Tuesday, March 16, 2010

where am I...?

Tokyo streets are notoriously nameless, though a few popular thoroughfares take on monikers because how else are you supposed to explain where you are? Seriously it's one of the most frustrating things about living here. You have to give directions like "walk up that hill where there's a Starbucks on your left and the Clarks shoe store across the street on your right." Apparently, though, that hill is on "Fire Dori," so named because, you guessed it, the Shibuya fire station is located there. This Shibuya City Office webpage has a whole list of these de facto street names, including Sandwich Road, Penguin Street and Finger Avenue. To be fair, some of these nicknames are for streets that actually do have official names, such as Inokashira dori. My favorite example is Hands Street, which is the stretch from Seibu Parts A and B leading to my favorite store in the whole wide world, Tokyu Hands.

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