Dining Solitude in the City.

Finding solitude in Tokyo is no easy task, but there is no shortage of ways to cope. At this Chinese-style ramen restaurant, you first select your order and pay at a vending machine. After being seated at a booth for one at the bar, you mark your meal preferences on a paper menu (i.e., spicy or mild, light or fatty broth) and pass that to an attendant behind the bar. No eye contact is made, since the interface between customer and attendant is only a gap large enough to pass food through. Once your food is delivered, the bamboo curtain is drawn, and you are allowed to enjoy your food in a silent and distraction-free space.

In what was likely a social faux pas, I was able to make eye contact with David, a fellow gaijin, across the bar.

Chinese-style Ramen.
This is nothing like the meager packaged ramen that penny-pinching North American college students know so well. Here, the pork broth is homemade and served with a few hearty pieces of ham. Though enjoyable, I still find Japanese ramen to be much more delicious and healthy.

T

Under the Bridge II.

One of my favorite things about Tokyo is the way in which spaces are used: under bridges, highways, expressways - any place an opportunity exists. In most cities, major transit routes effectively create walls or dead zones in the urban fabric. Here, the richness and vitality of Tokyo's urban character is allowed to extend in a relatively continuous fashion as automobiles and trains pass overhead.

Eatery Clinging to Overpass.
Small-scale spaces bring a strong sense of intimacy and humanity to a metropolitan area of nearly 35 million people. Economically, these spaces are more egalitarian. They have relatively lower rents which allow more people to own and run businesses, often in high-profile places.

Ginza 9.
Conversely, even upscale boutiques and restaurants occupy the spaces below expressways and railways - especially in Ginza.

Yamanote Train Line Above, Ameyoko Market Below.
Below these tracks lie some of my favorite haunts, from inexpensive and delicious kaiten-zushi, or conveyor belt sushi restaurants, to yakitoris that serve scrumptious BBQ on skewers, edamame, and tasty cold Sapporo or sake. And let's not forget my favorite noodle place, which serves up piping hot soba, or buckwheat noodles with crispy tempura on top.

Before I get carried away on a culinary track - the importance here is that in Tokyo, highly memorable spaces are created in spaces that are ordinarily ignored by many other cities in the world.

T

Subcenter Minor.

Though Ueno is bright and glitzy, this neighborhood is a relatively minor subcenter of Tokyo. This shot was taken from a favorite perch in the neighborhood.

Sunset on Ueno II.

Shoppers crowd the streets of Ueno as night falls.

When the Shopkeepers Sleep.

After WWII, Ueno's Ameyoko Arcade was known as one of the city's prime black-market districts, and even now, the area seems to be one of Tokyo's grittier areas. After the shops shut down, the crowds shift a few blocks over to fill the pachinko parlours, seven-story karaoke joints, and dimly-lit caverns that satisfy those in search of more lascivious escapades.

With the absence of people and clutter of shopkeepers, the top image reveals the underbelly of the bridge as a machine that provides factory-like duct work and piping for water supply, ventilation of kitchens, electricity, and air-conditioning to the hundreds of shops and eateries below the train line.
The deserted arcade almost feels like an evacuation zone by night, though one shopkeeper perseveres a little longer than the rest. Is he hawking clearance items, or must he earn a few extra Yen for the day?

T

Sunset on Ueno.

The sun may set in Tokyo, but the city goes on.

Under the Bridge.

Cabs wait patiently for passengers to file out of the train station.

It's remarkable how no space goes unnoticed or unoccupied. The space below the railway lines and freeways are used here by small eateries and vendors hawking everything imaginable. In other areas of town, these spaces are occupied by high-end department stores and restaurants. The unintended but beautiful consequence is that these places become cacophonous and disjunctive zones of activity, where anything can be expected.

Around the Neighborhood.

Within a few km sq...

Ueno Park... Expressways snaking through the city... One of the 2M+ vending machines in the city... Unsecured bikes (the norm in Tokyo)... and sashimi in the market below my apt...