After a rather laborious trek up the hill behind the station, I found myself in a quiet residential neighborhood. A turn or two down the road led me to a small park perched on the hill, overlooking the station below. The lush canopy of leaves provided a much needed reprieve from the harsh sun. Mothers and their children were making use of the park facilities, while several businessmen ate their lunches on the available park benches.
Once I had cooled down a bit, I continued my journey down the residential road, only to begin running into much more foot traffic than I had expected. Sure enough, several minutes later I stumbled across the entrance to a local shrine.
While my historical Japanese vocabulary is rather limited, I was able to make out the shrine's name. Suwa Shrine, nearly hidden in the shade of numerous oak trees, is proof that there is much to be found off the beaten path, away from the touristy areas of Tokyo.
Soon afterwards I found a street map revealing at least a dozen more temples and shrines scattered throughout the area: remnants of old Tokyo. Sadly, I was running out of time and couldn't continue down the road. However, I discovered an interesting little owl statue at the entrance of an elementary school while walking back to the station.
Upon meeting my friend, Sho, at the station, we decided to grab some lunch before heading over to his apartment. I was elated, for I had only eaten a small breakfast consisting of convenience store food. We stopped at a ramen shop and I was able to have my first legitimate bowl of ramen in over two years! A standard, no-frills bowl of shoyu (soy sauce) ramen, but I was happy nonetheless.
Sho enjoyed his ramen too.
No comments:
Post a Comment