It’s been long overdue but i finally made it to Meguro this weekend to have a geezer about the place as part of the series on the 29 stops on the JR Yamanote Line.
Unfortunately i didn’t make it to the parasite museum as planned, instead i covered a few kilometers around the west and then east sides of Meguro with a bite to eat in the middle.
Meguro is only a 1/6 dozen stops from home for me and lies in between previously visited stations, Ebisu and Gotanda
As always, proof i visited the station in question.
It looks just like any other station when you first come out of the station.
It’s a reasonbably quiet station though, in comparison to others close by.
A little over a week ago i was sent a book from a guy that’s been keeping up to date with my travels around the 29 stops of the JR Yamanote Line. He asked whether i’d heard of the book “Footloose In Tokyo” a 1976 publication following the authors travels around the “Best Bargain In Japan” as the Yamanote Line is referred to.
I hadn’t heard of the book before but did think it would be useful and well worth a read. The guy that mentioned it was kind enough to send me a copy and i’ve started reading it. The best thing about the book so far is the authors opening remarks about not needing to read it in any particular order, so not unlike my travels where i move around the line in alphabetical order i can do so with the book too.
So far i’ve read the chapter on Komagome which i found quite interesting. I’ll use the book in the future to read up on each stop prior to my arrival, i’ll be keen to compare and see how much it has or hasn’t changed.
There’s a lot more to do and see on the JR Yamanote Line than just sleep.
When time permits i’ll go back and read the chapters on the stations i’ve visited so far, which have been Akihabara, Ebisu, Gotanda, Harajuku, Hamamatsucho, Ikebukuro and Kanda in that order … next stop is Meguro where i know they have a parasite museum as a point of interest.
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.”
