Tokyo Flaneur

*External link to the Japanese website
**External link to the website except written in Japanese

It was deadly cold today.
It seemed to snow in the midnight before the dawn even in Tokyo.

And, as is a quite Japanese expression, "also the contents of my wallet is cold." (Try to translate into Japanese!)
Therefore I must save money.

I went to Ueno by train (one-way ticket: 210 yen) in order to buy hayauri Weekly Shonen Jump vol. 11.
About 7 p.m. when I started from my nest it was raining (rain like snow was falling) but about 7:40 when I got to Ueno it stopped raining.
The thermometer on a department store, Marui** (丸井) in front of JR Ueno station (JR上野駅) read 2 degrees centigrade (摂氏2度).

[Read more] (First updated Feb. 19 / last revised Feb. 22, 2011)

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Please read the following texts with my walking route (created Feb. 13) on "Chizumaru" (ちず丸) provided by a map publisher Shoubunsha (昭文社).
(Attention: the walking route would be deleted automatically by the provider if it is NOT accessed ONCE every 60 days since last accessed.)
(注意: この行程表は、最後にアクセスされてから60日間アクセスがないと、プロバイダ側で自動的に削除されます)

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About 8:10 p.m. after making a window shopping in Yodobashi Camera Ueno* (ヨドバシカメラ上野店) (point 1 on the walking route) I started from Ueno to Ramen Kojirou 526 Nippori (らーめんこじろう526 日暮里店) (point 5) by walk in order to skimp on ticket fare!
It is located at Higashi-Nippori, Arakawa ward (荒川区東日暮里) and about 10 minutes' walk from each of the nearest stations, Nippori (日暮里駅) or Uguisu-dani (鶯谷駅).
Uguisu-dani station is next to Ueno on JR Yamanote line (JR山手線) and about 10 minutes' walk from Ueno so I thought it would take about 20-30 minutes to reach Kojirou Nippori from Ueno.

In fact it took 40 minutes.
And my decision to walk through in such deadly cold weather have might been an act of sheer madness.
However, ramen we eat after walking in such cold night is very good!

Along Iriya-guchi-dori street (入谷口通り) on the east side of Ueno station it was dark because there were few shops open.
And there were some homeless persons around the Iriya-guchi exit of the station (上野駅入谷口) on Iriya-guchi-dori.

About 8:50 p.m. I arrived at Kojirou.
There were no customers inside the shop; this was the second time for me to come here and last time I visited this shop about 10 p.m. also Saturday. Then there were no customers, too.
But that never means this shop is not popular. On the contrary, it has No. 243 ranking on Ramen Date Base* now (as of Feb. 14. Cf. Jiro Ikebukuro: 578, Jiro Shin-Koganei-kaidou: 19.)

I chose normal ramen (250g, 650 yen) with 100g of additional noodles (麺増) (100 yen.)
Jiro(-inspired) ramen we eat in such a cold day is particularly the best!
The broth on a cold winter night warms my 11 internal organs and myself up so nicely from the inside.


(Left) tickets to order ramen (Right) ramen I ate

And 3 customers (a couple and a single man) came into the shop in succession while I was eating ramen.

After going out of the shop, at first I had been planning to take a train from Mikawashima station on JR Joban Rapid line (JR常磐快速線三河島駅), which is also one of the nearest stations from Kojirou Nippori and to which it takes about 10 minutes' walk from here.
Therefore I had no reason to go to JR Minami-senju station (JR南千住駅), which is next to Mikawashima on Joban Rapid line, but suddenly I got to feel like going there by walk.


Outside of Kojirou

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Strolling, wandering, which Walter Benjamin called in French "flaneur," is one of my hobbies--to be precise, "was" one of my hobbies, I might have to say.
In the past, 4 or 5 years ago, when I was an undergraduate student (学部生), I used to wander and walk around in not a so long but moderate distance (about 4 or 5 km) between stations in Tokyo.

Why between stations?
Those who live in or around Tokyo take (perhaps must take) trains everyday in order to move and go on and through Tokyo.
So they, especially subway passengers, cannot get to know the landscape of towns or cities between stations; literally they know only "points" (areas around stations they use) but do not know a "line" (area between stations.)
And young I wanted to know these "lines."

And I remember clearly: when I reunited with Rick 2 years ago 2009 after it had passed 3 or 4 years since I had seen him last, he asked me whether I kept on walking around in Tokyo.
I answered to him, "No."
I have no time and no inner reserves (精神的余裕) to spend wandering around after entered the graduate university.

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In fact I did not go to Minami-senju by walk; on the way to there I turned around.
On the small pathway from Kojirou (point 5) to Nikkou Kaidou street (日光街道) (National Route 4 [国道4号線] ) (point 6) there were few lights and it was almost dark.
I reached Minowa station on Subway Hibiya line (地下鉄日比谷線三ノ輪駅), which runs through under Nikkou Kaidou; it is a large street and around the station and among the street there are many stores so it was light.

I did not go to Minami-senju because I wanted to see Minowa-bashi station on Toden Arakawa tram line** (都電荒川線三ノ輪橋駅) (point 8), which is a terminal of the line and to which it takes a few minutes' walk from Minowa station.
Minowa-bashi stands in the different direction from Minami-senju.


(Left) entrance of Minowa-bashi station (Right) tram for Ouji station (王子駅前行き)
　　
At the point that I reached Minowa-bashi, "to go to Minami-senju or not to go," that was the question.
But then I noticed that Nikkou Kaidou ran through to Kita-senju station (北千住駅) (point 17), which is next to Minami-senju on Joban Rapid line.
That was why I started walking to Kita-senju among Nikkou Kaidou.

Walking across the Sumida-gawa river (隅田川) over the Senju-oohashi bridge (千住大橋) (between point 11 and 12), I entered Adachi ward (足立区) from Arakawa ward (荒川区).
Keisei Senju-oohashi station (京成線千住大橋駅) is located near the bridge.
And Ramen Jiro Senju-oohashi (ラーメン二郎 千住大橋駅前店) (point 14) stands in front of the station!


Photo taken on Senju-oohashi

I knew Jiro had been already closed today (Sat: 11-15:00, then about 10:30 p.m.) but the truth is that I wanted to eat ramen for dinner here.
I bought a 500ml bottle of oolong tea (烏龍茶) at a convenience store inside the station.


(Left) sigh of Senju-oohashi station (Right) outside of Ramen Jiro Senju-oohashi

I have gone to Kita-senju from Senju-oohashi among Nikkou Kaidou by walk when I visited Jiro here at the end of the last year so I knew the route to there well.
But then around there I felt tired and was in a little sweat.
I put a hood of my overcoat on the head because I got sweat on it and in the hair so I felt the cold.
There were few passengers among Nikkou Kaidou maybe because it was already late.



About 11 p.m. I finally arrived at my goal, Kita-senju station! Tired!
I wanted to tell someone this pleasure of mine at once so I sent E-mails to Koba and Rick through the cellular phone on the platform of the train.
I got a response from Koba soon but did not from Rick at all by now... well, as is often the case with him.


Entrance of Kita-senju station to the ticket gate of Subway Chiyoda line (地下鉄千代田線)

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According to the walking route above provided by Shoubunsha, I walked about 7 km (exactly 6.89 km) long from Ueno to Kita-senju via Kojirou Nippori and I consumed 303 kilo calories of energy by walking!
It is suited well as excise after eating ramen!