The story of Takadanobaba starts in 1636, when the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu built in Totsuka, Shinjuku, a place for horse racing, a baba in Japanese. The place soon became one of the favorite places of Matsudaira Tadateru, the 6th son of Tokugawa Ieyasu and the area became known as Takatanobaba, after the name of Tadateru’s mother, Takata, who was often visiting the place. In time, the “t” from Takata was changed to “d", but the elders are still calling it like this, while the young people are starting to call it just “Baba".
Today, Takadanobaba is one of the most beautiful neighborhoods from Tokyo. I visited it several times during the last years, especially the area near the JR Takadanobaba Station (where the 2 large Astro Boy murals are located), but this time I decided to stay in Takadanobaba for a couple of weeks.
It’s a great place for both living and travel accommodation, with many restaurants (mostly izakaya and ramen-ya) and stores… and as a plus, the view from the window was just perfect, so I played a little to capture it on camera: the brightly lit area is the JR Takadanobaba Station, the blue trees are the local New Year illuminations and the thick yellow band is… a passing Seibu train:
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Yesterday’s Japan Photo:Senbei, traditional Japanese rice crackers |
