ochanomizu Hill. Readers may think I have an obsession with that area and they will be right. The variety of landscapes are incredible. I could confirm for instance that the new School of Laws Library of Nihon University is really a nice example of brand new architecture. It is nice in the daylight, it is nice at night. I will write more on that spot later.

So I went alone along the hill, had a pizza and a nice glass of Primitivo red at my favorite Italian pizza restaurant - and a surprising vista on the building opposite side - yet a university property - with a strange gothic like porch on display inside a glass and steel building. I don't think it is the Primitivo effect and I will have to check the mystery of this weird spot I have been unaware of so far.

The Meiji University Liberty Tower on the Meiji drive close to Ochanomizu station is rather impressive at night and looks more like an urban big hotel than anything else. Impressive but too massive. It is by walking on the steep slope that goes along that tower's right side up to the Hilltop Hotel that I bumped into two funny things: first a bunch of hotel waitresses clad in white and black, sort of slim English nannies, walking in a compact group toward one of the two hotel buildings now under the spell of that monstrous tower shade.

The second encounter was a hidden strange public space belonging to the university open until 11 pm, an artificial sort of garden all buzzing with the air conditioning units around, with white plastic like sits and tables and wisterias or something equivalent spread above it upon steel beams. A totally out of this world urban landscape for a cool November night. In my way to the restaurant and back, I noticed a nightingale singing in a tree! A nightingale in November! A young woman passersby seemed to be as astonished as I was.

Another nice thing reminiscent of Summer was the cacophony of Meiji University's music clubs all rehearsing together. As I was walking away, some players suddenly started jamming jazz a la Miles Davis. I had to stop to enjoy a few notes of the impromptu concert. The Meiji University Student are playing the Merchant of Venice in Japanese on the 11th and 13th of this month. A new opportunity for a new walk around maybe.

Walking in Tokyo Project Started

I started my new project Walking in Tokyo. If you are planning a visit to Tokyo you may be interested to read it, and comment.

Ochanomizu: top of the Hill

I have yet to cover a few other slopes to try when conquering the hill of Ochanomizu. But as the season gets deeper into Autumn and the weather seems at last to deliciously turn into a late Indian Summer of sort (no more typhoon?), here are few tips about things and vistas to look for on the top of the Ochanomizu Hill.

As far as the flat part of the top of the hill is concerned, the topography is pretty simple, with two parallel streets running through it, each with a distinct character. Ochanomizu hill top is crowded with schools, universities and educational organizations of some kind. There are also quite a lot of corporations building like one of Fuji Xerox or the publisher of a major women magazine Shufu-no-Tomo. Fuji Xerox building is located on the Kaede street, which is the one I find the less inspirational of the two. Yet, for the flaneur and the inquisitive eyes, there are a few gems, like for instance that Christian church building very close to the Fuji Xerox one, that certainly does not look like a church but like a derelict old school building coated in green ivy. It is a miracle that such building is still here. In the same ivy coated building league, you should look on the opposite parallel Tochi-no-ki street for the beautiful Bunkagakuin building with plenty of ivy and a delicious old European atmosphere stone rounded porch.

Two other spots of choice busy people overlook are the two bridges over the Kanda river trough at the two opposite sides of the JR station. The Ochanomizu bridge has interesting perspectives on both side. One has to imagine hard that when the less than pretty long buidling of the Tokyo Ondotology University on the opposite side of the river was not baring the sky, people could probably see far into the distance at yet a few other hills afar and down toward Ueno and even way further.

The Hijiri-bashi is the second bridge you will not miss. If you cross the bridge and look back, you will be surprised by the byzantine dome of the Nicholai Church, despite all the block buildings messing with the perspective (shame on Hitachi!). You can also see the new monster buildings being erected in the sky of Akihabara Electric town. The same bridge seen from the Ochanomizu station platform is also beautiful and lighted up at night.

The Joy of Getting Lost

One of the Joy of walking in Tokyo, and one core idea I am trying to convey in this blog, is the safety of such slow motion activity. Despite the average Japanese that perceives, according to surveys and political propaganda, a degradation in everyday's safety, the reality is such that getting lost, on purpose that is, is a joy the Tokyo flaneur can taste without much worry about his or her own safety. I will not invite you to discover at night the back streets of infamous places like Shinjuku's Kabukicho red quarter, although I am planning to design walk courses that are especially fit for nocturnal settings. But in day light, I invite you to go astray and leisurely walk that back street that grabs your inquisite eyes while you cross a main street, that trees' tops visible in the distance that may or not announce a nice (or shabby) small hidden garden. Actually, if you set aside that big Imperial palace and surrounding gardens, a tiny cluster of green in Chiyoda ward often may be the sign of some remnant of a local neighborhood not yet totally sterilized in concrete. Watch out for the green clusters and go astray toward them. A surprisingly old building - a home or a workshop - may be hidden there, waiting for the flaneur to be discovered. When in Tokyo, get lost!

Sotobori Trail Tested

I tested the Sotobori trail, that is half of it, starting from the backstage of the New Otani Hotel up to Yotsuya with a first time Tokyo visitor who was visibly enchanted! The Japanese garden of the hotel is free treat.

Sotobori Garden and more (2)

We started from Iidabashi along the Sotobori Garden up to Ichigaya. Let's go further.

When you reach Ichigaya, the path ends abruptly but it is not difficult to find out where it starts again without a map or compass. Just think that it basically follows the railway tracks. Between Ichigaya and Yotsuya, the path gets cramped with ever less people using it. There is a lot to observe on the left side as far as building architecture is concerned. When arriving close to Yotsuya, you will notice the long modern building of the Futaba school. Just like Proust and his madeleine biscuit and tea, I had a sudden link clicked in the mind to the past when I saw the school's front for the first time. It had a French atmosphere of sort. I discovered later on the school web site that it was indeed of French origin, and the previous building shown here is more than ever reminiscent of my own high school in Paris.

Once you get to the Yotsuya bridge, just cross on the opposite side and find the tiny stairway back to the path above. The view get panoramic with a nice glimpse on the Western style almost rococo palace that is the Geihinkan, the state guest-house on the right side. On the left side, the multifaceted buildings of the Sophia university also make for an interesting view.

At the end of the path, you will seemingly bump into a road and think the party is over. Don't believe so. Simply cross the road on the opposite side while watching out for the cars and find your path again hidden somewhere on the left. From now on, you are actually entering the New Otani Hotel territory. Do not fret of think you are lost when you start walking on a hotel back road that seems to lead to some warehouse. What you will find instead past the JPY5,000 a plunge pool (double on week-ends) is a cluster of Japanese restaurants tucked within the hotel Japanese garden which is open and free of access between 6 am and 10 pm. The garden with red lackered bridges is beautiful and totally surnatural compared with the peaceful desolation of the Sotobori Garden. And the restaurants look all enticing but not cheap. You may try and find your way out through one of the hotel building and pop up back into urban reality between Akasaka and Kojimachi. A truly enchanting walk to try more than one time through the year and seasons.

Sotobori Garden and more (1)

There is a green walking path from Iidabashi station that runs all the way through and past Yotsuya station, all along and above the JR railtracks. It is named the Sotobori Garden (Sotobori Koen), and it makes for a wonderful walk experience with various vistas and panorama. Well, panorama more than often does not fit Japanese landscape. There is usually something that will function like a blister in the eye, an ugly tower, a powerline or an ad panel out of the blue to deflate the panorama. Of course this does not apply - sometimes - if you are somewhere in the middle of the Japanese Alps. But in central Tokyo, the landscape enjoyments are in the details.

To fully enjoy the walk, have at least 2 hours ahead. This is not trekking on the Himalaya so despite the dirt along the way, an health conscious business person with correct shoes and time ahead can also participate. One exciting aspect of walking along the Sotobori tree planted path is to see the city from an unusual angle. On the right side, you are towering the railway tracks and the water canal. On the left side, you are towering just a little above the city level. Thanks to the fact that the path mostly runs along small adjacent roads, there is a strange and agreeable feeling of walking in the back alleys of the town. As far as practical matters are concerned, the path also enjoy a lack of vending machines, meaning that if you don't want to leave it in-between, buy your pet bottle beforehand. The path is well treaded between Iidabashi and the next station Ichigaya, but never crowded except in the cherry blossom season. When the blossom is over and the leaves have been brushed out by such climate incident as yesterday's typhoon, the nude cherry trees are all black and desolate, some with supporting poles to avoid these elderly vegetals to crumble down in the trough down there. The desultory atmosphere is one characteristic that makes the walk exceptional. Yes, there is beauty in desolation, but this is not a war path anyway.

Rabelaisian Musings

The true and real title for this entry should be "Of Toilets", but calling it so, it would have been filtered out by the politically correct software available for that purpose. I do not intend to create a guide on toilets in Chiyoda-ku or elsewhere in Japan, despite the high level of technology enjoyed in that domain by this country. A chief editor of a French magazine I wrote for years wiped away my offer to write an article on the latest toilet gizmos in Japan citing the two subjects he would never cover: Shit and Death.

We will consider Death in Chiyoda-ku (nice title for a thriller, no?) another time. But today, let's focus on toilets. As jazz entertainer Louis Armstrong relishes to recall in one of his delicious writings, his beloved mother May-Ann was keen to remind her beloved boy on what Rabelais and other less constrained authors through history have been expressing in many variants: "Son - Always keep your bowels open, and nothing can harm you".

The following suggestions when going around places in urban Japan applies to Chiyoda-ku as elsewhere. When looking for THE place for free, one will notice that in most cases, subways, the JR railways stations or public toilets are more than often in a state of Rabelaisian - again - Middle-Age cleanliness and too often most uncomfortable when one is not used to crouch on his or her feet. But Japan being Japan, and Tokyo not being Paris, there are a lot of resources. Hotels are the most comfortable by far. If you happen to pass close to a big hotel, I would suggest to have a look around inside including at the loo. Some most surprising level of comfort can await you. But if you can't read the name of the switches and buttons on the ultra-sophisticated dashboard, restrict yourself to conventional protocol.

Any business building with shops at the ground floor or other levels will have toilets. Department stores and supermarkets of tangible sizes are a sure way for a free solution (no tips). Same goes for any bookstore with more than one storey. And I keep this last resource with a fond memories of toilet's experiences in temples and lovely gardens, but next time you are in a big one - the Yasukuni Shrine of fame for instance in Chiyoda-ku - never miss an opportunity to wash the hands before approaching the shrine (a delicious refreshment in any season), but also look for the local toilets when in need. The smiling gods too know how relieving to the flaneur the knowledge that a solution is at hand can be.

The Hill of Ochanomizu (3)

Another path for reaching the Ochanomizu heights is the broad Meiji avenue starting down not far form the large bookstore Sanseido on Yasukuni Dori. The new Meiji university building on the left is impressive and multifaceted with some ugly features as well as interesting vistas as a Potemkin like stair (be careful with the baby car). The side alley in brick color that links back to the small public garden at the bottom corner of the Liberty Tower (what's in a name!) is a stark and nice contrast with an inviting peeping view at a library. The now empty land on the opposite side of the university gives a new and fresh vista on the Orchard concert Hall. The large parking will probably be turned into yet another monolithic piece of building for a competitive university. That is where all the tuition money gets into.

A note for the taste buds: on the Ikeda slope that runs parallel to the Meiji Dori, just after the NTT building, there is the Ferrara Italian restaurant with an authenticated Napolitan pizza that is a treat. They lately have a half-pizza and steack menu children will gobble down in no time. I strongly suggest to go with the traditional fares like Margherita pizza rather that the oddities with a mix of ingredients often too dry that simply do not fit. At the time of this writing, the entry pizza is 900 yens. The dessert are delicious too but with a glass of wine and expresso, you quickly multiply the bill by three. The restaurant is closed most Sundays.

Update: the entry pizza is now up 1000 yens, but what a treat!

The Hill of Ochanomisu (2)

Continuing on the many paths to conquer Ochanomizu hill, yet another attractive route is to disdain the previously mentioned slope and stone stairs, follow the Sarugaku Dori past the YMCA and the above mentioned stairs, and turn left along the small public garden you will not miss. The short steep slope is a very tiny but scenic spot in all seasons. You will bump into the Hilltop Hotel building side. Climbing on your left will lead you again to that Tochi-no-ki Dori of fame, or you can choose to go down the slope on your right and get a little bit lost around a nice mix of modern and not so modern area.

We had a tea break with cakes a long time ago in the Hilltop Hotel and I remember the place to be of nostalgic European atmosphere with excellent cakes.

Note that the small public garden at the angle was recently renewed but still keep the original shabby atmosphere with stray cats and stray humans mingling with the lazy students from the many universities and schools around. A nice little spot to drink down your pet bottle before or after the effort. In Summer nights, the university music clubs rehearsing close by make for a funny and relaxing cacophony.

The Hill of Ochanomizu (1)

Topography matters as much, if not more than the buildings and people in creating the spirit of a place. A hilly environment is a powerful topographic feature to make a place memorable. The Montagne Sainte-Genevieve, Montmartre in Paris, the hills of San Francisco, or the hill of Ochanomizu in Tokyo.

Ochanomizu is a favorite place of mine and a hill being a hill, there are many ways and paths to conquer the slopes that gloriously lead to the hill top. The variety of perspectives makes the walk an always renewed small adventure. You can chose to follow the JR line tracks somewhere from Suidobashi station on the right side. The short slope quickly gets fairly steep. At the end, a dilemma of major importance is waiting for you. Shall you go along the first street (Tochi-no-ki Dori) that passes along the Athenee Francais school, or the one above (Kaede Dori)? You can spend a little time pondering about this life decisive issue by watching down on the Kanda river trough and the JR tracks offering a large perspective and much pleasure for train spotters. Another favorite is to climb the hill by way of stone stairs. But here again, a dilemma no less essential than the previous one is waiting in ambush. Tochi-no-ki Dori is linked to a lesser level of the hill by two stone stairs with drastically different qualities. The curved one currently marred by the construction of yet a new building is named Onna-zaka (Woman' Slope), whereas the straight (erectile?) one is named Otoko-zaka (Man's Slope). I would suggest you try both at different times.

Although there is more to come as far as the many ways to conquer the Ochanomizu hill from the plains down there, once you reach out of breath the summit and thanks me for the workout tip, you may want to recharge the batteries with some well deserved food. A little more effort up to the Ochanomizu JR station will bring you, somewhere on the opposite side of the Maruzen bookstore, in front of the tiny sushi restaurant Tochigiya. A no-seat extra-cramped horse stable like place (OK, horses do not eat sushi), Tochigiya is a standing delicious sushi bar open everyday. If you want to save on money, choose among the many sets rather than ordering your favorites one by one. And if you are a little bit claustrophobic as I am, drop by before 12 am or after 2 pm to avoid the small crowd.

Kita-no-Maru Garden (1)

I would suggest to forget the East Gardens in the Imperial Palace and rather invite you to walk around Kita-no-Maru Koen in the north tip of that vast green island that eats up most of Chiyoda-ward. The East Gardens are simply a too dry and bleak location to really enjoy. Kita-no-Maru garden is far more enjoyable, especially when the weather is fine like yesterday and the Autumn sun rays keeps one hot until 3:30 pm. There are two access to the garden from the Kudanshita station. The most treaded one up the slope has a monumental gate that opens up toward the Budokan hall, an ugly piece of architecture with a strangely Russian or Turkish reminding gold globe on the top. The Budokan caters both martial arts tournaments and popular music concerts. Both events are worth observing at least from the outside for an interesting slice of youth culture. The consciously clad punky girls master the art of mingling ugliness with cuteness (well, at least some of them). Another much less treaded approach to the garden is accessing - or leaving by - it through the Shimizu-mon or Shimizu gate. It is a forlorn small part of the garden that seems to have been forgotten on purpose by the city administration. Let's hope they keep on forgetting it that way. It is a perfect location for samurai fightings and any fantastic ancient Japan dream you can have. Best seen early in the morning or late afternoon. The view on the water pond and the Chiyoda city office from the small bridge linking to the gate is nice and a rare vista not yet marred by a newly built tower or urban highway. The ugly highway is running behind though.

Inside the garden, the lawn around the small pond is a favorite place for picnics but never too crowded, even on week-ends. There is a restaurant and snack vending building close to the Budokan which is acceptable for buying drinks and potato chips, but unless you did not plan the picnic ahead, forget about the food available there.

Gardens are of course enjoyable during fine weather, but it is a secret many do not know that gardens under a soft rain can be delicious granted you have the right shoes and umbrella to go with. The nice thing about walking in that garden as others under the rain is that chances are you will meet close to nobody and the noise from the cars running in the not so far distance is damped to very low level. The black gigantic stone walls are more impressive than ever, and the lawn around the pound in any season is a nice spot for musing.

More to come.

Topography

Chiyoda-ku is one of the 23 wards of Tokyo. The major feature of the territory is without any doubt the big, big green island of the imperial palace and the gardens around it that make up for a large portion of the ward's extent. According to a local barber I used to visit once in a while a fews years ago, Chiyoda-ku was still 30 years ago your traditional cluster of tiny neighborhoods besides the large avenues and corporate buildings. With a little above 40,000 residents, Chiyoda-ku is today the opposite of a dormitory town. It is in fact the less populated ward of Tokyo and the traditional tiny neighborhoods are hard to find in the maze of concrete and suspended driveways. As a result, daily life is not easy in Chiyoda-ku according to where you dwell. On the north side of the imperial palace, around the station Iidabashi, buying daily food is close to impossible unless you see convenience stores as delicatessens. Yet, Chiyoda-ku still has many and very contrasted faces. As with other cities, slow discovery by foot or bicycle is the best approach. And in the case of Tokyo, it is safe.

First entry

This is a Blog to offer and gather tips, suggestions, advices and some digressions about strolling around in Chiyoda-ku, one of the 23 Tokyo wards. It is first made for the flâneur at heart. As with everything else in life, this is a biased, non-exhaustive endeavor. However - and despite the rants here and there - the focus is on enjoyment. It is for the leisurely walker and bicycle rider more than the busy business person. It may be of some use for long time residents that are invited to comment and add their own tips, as well as tourists and short time visitors accessing this blog from their hotel's room. Unrelated and rude comments will be deleted.