kdblog

On Saturday, April 29^th, we set off for a walk down the canal near our house to see what we might discover. I (Karen) had walked down the canal on my way to work during the cherry blossom season, so many of those pictures have been shared, but I wanted to go along the canal past my work area. These are some of the things of interest we found.

Although walking along the main road or the canal in this area gives the impression that this is a modern, financially stable area, just one small block north of the canal we found a different picture. We took some pictures of real urban areas that are not wealthy areas. Amongst the buildings in run-down condition, we found a sign advocating peace in English, Japanese, French, and Spanish. We were impressed.

Next we discovered a building that must have been damaged by an earthquake because it certainly had shifted its alignment by several obvious degrees! We saw a couple of buildings in the same block that had been destroyed by fire some time ago but remained in their dilapidated condition. It was interesting to see a side of Tokyo that tourists probably are not likely to see.                                    

We then continued our walk down the canal. Low and behold we walked right to a park/garden, the Chinzan-so Garden, that we had visited nearly three summers ago. We knew that garden was not far from our apartment, but we had not yet searched for it. It had been on our list of things to do since last August, so we were delighted to discover its location with so little trouble. The walk through the garden was beautiful and also nostalgic for us because we had very much enjoyed our last visit to the same garden. It is interesting to now have the garden in a clearer context.

We continued down the canal even though it started to rain (sprinkle) and we had no umbrellas and were not likely to find a place to buy a cheap umbrella on the tree lined, residential walk along the canal. The rain held off until we got to a major road and intersection. We found ourselves in Edogawabashi. Edo is an old name for Tokyo. Gawa means river, and bashi means bridge. We noticed at that location, a road had been built high above the canal—like a double-decker bus, the space was optimally utilized with the highway about 20 to 30 feet above the canal, following the path of the canal. It wasn’t exactly aesthetically pleasing but was impressive use of space.

We left the canal and within a block we found an interesting area of Edogawabashi, an old style shopping street that was closed to vehicles, so we took a turn down the street. Not far down the road, we found a store that is my dream store—almost! It had beautiful clothing, all made from 100% high-quality cotton and linen, Japanese-inspired prints and clothing designs (simple but elegant), and sewn with great skill! It is just the kind of clothing I am thinking I would like to make and sell! I was so excited. I entered the shop thinking I might buy a blouse, skirt, or jacket, but then I saw the price! A lovely blouse had been reduced from 14,000 yen to 13,000 yen, meaning that it was far more than $100 US dollars! Everything in the store was priced like that. Although the quality of fabric, prints, and labor were super, the price was too high. I think I can sell similar items for about half the price in the US. It was a great inspiration, nevertheless.

Next we headed for a place to buy a couple of cheap umbrellas. We were just in time because while we were purchasing the umbrellas, it began to rain harder. We didn’t find much else on the street that interested us, so when we came to the end of that vehicle-forbidden street, we went back to a main road, which we realized was Shin Meiji-ro Dori, a road that is just down the hill from our apartment. We knew how to walk home easily from there. We started in the direction of home, but we were stopped by a small bakery/café that had the English word “vegetarian” on the window. With closer inspection, I could see they had “vegan vegetarian” written on some things. It seemed worth investigating although I had not thought I was hungry and David assured me he was not hungry. Sure enough, the café is 100% vegan and serves many organic things like organic coffee. I ordered a veggie burger, and it was the best veggie burger I have ever had. It was served on 100% whole grain bread and had a real Japanese contribution, a slice of lotus root on it! It was quite lovely! It came with a super soup made with miso and shiso. There were also some Japanese pickles and a seaweed carrot salad that redefines the term “slimy food.” Trust us; okra in comparison would not seem slimy! We also bought completely organic, vegan, whole grain bread to take home. When we left the café, we found the bus stop and figured out that it is only a few stops by bus from our apartment!

We decided to take a break from walking by taking the subway to Ikebukuro, which is really an area we are comfortable in. We still, however, have only scratched the surface of getting around in Ikebukuro efficiently. We’re working on that. We went there to visit the closest store of our favorite bakery/espresso chain in Tokyo, Vie de France. They have great espresso and my currently favorite Japanese sweet, goma anpan. I am not actually sure whether that is the correct way to say it, but goma is sesame, an(ko) is sweet red bean paste, and pan is bread (borrowed from the French—Japanese borrows words from all over the world!) So instead of just anpan, this delicacy adds sesame paste to the anko, making it less sweet and even more flavorful! We wouldn’t miss Starbucks at all if there were more Vie de France Bakeries!! Tina, you will love the goma anpan!

David was getting tired, so he went home, and I went to a bookstore to look at the textile and clothing book/journals. I spent all that I had with me except 1,000 yen; then I got lost in Sunshine City, a HUGE shopping area in Ikebukuro. I walked to the opposite end, right to a Uni Clo store, an inexpensive Gap-type store. I thought I was going to spend my last 1,000 yen bill because they had these 98% cotton/2% lycra pants in blue. I love these pants for yoga and for wearing at home, but I had only found them in black in other Uni Clo stores. However, when I went to pay for them, I got change back! They were only 690 yen—that is somewhere between 5 and 6 dollars US. What a buy!

I, too, then headed home quite tired. I had been out for more than six hours, but I was very pleased. It had been a successful excursion. Sometimes having no agenda results in more success than when the agenda is specific!!

Tokyo is a great city! We will miss it because in just over three months we will be returning to the US.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 29th, 2006 at 6:17 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.