Seeing Double

I decided to choose an area of Minato-ku that I pass each and every morning to school. It's the Mita area that is adjacent to Keio University. Its interest to me comes from a variety of areas. For starters, the corner that flows towards Temple from Keio hosts one of the most annoying traffic lights I've encountered in Tokyo. A poorly timed approach to the intersection can have you waiting for up to seven minutes while waiting for three cycles of lights to run their course. On such occassions I've had time to scope the area out. Before I could read basic katakana I had no idea that the small shop on the corner with a constant line outside was a ramen shop. My guess was that it was a lucky lottery place or something. Why people waited on such a long line for noodles in the morning was pretty weird to me. It turns out that the shop, Jiro ramen, is an area legend. I think it's also peculiar that the junior high, high school, and university are all located together. It must make for some interesting scholastic bonds, rivalries, and more.
I was touring the area and I noticed that the location is divided between old and new developments. On one side, the Jiro side, their were old homes and a tiny suburb with a weathered looking Izakaya and Jiro itself looks like its been around long enough to have served most of Tokyo's population. Across the way there are new shops, high rise mansions, and office buildings. Then I started to have a few double takes. On one side I saw a bar then across the way another bar. Next to that a beauty salon right across from another salon. A flower shop three minutes from another flower shop. Realtors a couple of doors from one another. One tailor shop a few steps away from another tailor. While venturing around I noticed that the two adjacent areas of Mita were giving their Omikoshi festivals on the same day within a couple of blocks of each other. It was like having double vision! Most notable of the area were the two ramen shops. Jiro and Ikkei. Both are tiny first floor dwellings but Jiro is the undisputed champ as far as popularity goes. Customers will wait on line for over an hour at Jiro while across the street there's empty seating at Ikkei. I'll have to investigate further into these two shops. Interestingly, the two shops are located in similar triangular shaped buildings. In fact the two buildings face each other like a couple of fists with the knuckles pointed at one another. The newer building that houses Ikkei has an extra length of tower beyond the top floor that looks as if its emphasizing height over the Jiro building. There's no doubt that possible bitterness between the two have been discussed before among the locals. It stands out that much!