Okubo Revisited
It is a cruel reality truth that foreigners in Japan have a hard time finding a place to stay. I paid my dues while looking for a real place to stay with a 1 month stay in Okubo, the infamous “Korean town” of Tokyo. Although centrally located, real estate values here can’t compare to neighbouring Shinjuku. This is undoubtedly due to the (minimal) crime in the area.
Oddly enough, my stay in Okubo was quite good. The location was clean, there was a Halal grocery around the corner, and I was never accosted (even when walking outside late at night). Unfortunately, the shared house was sold to someone else and I had to move out. I have a wealth of stories from my time here (like the time I ran outside in my underwear to help a woman who was attacked by a purse snatcher), but they will have to wait for another time. :robot:
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- Shin Okubo (New Okubo) is one of two train stations in the area; this is on the Tokyo loop (Yamanote) line, while Okubo Station is on the Chuo-ou (Central) line.
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- Poverty is in plain display in Okubo. You can be sure he is Japanese; a foreigner would be deported immediately.
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- I can’t forget how odd the powerlines looked to me when I first came to Canada. Unlike in Montreal, there are no back yards to hide these eyesores in.
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- Okubo’s Korean minority serves up swine in bulk.
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- Okubo is a last resort for unwanted foreigners to find a place to stay.
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- Mere minutes from foreigner-filled Okubo, the prostitution-plaged Kabukicho is bright and black at the same time.
I dig all of that area between Kabuki-cho and Takadanobaba. A lot of character and a bit more soul than a lot of other parts of Tokyo.
billywest
May 5, 2009