This is Nakamura from Kubokan.
This might come out of the blue, but have you ever lived near your workplace?
Well, this is a 100% personal story.
I imagine many of you commute to work by train or car—it takes just a few dozen minutes, right?
In the city center, there aren’t many residential areas, and it’s hard to live in such a bustling, crowded part of town, isn’t it?
I actually lived in Shin-Okubo for a year and a half.
For us, Shin-Okubo is known as a musical instrument district, but to the general public, it’s the “K-pop district.”
If you’ve never set foot at Shin-Okubo Station, it might be hard to imagine, but on weekends, the streets lined with Korean shops get this crowded.
Shin-Okubo on a typical day ↓↓
Is this even a place to live???
I’m sure many of you are thinking that. And you’re right. (Huh?)
But in reality, if you head north, you’ll find an incredibly quiet residential neighborhood. You won’t even sense a trace of tourists or anything Korean.
When you think about it that way, doesn’t it actually sound pretty nice?
Aside from the rent being what it is, it’s a 5-minute walk to work, and if you feel like going shopping on your day off, it’s a 15-minute walk to Shinjuku Station. You don’t even have to worry about the last train (lol).
I ended up having to move for various reasons this time, but it was the kind of neighborhood that made me think, “Maybe I could have lived here for another year or two.” I definitely wouldn’t want to live there for five years, though—not at all.
I also talked about this with our PR manager, Tsushima, on our shop’s YouTube radio show, “Hello from Hyakunincho.”
https://youtu.be/zkFIAXRMsLg?si=SDyStDD-ldAJh2HZ
You can listen to it in a radio format as background music, so please check it out.
Nakamura