Piss Alley Found
Japan's address location system is so difficult and illogical it can often take hours to actually find a place - especially if "the authorities" don't want you to find it. I've talked about the Japanese lack of a logical addressing system before, so I won't go through it again other than to point you to this explanation. After World War 2 MacArthur and the American occupiers gave Tokyo a real address system, with named streets and building numbers that were sequential and everything. After the Americans left the Japanese undid it all and went back to their non-system. Today, we suffer the consequences.
I thought there must be a key to the non-system that Japanese magically understood - otherwise, why would they continue to use it. But it doesn't work any better for them either - except they are better at reading the signs of course. But still, they almost always have to go to the area police box and ask the police where such-and-such a building is. And this is largely what police do in Japan. Instead of fighting crime 24-7 (there just isn't enough crime here) they spend most of their time showing people which way to go to find the place they are looking for.
It wasn't until I was talking to a Japanese friend living in the States that I realized the Japanese don't realize there is a better way. "I couldn't believe how easy it was to find my way around in the States," she told me. "All I have to know is the street name and the number of the house and I can drive directly to it!" Here's where I felt like saying, "well, duh!"
What brings this up? Today I organized my afternoon around finding a well-known but rarely seen place in Shinjuku called Golden Gai or sometimes just "Piss Alley". It's an area famous for tiny cheap eateries, especially yakitori stands that sell grilled chicken, meats and vegetables on sticks. I had heard of it for decades but never tried to find it. I looked it up on the Internet last night and found few directions and not many mentions. All the directions were nearly useless. "Exit Shinjuku station, go towards a railroad track and turn left" For those of you that have been to Shinjuku station you already know that this is the world's busiest subway and train station - with about a hundred exits (not kidding) and 11 railroad and subway lines going in and out. Needless to say it took me four hours to find the place and many miles of walking. It could have taken 15 minutes if I had an address or a map with the neighborhood listed on the map.
The tourist authorities don't want tourists finding this place either. It is definitely "down-market" and seedy. Thus, all the maps the city puts up at street corners to show the hopelessly lost roughly how far off track they are - none of those maps or signs have the name of this area on them. It's as if it doesn't exist. I would not be denied however. I have a knack for finding seedy so ultimately the secrets were uncovered. More about that later.
I thought there must be a key to the non-system that Japanese magically understood - otherwise, why would they continue to use it. But it doesn't work any better for them either - except they are better at reading the signs of course. But still, they almost always have to go to the area police box and ask the police where such-and-such a building is. And this is largely what police do in Japan. Instead of fighting crime 24-7 (there just isn't enough crime here) they spend most of their time showing people which way to go to find the place they are looking for.
It wasn't until I was talking to a Japanese friend living in the States that I realized the Japanese don't realize there is a better way. "I couldn't believe how easy it was to find my way around in the States," she told me. "All I have to know is the street name and the number of the house and I can drive directly to it!" Here's where I felt like saying, "well, duh!"
What brings this up? Today I organized my afternoon around finding a well-known but rarely seen place in Shinjuku called Golden Gai or sometimes just "Piss Alley". It's an area famous for tiny cheap eateries, especially yakitori stands that sell grilled chicken, meats and vegetables on sticks. I had heard of it for decades but never tried to find it. I looked it up on the Internet last night and found few directions and not many mentions. All the directions were nearly useless. "Exit Shinjuku station, go towards a railroad track and turn left" For those of you that have been to Shinjuku station you already know that this is the world's busiest subway and train station - with about a hundred exits (not kidding) and 11 railroad and subway lines going in and out. Needless to say it took me four hours to find the place and many miles of walking. It could have taken 15 minutes if I had an address or a map with the neighborhood listed on the map.
The tourist authorities don't want tourists finding this place either. It is definitely "down-market" and seedy. Thus, all the maps the city puts up at street corners to show the hopelessly lost roughly how far off track they are - none of those maps or signs have the name of this area on them. It's as if it doesn't exist. I would not be denied however. I have a knack for finding seedy so ultimately the secrets were uncovered. More about that later.
posted by Kevcham at 5:07 AM
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