Around Here

I've been here in Japan for almost two months and it's only today that I've found the time to look around my neighborhood. I've been meaning to for some time now, but the cold and me always getting home late have been constant deterrents.

Well, there wasn't really much to discover. I was hoping I'd run into a nice comics/anime shop, or maybe a grocery store selling stuff at low prices, or a place selling interesting items like the one Shizuku found while following Moon in "Mimi o Sumaseba".

Hehehe... kapal ko feeling Shizuku Tsukishima pa ako. Even though the most interesting thing I saw strolling around was just a big red brick house situated in one of the not-so-back streets. Actually, the only reason it caught my attention was that it stood out among the usually white-painted, concrete-walled houses that are common here. Otherwise, there wasn't really anything unique about it.

Seems like most people in this area are well-to-do too. I saw lots of big houses, usually with neat front porches and well-tended flowers planted in pots as decoration. I suppose you've all heard that in Japan residential spaces are quite expensive, so usually when you speak of a Japanese home it's common to think about small apartments with compact, modular furniture and appliances. So the bigger-than-usual houses in our area indicate that the people here live quite comfortably, probably counted among the upper middle class.

As for commercial establishments, definitely there's no lack of convenience stores and groceries, because these consisted most of what I saw. And one or two video rental shops. There was also a soba place, and I counted around three or four ramen shops. Boring places mostly. Oh well, I guess there's always downtown Yokohama to go to if I want interesting.

That's about it. Except for one instance I walked into a dead end, my stroll was quite uneventful. But at least I got to know my neighborhood a bit better.