Day 16: Ebisu & Nakameguro

I actaully started off the day with a bit of a handicap since for some reason I had a hard time falling asleep last night. After leaving work, I browsed on my phone for a bit and a bit turned into a while and a while turned into a problem. Eventually I was able to force myself to sleep through sheer willpower but for some reason I was less tired after 6AM than I was at 2AM.

Although I wasn't super well rested, I decided I would try to tackle Walk #1 from Tokyo Walks since I was on a roll with finishing the walks mentioned in the book. This path is supposed to take you through the hip, artsy neighborhoods of Ebisu, Nakameguro, Daikanyama, and end up in Shibuya.

While the train to Ebisu was packed, I was actually kind of surprised to see that the side alleys were actually kind of silent.

My first stop was a cool, trendy brunch place called mercer brunch ebisu which is apparently known for their brioche french toast. The interior was pretty nice and I was able to get a seat right away around 1PM on a Tuesday. The other patrons all looked pretty happy and some of them were enjoying the brunch course meal. I decided to just order a la carte and got the french toast with salmon and eggs. I wasn't sure if salmon, eggs, and french toast would go together as a meal though.

After a few minutes, my meal arrived.

At first I had thought just by looking that the toast might be crunchy on the outside but it was actually so fluffy and good. It was only slightly sweet and I think you could pair it sweet or savory meals and it would fit right in. It was actually really good, in my opinion. The rest of the meal was also good, but not their signature dish, if you know what I am saying.

The price was okay I think since the whole set was ¥2,200 and I might have expected it to be more expensive at a nice restaurant in this part of town, but like I mentioned in another blog post, I don't think food prices in Japan actually make any sense.

I wanted to go to the Yebisu Beer Museum next but it's been closed for renovations since last October. I was surprised to see a giant Sapporo logo when I walked by though. I actually hadn't know that Yebisu was basically Sapporo's premium brand!

Next to the museum is Yebisu Garden Place, a mall and from what I can tell a pretty cool place to hang out.

After looking through a couple shops, including something like a Japanese version of Home Depot, I had a hanami dango to replenish some of my lost energy.

Througout the time I had been at the mall, I had noticed some loud music coming from the other side of the mall and it turned out that there was a live DJ during the day for a special event called "Good Music Terrace" by the Blue Note Place restaurant. Unfortunately I did not get a close or good photo of this lol

After this, I began my walk to the Meguro River to see a couple of parks mainly. As I got closer, I noticed this tower getting larger and larger.

It turns out that this the Meguro Incineration Plant! I guess the garbage that is sorted into burnable here will potentially end up in these types of plants and converted to energy. This plant can apparently burn 600 tons of garbage per day, generating 21,500kW of power which seems like a lot to me but I literally have no idea. The stack apparently was just finished as part of a recent construction project so you can see photos of it being rebuilt here.

According to this document by the project planning commission (I think), the tower is 150 meters (492 feet) tall! It's very noticeable because there's nothing else in the area even close to that height.

After finishing up being in awe of this absolute unit of an incineration facility, I walked along the Meguro River. This is apparently one of the best places in the city to see cherry blossoms but it was just very green when I visited. It was still nice but I can only be jealous after seeing photos of it when it's in bloom.

I also made a stop in Naka-Meguro Park, which was nice but a little too lively for me. There were people playing tennis and basketball and some people picnicking. By this time I was actually feeling mega-tired so I was mostly just ready to find a Boss Coffee-brand vending machine (in case you are wondering, I didn't find one in the park lol).

From this park, I basically walked mindlessly along the river all the way to Meguro Sky Garden. This kind of seemed like the High Line in NYC to me, at least in concept. This park is very elevated. If you walk in from street level, you will see the [field] in the center with tall walls topped with the park surrounding it.

The park itself was pretty nice and not too busy. In most places, the view of the surrounding city is actually obstructed by the foliage which I think makes the park feel bigger than it actually is. On the lower end of the park, I saw a children working on a community garden with their moms. Since this park is attached to 2 buildings that looked like apartments to me, I'd bet that they have claim over the garden lol

Overall I think this was the most relaxing place I visited today. It seems like it would be a good place to hang out and read while watching birds come and go. However, I did no reading. I was actually incredibly tired at this point due to both lack of sleep and the amount of walking I had endured. Combined with the fact that I still had to do laundry today if I wanted to wear clothes tomorrow, I decided to call it a day and head home.

I had actually cut the supposedly 6 mile walk in half but still ended up walking over 17k steps today due to having to walk a bit far to the station this morning and having to do laundry after coming back. If I was tired to start my day, you can only imagine how tired I was ending it.

Also now that I've done all the walks in "Tokyo Walks: See the City Like A Local", I feel like I can give a review. I actually didn't do the last walk but it was very similar to parts of a few walks I had come up with on my own. Anyway, I think the book is pretty good in general about listing interesting things to see and do but I felt that the items on the walk should be in numerical order instead of sorted into groups and then sorted (e.g. instead of have the "restaurants" page list items 1, 5, 12, and 17 on the map, all items 1-xx should be listed in the order that you would visit them). This would have really helped me since I had to keep flipping back and forth and then searching for the places in individual sections.

The other thing is that it is a bit outdated. Since it came out in 2020, a few of the places listed have been permanently closed or have changed names. That's an issue with all travel guides though, so I don't consider it that big of a problem.

Other than the hardness of actually using the guide as a reference on a walk, I think that the paths it outlined were a good sampling of what the city has to offer. It takes you on quiet walks in older neighborhoods to see historic monuments but also through trendy, bustling parts of the city with chaotic atmospheres. 4.5 out of 5.

If you're not a walker and just want to get to the big attractions, probably not the book for you.