Stop 10 on the 29 stations of the JR Yamanote Line series was Mejiro. I’d only heard of Mejiro once and that was a few weeks back, let alone bad i been there.
Sunday i headed out about 6 stops from home and had a walk around Mejiro. First impressions were it’s a pretty quite place with not a whole lot to do, those impressions carried on throughout my walk and stayed with me as i headed home a few hours later.
Not all the stops can be as exciting as Shibuya, Akihabara and Harajuku and Mejiro certainly doesn’t come close, it was however a nice residential area with quite a few foreigners calling it home.
There was quite a bit of action outside the station for a Sunday.
Too early for lunch and Sushi wasn’t on the menu anyway, although there were a few shops selling it.
There’s a massive CD / DVD store out there with cheap CD’s
This Italian restaurant called ‘Sharks’ seemed quite nice.
Ahh, the Colonel watches out over Mejiro too.
The tree lined streets reminded me of a few places back home.
Gyu-Kaku, a favourite of mine.
Interesting to see this drink called the “Pocket Juicer Stand”
I bought one and tried it, absolutely terrible, never again.
Housing seems pretty cheap out Mejiro way.
Shops really cover diverse products here, flowers and yarn at this place.
Another Sushi shop doing a decent trade.
The public phone isn’t dead in Japan.
I wish this cat was though, the only thing more annoying than the cat is actual people doing the thing with the paw.
Dude-san on a cool bike just got away from me.
Gakushuin University had an open day, sounds good to me.
In i went, there were lots of stalls and promotion posters, this one with Becky on it caught my eye.
Fancy that, a gridiron tournament in the grounds of the Uni.
Lots and lots of stalls selling food and knick knacks.
Where there’s gridiron there’s cheerleaders.
I got sick of young lads yelling English at me in the grounds of the school so i head over the tracks for some different scenery.
The Mejiro Japanese Garden was a short 5 minute walk from the station.
Free to get in and a nice place to spend 30 minutes.
On the way out and back to the station i saw this cool H2 Hummer.
Funnily enough the Hummer was right next door to this Love Hotel, Hotel Seeds.
There were a few karaoke bars nestled in the side streets.
The odd park too.
This little booth had cleaning equipment and toilet supplies in there for the public toilet.
On the way to find lunch i walked past a building that had promo posters all done with Tilt Shift Photography.
By the time i found Ramen i was actually in Ikebukuro, this was the most popular shop with a massive line, Pass.
Even Kohmen Ramen had a few punters out the front.
But once i saw this spicy promo poster i knew where i was going.
The Ramen was every bit as hot as it looks and i loved it.
Probably not a place i’ll go back to unless i have a specific reason, but Mejiro i nice enough for a walk around the Mejiro Japanese Garden was relaxing.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
remember the name of the ramen shop with the massive line by any chance?
The name no, here’s the link on google maps, http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=%E3%81%84%E3%81%91%E3%81%B6%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8D&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=38.554089,93.164063&ie=UTF8&ll=35.727275,139.711877&spn=0.001208,0.002843&z=19&layer=c&cbll=35.726898,139.711795&panoid=XqGTsgUD_AUAvJv0B1VzNA&cbp=1,316.0411699660869,,0,5.335617138910773
Nice report dude!
I think I never been there. Must check it next time when I am in Tokyo.
Reminds me of back home in the states. Doesn’t seem like a place to be without reason, but it’s always nice to get away from city life. Great images!
Until now, Mejiro has always been that stop right before Ikebukuro for me. I guess there’s a little more to the place than meets the eye that gazes from the Yamanote line train.
Kohmen deserves the line, though.
My word it does, i just didn’t fancy waiting, i was famished as it was.
Great Pics – I like the H2 thing
Hey, that’s my local station! The “Shark” restaurant is pretty nice, and if you’d walked 5 minutes further you’d have hit one of Tokyo’s better pizza restaurants. I think however you’ve just about covered everything else the area has to offer.
It’s weird seeing my neighborhood posted. You visited on the weekend of the culture festival at Gakushuin University. You also caught most of my local hangouts around the eki. A friend of mine owns the karaoke you took a picture of. That day you visited, I was out of Mejiro at a friend’s wedding. I really like Mejiro because most of my Friends live there and it has a quiet friendly neighborhood atmosphere. There are two popular ramen shops in Meiro you missed. You needed to walk a little further west to find them.
The place with the spicy ramen was KAGETSU, a chain restaurant with branches all over the place. Looks like the spicy ramen is a limited-time deal. Here’s the link to the shop locator (Japanese only): http://www.kg2.jp/
Somehow, Neil, you forgot to drop in [literally] on Tanakaya, the best beer package store in Tokyo.
I was on the last day [22 December] of my trip to Tokyo. My luggage was already full. So I wasn’t going to obtain any more CDs or DVDs. Or bottles of beer either.
Tanakaya is astonishing in the depth of its selections. Another surprise when I went in there was bumping into Wayne, the proprietor of The Cat and The Cask Tavern in Kaname-cho. [Two days after visiting the place.]
I too found a love hotel (Mejiro 3-11?). It had a vending machine outside dispensing Calpis beverages for only ¥100.
I bought a loaf of French bread from a bakery in Mejiro 3-13 [¥220?]. I had that for lunch.
Then, similar to you, I wound up walking along the tracks of the Yamanote Line to Ikebukuro.
Thanks for the details.
Nice info there PudgyM …. will look into that Tanakaya store and also The Cat and Cask ….. thanks again for the tips!