What is your favorite place in your neighborhood or ward and why do you like it?

I am currently living in the Koto-ward area of Tokyo which is near Edogawa, Kiba, and Toyosu. The name of my nearest station is Toyocho. It is on the Tozai Line between Minami-Sunamachi Station and Kiba Station. The area near Toyocho seems to be mostly an office district as it is very busy with a lot of working people. During the early mornings near my home, I can see a lot of people exiting from the gates of Toyocho Station and making their way down the sidewalks to their offices or companies. All of this that I mentioned so far is strictly related to the weekday situation near my home. Weekends are a bit of a different story as it quiets down quite a bit and is mostly just residents of the neighborhood hanging around.

I moved to this neighborhood a little bit more than a year ago. Before my current neighborhood, I used to live in Ichikawa in Chiba. Also, because of the situation and stay-home environment surrounding Covid-19, I haven’t been out to so many of the areas surrounding my new neighborhood. Therefore, I’d like to talk about some of the places that I like in both my old as well as new neighborhood.

When I lived in Chiba, I used to love going to Makuhari. Makuhari is a coastal and beachside area off the shores of Tokyo Bay in Chiba. The reason I used to like going to this place when I lived in Chiba was because of the shopping complexes located there. Makuhari has some huge shopping complexes including an Aeon Mall, Costco, and several other large stores. When I used to go there, the size of the shops really used to remind me of an American style shopping mall back when I lived in the US. It was a lot of fun to go shopping there, but I would also always be tired by the amount of walking one would have to do!

Near my new neighborhood of Toyocho in Koto Ward, one of the places I like to go is to Kiba Park. I often go for a walk there on weekends together with my wife. It takes about 20 to 25 minutes from our home on foot. There are not so many parks in Koto Ward, but the park in Kiba is an exception. It is quite a large park in the center of the city. A lot of people go there, especially on the weekends. They go there to relax, do yoga, jog, read a book, as well as many other types of things. They have a dog park where I can see people playing with their dogs. There is also a bridge which crosses over a small canal that seems to divide both the north and south parts of the park. The bridge is a bit elevated, so when crossing it you can get some pretty good views of Tokyo as well as Sky Tree.

I think that there are probably a lot more areas near my neighborhood to visit and explore, but because of the timing as well as the situation revolving around the Covid-19 pandemic, I just haven’t had a chance yet. I am hoping that after this pandemic ends that I will get a chance to visit as well as explore more areas around my home.

Luis

Vocabulary

off the shore (phrase) - near the sea, ocean
exception (noun) – something outside of the norm
especially (adverb) – mostly, mainly
elevated (adjective) – higher than the surrounding area
as well as (phrase) – in addition; including