A Walk around Takadanobaba / 高田馬場の散歩

After having our Turkish lunch, my friend and I headed to Takadanobaba to explore the neighborhood.  This area is mainly known for two things - Astroy Boy and ramen!  Since we already had lunch, we weren't going to go there for ramen.  As to Astroy Boy, he was supposedly "born" here on April 7, 2003.  Even the station uses the theme music from Astroy Boy to signal the departure of a train.  As we had no plans, we would just walk around and be surprised at what we would find.

トルコ料理を食べたあと、友達と一緒に高田馬場に向かった。別に目的もなんもない。ただその周辺を歩くだけ。高田馬場と言えば鉄腕アトムとラーメン。 昼食はもたべたのでラーメン屋は行かない。 鉄腕アトムが関係してるのは、この場所で２００３年、４月７日で誕生した。

Osamu Tezuka Mural / 手塚治壁画

One of the first places to catch our interest was a temple called Genkokuji.

最初に面白そうの場所を発見したのは玄國寺（げんこくじ）

Entrance to Genkokuji (Genkokuji Sanmon) / 玄國寺山門

Genkokuji Hondo / 玄國寺本堂

Genkokuji Temple Bell / 玄國寺鐘楼

Genkokuji Rokkaku Benzaiten / 玄國寺六角弁財天

Beautiful temple.  As we left this area, we came upon another - Suwa Shrine.  My friend informed me that there were over 25,000 Suwa Shrines located throughout Japan.

美しいお寺でした。また歩き続いたら、今度は諏訪神社に辿り着いた。友達の情報では日本で諏訪神社は２万５千ヶ所もある！

Suwa Shrine / 諏訪神社

Our walk was more of a temple tour although we did come across a lot of ethnic restaurants - quite a few Burmese and Indian places, ramen shops of course and an English language used book store called "The Blue Parrot". 

今回の散歩が結局お寺・神社巡りになりましたが、この周辺にエスニック料理店も豊富、特にビルマとインド料理店が。もちろんラーメン屋もいっぱいあります。あと外国人に人気の洋書古本屋「ザ・ブルーパロット」も高田馬場にあります。