One peaceful day in Ookayama

September is the season of graduation and entrance ceremony in Japan (mostly for intl students).  I have been living in Tokyo for a year now, but I realized that I hadn’t taken a good look at the neighborhood near my university. So, I decided to take a little walk around the neighborhood, specifically the north area of Ookayama station (大岡山北口). In Japan, the areas are divided into business, industrial, residence, etc. Ookayama is a residential area.

As you already know, Japanese society walks a lot. Cars have to drive slowly (typically 30-40kmph) to ensure safety. It is said that bicycle is more dangerous than a car here. You can get hit by bicycle easily around residence area, be careful! At the corner of a street, typically mirrors and stop signs are placed, so a driver can see the surrounding.

The streets are undoubtedly clean here. In comparison, streets in places like Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, etc (Yamanote line area) are relatively considered dirty. As you may know, minimalistic architecture is popular lately, here I snow you a picture of a minimalistic house.

The one thing I wonder here is about the “feng sui”. It is believed in Indonesia that the placement of things (especially house) brings certain luck. For example, to the best of my knowledge, people in Indonesia don’t prefer having a house at the corner of an intersection. I am not sure about the “feng sui” in Japan though.

The thing about exploring the neighborhood in Japan is, sometimes you might find a random park which a random old house/shrine may be located in that park. Here I found a bamboo park and a 270-year-old house in that park.

Beautiful isn’t it? Nearby the old house, I also found a random shrine.

Usually, I go to the downtown in Tokyo to spend my weekends, filled with crowds of people. However, I realized that I am so attracted to these kind of calm places (is it because I was born in countryside?). Sometimes, I feel lonelier in crowded places than in quiet places. There is this kind of sense of “community” in the countryside which may not present in city areas. For traveling in Japan, I prefer going to less touristy places. It is nice because people say going to quiet places is a trip to discover oneself.