I'd like to improve my grip on sumo wrestling, so when a friend invites me to watch the big boys tussle through a morning practice, I jump at the chance. I get off at Uguisudani (Bush Warbler Valley) Station on the Yamanote Line, where the station-identity jingle is of this warbler's mellifluous chortle which heralds spring in Japan.

A flock of uguisu (aka Japanese nightingales) are said to have been brought from Kyoto in the late 1600s and released into this present-day Taito Ward neighborhood by the head priest of nearby Kaneiji Temple, west of the station. But my friend takes off to the northeast, through an orgy of concrete love hotels that cozy up around Moto Mishima Shrine. I gallantly resist any easy quips on birds in the hand versus in the bush, etc.

It is early yet. Though once shaded by the Ogyo no Matsu, a massive 13-meter pine tree mentioned by local haiku poet Shiki Masaoka and designated a National Living Monument in 1915, the street is now virtually treeless and, at this wintery hour, still bleak. Only Sasanoyuki, a 300-year-old tofu restaurant, adds character.