Myanmar, called Asia's last frontier, has emerged from military rule and is now on a path toward democracy. Japan's investment is eagerly awaited, and ANA launched Narita–Yangon service on October 15 — three round trips weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday — making the country dramatically closer than routing through Bangkok.
Myanmar is closer to us than we might think. From Takebashi Station at Palaceside Building, a 12-minute ride on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line brings you to Takadanobaba — "Little Yangon." About 20 shops run by Myanmar people cluster here: restaurants, grocery stores, beauty salons, along Waseda Avenue and its back streets from the station. It cannot match Shin-Okubo's Little Korea in scale, but some 500 Myanmar residents make their living in the area.
The community began when people fleeing military rule settled in apartments near Nakai Station on the Seibu Shinjuku Line. Including Shimoochiai and Takada in Toshima Ward, about 1,000 are said to live in the wider area. To them, the country renamed Myanmar by the junta does not exist — ask "Where are you from?" and the answer is always "Burma."
Myanmar cuisine centers on dishes like chettar hin (chicken and potato stew) and tofu thou (seasoned tofu). The oil has a distinctive character unlike Japanese or Chinese cooking — closer to Yunnan Province in China.
Since Michishio Private Mizushima, who became a monk and refused repatriation to continue burying comrades' remains after World War II, in Michio Takeyama's "The Harp of Burma," the country has felt familiar to Japanese. Before flying to Yangon on ANA, why not do a little "preview" in Takadanobaba?