along the yamanote down south : August 22 2024

the mighty tokyo station in all its glory! this is the pitstop for today's amazing race, or tonight's rather. oh i have always wanted to try the "amazing race" when i was younger, the allure of travelling and circumnavigating the world was so strong. but since that is pretty hard to achieve, here is my little version. when the show travels the world, i go travelling train stations by foot.

i started this not so long ago, the target for now is the yamanote line, tokyo's busiest and arguably the most important train line. the last time i travelled west, i will move southbound this time.

urban walking along the yamanote : August 17 2024

nishi nippori (西日暮里)

you are already very familiar with this station, but it is the closest to me part of the yamanote. nothing much here, but there were lots of small restaurants directly beside the station. this yakiniku (grilled meat) shop looked promising.

fun fact, nishi in the name just means west, so even the name of this station seemed just an afterthought. surprisingly though, this station ranked 41st in this train company's busiest station as of 2023 when counting boarding passengers only. that is pretty high, knowing that this company has more than 800 stations around the tokyo and nearby regions.

nippori (日暮里)

these two stations were pretty close that the other one was just conveniently called "west". in all seriousness, on the hilly other side of these two stations is actually what gave rise to the name starting from the old edo period. that hilly other side contained important temples, shrines, museums, and even cemeteries. you can read more of that in here.

pathway to history and culture - higurashinosato : August 15 2024

but now, i am on the city side of the station where it seems they are preparing for a festival. that festival stage looks so tempting, those lanterns will be lit and taiko drums will be on the stage together with dancers in kimonos. oh i can't wait, but i have no schedule when that would be.

and this station ranked 28th busiest, it is a gateway from one of tokyo's airport after all.

uguisudani (鶯谷)

another sleeper area, literally. the area is notorious for its very high concentration of love hotels. you heard it right! this makes the place lively and bright at night. maybe sleeper is not the right word, people do not sleep in love hotels, don't they? wink wink

the station itself is very small and passengers are sparse, ranking in the 150s, too low for a yamanote line station. but when you are known for one thing alone, that makes you a niche. when you want to scratch some "itch", welcome to uguisudani.

ueno (上野)

the next stop is a big and heavy favorite, ueno is known for lots of things but for this nightwalker, this area is where it starts to get creepy. the path from the previous station to this one passes on an eerie and quiet cemetery with very few walkers. forgive the dramatics, but there are many ways to reach the place. the shortest one just happened to be the creepy one.

ueno, the 12th busiest, is home to lots of museums: art, science, history... you name it, it is probably in here. it is even home to a zoo! and a very big pond teeming with life. the big park usually hosts seasonal events as well, making this place teeming with people, too.

okachimachi (御徒町)

located at the center of a very busy commercial area, okachimachi is the 66th busiest. it is for one very close to the previous station and that had more train lines compared to this very small one. but we do not have statistics on passengers getting off, and i think that is where this station excels at.

that whole stretch between ueno and okachimachi is a shopping street, Ameyoko (アメ横), an open air market filled with small shops of all sorts of things from clothes to raw food produce. yes, it has that type of market in this whole stretch. commerce and trade runs supreme, and the streets are always crowded until closing time, it is a merchant district in it's truest form.

akihabara (秋葉原)

this station needs no introduction, the 9th busiest station, the go to district of hobbyists. this area is close to my heart as i once worked in one of the tall buildings within the area.

there are just so much things to do in here, always bright and colorful and entertaining. home to a large concentration of "maid cafes" exuding cutesies, home to large technology and game related companies, home to whatever hobbies you have.

gadget stores both small and large are many in the area. yes, it is "otaku" town! and since japan is very much known for anime and manga, then surely this one is in most peoples' bucket lists, home to a very large collection of anime culture. ever heard of "electric town"? that is also in akihabara.

the nature lovers would probably find this place hard to stomach, outside the main street there is a temple to find some peace.

kanda myoujin in the middle of hobbyist town: July 29 2024

kanda (神田)

i could clearly remember when i was still working in akihabara, whenever we have dinners, parties, drink outs with colleagues, we go to nearby kanda. this was always engraved in my memory, this area caters to salary men and women.

ranking 42nd busiest, this district is never a tourist hub nor a go to destination for the ordinary people. this district is a popular after-work spot for workers in and around the area. there are many dining and drinking spots, izakaya as called locally. as i was walking from akihabara, i was even in a crowd of office workers heading to kanda to have some off-work drink (i overheard their convo, in fact i might have overheard too much).

tokyo (東京)

the 3rd busiest in terms of onboarding passengers, tokyo station is a major hub for all inter-city transport, shinkansen from north to south finds a stop in tokyo station after all. but before that, can we first appreciate the surrounding skyscrapers in the area? the buildings i passed by in this nightwalk were in no way close to the greatness of these buildings.

but what makes tokyo station stand out for me is the station itself. the east side (yaesu side) offers a modern look, and the west side (marunouchi side) facing the imperial palace has this beautiful red brick facade which originally opened in 1914.

it is a national cultural property! i am just glad that the lights were still on when i came for soon after, they were turned off. this west side has a hotel, those windows are hotel rooms where guests can peek outside the station or have a closer look of the domes. it also has a museum in one end.

this side got destroyed in the 2nd world war and was thankfully renovated a year after. the original red bricked walls can still be seen in the museum. i heard that this was also the site of assassinations, so much history in such a great architecture. this picture below is from the dome on the left side.

getting past through this dome is the normal station's ticket gate. and inside is a city, complete with lots of shopping stores and food. i honestly have a love-hate relationship with the station; to go to work, i have to change train lines having to walk for 10 to 15 minutes inside this labyrinth of a station. it is that wide! but it is beautiful, so it is hard to hate.

the nightwalker's journey ends for now, i rode the train back home so no worries.
as always, AMPING KANUNAY!

^{JR train statistics source}