living like a local: the metro, and nakameguro

Sunday, October 4, 2009

the metro, and nakameguro

Getting around, from big picture to small picture, is going to be challenging - at least at first. Yesterday we decided to venture out and explore a bit with a short walk-around, and we couldn't even really figure out how to get out of our building. Urban Heights Nakameguro is huge: it has five (I think) different wings, and who knows how many entrances and exits. It takes up a large, misshapen block, and the exits can lead you in any number of ways - all of which are unknown to us - save for one. We managed to find the known exit, and somehow find our way to the (one) known street - bearings are being slowly found. We came across a nice park, a walkway along a canal, and then walked to and from the train station. We bought some hangers at a dollar store, and then picked up some dinner stuff at a busy and bustling grocery store. It was there that I may have already fulfilled the one photo request: get the ultimate tall-small pic - thoughts?

Anyways, so the medium picture is Meguro City, which is anything but medium... it's huge! With a population density of 17,757 people/square kilometre, the place is packed. There are tiny streets galore, pedestrian only streets, streets going every which way, and built up buildings everywhere, with every ounce of space used for living and parking and storing. So, it is overwhelming.

The big picture is Tokyo - and the only place I know where to start on this one is the metro. The city's subway and metro system is the most-used in the world, carrying close to 8 million people every day - !!! Unreal. We bought our Pasmos on Saturday, which are electronic cards that you touch to the gate when you enter and leave different stations - electronic money flies off the card here, or at any store that has a Pasmo system (to purchase groceries etc). We've only been on two lines of the map - the purple Hanzomon line, and the Tokyu Toyoku line, to get home from practice on Saturday. We live within walking distance of the Naka-meguro station (in the bottom left-hand corner of the map, below and to the left of Shibuya), and the station closest to the F.C. Tokyo gym is Sumiyoshi (where the purple and green lines intersect near the top right hand corner of the map) - it's a bit of a trek. So hopefully we'll get to know the system fairly quickly, and hopefully I'll be able to find work closer to home...