Yamanote

Yamanote ( Japanese 山 の 手 also simply Yamate ( 山 手 )), denotes hills that surround a lower part of the city, Shitamachi. Well-known examples are Tokyo and Yokohama .

In Tokyo , it refers to the heights in the west of the city that surround the Shitamachi , which is lower down by the water . The assignment:

• Yamanote = Samurai residences in Edo , wealthy citizens and foreigners in Yokohama
• Shitamachi = residential areas of the common people,

however only roughly. In contrast to the European bourgeois "Westend" districts, which were caused by the west wind, old Edo was largely mixed. There are daimyō residences in the Shitamachi of Edo, shopping streets and artisan quarters in the Yamanote district.

Nowadays, Yamanote generally refers to the Yamanote Line , the JR East ring line in Tokyo.