Neil Duckett

So onward I push on my journey to cover all 29 stops on the JR Yamanote Line with today’s trip taking me to Hamamatsucho.

After 23 minutes from my home station Yoyogi only to find i’d actually used this station several times to connect with the Monorail to go to Haneda Airport. I’d usually take the Toei Oedo Subway and change at Daimon, now i know i’ve realised how much easier it would be to use the JR line instead … the connection is much easier when you have luggage.

The ride past Hamamatsucho was the original inspiration for me to visit all 29 stops on the JR Yamanote Line. I can’t remember where it was i was going, but on route through this station i saw scenes i hadn’t previously seen so today i was off to explore in greater detail.

Right next door to the station was the Kyu-Shiba Rikyu Gardens and for 150 yen you can spend all day there if you like.

“The focal point of the garden is the large pond, Sensui, which like Hama Rikyu’s pond still is, was once filled with seawater from Edo Bay by means of a inlet, that can still be seen.

Nowadays the lake is freshwater and contains a number of islands, rock formations and massive carp”  - Japan Visitor

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This week on the 29 stops of the JR Yamanote Line i visited Gotanda, this was the first time i’d been to Gotanda and exactly the reason behind visiting all 29 stops, to go to places i ordinarily wouldn’t have thought to visit.

Gotanda (五反田, Gotanda) is described as a busy but unfashionable neighborhood in the Shinagawa ward of Tokyo, Japan. The name “Gotanda” can be literally translated as “a (rice) paddy of half-hectare’s size”. The district straddles the Meguro river, and is located between the Meguro and Ōsaki stations on the JR Yamanote Line.

“The JR loop severs the neighbourhood into two districts. Higashi (East) Gotanda lies inside the Yamanote loop, while Nishi (West) Gotanda is outside the loop. Nishi-Gotanda is largely residential, with moderately-sized apartment buildings close to the JR station and quiet leafy streets in the outlying reaches.

Higashi-Gotanda is home to Seisen University, NTT East Kanto Hospital, several temples and shrines and as many office towers like a mid-sized North American city.

Higashi-Gotanda also has a substantial number of hotels, including some of the famed capsule hotel style. Some of the buildings making up the sprawling world headquarters of Sony are found along the eastern edge of Higashi-Gotanda.”

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The 2nd stop for me of the 29 Stops on the Yamanote Line is Ebisu, it’s 3 stations from home so an easy one to get too. Prior to today i’d only been out to Ebisu once and that was for an afternoon at the Ebisu Beer Hall with the other members of the language school i was attending.

Ebisu, formally Yebisu before the ‘ye’ was dropped for just an ‘e’ also happens to be a popular beer in Japan and it was actually the beer that named the town and the railway station, not the other way around as many would imagine.

As a place Ebisu would best be described as a quiet place located in the Shibuya ward. Ebisu is conveniently situated next to Shibuya and Roppongi so it’s only a matter of heading on the Yamanote Line or Hibiya Line for a few stops to get into the thick of it. Having said that, there is no shortage of bars and restaurants all with their own individual style which can keep you occupied for many a lazy evening.

Ebisu’s main tourist attraction tends to be centered around the newer Yebisu Garden Place and the Westin hotel area. Accessible from the Ebisu Station East Exit via the “Yebisu Skywalk” covered moving walkway, it features the headquarters of Sapporo Breweries, The Beer Museum Yebisu and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

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Last week i came up with the idea to visit all 29 stops on the JR Yamanote Line. After a false start with a flat battery in my Canon Camera this week i returned to Akihabara, the first pitstop on the Amazing Race, well not so amazing and not a race at all, just a massive fan of the show so i couldn’t resist throwing a reference in.

On the weekends in Akihabara the main drag is closed to traffic and the streets swell with interesting sights, sounds and smells.

As a Gaijin in Japan, Akihabara is the place to go for English versions of Software, it’s also the place anyone with the slightest interest in Anime and Cosplay. Although i’m sure there are many other facets to Akihabara, it’s best known for it’s vast Electric Town. I’m not going to uncover massive amounts of traditional culture in Akihabara, that’s not what most people are looking for when they come here and it’s not what they get. 

Akihabara (秋葉原, Akihabara) (”Field of Autumn Leaves”), also known as Akihabara Electric Town (秋葉原電気街, Akihabara Denki Gai) Its name is frequently shortened to Akiba in Japan. While there is an official locality named Akihabara nearby, part of Taitō-ku, the area known to most people as Akihabara (including the railway station of the same name) is actually Soto-Kanda, a part of Chiyoda-ku.

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Anyone spending even the smallest amount of time in Tokyo would know the rail system here is extensive to say the least. For me, living in Yoyogi, the JR Yamanote Line, is the easiest and the line i use most when getting out and about on the weekends. I haven’t fallen asleep on the train for quite a while but if you were to fall asleep and miss your station this is the one to do it on, it’s a continuous loop.

The Yamanote Line (山手線, Yamanote-sen) of East Japan Railway Company (JR East) is one of Tokyo’s busiest and most important commuter lines. Running as a circle, it connects most of Tokyo’s major stations and urban centres including the Yūrakuchō area, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro with all but two of its 29 stations connecting with other railway or underground (subway) lines.

Having said it’s my most frequently used i neglected to say it’s the same places visited each time, Shibuya, Harajuku and occasionally Akihabara. So in an effort to see more of the 29 suburbs the live services i’ve decided to visit each one over the course of the next 12 months, hopefully 1 each weekend.

I had originally thought of doing it in a clockwise direction however i’ve re jigged my plan t do it alphabetically …. so the first cab off the rank is Akihabara.

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