1 November 2018
The unknown metropolis of Kitasenju
A very well connected station in the North of Tokyo
I spun the globe this evening and ended up on Kitasenju. Actually I traced Japan Rail lines my free train pass works with north Of Ueno where I am staying until I found an apricot colored splotch on google maps that identifies shops. The biggest one north of Ueno was Kitasenju, so thats where I went.
Heading out of Tokyo at peak hour means its time for the good old fashioned train crush. I became intimate with many Japanese businessmen. Somehow they can manage to read a book or play games with questionable underage anime girl content on their phones in the mad crush. All I can do is try to look away as each one of them sneezes, coughs, or gurgles on a gallon of snot. The snot issue amongst the Japanese is very real! It has been taking all my efforts to not mention it constantly!
As for Kitasenju, its a very interesting, very bright, very busy area with all the things you would expect of a Tokyo shopping area.
It is probably a little bit lower rent than many of the others, but I guess in some ways that makes it a bit more interesting. There are still department stores and food courts as you shall see, but go a few streets away and it became almost traditional stores.
I didnt stay long, I need to get up early tomorrow to go hang off a cliff face somewhere deep in Gunma province, getting maximum value from my train pass on day 3 of 3. More about those amazing savings tomorrow!
Here is the main street of Kitasenju. It is long and has even longer shopping streets running off of it.
There are plenty of colorful alleyways to wander down and wonder whats going on inside the dimly lit stores. Wander and wonder. Thats what I do.
The shopping street at street level, looking back at the station and department stores.
I found the Korean restaurant.
This food court is cool. They have worked out food courts are for sad lonely people, like me, and set up semi private one person booths.
My $5 dinner consisted of Soba in broth with salad on top, accompanied by deep fried shredded vegetables and deep fried sweet potato. It wasnt bad!
Here is the far side of the station, which was less neontastic than the other side.
The station here is really quite large, it seems to be the terminal station for the Tsukuba express. I dont think I have ever been on that, its not compatible with my train pass so I wont be going on it at least until my pass expires tomorrow night!
I went back over to the main side of the station and hunted some more neon from the pedestrian overpasses.
And there was just enough time left to snap a photo of the big department stores, I had dinner in the basement. I usually do.