New Old Kanda

While I was looking for older photos for the Akihabara, I found these pictures I took from Kanda Station back in August of 2007 but never blogged. Technically speaking these aren't proper Yamanote shots as I took them from the Chuo Line tracks. The Chuo line cuts right through Tokyo, connecting the East and West sides in a very convenient fashion. I'm off to Tokyo this weekend, for training and fun, so I should have a whole new batch of stations ready to keep the project going for a while.

Akihabara Station 秋葉原駅

Japan is something of a destination for geeks as it is, but within Japan, the true Mecca off all that is Geekish is certainly Akihabara. With dozens stores from the tiny to the massive, in Akihabara you can get computer parts, video games old and new, costumes, anime merchandise and more. Even if you aren't really a geek, Akihabara warrants a look, as you can often catch interesting asides like maid street karaoke. As the guiding light of the 'otaku' culture, a fair number of trends have surfaced here, from maid cafes to super thick 'Kanazawa style curry'. I find that Akihabara is one of the best places in Tokyo to just kill time, but then spending an hour in a 10 floor camera shop is just the sort of thing I love! 

Kanda Station 神田駅

One stop counterclockwise from Tokyo is Kanda Station. I had never stopped there before, probably because there's not much at Kanda to stop for! I walked around a bit, and while the area had some nice looking bars and restaurants and such, it was nothing that was really all that special. Mostly, I think its a small, residential area close to the office towers and shops near Tokyo Station and the Ginza district.

Though I'll admit, I didn't feel much like exploring too widely on the day I went to Kanda. I had already walked around Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Ebisu, and I was tired!

Even though Kanda may not be a prime tourist destination, I still feel like I got some cool photographs, and it was far from a wasted trip. 

Tokyo Station 東京駅

I still remember arriving in Tokyo station on my first visit to Japan. I took the Narita Express in from the airport, fought my way through the commuter crowds and hunted out a hotel. I knew next to nothing about Japan, and nothing about the layout of Tokyo. These days, I usually head straight to the west side of the city, and the urban centers of Shibuya and Shinjuku, which are just more fun than the office buildings and ultra expensive boutiques that surround Tokyo Station.

I actually still visit Tokyo Station fairly often, I just never leave the station! You ride the bullet train, get off at Tokyo, and get right back on a local train bound for your true destination.  Though that doesn't mean anybody should dismiss the area right off the bat. After all, the Imperial Palace is just a few short blocks away, as is the museum that hosted the Manet exhibit I saw recently.

Real estate in Japan is expensive. Real estate in Tokyo is even more expensive. Real estate in central Tokyo is astronomical. So, if you want to build an area of shops and restaurants, but don't want to build a new building, why not go underground?

I walked through this arcade for well over two blocks without ever going above the surface, and there were plenty of intersections and offshoots. I explored merely a small portion of a veritable underground labyrinth! Tokyo Station is hardly unique in having a huge subterranean support network, but that doesn't detract from the experience. Ironically, one might imagine a cluster of fast food and other assorted sub par eateries, but I must say that lunch was cheap AND delicious, and there were plenty of restaurants and even a few bars that looked just as good as any surface side counterpart. 

Once you've shopped and eaten though, it's time to jump on a Yamanote line train and head to the next stop on the line....

The Yamanote Line Project 山手線 プロジェクト

The lifeblood of Tokyo is carried through the Yamanote Line. Traveling a 34.5 kilometer loop around the center of the city, the Yamanote Line is the single most useful Japan Rail Line in the greater Kanto region. Just about every major tourist destination in Tokyo is accessible from one of the 29 stations. Indeed, the two busiest train stations in the world, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro, are both served by the Yamanote Line. The line itself carries an estimated 3.5 million people a day.

I can't even remember the first time I traveled on the Yamanote Line, though I could guess that it was when I visited Tokyo for the second time with my friends Matt and Zach, back in early 2006. The first time I visited Tokyo, I was so terrified of the mess of multicolored spaghetti that makes up the two separate subway networks and the multitude of above ground commuter rail lines that I refused to use them at all!

Since then I've become an old pro at navigating the around the city. However, as I traveled around the loop, curiosity started to get the better of me. What was at each of these stations that I was passing by? In order to find out, I've decided to visit each Yamanote Line stop in turn to see just what I can uncover. I'll use a mixture of photographs from my previous years in Japan along with plenty of new ones, and document the whole Line, starting at Tokyo Station, and moving counter-clockwise from there.The Yamanote Project will be the Friday update, so no matter where I go, and what I post about the rest of the week, hopefully each of the next 29 Fridays will be a look at the Yamanote Line.