A Day In: Ebisu

I had a few hours to spend, and thought I'd go to Shibuya. But actually, apart from shopping and eating, there's not much to do in Shibuya. What was my plan? Go to Starbucks - where they're so busy they can only serve one size of drink, and there's never a seat - and watch the pedestrians cross the 'scramble' crossing? I have done just that several times, but I decided to go to Ebisu instead.

These lanterns say 'Ebisu Ondo' ('Ebisu Marching Song'). I'm not sure what that means. There might be a festival later.

Ebisu is a fairly unremarkable small hub in Tokyo; one of many. It's on the JR lines, also the Tokyo metro (Hibiya line). The station is surrounded by department store; in this case the Atre building. There are lots of streets with small shops and restaurants and bars all around.

I chose Ebisu because of Yebisu Garden Place. ('Yebisu' is the old spelling of Ebisu, but is pronounced the same. The area was actually named after Yebisu beer.) This is a complex with a few buildings, department store, a beer museum and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

Yebisu Garden Place

To get to Ebisu from Kawasaki or Yokohama, you can take the JR Tokaido or Keihin-Tohoku lines to Shinagawa, then transfer to the Yamanote line. From Yokohama, you could also take the Tokyu Toyoko line and transfer to the Hibiya line at Nakameguro.

I arrive in Ebisu and start by going in search of coffee. There's a cafe and sandwich shop right near the outside west exit ticket gates. It's pretty hot inside; the cafe is presumably following power-saving measures. Nice coffee, though.

Going back to the east exit side of the station, I follow the signs to Yebisu Garden Place. There are tunnels with moving walkways to speed your progress; it takes about 5 minutes to walk there from the station.

It's a hot day. I'd like to eat lunch somewhere... but I can't find a place. In the so-called 'restaurant floor', there are two restaurants - one is an izakaya full of businessmen socialising, the other is a ramen shop. I find a Burger King, and a cafe with fairly feeble-looking Italian food, and... not really anything else.

I go into Krispy Kreme as a temporary measure. I ask for one original glazed donut. Apparently they are having some kind of celebration and giving 'presents' to customers. The 'present' is a free original glazed donut. So... the lady gives me my donut and refuses payment. If I end up spending no money there at all, can I even be considered a customer?...

It strikes me that Krispy Kreme is getting quite ubiquitous now. I remember when there were only two or three of them around, and the opening of a new store was a big deal; there'd be ridiculous lines of people waiting to buy. Now I see branches all over the place.

I go to the photography museum. I have been here once before, and I really liked it. They have exhibitions which change periodically. I think there can be up to three exhibitions at a time, but today there's only two. You can buy a single ticket or a combination, and see both exhibitions. I choose to see one exhibition (700yen), that of the 'World's Press' - acclaimed photographs by press members from news stories last year.

It is a very good exhibition. Although some photos are of fun subjects, like festivals or interesting cultural oddities, generally speaking, it's not a light exhibition. It's quite something to see a year of tragedies laid out one after another. Here's an oil spill; here are pictures of overcrowding in Sierra Leone's prisons; floods in Pakistan; bodies of people killed in a Tibetan earthquake; illegal abortion methods in Kenya; a man failing to rescue his friend from drowning...

You see the suffering of the world, and it feels very far removed from the place you are. There are lots of images of poverty and desolation. When you are in the heart of safe, sunny Tokyo, with well-dressed people walking around you, in a clean and well-lit building, all that grief seems a world away.

Then you see the display of photographs from this year's tsunami, and it reminds you that nobody is immune, and tragedy can strike anywhere. Suffering does not belong only to developing countries.

Anyway, if you appreciate photography, I would definitely recommend this museum. I should think of something else to say, because it seems tasteless to segue immediately from human suffering to what I had for lunch. -_-

As I mentioned before, one of the other main attractions of Yebisu Garden Place is the Yebisu Beer Museum. I have previously mentioned Kirin Beer Village, in Yokohama. Kirin has nicer surrounds and a free tour with free tastings. However, it's a bit inconvenient to get to, and the tour is only in Japanese and is rather dry. Yebisu Beer Museum is more conveniently located, and has more interesting displays (assuming you do the tour). You can also buy beer jelly. No, I don't know why you'd want to.

For lunch, I go back to Atre and have soba and tempura with cheap beer. For some reason, this particular restaurant seems to be the most popular one on the restaurant floor. Soba and tempura is a good combination, I think. The unhealthiness of the tempura is somewhat mitigated by the more wholesome soba.

After this, from the west exit of Ebisu station, I see a sign for the 'Yamatane Museum of Art'. I've never heard of it before, but it seems to be fairly nearby, so I walk. It's a really hot day, and the sun is beating down quite fiercely. What should be a short, easy walk is rather a drag.

When I finally get there, I find that it is a museum of Japanese art. Just as a personal preference, I don't really care for ukiyo-e art. I mean, it's pretty and evocative, and I'm sure many people get a lot from it, but I don't feel much when I look at it. Just, 'oh, that's nice, some mountains. Oh, this one is obviously spring. Oh, more mountains.'

This exhibition is not just ukiyo-e, though; it's a collection of paintings, most of them from the last century, of landscapes showing the beauty of Japanese nature. As is common in Japanese art, the seasons are a predominant theme and, yes, there are lots of mountains. I enjoy it, though. Although I haven't visited a lot of the places in these paintings, it does show the natural beauty of the Japan I love.

It is not a very large exhibition, considering the entrance fee of 1000 yen, but it's not bad and may be a good place to visit if you're in the area and have an interest in Japanese art.

I go back to the station, stopping at the Segafredo cafe in the Ebisu Prime building. (A good chain, by the way, but only in Tokyo and further north. None in Yokohama.) I think I drink too much coffee in the summer heat, since I'm always wanting to go inside airconditioned places. ^_^

On returning to the station, I have one final place to visit: Good Day Books. This is right outside Ebisu station, and has a big collection of second-hand English-language books. The prices are not especially low - not like a Book Off - but what makes this store great is its variety. There are a lot of books you just can't find new in Japan, and this store also has a good collection of Japanese language study books. I recommend it!