Hidden Tokyo

Those shadowy spaces beneath raised highways, train tracks and bridges are unexpectedly fascinating.

On a desperate search for an inkanya (seal maker) who could quickly make me a personal seal, so I could FINALLY open a bank account, I came across the less oshare side of Azabu Juban.

Tucked in beneath the cement roads of the Tokyo highway loop there is a little river, shadowed and green, surrounded by carpenters' workshops staffed by serious-looking men in split-toed boots. Nearby, a blue four-story apartment building and okonomiyaki restaurant, directly beneath the road.

Next door to the inkanya there is a furniture rental store which proclaims in three different languages (badly) that they infact only rent furniture. And as I walk (read: sprint) back towards my office, the bright flash of orange that is Tokyo Tower surprises me. It is a strangely shy landmark, hard to see in this area of high rises.

These places are not forgotten, but somehow diminished, perhaps from the shadows they live beneath. This is the Tokyo we usually only catch glimpses of, while speeding by on trains or riding taxis to the next appointment. These little enclaves that never get the full light of the sun, yet brightened by the red lanterns of an izakaya, bright blue rails of a bridge, the flashing signs of a tiny shoutengai and a playground filled with little dogs (and occasionally children). This is the Tokyo few will ever really know.

And, glowing near the river, a sign saying Label Cafe'... an adventure for another time.