Gotanda

Gotanda (五反田) is a busy neighbourhood in the Shinagawa ward of Tokyo, Japan. The name "Gotanda" can be literally translated as "a (rice) paddy of half-hectare's size". The district straddles the Meguro River, and is located between the Meguro and Ōsaki stations on the JR Yamanote Line.

The neighbourhood is centered on the Gotanda Station, which is served by the Toei Asakusa Line and the elevated Tōkyū Ikegami Line in addition to the Yamanote line.

The JR loop severs the neighbourhood into two districts. Higashi (East) Gotanda lies inside the Yamanote loop, while Nishi (West) Gotanda is outside the loop. Nishi-Gotanda is largely residential, with moderately sized apartment buildings close to the JR station and quiet leafy streets in the outlying reaches. Higashi-Gotanda is home to Seisen University, NTT Medical Center Tokyo, several temples and shrines, and many office buildings. Higashi-Gotanda also has a substantial number of hotels, including some of the famed capsule hotel style. The sprawling world headquarters of Sony used to be found along Sony Dōri the eastern edge of Higashi-Gotanda, but most of the complex has moved to adjacent Shinagawa, Minato Ward.^[1]

One of Tokyo's busy major avenues (Sakurada Dōri — a part of National Route 1) passes through both halves of Gotanda, carrying traffic between the inner business districts ringing the Imperial Palace grounds and the outlying areas of Shinagawa-ku, Ōta-ku and beyond that the city of Yokohama.