In Between Two Worlds

We are house sitting for the pastor and his family for the next five weeks. Our first two weeks here we stayed in the studio apartment above their garage, which was really quite nice. But now we have a whole, large, beautiful home to ourselves for five weeks - not bad given that we are in the middle of Tokyo where most people live in tiny, tiny apartments. I have no idea what street we live on - because I think it doesn't actually have a name. Fun little fact about Tokyo: most streets don't have names, just the major ones. That makes following directions (or getting directions in the first place) a real fun little challenge.

All that to say, I am learning to associate places with neighborhoods and landmarks. One thing James and I have already discovered about this enormous city is that it is composed of several smaller neighborhoods (like most major cities). But the neighborhoods of Tokyo all have an interested and unique flair. It reminds me of Seattle in this way - Seattle neighborhoods are all so different and personal. 

Thus we live kind of nestled in between two different neighborhoods - Shibuya on the one hand, and Daikan'yama on the other. If I had to compare these two neighborhoods to NYC neighborhoods, I would say that Shibuya is like Times Square, and Daikan'yama is similar to Soho or the Village. This first series of pics below is Daikan'yama, which is a rather quiet (for Tokyo's standards) neighborhood full of trendy boutiques, bars, cafes, and specialty shops of all varieties. James and I both love this neighborhood - you can spend hours wandering through these quaint and wandering little streets lined with lights and patio umbrellas and al-in-all have a very European-esque feel to it. Except for it's filled with trendy and young Japanese folk, with a decidedly Tokyo flair to it. 

This second set of photos is Shibuya - a crazy, bright, flashy, never-sleeping section of Tokyo that is filled with excitement and energy and drama. Massive big screen TV's line the streets, sales people with microphones blaring sales pitches in Japanese outside massive electronic stores, teenagers giggling in that unique high-pitch monotone voice, and hundreds of people crossing the sidewalk every time it turns green. In fact, there is an intersection called "Shibuya Crossing" right in front of the massive Starbucks (featured in Lost in Translation) that has crosswalks running in a variety of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal directions creating a deluge of persons walking every which way on the green. Interesting place. Fun for about 45 minutes, then time to take a break until the next visit. We do walk to Shibuya every morning, however, to catch our train to work. Never a dull moment here!

Daikan'yama

Shibuya