Nov. 21 2004 Jiyugaoka

The jury (MY jury) is still out about this town. The old-fashioned shopping street near my home is quite nice, with some mom-and-pop grocery stores and bakeries, but the main cluster of stores and restaurants around Jiyugaoka station is a mess. I mean, it seems to be fashionable enough to be well-known around Tokyo, but doesn’t have the polish and gleam of the shopping arcades of Kobe, or even Okayama. The fact is, you can hardly walk on the streets of Jiyugaoka, because they’re filled with pedestrians, bicycles (going either direction, on either side of the street), parked cars, and moving cars. It’s really impossible to walk without constantly looking over your shoulder for passing cars, because you have to step into the middle of the street every few feet to avoid people, signs, bikes, cars, etc. It’s really kind of a zoo. I’m actually kind of amazed that people try to drive their cars through it all the time (including taxis, who must do it on a daily basis) without learning their lesson. I’m also surprised that people don’t get hit on every street corner. But maybe that’s because I lack spider-sense.