Ebina

Last night after work I took the Odakyu line to Ebina, two stops in the direction away from Tokyo. Immediately adjacent to the station is a San Diego-style outdoor mall, with nice benches and park space. I think that this firmly cements my belief that my station is the most boring station in the greater Tokyo area. Malls are not my favorite spaces or anything, but the food court at this mall had more restaurants than my entire station area, and the area outside of the mall was also bursting with restaurants, shops, arcades, etc. I also found two movie theaters, and confirmed that it really does cost $17 to see a movie in Japan. Crazy! I think that my frustration with my living situation has more to do with the fact that I don't know anyone nearby than to do with the fact that I'm not in Tokyo. If I could choose to be comfortably settled anywhere I wanted with a nearby social network in place, I might actually choose Kanagawa over Tokyo. You can do basically the same things in both places; eat, shop, drink, etc. In Kanagawa, however, you can generally do those same things for less money and in a more spacious environment. The only real advantage of Tokyo is that it has trendier clubs and restaurants, but those aren't places I'd be frequenting anyway.