You may have noticed that I have had loads of free time lately. So I've been checking out my new 'hood, Shimorenjaku (the Mitaka station area). It's pretty mind blowing for its seriously enormous forest of high-rise condominiums and residential apartment buildings, but it's also got an extremely cool number of large parks, farms, ponds and retained greenery/pathways around the 4 waterways of the Nogawa, Sengawa, Kandagawa and the Tamagawa Josui canal. This area has been blessed with abundant water springs since ancient days, and actually, Inokashira Pond (technically in Mitaka, not Kichijoji) became the source of drinking water for Edo castle with the construction of the Kanda Josui Canal way back when...

Mitaka wasn't really established as a proper residential district until after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, and it was named "Mitaka" in 1889 for the cluster of villages within three (Mi) districts that used to be the hunting grounds with falcons (Taka) for the shogunate.

According to the official city website, in 2002 there were 164 476 people living here, 2916 of them foreigners. I think that figure has probably exploded since then, judging by the number of new and under-construction apartment buildings here. The Mitaka City Foreign Residents Guide is full of incredibly helpful services and guides (including free Japanese lessons) - it actually feels like this City Ward is one that actually wants to make living in Japan easier for foreigners, putting it a little at odds with the frankly xenophobic Tokyo Governer,Ishihara Shintaro.

Anyway, I put together a little gallery of Mitaka. Check it out.