I have passed through the Aoyama Icchome Station (青山一丁目駅) countless times before, mostly on Ginza Line’s metal contraption, on my way to Roppongi from Shibuya. I guess I never had a good reason to go check it out before but this past Saturday, my final destination was Aoyama. I paid a visit to this very pretty neighborhood of Tokyo (whose name is made up of two Chinese characters by the way “Blue” and “Mountain”, they happen to be on the very short list of Kanji that I know) on a sunny yet windy day which seems to be the trend around here these days. The sun graces us with its presence but its effect seems limited to providing light and not heat. I am hoping one of these days it will remember that its job description involves providing both of those but I digress…
As soon as one leaves the Aoyama Icchome Station, one is greeted with the view above – tall buildings and a nice and wide road going through them. Among the buildings are Sony’s Computer Entertainment division and even Oracle but a short walk to the right gets you to this nice street flanked by trees on both sides, hinting how beautiful they must look when they are not bare as they are now. Continuing the walk gets you to a park, a baseball field and lots of people running/jogging. The sidewalks here have distance markings for runners to keep track and it is not uncommon to see a group of kids in baseball or soccer outfits doing laps.
Aoyama is very close to the Meiji Jingu Shrine which I mentioned in an earlier post about my visit there for New Year’s. Being so close to the shrine means Aoyama not only gets visitors on a stroll from the shrine but it also gets lots of couples who get married and visit the shrine and then come to Aoyama for the celebrations. In fact, Meiji Kinenkan (明治記念館) is a very famous place for holding wedding parties. It is a pretty big place with lots of taxis up in front and complete with a bridal store. I heard it is a pretty expensive place to use but it definitely seems like it would be worth it.
1 comment:
Hmm.. this can be a difference between Japanese and Chinese kanji, but doesn't the first character of 青山 mean light green (or clear but the former seems more appropriate in this context)? A light green mountain, like one covered with grass, makes more sense to me than a blue one... or may be there is a tale behind the blue colour? :)
Post a Comment