「Yamanote」タグアーカイブ

New Supporter: Jordan

Hello! My name is Jordan, and I’m a writer from the U.S. This is my second time in Tokyo, and this time I’m hoping to stay. In undergraduate I studied abroad for half a year at Sophia University, also in Tokyo, and I’ve been wanting to come back ever since. Now I’m here attending Hitotsubashi University’s International Corporate Strategy (ICS) program and getting my MBA. Needless to say, full time graduate school is a little more of a workload than a semester abroad, so I haven’t seen as much of Tokyo as I’d like, but every chance I get I go out and about to experience this amazing city.

Oakhouse has been a big help in taking the stress out of housing. Talking to my classmates who searched for their own apartments, then had to buy furniture, washing machines, set up internet connections… only to be leaving in a year? School is enough stress, I don’t want to deal with that, too. When I arrived last August, I rolled off the plane, got myself to Otsuka station, and met my manager at the gate, where he drove me to the house. Signing contracts while jetlagged wasn’t ideal, but it was certainly better than apartment hunting, furniture shopping, utility-setting-uping, and all the other stuff I could have been doing. I can’t imagine anything worse than coming off a twelve hour flight from the States and not having a bed to collapse in.

Now that I’ve gotten used to Tokyo life, I’ve really come to like my share house. It’s an all-girls house on the Yamanote line, which couldn’t be better: convenient location, friendly and quiet housemates, and no fear of cross-gender judgment when I stumble downstairs with my hair a mess, without makeup, in rumpled sweats – because come on, we all do that. The Yamanote line is also beyond convenient, and no matter where my adventures have taken me during my half a year so far I swear I’ve only had to transfer once to get where I was going.

Someday, when all my time and money isn’t going to school fees, and I actually have a paying job again, I may dedicate the time and effort into finding my own place. But for now Oakhouse and my sharehouse are there to take at least one stress out of my life and make my time in Tokyo much more enjoyable.

Let’s Take a Walk

Tokyo is a metropolis full of various places all jam packed in a small area.  The boundaries of all these cities are vague but due to and depending on the main roads and train stations in Tokyo and the sort of isolation they create, each city seems to be able to establish it’s own special characteristic or style.

Walking south along the Yamanote line from Shinjuku station, a station which connects Tokyo to various other prefectures, you can see an assortment of very different people and their respective “cities”. Within one hour you will pass the prep school and central park-esque city of Yoyogi, to the fashion capital of Harajuku to the young people mecca of Shibuya to the slightly high-class city of Ebisu.  Not only does the atmosphere of these “villages” change quite a bit but so do the people.  Even moving away from the previously mentioned area and thinking about the second hand bookstore hub of Kanda to the techie/maid cafe enthusiast town of Akihabara, it becomes clear that each place in the heart of Tokyo makes a very different impression on the people who live there to the people who visit.

For tourists, Tokyo has one of the best train systems in the world.  Amazingly punctual (to the point where is it scary!), it makes such a hugely packed place easy to navigate.  However, I recommend you throw that train ticket away and put on your walking shoes because watching the places and the people change as you make your way from station to station is far more interesting.