{"id":5,"date":"2014-03-21T02:19:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-21T02:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/?p=5"},"modified":"2020-03-27T02:30:18","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T02:30:18","slug":"beyond-the-green-bubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/21\/beyond-the-green-bubble\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the Green Bubble"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Chu\u014d Line, or central line, cuts through the\ncircular Yamanote Line from Tokyo to Shinjuku, and continues west to the nearby\nmountains, with some trains even going on as far as Nagoya.  The first few stops, from Nakano to Kichij\u014dji,\ntop many Tokyoites\u2019 list of most desired places to live, and are spaced about a\n15-minute walk apart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Only 4 minutes from Shinjuku on the rapid trains, Nakano can\nmake you feel nostalgic for a time you may or may not have been a part of. Just\nnorth of the station is Sun Mall, a covered shopping arcade leading to one of Nakano\u2019s\nmost unique destinations: Nakano Broadway. If you walk through the first floor,\nyou\u2019ll find yourself back outside wondering what all the fuss is about. The\nsecond floor and up are an otaku\u2019s paradise, and certainly worth a visit even\nif you aren\u2019t a manga or anime fanatic. Mandarake, a world-famous vendor of\nrare memorabilia, has its headquarters here; with about a dozen different stores\nspread over three floors. There is an eclectic assortment of others shops as\nwell; such as a chic art caf\u00e9, a small gallery selling large prints of\ncelebrated contemporary artwork, a maid caf\u00e9, a massage parlor, used camera and\nvideo shops, and a few army surplus-themed tactical gear and airsoft stores,\nsuch as Warriors, which has some pretty serious-looking equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just a short walk north of Nakano Broadway, is the quiet neighborhood of Arai, where you can find a charming little restaurant called ChoiChoi (\u713c\u3084 \u3061\u3087\u3044\u3061\u3087\u3044\u3012165-0026\u6771\u4eac\u90fd\u4e2d\u91ce\u533a\u65b0\u4e951-31-9). They serve many unique and delicious vegetable dishes and have a selection of savory grilled fish. It\u2019s tight seating on the first floor, but if you don\u2019t mind, you can sit at the bar and watch the master at work in front of you. Up a steep set of stairs, there are more seating options with a cozy atmosphere and a ladder leading up to the living quarters. You have a choice between an old-fashioned bulb horn and a dinner bell to signal for attention on the second floor, of course the classic \u201csumimase~n\u201d works as well, but just knowing these options exist adds a curious quality to the meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you prefer a more lively scene, the alleyways of Sanbangai<\/em> (\u4e09\u756a\u8857), adjacent to Sun Mall, are packed with\nbars and restaurants, each with their own style. If you like unagi<\/em>, or grilled eel, Miharu (\u5473\u6cbb) has been around for a while and featured in \u201cOishinbo\u201d, a\nlong-running manga about culinary adventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One stop west of Nakano is K\u014denji, a hip and trendy neighborhood\nknown for its used clothing stores and live music scene. Central Road, just to\nthe north and west of the tracks, has an abundance of izakaya<\/em>, or Japanese-style pubs. Although it\u2019s a chain, I liked the\nfriendly staff, offerings, and d\u00e9cor of Himonoya (\u3072\u3082\u306e\u5c4b). If you\nwalk under the tracks from the entrance of Central Road, you\u2019ll find Look Street\n(\u30eb\u30c3\u30af\u5546\u5e97\u8857), which is a good place\nto find inexpensive threads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Covered shopping arcades, or sh\u014dtengai<\/em>, are ubiquitous in Japan, but Asagaya\u2019s has more of a lived-in, community feel to it than most. One stop west of K\u014denji, the town is renowned for its theater and jazz, and Star Road (\u30b9\u30bf\u30fc\u30ed\u30fc\u30c9), just northwest of the station, offers ample eating and drinking options. Yorunohirune (\u3088\u308b\u306e\u3072\u308b\u306d\u3012166-0001\u6749\u4e26\u533a\u963f\u4f50\u30f6\u8c37\u53172-13-4) is an interesting, and relatively famous caf\u00e9 you might miss across from a local market. Even when you\u2019re inside, you\u2019re still unsure if you\u2019ve just walked into a stranger\u2019s house uninvited, which temporarily sapped some of the confidence out of my ordering voice, but it\u2019s also part of the experience. The proprietor, Kadota-san, is originally from Shikoku. He\u2019s very friendly and makes you feel right at home. You\u2019re welcome to peruse his huge library of books, while you sip or nibble from the menu, and he plays host and DJ. He also has an interesting manga for sale about his relationship with his wife, which she illustrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just off of Star Road is Laputa, which is a theater well\nknown among cinephiles for showing independent and experimental films (Japanese\nlanguage). Asagaya Anime Street is due to open sometime in the middle of this\nmonth, stretching for a hundred meters or so under the Chu\u014d\nline tracks between Asagaya and K\u014denji train stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ramen lovers owe themselves a visit to Ogikubo, one stop\nwest of Asagaya, where Tokyo style ramen originated.  Perhaps the most famous shop is Harukiya (\u6625\u6728\u5c4b), which has a fish bone-based ramen recipe that has remained a\nguarded secret for over half a century. Unless you don\u2019t mind a line putting an\nhour or more between your empty stomach and prize, try to time your visit\nbetween the lunch and dinner rushes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Many artists, authors and other creative professionals call\nKichij\u014dji\nhome, and it has a palpable bohemian atmosphere about it. It\u2019s located just a\ncouple stops to the west of Ogikubo. On the north side of the station, just to\nthe left, you\u2019ll see Harmonica Yokoch\u014d (\u30cf\u30fc\u30e2\u30cb\u30ab\u6a2a\u4e01), which is a collection of narrow winding alleys, and cramped eateries and\nwatering holes with an old town feel. Continuing west, you\u2019ll come across\nNakamichi, and its many small craft and antique stores. Beautiful Inokashira\nPark is south of the tracks, and a popular place to see cherry blossoms in\nspring, or just stroll any time of year. The streets to the north of the lake\nlead you back to the station, passing by international restaurants and more\nmodern shops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if you feel like experiencing something a little different\nfrom the well-trampled inner loop, why not hop on the Chu\u014d\nline for a few minutes and discover your new favorite haunt? You\u2019ll feel like you\ntraveled much further in space and time, and I think you\u2019ll like the quick\nescape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chu\u014d Line, or central line, cuts through the circular Yamanote Line from Tokyo to Shinjuku, and continues west to the nearby mountains, with some trains even going on as far as Nagoya.  The first few stops, from Nakano to Kichij\u014dji, top many Tokyoites\u2019 list of most desired places to live, and are spaced about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[2,4,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions\/306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}