How to write "eastern Tokyo" (or "northern Hokkaido") While chatting with a friend about meeting up in eastern Tokyo, I typed in and my Mac dutifully sent out the wire. I quickly clarified with just so she wouldn't think I had made a weird typo or something. But is actually the correct way to write "eastern Tokyo," or is there a less ambiguous way to do so? Is there a uniform way to refer to directions inside of place names which feature directional kanji - could the same rule apply to "northern Hokkaido" and so on?

These should work:

* eastern Tokyo: () or (like you mentioned)
* northern Hokkaido: () or {} (and some people might even use



## Notes:

* The neat thing about Hokkaido terms is that one can often cut the name down to:

> ** (something)** if the context is fairly clear that one is talking about Hokkaido.
>
>
> For example: {} (someone who grew up in Hokkaido.)
>