Irairai addresses in Tokyo

[wangta]

So I'm interested to hear about the 'edgy' places in Tokyo that people tried to live in and then decided the cheap or rather relatively cheap rent wasn't worth it. My friend's story - she thought it was a great idea to live in Minowa. She'd lived in Korea before so thought she'd seen it all living in one room housing blocks where prossies ran in high heels out of their rooms all hours day and night to go service men in their cars. When they weren't doing that the men were coming into the apartment block and knocking on her door by mistake. She thought Japan would be a piece of cake by comparison.

Except in Minowa she was always being mistake for a prostitute. She has long blonde hair and found out that in her local shopping places it was assumed she was 'one of them'. When she told a local she was an eikaiwa teacher they looked knowingly and told her to be careful with ' 2 jobs'. I thought Minowa was kinda cool but then again nobody thought I was a male prostitute walking around. Anybody here ever lived there?

[Takechanpoo]

why you camouflage it with your female acquaintaces story? its sorta sneaky.
if you have jeans style with a thin make-up, most j-ppl just regard you as a vagabond. but regardless of wherever you are, you never can camouflage your gaijinness with any methods as long as live in this island.

[yanpa]

Damn, I'd better leave off the yellowface get-up. Thought I had them fooled.

[yanpa]

Anyway to answer the original question, no I have never lived there, but did live near the other end of the tram line which terminates there. If it helps.

[Samurai_Jerk]

So I'm interested to hear about the 'edgy' places in Tokyo that people tried to live in and then decided the cheap or rather relatively cheap rent wasn't worth it. My friend's story - she thought it was a great idea to live in Minowa. She'd lived in Korea before so thought she'd seen it all living in one room housing blocks where prossies ran in high heels out of their rooms all hours day and night to go service men in their cars. When they weren't doing that the men were coming into the apartment block and knocking on her door by mistake. She thought Japan would be a piece of cake by comparison.

Except in Minowa she was always being mistake for a prostitute. She has long blonde hair and found out that in her local shopping places it was assumed she was 'one of them'. When she told a local she was an eikaiwa teacher they looked knowingly and told her to be careful with ' 2 jobs'. I thought Minowa was kinda cool but then again nobody thought I was a male prostitute walking around. Anybody here ever lived there?

Minowa is right by Yoshiwara so they probably thought she worked there.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Try Sanya, Kotobuki in Yokohama or Airin in Osaka.

[Russell]

There used to be a member with user name Iraira.

What happened to him?

[Doctor Stop]

There used to be a member with user name Iraira.

What happened to him?

He got イライラ and left.

[Samurai_Jerk]

There used to be a member with user name Iraira.

What happened to him?

He got イライラ and left.

I blame Coligny.

[kurogane]

I stayed in Sanya all through last summer and it was fine. A lot of drunkard vagrants hanging out near the Working Mans' support associations and that weird Ashita no Joe mall/market street, but no problems with security or safety. From what I saw 75%-ish of the old rummy worker lodgings have gone the hostel route and are rather gentrified. I never did figure out which part was Minowa but Yoshiwara was pretty fucking weird as a neighbourhood, and the edges of it are pretty filthy, but it never struck me as dangerous, though I can sympathise with that woman being mistaken for a Yoshiwara girl. That would get tired quickly. All I ever got was the pre-emptive "Sorry, Japanese Only" blurb from the pimps and that was only twice.

[wangta]

I stayed in Sanya all through last summer and it was fine. A lot of drunkard vagrants hanging out near the Working Mans' support associations and that weird Ashita no Joe mall/market street, but no problems with security or safety. From what I saw 75%-ish of the old rummy worker lodgings have gone the hostel route and are rather gentrified. I never did figure out which part was Minowa but Yoshiwara was pretty fucking weird as a neighbourhood, and the edges of it are pretty filthy, but it never struck me as dangerous, though I can sympathise with that woman being mistaken for a Yoshiwara girl. That would get tired quickly. All I ever got was the pre-emptive "Sorry, Japanese Only" blurb from the pimps and that was only twice.

Cool, so why did you stay there? Because it's so cheap? Had a brief look around and it's tacky around there. Those shabby knock shops look like they've shipped in the 50th choice whores, undoubtedly you'd get some horrible disease there. Why do people go there when's there's Kabukicho? I s'pose this area (isn't it called Senzoku?) is the bargain basement knock shop area of Tokyo.

I still kind of like the surrounding areas. Asakusa is heavily promoted as the old geisha district with old culture and Sensoji temple but I caught on that Asakusa around 7 chome was probably an old Buraku area. Just my impression, not just Minowa and Minami Senju, and Sanya but that's got a different name these days - is it Minami Senju? Near the stations it's not bad, looks better than I thought.

Iriya and Negishi also look like those kinds of areas. That old streetcar line is interesting, too - wouldn't mind betting that along there are also old buraku areas but now more diverse. Arakawa Ku and Taito Ku are the old knockshop and buraku areas it seems.

[kurogane]

Yeah, 3300 per night for a proper if small hotel room with a communal kitchen, and heavy monthly discounts. But it was mostly Slum Tourism to be fair. Now that I get paid good and proper I might not be tempted, and it is rather far from anything good without a proper bicycle, even Asakusa/Kaminarimon. But it is much more confortable than any long term accommodation I found nearer to Kaminarimon. In the neighbourhood they still sell it as Sanya and there is a local neighbourhood revivial association that seems to be avoiding any historical whitewashing and are doing good work to make it a liveable neighbourhood and take care of all the retired peons lying drunk at the curbside, but Minami Sneju is the nearest useful station, so maybe the real estate agents are rebranding it? The problem with that is that Minami Senju is known as a New Little China, which makes it much less attractive, with some reason. I could see that whole semi-circle being very affordable and accessible for a young couple or family, though there will be a healthy amount of peasant resentment from the locals, along the lines of the reverse snobberies the BooBoos get accused of. What I found was I stayed there and hung out in Kaminarimon or Yanaka, which are much groovier with my kind of people. Yanaka is really funky, btw. It's the closest I have seen to a Little Kyoto in Tokyo.

From what I gather, most of those areas you mentioned were Buraku neighbourhoods. Sanya certainly is: all the leather shops on the main street are a dead giveaway. Iriya and Senzoku might be, but I think they are more poor but honest merchant areas (formerly Cho-min, not BooBoos). The brothels don't interest me, but other than central Yoshiwara they looked like the kind of places with 55 year old toothless Taiwanese ladies. Barf

BTW, as far as I could gather, Senzoku is Senzoku, and mostly a shopping street and residential area (home of the 240 yen Bento box!!!) but it is only a block east of Yohshiwara. Maybe the bigger neighbourhood is called Senzoku and Yoshiwara is nestled within it? Anyways, it's that bit where if you walk 50 yeards you're in a different neighbourhood................every 50 yards it seems. If it's a whorehouse area it's probably considered some part of Yoshiwara. SJ might know better. I can never ever figure out the boundaries between all the postage stamp sized neighbourhoods anywhere, never mind in Tokyo where streets are never straight, though I think it's neat Olde Country stuff. And again, check out Yanaka, even just for a few beer.