Just a minute's walk from JR Nippori Station spreads a vast cemetery in Tokyo's Taito Ward that covers much of the eastern half of the area known as Yanaka and a strip of the neighboring Ueno Sakuragi area.

Yanaka Reien is where a number of historical figures -- including Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913), the last of the Tokugawa shoguns -- rest, along with a countless number of nameless souls.

The presence of a cemetery with thousands of graves might normally discourage prospective residents from moving into the neighborhood. That theory, however, appears not to hold true here.

"There are a couple of famous spots within the cemetery, one where it is said that you can see an empty swing rocking back and forth, and another where stories say you can hear footsteps chasing you from behind," said 34-year-old Shuichi Endo, who operates the yanaca.com Web site from his office just a block away from the cemetery. "But (the stories) don't bother me a bit."

Endo, an architect who used to work for a major general contractor, moved to this neighborhood four years ago, attracted by its townscape, which is reminiscent of the Edo Period (1602-1867).

"From the exteriors of the old wooden houses you find here, you can tell which historical era they are from," he said.

These structures survived the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 thanks to the solidity of the Ueno Plateau upon which they stand. Meanwhile, the area's unusually high concentration of Buddhist temples -- some 70 in the Yanaka area alone -- is cited as one reason it was left relatively unscathed by wartime bombings, and why it managed to escape the gigantic commercial development that has so altered the city's landscape in other districts.

Along with its old-fashioned atmosphere, the neighborhood also retains a strong sense of community, which is now a rarity in central Tokyo. And that could be an annoying factor for those who value their privacy.

"You've got to like mingling with your neighbors and be willing to participate and help out with local festivals and other community affairs," Endo said. "This is not a place where people let you alone . . . and they even know each of all those stray cats living in Yanaka Reien."

Thus, he said, people moving into Yanaka accept this, and that makes this neighborhood even more comfortable for people like him.

"Women might be better off avoiding walking alone through the cemetery at night," he said.

"But in the daytime, you can meet friendly cats that have come to live here because people feed them. And in the spring you can walk under the cherry blossoms. It's so much fun to look around all the unique-shaped tombstones that I often call this cemetery a 'forest of stone sculptures'."