Omotesando is not generally thought of as one of the cheapest places to shop. Its tree-lined boulevards house some of the swankiest designer boutiques in Tokyo designed to pull in the big time spenders.

However, if you don’t feel like parting with three months salary in a single afternoon, don’t despair, Omotesando has something for you too! Just a few buildings down from the huge ‘Gap’ store on Meiji Street, near the intersection with Omotesando, you will come across YM square, where a much more wallet-friendly shopping experience can be found. Here two of the biggest and best second-hand clothes stores in Tokyo co-exist. In the basement, you can find ‘Kinji’ and on the 3^rd and 4^th floors ‘Hanjiro.’

When I first visited Tokyo, 18-years ago, at the end of the bubble, the idea of a second-hand clothing store in trendy Omotesando would have been laughed at.

If you wore something back then, it had to be new, preferably designer-made and most likely expensive. With the bubble era now only the subject matter of late night drinking stories, Tokyoites too have to count the pennies. This frugalness combined with today’s emphasis on all things environmentally friendly has meant that second hand clothes stores have had an image make over. As a matter of fact, they’re cool! Why else would they be in the heart of Harajuku?

Being Japan, things are not done in half-measures and the two stores in the YM square don’t just sell any kind of used clothing, but promote their very own distinct style. Kinji is the cheaper of the two, and its look is young, brash and colourful, it’s aisles filled with patterned shirts, multi-coloured T-shirts, as well as jeans, furry hats, combat gear and shiny waistcoats. The shop assistants attire as well as photographs plastered over the windows helpfully show the mix and match Kinji look that customers are encouraged to copy.. T-shirts go for less than a thousand yen, and jackets around 2000-3000 yen. When buying, for a little extra cost, you are also given the option of a guarantee that you can re-sell it to the shop later; an idea rooted in good business sense and eco-friendly principles as clothes get re-used again and again.

Three floors above, Hanjiro, aims for a somewhat different, more laid-back hippy feel. The interior alone is worth going to the shop for. At the entrance you find yourself confronted by three faceless mannequins, representing a man, woman and child, all decked out in Hanjiro chic. On the walls behind are pictures of Jesus and Mary that appear to have been taken from a Jehovah’s Witness magazine. All wonderfully surreal! The interior lives up to the entrance as the ceiling is lined with an array of chandeliers that light up rows of decent quality used jackets, dresses, hats, stoles, scarves and accessories.

Hanjiro’s appeal is broader than that of Kinji, attracting a slightly more mature customer, as well as students in their early twenties. Hardly surprising then that prices are a little higher, although shirts at around 2000 yen are not likely to cause too many sleepless nights.

While most of the big name brand shopping is done on the main Omotesando, a short stroll away, you’ll find the second and third floor ‘Kindness’ store here buying and selling brand goods. Perhaps this is where some of the Vuitton bags and Fendi coats purchased just around the corner end up when the owners are forced to cut costs. If you’re a brand buying kind of person, then the store is worth a visit before splashing out on new goods. The stuff on display at Kindness looks as good as new and goes for a fraction of the price.

A little further down the road brings you to Takeshita guchi, where Takeshita Street ends on one side and Harajuku Street begins on the other. Takeshita Street is a teenagers’ paradise - a Mecca for wearers of street fashion ,with shops and stores specializing in punk, goth, cute, Lolita and whatever else is big among the under 20s. The street includes shops selling used clothes as well as new. Of special note are the wonderfully named ’Wego’ and the outlet store ‘Freaks,’ with a second-hand section in its basement.

Harajuku Street is a bit quieter and includes some interesting second hand shops like G2, which stocks Vintage American and European clothes. The store is well worth a look around as you find yourself taken back to a different era. If you’ve ever felt a wish to dress like a 50s Hollywood film star or don the tweeds of a British aristocrat, then this is the place for you!

The second-hand clothes stores, as well as selling good-quality, affordable clothes, are also worth visiting to see just how young Japanese people are changing and becoming more creative with increasingly limited resources. The used shops styles and interiors are the result of imagination and a DIY spirit, a contrast to the state-of-the-art brand shops nearby which seem to be no different from other brand shops the world over and where money alone seems to have been the source of inspiration.

Some of the most famous of Tokyo’s buildings include the following.

West Shinjuku’s Metropolitan Government Building (1989) forms part of the skyscraper island of West Shinjuku, with its twin towers and plaza based on the Campo in Sienna. It was designed by Kenzo Tange, the father of Modern Japanese architecture, who also designed the building next door, the Park Tower 1991. The Park Hyatt building with its three staggered towers and polygonal glass roof gives the skyline that futuristic feel so loved by photographers and film makers. It was the Park Hyatt that proved the location for Sophia Coppola’s film ‘Lost in Translation.’

(Scenes from Lost in Translation)

If Tange, is the Godfather of modern architecture then Toyo Ito is its prince. His most impressive creation is ‘Tod’s Building’ in Omotesando, a man-made structure made to feel natural.  A glass-walled building crisscrossed with concrete braces imitates the patterns made by the branches of the elm trees nearby. The different shadows caused by the changing light means that the interior never seems the same.

In the bubble era, money was no object as exotic creations sprang up all over the city.
Some would argue that the old area of Asakusa was not the best place to build a state of the art building with a golden ‘turd’ on the top. But not the Asahi beer company! Their assurances that the work resembled a flame, or even the froth from a glass of beer did little to persuade locals that designer Phillip Starck wasn’t taking the mickey.

Starck was one of many foreign architects invited to join the party during the bubble years. Another was Rafael Vinoly, who you may feel was more successful with his ‘International Forum’ (1996) building in Yurakucho: a huge glass ship that seems to have temporarily docked among the non-descript buildings that surround it.

The most recent addition to the Tokyo skyline is the Roppongi Hills complex, for which a team of the world’s finest architects was assembled. The Kohn Pederson Fox team designed the 53 storey tower, Terence Conran - the residential towers; and Maki Fumihiko thought up the TV centre.

The idea behind this city within a city was a more practical one than the decorative excesses of the 80s .It presents a blueprint for life in the future, with innovative, glass-walled structures allowing light in and greenery to flourish in an environment where people live, work and play in the same space. The vision sees Tokyo extending skywards rather than extending its urban sprawl, with people commuting down escalators rather than spending hours on the subway.

Although the complex is impressive, and its residents include some of the city’s high rollers and reportedly a former Prime Minister, you can’t help feeling that, given the cost of apartments there, it has as much to do with the reality of most people’s lives as a day at Disneyland.

Indeed, there is something of that atmosphere about the place at weekends when the masses come to shop, eat, visit galleries, watch films before returning to the less salubrious surroundings of their living places.

Each decade since has spawned directors now synonymous with their time. The 60s and early 70s saw the rise of Nagisa Oshima and Shohei Imamura, so-called new wave directors sponsored by the influential ATG, the Art Theater Guild. The two were not afraid of controversy and the former’s ‘Ai No Corrida’ 1976 (In the Realm of the Senses) was banned in Japan due to its graphic portrayal of Sada Abe, found wandering the streets of pre-war Japan with a rather personal part of her dead husband’s anatomy in her possession.

In the 80s, although generally considered a time of stagnation after the demise of the ATG and the unwillingness of the big production companies to take risks, Juzo Itami became the critically acclaimed director of his day, with films such as the world’s first noodle western, ‘Tampopo’ (1986). Itami liked to question the conventional wisdoms of the time: his classic ‘The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion’ (1992) inverted the normal portrayal of the yakuza as something akin to the latter day descendents of samurai. Instead, he portrayed them as bumbling oafs, which ruffled feathers so much that the director was attacked and scarred for life.

Although the early 90s continued the less–than-inspiring-trend of sticking to the tried and tested, the mid- 90s to the present has seen a number of new directors emerge in a range of genres: from horror, to anime, to art house. This has inspired people to talk of a re-birth in Japanese film making. Certainly, the heavy Japanese presence at international film festivals such as Cannes and Venice seem to be an indicator of robust health and the, recently established, English language website, midnighteye.com, devoted to Japanese film, is testament to international interest. The site, as well as providing reviews and interviews, gives details of subtitled releases both in Japan and abroad.

A big difference, however, between now and the fifties is that the critically acclaimed directors of the day were also big draws at the box office. Nowadays, a fair percentage of those films receiving acclaim and attention at international film festivals are not exactly box office magnets, with some notable exceptions.

Here is a brief rundown of some of the Japanese directors making, if not the most popular films of today, at least the most original and innovating. Anime has been left out, as it would take at least a separate article to do justice to that great global export.

‘Nobody Knows’ (2004)

The mid to late 90s saw a number of new directors involved in lower budget, independent productions. Koreeda was one of them. ‘Afterlife’ (1998) and ‘Nobody Knows’ (2004) show how imagination can circumvent the need for big productions. ‘Afterlife’ recreates a limbo world in a disused factory where the recently deceased are encouraged to choose one moment of their lives to keep forever. Koreeda’s films are shot like documentaries, ‘Afterlife’ was part unscripted and based on interviews, seemingly bridging fact and fiction. In ‘Nobody Knows’ a family is left to fend for themselves after they’re deserted by their mother in a Tokyo that seems indifferent to their plight.

While Koreeda might fit with relative ease into the art house category, Takashi Miike defies description. His films range from the horror of ‘Audition’ (1999), and I mean horror, to the ‘musical,’ ‘The Happiness of the Katakuris’ (2001). Imagine the Rocky Horror picture show set in a Japanese ryokan; throw a zombie film in there and you might be getting close!

The ubiquitous Takeshi Kitano is one of those exceptions mentioned before. A director who makes critically acclaimed box office films which also do well at the box-office. His gangster films such as ‘Sonatine’ (1993) contain an almost surrealistic amount of violence. Takeshi’s portrait of the loner going out in a blaze of glory is one of those Japanese traditions in the arts, like love suicides, which have always gone down well with local audiences. In recent years, Kitano has widened his range with films like his acclaimed version of the samurai classic ‘Zatoichi’ (2003).  (Photo:Used in conjunction with Wikimedia CC-SA)

Like Takeshi Kitano, it would be incorrect to label Shinya Tsukamoto as a part of any new wave of film makers as it was 1989 when ‘Tetsuo: Iron Man’ first made audiences sit up and stare. The film, shot in black and white, mixes animation and real scenes as a human body and a machine become intertwined. Tsukamoto is always on the cutting edge of film making as his more recent, Robert Mapplethorpe inspired, erotic ‘A Snake of June,’ proved.

Another quality director who, like Kitano, has received attention in the mainstream media is Masayuki Suo. His most recent film, ‘I Just didn’t do it’ (2006), about an innocent man accused of touching a woman on a subway train, stirred debate about the integrity of the Japanese legal system with the film’s supposition that in Japan, one is guilty until proved innocent, rather than the opposite. Worth tracking down is an earlier film by Suo called ‘Shall We Dance (1996),’ the familiarity of the title due to the Hollywood remake, which had Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez butchering the lead roles. The original is far better and has the British seaside town of Blackpool cast as a ballroom dance Mecca for a group of salarymen who escape from the boring lives in their weekly dance class.

‘Shall We Dance’ (1996) 

This is only a sample of some of the films available with English subtitles that may give you some insight into Japan before you visit and perhaps inspire a more long term interest in Japanese film. For more information on Japanese films both past and present, check out the midnight eye.com website. Most of the films mentioned can be ordered form amazon.com with English subtitles.

For an interesting walk around the Meguro area, make for the West exit at Meguro station.

When you come out, cross at the traffic lights then head down the slope between the ‘atre’ building and SMBC Bank with its green and white sign. This steep road takes you first past a temple, Daien-ji, dating back to 1772. The grounds here contain hundreds of small Buddha statues, including one wrapped in a red bib, singled out for special veneration; its melted face marking it as a survivor in a fire that destroyed most of the city during the Edo-era (1603-1867).

The Gajo-en hotel, at the bottom of the slope, is a bit of an oddity. The building itself is a thoroughly modern high rise affair, yet when you step inside, the emphasis is very much on the traditional. Part of the ground floor is occupied by a Japanese garden with a waterfall. A large glass-fronted shop displaying a row of white wedding dresses reveals the real business of the hotel and the reason for the unusual interior. After the wedding ceremonies, kimono-clad guests, or the newly weds themselves, can often be seen strolling through the garden, having their picture taken in front of the waterfall, or some of the man-made backdrops, doing what the hotel’s brochure describes as ‘love cruising.”

During the 50s and 60s it was love cruising of a different type that may have been taking place at Gajo-en, when the original building was used as an R & R facility for American servicemen.

Following the road down from Gajo-en, a large Disneyesque building with the words “Love” emblazoned on one of the towers continues the theme and welcomes you to Meguro River. Turn right at this love hotel and begin your journey along the bank that will eventually take you to Nakameguro.

The river is lined with cherry blossom trees and in early spring they come into bloom. Then, you may also be presented with something of an obstacle course as you try to avoid the drunken revellers celebrating the annual hanami ‘cherry blossom viewing’ parties under the trees. The only main road you will cross as you follow the river is Meguro-dori near the start of your walk which is itself worth the short detour. Turn right and walk along Meguro-dori, and soon and you will come to an interesting collection of old shops, cheap bars and restaurants, many specializing in noodles (ramen), that show a more earthy side of Meguro that existed before the trendy antique shops and Italian restaurants arrived. The lanterns that light the pavement give the old shopping street a distinct atmosphere at night

Walk along the left bank of the river and shortly after crossing Meguro-dori, an outdoor swimming pool, open from mid- July to early September will come into view. Entry is only 400 yen, and it’s a nice place to stop for a dip in the summer. On the path by the bank around here, a fruit seller with a good eye for a business opportunity can often be found selling peaches to the thirsty masses while behind the pool, you’ll find Meguro Art Gallery, with its community-related exhibitions often interactive and child-friendly.

It’s a pleasant walk along the river and for the most part you are shaded by the trees, a welcome relief in summer. It wouldn’t be Tokyo though without some hint of the surreal, however, and the huge white chimney that can be seen for miles around, provides it.

Up close, signs assure us of the non-polluting properties of the Meguro Incineration Plant, but you feel it may not be best to linger too long in its proximity! Nakameguro Park, a little further along provides a more comforting view.

There are a couple of old bridges that cross the river along your way which provide good views in both directions. Although there are not many cafes along the bank till you get to the Nakameguro area, the two-story Sakura Café and Gallery, about half way between Meguro and Nakameguro, is a good stop-off at which to sit and take in the peaceful atmosphere.

Except for during the cherry blossom season, the riverbank is rarely busy, and it’s a nice antidote to some of the more crowded areas. There are also a number of benches under the trees where you can sit, unravel a bento box and relax.

The walk from along the river to Nakameguro takes around 40 minutes and as you approach the Nakameguro area, you will have to cross to the opposite side to continue your journey or else face an un -welcome detour to the main road.

From this side of the river, you can see an open park area. In summer, this is often the venue for free outdoor concerts, usually Jazz or classical, so you may arrive at Nakameguro in some style, serenaded by music.

As you arrive in Nakameguro, cross the river again, go back on yourself a little, and you will find yourself in a cluster of restaurants and cafes whose location has made them popular among Nakameguro’s trendy young crowd. The Café Combine and the French Restaurant “Huit,’ both with seats facing the river are recommended; the latter showing its staying power by way of the ‘depuis 2005’ on its advertising board which tells something of the life-expectancy of restaurants here.

The river disappears at this point beneath the busy main road, and you will have to head to the , Yamate-dori, before returning to the river near Nakameguro Station. In Nakameguro proper, the river bank is much busier than elsewhere and it’s become the site for small boutiques, bars and restaurants.

Most of these, however, have made use of the original buildings and there is a nice contrast between the old, often wooden exterior and the modern, trendy interiors. In summer, the fronts of the cafes open out onto the river bank and there is a laid-back feel to the area, reminiscent to a degree, of London’s Camden Market. The evening is a good time to head here too, as the lanterns and lights from the stores light up the river – and there are always plenty of bars and restaurants to choose from.

There is a festival around the temple on the 28th of every month in honour of Fudo and this is the best time to visit. Stalls are set up selling everything from Buddhist artifacts to local food and drink, as well as providing amusements similar to those found in Western fairgrounds: there’s a shooting range, lucky dip, a goldfish stall, among others.

Throughout the day and early evening, there are fire rituals, where talismans consecrated by holy smoke are offered for protection against various ills. The early evening when the sun goes down and the light is provided by the lanterns is particularly recommended and gives you the feeling that you have stepped back in time.

The temple itself is one of the five great Fudo temples in Tokyo. Climb up the steep stone steps and you’re rewarded with a great view of the large temple roof and altar. After visiting the altar, follow the wooden steps around to the back of the temple to see the huge Buddhist statue, Dainichi Norai.

The 2nd floor, Meguro Tavern, is a short walk from Meguro Station along Meguro-dori, on the left by the first overpass-cum-footbridge you come to.

The owner is himself British and the interior is as near to a British style pub as you’re likely to get in Tokyo with beer and Guinness going for a little under 1000 yen, per pint. 

About 20 minutes walk further along the same street, but on the other side, is the tiny Seamus O’ Hara, run by a friendly Japanese woman who once worked as a barmaid in Ireland and does a nice stew.

If British/Irish pubs are not what you came to Tokyo for though, Meguro-dori gets really interesting after the Meguro Tavern and offers plenty more. Small restaurants and bars are clustered together; especially recommended are the noodle shops with dishes such as miso ramen and sha-chumen for around 500 yen a-piece.

The Okinawan Nanchichi restaurant on the right just after the overpass is a good place to try food from the exotic south of Japan. The dishes served here tend to use a lot of pork and the bitter vegetable known in Japanese as ‘goya’; The dish Goya Champlu a great introduction to Okinawan food.

Among the non-Japanese restaurants the Indian, Tandoor, is recommended (East exit of the station, turn left and it is on the same block), as is the Spanish Case De Fujimori, just a few doors down. Perhaps the most exotic of all non- Japanese places is the Thai/ Italian Fusion restaurant.

A 10/15 minute walk from the East exit along Meguro-dori in the opposite direction, the Tuk Tuk restaurant is situated just in front of the Metropolitan Teien Museum and for around 1500 yen per head, you can experience this culinary union of East and West in a very pleasant atmosphere surrounded by palms, statues of Buddha and fairy lights. Oh, and the food’s not bad either!

The two main types of Japanese garden are the dry landscape garden (Kare-sansui) and the stroll-through garden (Kaiyu-shiki).

The former is better known as the Zen garden and consists primarily of raked sand and rocks. As the Zen gardens are much more associated with the city of Kyoto in the Kansai region, it is the stroll-through gardens that you are most likely to come across in the capital.

The gardens are so named because stroll-through is exactly what the visitor is expected to do and, in very Japanese fashion, your walk and viewpoints have been prepared for you.

On entering, stone steps lead you though a landscape that is likely to consist of artificial hills, evergreen trees - especially manicured pines, a carp-filled pond and bridge, stone lanterns, flowering bushes such as hydrangea and rhododendron, as well as rocks, moss and bamboo used to varying degrees. A lot of these gardens also have a traditional tea house, strategically situated to allow impressive views.

Below is a list of five of the best gardens to visit in Tokyo.

1. Rikugien Garden.

JR/Tokyo Metro Namboku Line, Komagome Sta. Entrance fee – 300 yen.

This garden, created in 1702, is based on the theme of waka poetry and the winding path will lead you past view points inspired by scenes from these poems. There used to be 88 stone markers indicating view points, giving you some idea of the size of the place; there are 33 remaining.

Perhaps the best view of all is from the tallest hill, the 35–metre high Fujimi-yama. From here, you can look down on the large pond with its island, stone bridge, and semi-submerged rock formation. The name of the latter, ‘sleeping dragon rock,’ gives a clue as to the kind of images these objects are intended to evoke, although more than a little imagination is required to see what the designer had in mind. The park is impressive at any time of the year as each season offers something different: the hydrangeas are in bloom in early summer, cherry blossoms in early spring and the red maples in Autumn.

2. Kyu-Furukawa Garden.

Tokyo Metro Namboku Line, Nishigahara Sta. JR Komagome Sta. Entrance fee - 150 yen.

This Meiji period (1868-1912) house and garden is only 30 minutes walk away from Rikugien, so together the two make a fine day trip. The European style house in whose grounds the garden lies was designed by the British architect Josiah Condor (1852-1920). Condor had a great influence on Tokyo at this time and it was one of his students that designed the Tokyo station complex. Although described as a garden, gardens would be a better description, for there are two. On the slope that leads to the main entrance to the house, there is a Western-style rose garden, with a wide variety of different types neatly organised into columns. The roses look great when in full bloom in June, but it is also the time when Tokyo’s elderly population flocks here for rose viewing, and this can somewhat detract from the beauty of the place.
The Meiji period was a time when Japan opened its doors to the Western world and Kyu-Furukawa shows this marriage of East and West perfectly. Head down the slope and a small path will lead you to a kaiyu-shiki garden. It is much smaller than the one at Rikugien but offers a pleasant walk around a pond inhabited by ducks, turtles and carp the size of small sharks. There are also points strategically arranged to allow you a chance to see the impressive house in the background.

3. Hamarikyu Garden.

JR/Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Toei Asakusa Line, Shinbashi Sta. Entrance fee – 300 yen.

Hamarikyu is located next to Tokyo bay and its tidal ponds use sea water. Originally, the site of a Shogun’s villa, then a duck hunting ground used by the Royal family, the garden is now best known for the contrast it provides to the skyscrapers of the Shiodome district that tower in the background. At ground level, you are in a Japan of the past, where the path meanders through a peony garden, across a carp filled pond and past miniature pine, plum and cherry blossom trees. Look up and the skyscrapers tell you that you are very much in the 21st century. One of the buildings that loom over the park, the Caretta Shiodome tower, has excellent free viewpoints on the top floor, as well as restaurants and bars that enable you to see over the park and beyond across Tokyo bay.  The park is also one of the river bus stops and from here you can catch a boat to Odaiba or Asakasa.

4. Koshikawa Korakuen Garden.

Tokyo Metro Tozai Line, Yurakucho Line, Namboku Line, Iidabashi Sta. Entrance fee - 300 yen.

This is the oldest of the Tokyo gardens, founded by one of the Tokugawa shoguns with the help of a Chinese scholar in the !7th century. Not surprisingly, there is a Chinese feel to Korakuen and the park tries to recreate miniature versions of famous views in China and Japan. The garden has a particularly impressive collection of cherry blossom trees and is one of the famous spots for the ‘hanami’ parties in Spring. A time when the number of pink cherry blossoms is almost
matched by the number of partygoers that gather under the trees to drink the day away.

The only problem with Korakuen is that a fairground was built next door and the occasional scream from the roller coaster riders doesn’t lend itself to that sense of calm that you feel the garden aims for.

5. Kyu-Iwasaki- tei Garden.

Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line, Yushima Sta. Entrance fee - 300 yen.

The garden surrounds the former residence of the Iwasaki family, who formed the Mitsubishi company family, and it is another Josiah Condor designed house. This one has more of a colonial look about it, and it is the views of the house from the garden that are impressive rather the garden itself. As you look at the white-walled building, with its balconies and shuttered windows, surrounded by palm trees, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in Malaysia at the time of the British Empire. The garden itself is fairly simple, consisting mainly of a vast stretch of lawn, but there is a tea house that leads out onto a small Japanese garden. As Iwasaki garden is not classed as one of Tokyo’s major sightseeing spots, it is usually a peaceful place. The tables on the lawn with parasols attached also make it a great place to bring your own food and have a picnic.

As well as the garden, the house is open to the public and the interior with its Western-style furnishings and fittings show how eager the wealthy Japanese were to adopt European influences, associated as they were, with status and power.

One part of the house, however, remains distinctly Japanese, and a narrow hallway leads you between two different worlds, telling you a lot about the turn-of-the–century Meiji-era (1868-1912).

In this part of the building, there is a tea house, where you can sip green tea or one of the ‘kakigori,’ shaved ice drinks, on a tatami mat floor, and despite the grandeur of the rest of the building, the feeling pervades that this was where the family felt most at home.

The garden was donated to Tokyo by the Iwasaki family, founders of the Mitsubushi Company, in 1938.

In 1953 it was designated a place of exceptional beauty and an important cultural asset.

Except in the peak cherry blossom season, at the end of March, it doesn’t attract the crowds that visit Tokyo’s parks, so can provide a real sense of that other side of Japan we so often miss – of peace and tranquility, more often associated with Kyoto than Tokyo.

All the paths in Rikugien circle the pond and this is the source of some of the best views. The main inner path leads to the Fukiage Tea House, the outer paths go through woodland where a much older Meiji-era (1868-1912) teahouse can be found.

At 11:00 and 14:00 on Sunday, free tours are given and you can see groups scuttling between some of the 33 marked viewpoints that remain.

Although on arrival Akihabara seems very much 21st century, there is another side to this bustling town, where remnants of its varied past can be found away from the main streets and squares.

Next to the Electric Town Exit, under the tracks of the JR Sobu Line, two floors of stalls clustered together date back to just after the Second World War (1939-1945). This was the centre of a black market in electrical equipment parts, and the birthplace of today’s Electric Town. That past is still recognizable, and still each tiny stall has its own particular speciality.

On entering you find yourself confronted by massed ranks of batteries, wire, chips, fuses, switches, light bulbs, plugs, you name it. The rough and ready market feel of the place giving you a taste of what it would have been like in those less prosperous post-war times.

The Kanda River flows through Akihabara, and it is near the river that a lot of the area’s history can be found. Turn right after you come through the ticket gate at the Electric town exit, then go straight till you reach Sotobori Dori and you will find the river. To your left is Izuma Bashi Bridge. Just before the bridge is an area called Kando Sakomacho 1-chome, now a park, surrounded by cheap bars and restaurants, where Akihabarites in all shapes and forms gather. In the Edo-era (1603-1867) it served a very different purpose, as an area populated by lumber merchants selling firewood.

The street that runs adjacent to Sotobori Dori, on the other side of the Kanda River, Yanagihara Dori, contains a number of buildings from a more recent past, the Taisho-era (1912-1926). The ageing facades of these decorated, Western-style Taisho houses stand in marked contrast to the featureless office blocks that now surround them.

Further along the street, another building from that period is still open for business. The family run ‘Okaju Button’ shop sells materials, thread, buttons, cufflinks - anything connected to suit making. If the interior isn’t enough to make you feel you have stepped backed in time, the sight of the aging shop owner using an abacus behind the counter will. Hard to believe that you are in a town widely regarded as the high-tech centre of the universe

Moving down Yanagihara dori, on the opposite side, you will find Yanagi Mori Shrine. Actually, more of a collection of shrines which were moved here from different parts of Tokyo, meaning that you can find different deities sitting side by side, in one corner, you have a sculpted tanuki (raccoon) – his swollen testicles representing power and prosperity, and in another, the fox gods of the Inari Shinto sect.

The shrine complex, shaded by trees, overlooks the river and provides perfect respite from the hustle of Akihabara. Near the entrance, there are a number of large stones with Chinese characters written on them. These ‘Chikaraishi,’ one bearing the date 1912, were once used as weights by sumo wrestlers to help build up their strength.

If you continue walking in the same direction along the river, at roughly 15-20 minute intervals, you will first pass Mansei Bridge and then Shouhei Bridge. It is best to cross to the other side of the river at Mansei Bridge and walk along Sotobori Dori to get to Shouhei Bridge. This bridge is located on what used to be one of the five major Edo period highways, this one linking Nikko with Edo then Kyoto.

The area was once home to many small inns, ‘Hataga,’ where travellers would stay during this period. Nowadays, there are no inns left, but just next to the bridge, the small counter restaurant ‘Maguro-tei’ has a traditional feel and is not a bad place to stop for lunch, offering raw tuna and rice; ‘Maguro-don,’ dishes for 600-800 yen.

From here, you may hear the beating of drums. A few doors up from the restaurant, on Sotobori Dori the Taiko drum school, Oedo Sukeroku Tokyo, offers lessons to foreigners and also the chance to participate in a local festival as a drummer. The teacher can speak some English, and is usually happy to explain a little about taiko if you feel like dropping by. Their web site, www.oedosukerokutaiko.com, also has information in English.

Continuing on the Sotobori side of the river, after a 10 -15 minute walk you will find the impressive Chinese form Yushima Seido Shrine.Originally located in Ueno Park where the statue of Saigo Takamori now stands, it moved here in 1691 with the purpose of promoting the study of Confucianism, and in the pleasant garden of the shrine complex, you will find the world’s biggest statue of the great man. Like most Japanese shrines, a lot of it has been rebuilt, but older parts remain – such as the gate leading to the shrine, built in 1704. The shrine building itself combines the simplicity of Japanese buildings with a more decorative Chinese feel - above the plain black varnished walls, fierce-looking sculpted dragons and lions look down. After the shrine moved to its present location it became a centre for the study of Confucian classics. Confucianism became popular in Japan in the 18th century, offering an intellectualism lacking in traditional Japanese Shinto. (Akihabara walk pic #3)Because of the educational associations of the shrine, it is popular with students who come to pray for success in exams and wooden ‘ema’ plaques on display are inscribed with those wishes.

Yushima Seido brings you nearer to the area of Ochanomizu which we will cover in a future issue, and it is a short train ride back to Akihabara from here. If you are still keen to discover more, the towering dome that you can see from the grounds of Yushima Seido belongs to the Meiji-era (1868-1912) built St Nikolai Russian Cathedral, and offers a good chance to see another part of Japan’s varied history.