More Takadanobaba

Takadanobaba is an interesting place. Here's a picture of the main street, Waseda Ave, which looks pretty much like any other business district in Tokyo. You can see the elevated train crossing in front of the big black building in the background.

 

There are a few narrow side streets off the main street that are just full of small restaurants.

Here's the aptly-named Big Box, a vertical mall next to the train station. It has the 100 Yen Store, where everything does in fact cost 100 yen (about $1.25).

It even has a Mexican restaurant. No, I haven't tried it...the whole idea is kind of scary.

Of course, as in anywhere in Japan, you find inexplicable use of English. The left one is a banner outside a high-end watch shop (the kanji means "watch").

None of the Japanese people I've asked have any idea what to make of this next place. The Japanese reads, "New Raccoon Mahjong" but no one knows why a mahjong place would feature a creepy man in an raccoon costume and a little girl dressed like a chicken.

But just one block away from all this business, you find yourself in a quiet residential neighborhood.

If you follow that street down a little way, you come to my apartment, Weekly Mansion Takadanobaba. Weekly Mansion is a Japanese chain of extended stay hotels/short term apartments. 「マンション」("Manshon") in Japanese doesn't mean what it does in English, it just means an apartment building. ("You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.") There is no cleaning service, but you can (for a fee) exchange your sheets for fresh ones.

Here's my room. Having a balcony is rather nice. To the right of the balcony is the television, and the little piece of furniture between the bed and the chairs has a side that folds up to make a table.

 

Just behind the micro-kitchen (one burner, a sink, and a refrigerator) is the ユニートバス ("unit bath"), which is a marvel of compactness. The tub is short but deep. Especially interesting is that there is only one set of faucets...you can swing it over the tub to fill the bath, or turn the little knob in the middle to direct the water up to the shower head.

It's small, but it's ok. And it's very inexpensive for Tokyo...only 3500 yen ($45) a night. The only annoying thing is that there is only about a foot between the foot of the bed and the wall, which is not enough to really walk...I have to kind of edge my way across.

The floor in the room is pretty interesting. It looks exactly like wood and for the first couple of days I thought it was wood. But it's actually a slightly soft spongy material; you can push your thumb into it and make a little dent.

Here's the view out of my balcony, of an elementary school just behind the building. It gets kind of noisy when the kids are outside for recess, and on weekend mornings, they have baseball practice for hours and hours.