Zoshigaya, Other Side of Ikebukuro
There is a huge swath of Tokyo that lays unexplored to me, and in some ways might as well be on another island. It is Ikebukuro and its surrounding neighborhoods. Ikebukuro is one of the urban hubs of Tokyo but it lays far from my home and I have only scratched the surface or this neighborhood.
I met up with an old mate for lunch at a kaiten sushi restaurant. It was only a few blocks from the the Ikebukuro labyrinth. The lunch itself wasn’t anything out of the ordinary but the conversation with my mate had me in stitches.
After lunch we made our way back to his old 2-story Showa era apartment. We cut a cross a large cemetery to get there. I was quite surprised to find that the area was quite old and there were some beautiful Showa style homes in the area. Lots of small gated homes and apartment buildings that only were two stories in height.
It is an area I need to explore more. It just proves my point that even after so many years here in Tokyo, I still feel like I only know bits and pieces of the city. The more I know, the more I realize I actually don’t know.
