高田馬場 (Takadanobaba)

The school and my apartment are in the Takadanobaba neighborhood of Tokyo...located halfway between Shinjuku and Ikebukuro. Takadanobaba is famous for two things: schools, and Astro Boy.

First the schools. They seem to be everywhere, from large universities to small institutes. Here's a picture of one place I walk by each day.

One can only assume that they use Professor Harold Hill's "Think System" to teach music!

Now, Astro Boy, or, as he is known in Japan, Tetsuwan Atomu. One thing about the Tokyo train system...as the train doors are about to close, a little bit of music plays. In most stations it is the same nondescript clip, but in the Takadanobaba station, it is the theme from Astro Boy! I considered this a really positive omen as I left the train when I first arrived, because when I was little Astro Boy was my absolute total favorite cartoon. When I heard the music, I didn't have any idea why it was playing, but it was great! Then, as I left the station, I discovered murals at street level showing Astro Boy and other charaters by Osamu Tezuka.

Here's Doctor Elefun and Kimba the White Lion. I was a little old when Kimba made it to the U.S. but my brothers loved it.

Osamu Tezuka himself is shown in the middle, working away.

This picture is my favorite. Tezuka worked in Takadanobaba, and in the Astro Boy universe, Takadanobaba is where Astro Boy was created--in 2003, according to the stories. So this picture shows what Takadanobaba was supposed to have looked like 9 years ago.

It turns out that the murals and music date from 2003 and were installed to celebrate Astro Boy's "birth." You can find a lot more pictures here if you're interested.

What else is in Takadanobaba? I've discovered some great restaurants. I asked various teachers at the school which was their favorite, but I found some on my own too. There is also a river running through the neighborhood; it is lined with cherry trees and is quite beautiful (in places...overly built up in others).

(Some thoughts on the Japanese language follow...some may get bored.)

I've discovered that the names of train stations is a great way to help learn Kanji because the trains display the station names in kanji, katakana, and English. But sometimes knowing the kanji raises more questions than it solves. Takadanobaba is composed of 4 kanji: 高 (taka, meaning high), 田 (da, meaning rice field), 馬 (ba, meaning horse), and 場 (ba, meaning place). High rice field horse place, ok. What does that mean?

It helps to know that a lot of Japanese names end with 田. And "no" is the particle that indicates possession. So the right way to translate this is "Takada's horse grounds." That seems like a good name! I don't know why the "no" is included when you say it, but not when you write it...which shows how difficult it can be to figure out how to say something when you see it written.

This name is also a good example of how hard it is for me to avoid stressing syllables when pronouncing Japanese. Japanese words don't have stress; every syllable is said at the same volume. This isn't too hard for short words, but for longer ones it can be tough. My first inclination was to say, "ta-ka-da-no-ba-ba" but that is really wrong. You get closer if you put the accent on the second syllable with a secondary accent on the last, "ta-ka-da-no-ba-ba". Then you have to work on getting rid of those stresses. It's difficult!